Blue Jays: Why they haven’t cut Kendrys Morales just yet

Don’t want to admit a mistake/ Have to pay him anyway

Let’s call a spade a spade here. Unless he can somehow magically turn things around really soon, the three year, 33 million dollar contract he received before last season will go down as a mistake. It’s not a 20-25 AAV mistake, but it’s still an eight figure salary that’s being paid out for next to no return this year, and even below average production last year.

On one hand you could argue that the Blue Jays are getting very little in return, so there is nothing to lose by cutting him loose. However, on the other there is the argument that because you’re paying him anyway, why not try to milk anything you can get out of him? It’s hard to imagine the Blue Jays finding a trade partner unless they swallow a terrible contract in return, and even then it’s hard to see a fit for him around the league on another team. DH only guys are tough to carry in the modern day league, and guys like Morales are becoming a pretty rare thing.

At the moment the Blue Jays do have the roster space to keep him in the fold and hope he turns things around. You have to think that’s exactly what Ross Atkins and Mark Shapiro are hoping for as well for a number of reasons. Of course they want him to succeed and help the team, that’s why they signed him in the first place and winning is their job. But I’m certain they’d also like Morales to perform and prove everyone wrong about the fact that his career may be nearing an end.

Atkins and Shapiro decided to spend a little less than half of what they reportedly offered to Edwin Encarnacion, hoping they could get similar production from a much cheaper source. They pointed to advanced metrics that said he’d perform well at the Rogers Centre, and that a three year contract was totally justified. It made sense at the time, but has become a tough pill to swallow, especially with 20 million also going to the forever-injured Troy Tulowitzki on the same payroll.