Front Office Decisions
With all of this mind, what is the conclusion?
The Toronto Blue Jays will strut into the baseball winter meetings this offseason with some deep pockets, but will most likely leave with some of their money still in rubber bands.
Mark Shapiro said in a previous meeting with the media that he was “not looking to win the off-season“, which is just fancy terms for, “we are not going to spend stupid money to outbid other teams for the best talent”.
This basically means that the Blue Jays are more than likely going to make smaller, less flashy signings with the goal of these players contributing to the team over the long run and hoping they don’t flame out in the process.
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With that in mind, this offseason is going to be a total crapshoot considering we don’t know how much money the team can realistically spend. It all boils down to the direction Ross Atkins and Mark Shapiro want this team to go (all signs point to young and controllable), as well as how much money Rogers Communications wants to dish out to the organization.
The owning corporation could choose to give them no flexibility this off-season due to the rebuild and dwindling attendance, which would seriously tie the hands of the front office to make any deals or signings. In retrospect, Rogers could also let the front office run hog wild in hopes of bringing fans and a playoff contender back to Toronto. Fans in Toronto are notorious for showing up when a team is winning, and some increased payroll and some more expensive but talented players may do that. It’s just the business side of baseball.
In the end, we as fans will just have to sit on our hands and wait on every rumour and tidbit that trickles in, and hope that next season is an improvement to further the rebuild along.