Toronto Blue Jays: Why the rotation will do, for now

Ideally the Blue Jays will still add to their starting rotation, but if they don’t, there are reasons to believe things will be alright, at least for now.

Don’t get me wrong, I very much believe that the Blue Jays should still acquire one, and likely even two more starting pitchers to improve the rotation, but it’s looking less likely after the way the last few days have played out.

For example, James Paxton signed for just 8.5 million (with incentives that could take it to 10 million), and surely the Blue Jays could have beaten that price if they wanted to. Instead, it appears that Ross Atkins may have spent the vast majority of the offseason budget already, and/or may be holding on to a bit of cash in case the club needs reinforcements this summer ahead of the trade deadline.

It seems like an odd decision not to further improve the obvious area of weakness with the Blue Jays, but I can also understand why the front office may be feeling confident anyway. They’ve had a fantastic offseason, landing George Springer to a six-year, 150 million dollar contract, Marcus Semien for one year and 18 million, and reinforced the bullpen with additions like Kirby Yates, Tyler Chatwood, David Phelps, and more. They also addressed the rotation to a lesser extent, bringing back Robbie Ray for one year and eight million, and making a trade with the Mets for Steven Matz.

I’m still hopeful that they will sign one of Taijuan Walker or Jake Odorizzi to improve the starting group right off the hop, but I can also see some of the rationale for holding back for now, and why we should still be very exciting about the Blue Jays chances in 2021.