Blue Jays: Important dates and what to look forward to this offseason

A Stacked Free Agent Class and the Ability to Spend

This offseason is shaping up to be a very stacked class, boasting a ton of infield talents such as Semien, Javier Baez, Corey Seager, Carlos Correa, and Trevor Story while also boasting a ton of veteran pitching talent, both in the rotation and the bullpen, such as Max Scherzer, Zack Greinke, Justin Verlander, Raisel Iglesias, and Ian Kennedy.

At the end of the season, CEO/President Mark Shapiro told the press that they could look to improve the team via trade or free agency, “We’ll have the resources to do it, both in young talent that we could trade and in payroll… It may not be the exact same shape and form, but we’re going to get better. We’ll find a way to do it.”

This is a pretty big vote of confidence from a front office that seems pretty upset that they barely missed out on the playoffs, which makes sense considering the season the Blue Jays produced and the late burst in September that put them just one game short of a tiebreaker to potentially make the Wild Card.

With the World Series over, the Blue Jays now turn their attention to free agency and the offseason ahead to try and improve the roster for next year.

Whether or not they retain Semien and Ray is yet to be seen but with so many free agents available and the notion that the Blue Jays will have financial support from ownership to increase payroll, there is a lot to be excited about when it comes to the potential add-ons as well as a young core that continues to improve each and every year, “we’ve seen an incredible amount of trust and belief in the plan and support from ownership.”

Another vote of confidence lies with recent history, in that the club does not appear frightened to try and hang with the big spenders during free agency. They inked Hyun Jin Ryu to the four-year deal back in the 2019/2020 offseason and opened their wallets this past offseason to land George Springer on a six-year, $150 million dollar contract.

While it may be a stretch for them to potentially land someone like Correa, who will most likely fetch above $200 million this offseason, Shapiro’s comments are at least comforting to know that the club does appear open to spending some money this offseason to improve the squad.

Possibility of Revisiting Some Trade Partners

Piggybacking off of the above point, Shapiro does hint that the club could use some of their prospect depth to improve the current roster even after they dealt top prospects Austin Martin and Simeon Woods-Richardson at the trade deadline this past season.

There were two players the club was unable to bring to Toronto this past summer and they were Cleveland’s Jose Ramirez and Detroit’s Robbie Grossman. The bigger fish the club will most likely try to land is Ramirez, as adding him to the roster would certainly provide a lot of pop in the lineup and a solid team-friendly contract over the next two seasons. Acquiring him will not come cheap, most likely three to four Jays players/prospects with value, but could provide a lot of benefits for a club looking to try and create a championship team over the next few seasons.

Ramirez isn’t the only player the club could go after but he certainly is one of the biggest names the Blue Jays were linked to this past season that they didn’t acquire. Some of the biggest trades in Jays’ history come out of the blue, could we see this happen again this offseason?

The Non-Tender Deadline

The Blue Jays have 11 players who are eligible for arbitration, with Vladimir Guerrero Jr., Danny Jansen, Trevor Richards, Trent Thronton, Ryan Borucki, and Cavan Biggio (he will go through four years of the process) all heading into their first year. Adam Cimber, Tim Mayza, and Teoscar Hernandez head into their second year while Jose Berrios and Ross Stripling enter their last year of arbitration before being eligible for free agency next winter.

The deadline to offer pre-arbitration and arbitration-eligible players a contract is December 1st, the same day the CBA expires. Any player who does not receive a contract offer by this day is now a free agent and allowed to sign with any team they chose.

Looking at the current lineup, there doesn’t appear to be any player who the Blue Jays might not tender a contract when it comes to salary or performance. They could decide to non-tender Thronton or Borucki if they are looking for some spots on the 40-man roster but considering both players are projected to command less than $1 million, it seems unlikely they will be dropped.

A Collective Bargaining Agreement Set to Expire

As I mentioned above, the CBA is set to expire on December 1st. The MLB and the MLBPA could hammer out a new deal by this time, making this date irrelevant, but if the two sides do not come to an agreement, there is potentially a work stoppage on the horizon until a new agreement is in place.

If the owners decide to lock out the players, then there will certainly be no signings or trades taking place as there will be no money for the front office to use to sign anyone.

So are the negotiations close?

Without going too far down the rabbit hole, right now there is no agreement in place and each side has recently rejected a proposed CBA, meaning there is still a potential for a work stoppage come early December. There are quite a few issues on the table, such as how much money the players are entitled to (revenue sharing wise), free agency eligibility, designated hitter in the NL, and a whole smorgasbord of other issues that each side is hell-bent on discussing and acting on.

Obviously, nobody wants a work stoppage. Considering how last season played out with COVID-19 and how both sides lost a ton of money, it could be a few months before anything gets agreed upon and could easily drag into the new year.

There is a possibility that some form of a lockout does occur, potentially delaying the start of spring training and maybe even the regular season, but this will hopefully be avoided and a more likely scenario of a CBA being completed around the New Year and a flurry of deals for top players in January and February to follow.

Important Dates:

I have already covered a few important dates earlier in the article but here are a few remaining ones to keep an eye out for:

Nov 19: Last day to add eligible minor league players to the 40-man roster

Dec 6-9: Winter Meetings in Florida (possibly cancelled if there is a lock out)

Dec 9: Rule 5 Draft

Jan 14: Deadline for teams and arbitration players to file salary figures before heading to arbitration. Both sides can still hammer out a deal before the arbitration date regardless of what the previously filed salary figures were on Jan 14th.

Jan 15: International signing period opens

First two weeks in February: Arbitration hearings