Blue Jays: The free agent stars they won’t be bidding on

Don’t expect another Houston import

Whenever you can sign a big free agent away from another contender there is always an added degree of satisfaction, and that was exactly the case when the Jays landed former Houston Astros star George Springer last winter. That said, I don’t expect history to repeat itself this offseason.

The Astros may very well lose arguably their most important position player in Carlos Correa, who is now officially a free agent for the first time. There are rumours floating around that his representation is seeking a nine or ten year deal, and it wouldn’t be surprising to see a request in the neighbourhood of 300 million. It remains to be seen how many bidders could be in play at that level, but Correa is an elite player. For what it’s worth, MLBtraderumors.com has him slated for 10 years and 320 million.

While he would be a fantastic fit in the middle infield in Toronto, there’s no way the Blue Jays are going to sign a free agent to that length of a contract. I’m not sure they would do that under normal circumstances, but if they would consider such a thing in 2021 I’m sure it would start with their homegrown stars in Vladimir Guerrero Jr. and Bo Bichette. Ross Atkins and Mark Shapiro have always talked about building a sustainable winner, and signing Correa to that kind of deal would make it nearly impossible to pull off other important moves later on unless things significantly changed budget wise.

The Blue Jays also remain very committed to Bo Bichette as their shortstop, and I’m not sure that Correa would be a candidate to move off of his preferred position. He’s an elite defender and it would be a tough sell if he were to land in a Blue Jays’ jersey, but I don’t think we need to bother with that debate.

Don’t get me wrong, I fully expect Correa to have a very busy market this offseason, I just don’t think the Blue Jays will be part of it.