Blue Jays- Choose your own adventure to the 2021 offseason

The Blue Jays have a lot of different ways they could attack the offseason, and I thought it would be fun to put together a little choose your own adventure.

What does that mean? Well, if you’re asking that question then chances are you’re younger than I am. For those that don’t know, Choose Your Own Adventure books were quite the thing through the eighties and nineties, and I fondly recall regularly checking them out from the local public library as a kid.

The basic premise is that the reader takes some control over what happens to the characters. There are various checkpoints where you’re asked to make a decision, and you turn to a certain page based on what you choose. It was a brilliant way to engage young readers, so I thought I’d try the same concept with Blue Jays fans today.

In this series of articles I’m going to ask you to sit in Ross Atkins’ seat as the GM of the Toronto Blue Jays, which means you’ll have some important decisions to make. Will you choose to spend big money to retain the 2021 Cy Young award winner, or the Silver Slugger/Gold Glove winning second baseman? Do you believe it’s better to fix the roster holes through free agency, the trade market, or some combination of both?

For the purposes of this exercise, you’ll have to give up a little bit of control of the situation to me as the writer. Try to think of it like I’m shifting the things that Atkins and company have no control over, like whether a free agent will choose Toronto over another team, being outbid for a free agent, or if another club would be willing to make a trade.

We’re also not going to fix absolutely every potential issue with the roster during this exercise. Instead we’re going to focus on three things: the rotation, an infielder, and the bullpen. I’m not going to set a hard budget for the offseason, but we’ll operate within reason.

And with that, it’s time to make your first choice about the rotation:

Option 1: Spend big to re-sign Robbie Ray as the top priority

Option 2: Let Ray walk, still prioritize rotation, but also the infield

Option 3: Look for free agent deals, focus on the trade market

It’s time for you to make the first choice of your Blue Jays adventure. Which path would you like to take?