Blue Jays: Choose your own adventure- Option 1

This is “Option 1” in today’s Blue Jays Choose Your Own Adventure series. If you found yourself here without starting at the beginning, things will make more sense if you begin here.

Welcome to your Blue Jays choose your own adventure. If you’re here that means that you’ve chosen to prioritize re-signing the ’21 AL Cy Young award winner, and it’s hard to blame you for making that decision.

That said, making Ray the top priority turned out to be a costly choice, especially because the Yankees, Dodgers, and Angels all made serious bids. In the end Ray returned to a team and fan base that loves him and was handsomely rewarded with a new contract of five years and 127.5 million, for an AAV of 25.5 million.

Around this time we learned that ownership was going to approve the Blue Jays spending 50-52 million this offseason, while saving a bit of payroll space for the trade deadline in July when they may want to have some flexibility. That means that signing Ray pretty much takes us out of the Marcus Semien sweepstakes, and unfortunately he ended up leaving to join the Mariners for the same deal that George Springer received a year ago at six years and 150 million. The Mariners wanted him to play in a less of a hitter’s park and stay at second base, so they had to pay him to do it.

And that brings us to the next decision that you’ll have to make. Do you want to keep looking for options for the infield and the bullpen through free agency, or is it time to shift the focus to the trade market? There are plenty of rumours that other teams are calling the Blue Jays about their catching depth, and also sniffing around some of their top prospects, even after the Jays traded away Austin Martin and Simeon Woods Richardson in July.

What’s the next step in the offseason Mr./Ms./Mx. GM?

Option 1: Stick with free agency

Option 2: Turn to the trade market