Blue Jays: The different stages of investing in the roster

An even bigger splash

I was very excited when the Blue Jays opened their chequebooks to bring Ryu to Toronto, and I believed Atkins and Shapiro when they talked about investing more heavily in the roster in the future. That said, I still needed to see it to truly believe it.

And then last offseason came and they honestly exceeded my expectations, especially at the time. Signing George Springer to a six-year, 150 million dollar contract was a huge development for a bunch of reasons, and we saw the kind of impact he can make when he’s healthy in 2021. Unfortunately it just didn’t happen often enough, but hopefully that will change in 2022 and beyond over the next five years of his deal.

The Blue Jays also spent pretty big to take a one-year upside gamble on Marcus Semien, paying him 18 million and asking him to switch to second base. The deal couldn’t have worked out much better for both parties, as the Blue Jays received a major bargain when Semien finished 3rd in AL MVP voting while winning a Silver Slugger and Golden Glove award, and the infielder ultimately received a new seven-year, 175 million dollar contract from Texas as the payoff for a career season.

While Springer didn’t make the impact that many hoped he would, mostly due to being held to just 78 games played around his various injuries, things had completely shifted in Toronto by last season. They saw major breakout performances from Vladimir Guerrero Jr., who finished 2nd in AL MVP voting with an incredible season, and to a lesser extend with others like Bo Bichette, Alek Manoah, Teoscar Hernandez and others.

The long-term investment into Springer looks more than justified now that the Blue Jays have emerged as legitimate contenders in the AL East, and it was yet another significant step in the right direction.