Grading the largest contracts in Toronto Blue Jays history

A.J. Burnett

Signed five-year, $55 million on Dec. 6, 2005
Grade: C

Burnett signed one of the most interesting contracts in Blue Jays history when he inked a five-year, backloaded deal full of opt-outs.

In his first year of the deal, a 29-year-old Burnett made just over $2 million, and, aside from some injuries, had a relatively effective season. He had a 3.98 ERA in 135 2/3 innings.

The next year his salary jumped to $13 million, making him the highest-paid member of the team, and the 26th-highest paid player in MLB.

Over those final two seasons, Burnett was worth 4.8 bWAR. He led the league in strikeouts in 2008 (231), opted out of his deal and signed a five-year $82.5 million deal with the Yankees.

Roy Halladay

Signed a three-year, $40 million extension on Mar. 23, 2006
Grade: A

This extension technically didn’t kick in until the 2008 season (where Halladay made $10 million and was the 74th-highest paid player in the league) before his salary got bumped up to $14.25 million the next year, which was the 28th-highest contract in MLB.

Halladay produced a 13.2 bWAR over 485 innings in those two years. He struck out 414 and had 155 ERA+ in 65 starts. He also threw 18 complete games. Halladay was traded in the Phillies in the final year of his contract.

Vernon Wells

Signed a seven-year, $126 million contract on Dec. 15, 2006
Grade: B

Wells signed a weirdly structured deal that was the sixth-richest deal in MLB historyat the time of his signing. The deal had a ton of signing bonus money deferred over the length of the deal and Wells’ yearly salary was only $500,000 in 2008 and $1.5 million in 2009.

It then jumped to $12.5 million in 2010 and $23 million in 2011.

Wells then received $21 million in each of the final three seasons. Wells also only made it to the third year of this deal before being traded to the Los Angeles Angels. He only spent two years with the Angels before being traded to the Yankees, who paid off the last two years of the deal

During his three years with Toronto on this deal, Wells was worth 6.9 bWAR with a slash line of .275/.327/.466.

Those are good numbers for a guy who wasn't even in the top 100 of player salary thanks to the structure of the deal. He was 24th in the league in earnings in 2010 before becoming the second-highest paid player in 2011 — as a member of the Angels.

Wells' deal was the last time the Blue Jays signed a player to a deal that was in the top-30 of salary until they signed George Springer to his six-year, $150 million deal ahead of the 2021 season.