December 22, 2011

Blue Jays have done nothing this off-season to dispel their image as a second division team

The Toronto Blue Jays apparently finished second in the bidding for Japanese superstar Yu Darvish—or at least that is the public perception. The Texas Rangers bid $51.7 million to win the rights to negotiate with Darvish. There was a clear notion going into the process that the $51.1 million figure posted for Dice-K Matsuzaka in 2006 by the Boston Red Sox would be the starting point this time. Apparently the Blue Jays, if they did bid, weren’t listening.

The Jays were supposed to be one of the favourites in the arcane posting process for the Japanese pitcher as General Manager Alex Anthopoulos had actually travelled to Japan to watch Darvish pitch. There was only one other club who sent their GM to Japan—Texas. Now granted there can only be one winner in this process and there is no public knowledge of what the Jays bid or if they actually placed one at all but the sense among Jay fans is that the club is simply continuing on it path in doing just enough to come up short.

Darvish was going to be that one shining light for Jay fans. He was going to be the proof that the organization would spend whatever was necessary to build a winning team and create excitement among its fan base. Instead in the afterglow of the posting process Jay fans feel like the pleasant plain girl who gets shoved aside at the high school prom by the snotty beauty queen.

The process began nearly one week ago when teams were asked to send their sealed bids to MLB headquarters. From there four selected members of baseball’s front office went through the bids, tossing aside all except the highest number. That number was then sent to the Nippon Ham Fighters, the Japanese club that held the rights to Yu Darvish. The Fighters then had until Tuesday at 5 pm EST to make a decision on whether they would accept the bid, thereby allowing Darvish to negotiate a contract with the winning team, or to deny it and keep Darvish in Japan.

The Fighters would not know the identity of the team that presented the offer—they would only know the number. And the information sent out from Japan was that the winning bid would have to supersede Dice-K’s number. Granted, it could simply be hyperbole. Of course the Japanese club would attempt to extract the largest figure but the world wide consensus among baseball scouts was that Darvish was far superior to Dice-K so hyperbole aside if Darvish is a superior talent then the posting fee should be higher. Texas was listening—the Jays were not.

It is more than likely that the Jays bid on Darvish. It is also more than likely that the Jays made a hefty bid—rumours are that the team bid $50 million, which of course was not higher than Dice-K. Apparently Rogers Communications—the Blue Jay owners—told management to spend whatever was necessary to ensure that they secured the services of Darvish. And it made sense considering the communications giant would then have an international star with which to promote—especially to the large Asian community that resides in Toronto. For whatever reason management decided not to follow that directive and instead of making a bid that was sure to win they made one that could, and was, be beaten.

Now the Blue Jays organization is built on secrecy. The baseball management team headed by Anthopoulos believes that any information given about their plans to either acquire or trade players can jeopardize any deal. They believe, and rightly so, that misinformation can affect the proposals in a negative way and can diminish and perhaps demolish the work put in to make the deal. So there is no way of knowing whether Rogers actually instructed AA to bid high and get Darvish, or whether the club even bid on the player. All information that emanates from or about the Blue Jays is merely speculative. So let’s look past speculation and rumour and look at the results of this off-season.

This off-season the Blue Jays have made two trades. The dealt minor league pitcher Brad Mills to Anaheim to acquire back-up catcher Jeff Mathis, and they dealt minor league prospect Nestor Molina to Chicago to acquire young closer Sergio Santos. Two nice deals indeed. Yes, they are apparently in on the Gio Gonzalez talks with Oakland and are having trade discussions with the Cubs for Matt Garza. They also supposedly came up short (do we sense a trend developing?) in a bid to acquire Mat Latos from San Diego. The Reds picked up a solid young starter by making a better offer, not unlike what Texas did.

So the question naturally follows—are the Jays doing just enough to be part of the discussion but not enough to close the deal? Rarely are success stories carved out for the second place finisher but this is where the Jays are slotting in. After doing a nice job the previous year and a half in adding pieces to the core the Jays are on the verge of fielding a contending team in 2012. In order to do so there are certain pieces that need to be added—and so far the club has added just one such piece, Santos.

The club can contend next season if it can add one solid starter, another solid bat, and two late inning arms—one left-handed—to fill out the bullpen. With Darvish or Latos the Jays would have solved their first problem, but now they must look elsewhere to do so. The best case scenario is that the Jays are able to trade for either the bat or the pitcher, and sign the other as a free agent. There are more pitchers available in the trade market so the likelihood is that the Jays will need to swing a deal for a pitcher while signing a hitter. The most dominant hitter on the market remains Prince Fielder but the Jays seem unwilling to meet the big first baseman’s demands for a lengthy contract. The possibility remains thought that the club can sign someone like Carlos Beltran to be that veteran hitter to protect Jose Bautista.

The off-season still has two months remaining but the major players will likely be moved in January.  Therefore the Jays have one month to fill their holes in order to field a contending team next year. Jay fans are growing restless—tired of hearing the organization talk about development and the future. At some point the future has to turn into the present. That time is now.

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