Last week, the Bluejays said goodbye to a piece of their future, in exchange for blistering speed at the top of their lineup, two solid starting pitchers, and two very useful players in the acquisition of Jose Reyes, Mark Buehrle, Josh Johnson. , John Buck. and Emilio Bonifacio.
On Friday afternoon, Bluejays general manager Alex Anthopoulos made his second appearance in a week by signing free agent left fielder Melky Cabrera to a two-year, $16 million contract.
Cabrera led the National League in a .346 batting average with the San Francisco Giants until he was suspended for testing positive for elevated testosterone.
And so, in one week, the Bluejays, who were at a franchise low with the debacle surrounding John Farrell’s loss to the rival Red Sox, have now been elevated to a franchise-highest echelon ever since the team last won the World Series with Joe Carter winning the Championship at home. run in 1993.
There were flashes of positivity in between. The signing of Roger Clemens brought some excitement for a couple of seasons, but the roster around Clemens never lived up to his performance levels and he was soon traded to the hated Yankees.
In late 2005, starting pitcher AJ Burnett and BJ Ryan signed big contracts that brought some excitement and hope to Toronto fans, but this was short-lived as both disappointed in their performances and never justified the size of their compensation.
After the debacle of these two signings, the Bluejays proceeded to release expensive contracts. Vernon Wells and Alex Rios were traded and released. Cy Young Award-winning pitcher Roy Halladay was traded to Philadelphia because he told management he would not re-sign with the club.
Toronto has been in rebuilding mode ever since, restocking the farm system and signing free-agent one-year deals for the team to garner compensatory draft picks.
But now things are different. Alex Anthopoulos’ philosophy of having a conveyor belt of players going through the system will continue. What has changed is the decision on behalf of the Rogers Communications ownership team to now put its financial might behind Anthopoulous. Rogers is technically the richest owner of any team in the majors with a market cap of roughly $20 billion and they have now shown their confidence in the overall project by increasing payroll to the region of $125 million with the recent trade and signing. .
It’s doubtful Anthopoulos is done with his offseason moves at this point. By acquiring John Buck from the Marlins, the Bluejays now have Buck and JP Arencibia with triple-A receiver Travis D’Arnaud pressing for playing time and drawing comparisons to Giants MVP receiver Buster Posey. Given some of the layoffs on the list, more moves are likely.
The Red Sox were mired in last place in the AL East with a recently shredded roster. The Yankees are all a year older with props and future Hall of Famers Derek Jeter and Mariano Rivera coming off long-term injuries. Tampa can’t afford to invest, and Baltimore will have to prove that 2012 wasn’t an anomaly. It all adds up to the fact that the Bluejays are about to be listed as favorites in April 2013. In fact, several bookies have already slashed their odds of winning the World Series from 40-to-1 to less than 10-to-1. In fact, the only teams with lower odds at the time of this writing were the Cincinnati Reds and Washington Nationals.
One thing is clear: the Toronto Bluejays are relevant again.
