Russell Martin is a great game caller – and has been on teams making the playoffs in 6 of the last 7 years between LAD/NYY and Pit. He will turn 32 before next season, and has logged 1163 Games in the Majors as a backstopper. Signing him to a 5 Year deal, at $16.5 MIL per annum is not wise..

Hunter Stokes (Chief Writer): Follow @stokes_hunter21

Follow The MLB Reports On Twitter Follow @mlbreports

Jays Acquire Russell Martin

I get it, the guy may help you for the next 2 years, but to spend $82 MIL on a 5 year contract for a Catcher north of 30, who doesn’t have 20 HRs per year is beyond stupid.

Keep in mind, you are now paying him more cash than you pay Jose Bautista and Edwin Encarnacion,  Those were steals for deals on signings, but that will be now trumped by Martin.

I will say the man will help the Pitching Staff in the future years.  Honestly though, this team needed to sign an ace pitcher like Max Scherzer or Jon Lester, and at the least, a proven innings eater like James Shields.  Now you have effectively killed that chance.

The Blue Jays better hope that Justin Smoak can fill the bill at DH in a tandem with Dioner Navarro or Juan Francisco in the upcoming year, because as it stands right now, they are very heavy at the Right Handed side of their lineup.

Bautista, Encarnacion and Lawrie are all right handed, as is the newly acquired Catcher.

They still don’t have a bonafide LF yet, with Melky Cabrera as a Free Agent, and Dalton Pompey is just 22, to be given the reigns as a permanent CF is not 100% ironclad.

Dioner Navarro had a fine season for Toronto last year, with a .714 OPS, with 12 HRs and 69 RBI. The club may decide to trade him, but he may be kept to help DH.  Navarro will make $5 MIL in salary this year, and is a Free Agent of the season.

The team also will lose CF Colby Rasmus and Closer Casey Janssen.  It seems that Alex Anthopoulos is also banking too heavily on Juan Francisco to match his production of 16 HRs and 43 RBI in just 287 2014 AB.

I understand the need to improve the offensive side of the club with On Base Percentage, on a team that all bats like they are facing a 24 second shot clock, but this is not the move they needed to make.

With the Martin signing, the team now has 3 Canadians on the Roster with Lawrie, Martin and Pompey.

The terms of the deal are to pay Martin $7 MIL in 2015, $15 MIL in 2016, then through 2017 – 2019, the Canadian will make $20 MIL per annum.  That just baffles my mind that this guy will be earning that much.

Toronto already is doling out $110 MIL before any players are paid for Arbitration, and once that occurs, they will approach the $130 MIL mark.  The franchise has many glaring holes to try to fill before the 2015 year starts.

Before anybody goes to social media trying to carve me up.  This deal will help the Jays in the next 2 years.  It will be the years of 3 – 5 that will come back to haunt the club.

Martin is a nice Catcher, who will help the Pitching Staff with his defense, and maybe his drawing walks will also be infectious to the rest of the lineup.  It is just a little too rich for money.

The team may also be able to trade away Dioner Navarro either in this offseason, or closer to next year’s deadline.

Martin was largely paid on his 2014 campaign, where he 3 Slashed .290/.402/.430, rather than his career marks of .259/.354./399.

The worst fear for Toronto, is that he regresses to his Yankees numbers of .224/.317/.405 during his tenure there.

Spare me that he belongs in the pay stratosphere as Brian McCann (signed a 5 Year Deal/$85 MIL prior to last year), who possesses a lifetime .808 OPS, with 5 Silver Slugger Awards to his name, and 7 straight seasons of 20+ HRs. 

Perhaps Martin was a lot better in the 2014 year, however I expect a regression towards the mean for him in 2015, while I would expect McCann to hit more like he did during the 2013 season. 

McCann was also 2 years younger at the point in signing his contract. 

Martin was a very nice catcher for the Yankees during his time there, but he struggled in his time in the AL East before.  I think he will be better in his time with the Canadian squad, however the Jays can’t expect the guy to play every day either.  I am in full mindset they should have addressed their Starting Pitching a little more than the offense.

*** The views and opinions expressed in this report are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of mlbreports.com and their partners***

A Big thanks goes out to our chief writer Hunter Stokes for preparing today’s feature post.

For all of the Rosters, Depth Charts, State of the Unions and Salaries Posts that we do, please visit our dedicated page link here.