The Blue Jays are at the unique crossroads where they have grown massively in attendance – but are exponentially growing in cost of payroll each year. Based on some great front office decisions on Bautista, Encarnacion and Donaldson – the club has their best chance to in a championship is right now. Push all of your chips in, sign some more players – and take on salary. You may just lead the American League in attendance if you do (just like in the early 90’s). The Jays have talked about cutting payroll in 2016. That would be a grave mistake. Right now they are at about $140 MIL in total team salary for next season.

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The Blue Jays have $94 MIL in guaranteed contracts already in commitments for Troy Tulowitzki, Russell Martin, Jose Bautista, Marco Estrada, R.A. Dickey J.A. Happ and Edwin Encarnacion.

The club also will have about another $35 – $38 MIL in Arbitration dealing with another 10 players.

This would mean the team is hovering around the $130 MIL already before they pull the trigger on any moves this offseason.

We made it abundantly clear in our Toronto Blue Jays State Of The Union that this is no time to slow down in going for a championship.

One of the biggest things we mentioned there was the lack of an ace in the AL East.  For Toronto to win the Division they may not need a #1 guy again.  They will only need another #1 guy in the postseason.

Toronto is the only team in the MLB not in the USA. With that comes foreign currency. For the years of 1990 – 2007, the Canadian Dollar was hovering around the 70 cents mark for the duration. The last economic crash in the USA – had the dollar at par for the better part of the last 7 years, including once reaching $1.10 for every George Washington bill in America. The average for the exchange rate has been in the mid 90 cents range. The loonie has been in a nosedive since 2014 kicked in – and now it is around 75 cents for every US Dollar right now.  This is another illustration why this organization should go all in for 2016!

Our suggestion was to skate through till the ALL – Star – and then trade every single piece you can that was not on the major league team for a pitcher that is a Free Agent after the season.

In today’s reality of the MLB, if you can have a successful run in back to back years of the playoffs you have achieved something.

Alex Anthopoulos authored two brilliant contract extensions for you in Jose Bautista and Edwin Encarnacion to have this shot.

Those two only make a combined $24 MIL this upcoming year and either of them could almost ask for that kind of dough single handedly.

Toronto stole Josh Donaldson away from the A’s, but he will start to ramp up his earnings.  Baseball Reference has him slated to earn around $12 MIL in 2016, and if he puts up another year like 2015, he will register near $20 MIL per for the next 2.

You have about a 3 year window for the team to win – yet 2016 offers the best chance.  Joey Bats and EE are still on the club.

The team could just sit back on the offense they have, maybe bring in a second tier Free Agent like a Scott Kazmir, Jeff Samardzija or Wei-Yin Chen.

I am still in favor of them inking a Left Handed Power bat at 1B on a 4 or 5 year deal.  A guy like Chris Davis.

This nice little run by Toronto is nice but I highly suspect it will be just for a few years with the way the Canadian Dollar is going.  Here lies within a dilemma though.  How much more attendance can you bring by signing a guy or 2 on the open market.

Could the Jays lead the American League for fan attendance like they did in the early 1990’s?  Would drawing close to 4 Million people be out of their realm?

I for one, think the Blue Jays fans would fill the place if they re-signed David Price and then added a bat like Davis for 2 – 3 years.

What is wrong with telling your audience that you are going for it now – but there maybe a tough time ahead for club after the next few seasons.  Go for it.. All in. While the Red Sox and Yankees are down and sort of re-tooling.  You have the ability to do this.

Okay so signing Price may not be possible with the kind of cash he is going to demand, but why not keep the payroll at around $160 MIL by adding to your already strength in offense.

If Marcus Stroman makes the incremental improvements next year needed – maybe he becomes your ace.  Marco Estrada is an okay #2 chucker, and looked good in the playoffs.  Then maybe going all or a lock down Closer like Aroldis Chapman might make sense.

It would be a shame if the team cut payroll – added no pieces towards another run, and never madeit to the World Series next year.  This is the crossroads any team would currently like to be in.

Josh Donaldson, Jose Bautista and Edwin Encarnacion could all make around $70 MIL aggregate on the open market if each were Free Agents right now. Instead they will pull in just about over half of that.

Don’t skimp on the salary by trading your leadoff man in Ben Revere either.  The only way that would be acceptable is if they upgraded with a Denard Span or Dexter Fowler in exchange.

It is really a shame that Devon Travis went down with that injury – as he would have been perfect to package up in a deal that could have seen them bring back a major piece to the 2016 squad as a Starting Pitcher or another OF bat with some thump.

Guaranteed Contracts/POS/AGE:

Troy Tulowitzki SS (31):  Makes $20 MIL for the next four years between 2016 – 2019, $14 MIL in 2020 – with a Team Option of $15 MIL for 2021 – or a Buyout of $4 MIL.

Russell Martin C (32):  The Canadian earns $15 MIL in 2016 – before 3 straight years of bringing in $20 MIL per year after that.

Jose Bautista OF (35):  $14 MIL in 2016 and a Free Agent in 2017.

R.A. Dickey SP (42);  $12 MIL in 2016 and a Free Agent in 2017.

Marco Estrada SP (32): $11 MIL in 2016, $15 MIL in 2017 – and a Free Agent in 2018.

Edwin Encarnacion 1B/OF (33):  $10 MIL in 2016 and a Free Agent in 2017.

J.A. Happ SP (33):  $10 MIL in 2016, $13 MIL in both of 2017 and 2018 – Free Agent in 2019. (New Nov.27, 2015)

Total Money for this Category – $92.5 MIL

Arbitration Eligible/POS/AGE

1st Year (all Free Agents After 2019)

Josh Donaldson 3B (30):  The reigning AL MVP is projected to earn $12 MIL in 2016.  Should probably make in the $20 MIL range for both 2017 and 2018 Arbitration years before becoming a Free Agent in 2019.

Drew Hutchison SP (25): Listed to earn about $2.9 MIL in 2016.  Is a Free Agent in 2019.

Aaron Loup RP (28):  The Reliever is projected to make $0.9 MIL in 2016.

Steve Delabar RP (32):  The Reliever is projected to make $0.7 MIL in 2016.

Total Money for this Category – $16.5 MIL:  Total Team Payroll: $109.0 MIL

2nd Year (Free Agents in 2018)

Ben Revere CF (28):  Is projected to make $6.7 MIL in 2016.

Josh Thole C (29:  Is projected to make $1.8 MIL in 2016.

Total Money for this Category – $8.5 MIL:  Total Team Payroll: $117.5 MIL.

3rd Year (Free Agents in 2017)

Jesse Chavez SP (32):  Is projected to make $4.7 MIL in 2016.

Brett Cecil RP (29):  Is projected to make $3.4 MIL in 2016.

Michael Saunders OF (29):  Is projected to make $2.9 MIL in 2016.

Justin Smoak 1B/DH (29):  Is projected to make $2.0 MIL in 2016.

Total Money for this Category – $13.0 MIL:  Total Team Payroll is $130.5 MIL

Dead Money POS/AGE:

Maicer Izturis UT (35):  $1 MIL Buyout- and is off the books for 2017.

Ricky Romero  SP (32):  600K Buys out the last amount of cash for this guy.

Total Money for this Category – $1.6 MIL:  Total Team Payroll is $132.1 MIL

Entry Level Contracts POS/AGE

Ezequiel Carrera UT (29): Is Arbitration Eligible from 2017 – 2019 and a Free Agent in 2020.

Chris Colabello UT (32):  Has 4 Years of Arbitration eligibility from 2017 – 2020 and is a Free Agent in 2021.

Marcus Stroman SP (25):  Is Arbitration Eligible from 2018 – 2020 and a Free Agent in 2021.

Ryan Goins UT (28): Is Arbitration Eligible from 2018 – 2020 and a Free Agent in 2021.

Kevin Pillar OF (27):  Is Arbitration Eligible from 2018 – 2020 and a Free Agent in 2021.

Chad Jenkins SP (28):  Is Arbitration Eligible from 2018 – 2020 and a Free Agent in 2021.

Aaron Sanchez SP/RP:  Is Arbitration Eligible from 2018 – 2020 and a Free Agent in 2021.

Roberto Osuna CL (21):  Is Arbitration Eligible from 2018 – 2020 and a Free Agent in 2021.

Devon Travis 2B (25):  Is Arbitration Eligible from 2018 – 2020 and a Free Agent in 2021.

Pat Venditte RP (30):  Is Arbitration Eligible from 2019 – 2021 and a Free Agent in 2022.

Ryan Tepera RP (27): Is Arbitration Eligible from 2019 – 2021 and a Free Agent in 2022.

Dalton Pompey OF (23): Is Arbitration Eligible from 2019 – 2021 and a Free Agent in 2022.

Total Money for this Category – $7.9 MIL:  Total Team Payroll – $140 MIL.

Alex Anthopoulos extended both Joey Bats and EE after they broke out with career years. It was an awesome gamble and a lot of the success they had in 2015 – was based on that value. Add in bringing in Josh Donaldson at an MVP caliber for 3 more years, and you have a great value team.  Those 3 guys would easily command double the money they will all make in 2016 on the open market.

*** 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.

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