Low Cost Toronto Blue Jays Rotation
A couple of days back the Toronto Blue Jays avoided arbitration by inking Shaun Marcum to a $850,000 one-year contract. With the departure of Doc, Marcum is now the salary leader of the Jays staff.
At any time during the season the Jays will spend right around $2.5 million in salary on the current starting five. (four MLB minimum-ish level starters + Marcum)
2010 Toronto Blue Jays Rotation Salaries
Note 1: The 2006 MLB and MLBPA agreement calls for a $400,000 minimum in 2010 and a $400,000 + cost of living adjustment in 2011.
The interesting thing here (besides the entire Jays staff making the equivalent of five 2010 AJ Burnett starts) is that the rotation will be under control for the foreseeable future. Free agency doesn’t kick in until a player has reached six years of service time. Here comes a service time graph
2010 Toronto Blue Jays Rotation Service Time
Everyone on our list will be under team control in 2011 & 2012. After that only Marcum and McGowan will be free agent eligible (as they both currently enter 2010 with three+ years of service time). Come 2013 only Litsch will be free agent eligible (Morrow will likely spend at least a month in AAA at the start of 2010 to milk his arbitration clock).
While the Jays have no real staff ‘ace’, they do have a mixture of 2’s and a handful of back of the rotation level starters. If they can find a way to contend in late 2011 or 2012 they should have the financial leverage to bring in a free agent or trade for a high salary pitcher to round out the rotation.
This is a pretty good setup for a rebuilding year in my view. Marcum and McGowan, if fully healthy, should be able to perform above salary, and there’s plenty of potential in all of the other arms which could lead to some nice bargains.
Also, just for a bit more perspective, you could pay for this staff more than 9 times over for CC Sabathia’s salary.
Building!!1
Cheap and long-term – that’s the kind of pitching staff I want to see!
I have a question though: I am working on something similar talking about total payroll commitments for 2010. Is it only the players on the 25-man roster who go towards the 2010 payroll, or does that also include any players in the minor league system? Thanks!
@Dragon
True dat. Or we could say three staffs for Brad Penny’s new 2010 free agent contract.
@eyebleaf
It pains me to say this but: This could be part of J.P’s legacy. He put the majority of this low-cost staff in place (except McGowan & Drabek)
@ Ian
It does include the entire system, although only players on MLB contracts. Minor league salaries ($30 – $40 K a year) aren’t included towards the total. I usually head over to ESPN or Cots Contracts for salary information.
Thanks Kman! I guess the difficult thing to project about the 2010 payroll is which players will make the 25-man roster. Even so, they are probably only going to receive the league minimum salary anyway – so whether it’s 400K for Dopirak or 400K for Ruiz doesn’t really make a difference towards the final totals.