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Blue Jays: Five things to know
DUNEDIN, Fla. -- Some clubs sell tradition. Some sell winning.
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| Toronto is counting on Scott Rolen to add some pop to the offense. (Getty Images) |
They sell spending millions and millions and millions of dollars each year ... to finish third in the American League East.
(Insert Charlie Brown sigh here.)
Eight of the past 10 seasons, the Blue Jays have huffed ... and puffed ... and finished behind those behemoths in Boston and New York.
They've finished third with a payroll as low as $45.7 million (2005). They've finished third with a payroll as high as $81.9 million (2007).
This year, they project a staggering $93 million payroll. And for what? Another season of staring at the backsides of Manny Ramirez, Derek Jeter and the rest of the Red Sox and Yankees?
"It's funny, because we were saying the other day that someone is going to win 85 games in the American League this year and still not sniff the playoffs," Blue Jays general manager J.P. Ricciardi says, not exactly using the word "funny" in the most literal sense.
"It's reality. We won more games than the Cardinals the year they won the World Series."
Why yes, that was the year the Blue Jays finished -- second. Mirage ... they were back in third place again last summer.
"We've been rebuilding this team for the last three or four years, but this spring it seems that we're where we anticipated we'd be," says center fielder Vernon Wells, entering the second season of a seven-year, $126 million deal and coming off of left shoulder surgery. "Top to bottom, we're pretty strong.
"This is the best team I've been a part of here my whole career. Guys can play the game, and we've got some quality people."
So ... does this mean third place again? Or does this mean, gasp, that the personnel is here to bust up the Red Sox/Yankees stranglehold on AL East proceedings?
