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Toronto Blue Jays: Why Scott Boras’ comments shouldn’t be taken seriously

By David Morassutti

HOUSTON, TX - JUNE 18: Scott Boras, agent of right-handed pitcher Lance McCullers, who was selected in the compensation first round (41st overall) of the 2012 MLB First Year Player Draft, is speaks during a press conference at Minute Maid Park on June 18, 2012 in Houston, Texas. (Photo by Bob Levey/Getty Images)
HOUSTON, TX - JUNE 18: Scott Boras, agent of right-handed pitcher Lance McCullers, who was selected in the compensation first round (41st overall) of the 2012 MLB First Year Player Draft, is speaks during a press conference at Minute Maid Park on June 18, 2012 in Houston, Texas. (Photo by Bob Levey/Getty Images) /
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Toronto Blue Jays
ARLINGTON, TX – OCTOBER 07: Troy Tulowitzki /

Blue Jays weren’t in a competitive position

All the people complaining that the Blue Jays are cheap and not willing to spend money should go look at the opening day payroll for the 2018 season.

They had a bigger payroll ($164,122,200) than the New York Yankees ($161,305,917), and Dodgers ($157,496,785) but those teams did see that number increase it because of deals they made at the trade deadline.

They paid Josh Donaldson $23 million in a pre-arbitration deal even though he missed part of the season with an injury and it was a record deal. So it would be wrong to say the team isn’t willing to pay players, that’s not the teams’ problem.

What has been the Blue Jays issue (more particularly Mark Shapiro and Ross Atkins) is that they inherited some bad long-term deals from players who have been on the decline.

It starts with Troy Tulowitzki-who ironically enough is represented by Boras-making $20 million and has played 238 games since joining the Blue Jays in 2015. There is no telling whether Tulo will play in 2019 after missing the entire 2018 season

Add that to the decline of Russell Martin who also makes $20 million, the Blue Jays committed a good part their payroll to two players who are not performing at the value they’re being paid.

With Atkins and Shapiro both saying that the team’s payroll will shrink next season, Boras made it a point to say the lack of investment is leading to their drop attendance.

"“They’ve lost near a third of their fan-base due to the ‘Blue Flu’ of not bringing attractive players that their fans find interesting to their market.” Boras told the media at the GM meeting."

Boras is right in saying that the Blue Jays didn’t have a roster warranting interest from fans but the reason why they haven’t increased their payroll or made it a point to go out and make upgrades is because they have money being paid out for ineffective players.

They want to get their young players a chance to develop at the major league level to the point where they can eventually compete with Boston and New York. That probably means making a couple of moves in free agency but they’re not in a position like 2015 or 2016 where they could go to the World Series.

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