The Blue Jays have been connected to every top free agent this offseason and finally landed one Tuesday night, reaching agreement with outfielder George Springer on a six-year, $150 million contract, according to Jon Heyman.
The deal, pending a physical, will be the richest in Blue Jays history.
Toronto is an ascending franchise loaded with young talent and was committed to spending this offseason. The Blue Jays have pursued all of the biggest names: Trevor Bauer, Springer, DJ LeMahieu, J.T. Realmuto.
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Springer will be a Blue Jay, LeMahieu returned to the Yankees, and the Phillies have a five-year offer exceeding $100 million out to Realmuto. Bauer is unsigned.
The Blue Jays forfeited their second-highest pick (54th overall) and $500,000 of international bonus pool money to add Springer.
The Blue Jays were viewed as one of the last real threats to the Phillies to sign Realmuto, perhaps even the last. With Springer in the fold, the Blue Jays’ luxury tax payroll is an estimated $129 million. They did carry estimated opening day payrolls of $162-164 million in 2017 and 2018, but the Springer agreement may very well spell the end of their pursuit of Realmuto. The Jays came close to adding Michael Brantley on Wednesday but the latest report has Brantley returning to Houston. In recent days, the Jays also added pitchers Kirby Yates and Tyler Chatwood and is still looking for starters. Their staff is thin behind Hyun-Jin Ryu, with Robbie Ray, Tanner Roark, Ross Stripling and Nate Pearson projected to fill out the rotation. That appears to, rightly, be the priority now.
The existence of this $150 million deal for Springer is fantastic news for the remaining top free agents, particularly Bauer and to an extent Marcell Ozuna. This is similar to the kind of contract the 31-year-old Springer probably would have found in a non-pandemic year.
MLB
The issue for Realmuto is there aren’t enough teams left to up the bidding. Who else is left beyond the Phillies? You have to start going to second-tier, dark-horse candidates like the Cardinals, Braves and Rangers. Teams are always lurking around this time in case a free agent’s price tag drops precipitously, but that’s not exactly the case here with the Phillies already offering Realmuto a nine-figure deal.
If the Phillies do end up re-signing Realmuto, they’ll have outspent about 27 teams this winter, which would be pretty funny given the tone of this offseason locally until the last two weeks.
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