Add Scott Boras to the list of "Rogers is cheap" champions.
Of course, Boras is speaking out of self interest. He has free agent clients that still are looking for a contract and would love the Blue Jays to be in on them, even if it is just to give Boras a chance to suggest there is a bidding war.
As Rosenthal says, the Jays payroll with jump from $120 million to $130 million and that's after it jumping from about $85 million the year before.
Honestly, I can see the team not wanting payroll to jump to $150 million. But if Rogers was really cheap, they could shed some payroll without too much trouble. Someone would take Jose Reyes's contract, if the Jays sent some money along with it. Same with Mark Buehrle. They could have easily moved Jose Bautista's contract for a couple of young underpaid starting pitchers.
For his part, Alex Anthopoulos is sticking to the same line he always has used:
Informed of Boras' comments, Jays general manager Alex Anthopoulos said, "Our ownership has been outstanding and given us all the resources we need."
I don't believe that ownership is "preventing management from improving the team". Rogers seems to like Alex--for now. If they didn't , or if they have lost confidence in Alex, he wouldn't still be around. Ownership, I'm sure, understands that the better the team does, the better ratings will be for the games on the 52 different Sportsnet channels.
Personally, I wouldn't be surprised if Rogers has put a $140 million cap on the team. That doesn't scream cheap to me. It is a fair bit of money.
I'm as frustrated as anyone with how this offseaon has gone, I'd like the team to make a move to improve the pitching staff or get a real major league second basemen, but I'm not going to blame Rogers. I really would have like Jimenez, but I don't want Santana.
I'm not sure who Boras is talking to by saying this. Is it his players? I'm sure Stephen Drew and Kendrys Morales are getting a little anxious, now that spring training has started. I'm sure they must have questions for Scott and must be wondering if they are going to be playing this year. Maybe they are also wondering if they have the wrong agent. Boras can't be expecting that the Jays will suddenly sign three guys because some agent embarrassed them.
Baseball-Reference has the Jays sitting third in the AL East in payroll at $131.3 million, Trailing the Yankees ($195.5 million and the Red Sox ($152.1 million), ahead of the Orioles ($87.3 million, with a couple of signings that will move them over the $100 million mark, presuming the physicals go well) and the Rays ($68.2 million). I don't expect the Jays to be spending as much as the Yankees or Red Sox.
I don't know, I'm tired of the whole 'cheap Rogers' thing. Seems just too simple to blame ownership.