Ken Rosenthal tells us that the plan to ask players for money to pay for Ervin Santana had gone as far as asking the Players Union for permission and getting that approval.
"Everyone had signed off," one source said of the deferrals. "It was already done."
The players would have received more money later in their contracts, to pay them back (plus interest I'm sure) for this loan. The deal with Santana must have been pretty much ready completed, a team wouldn't go to the Union until they had the deal ready to be signed.
Guessing that it would take a little while for the Union to agree to such a plan, maybe it cost the Jays Santana. Alex Anthopoulos has said that he thought they had a deal with Ervin until the BravesKris Medlen was injured and then they swooped in and signed him.
Seems funny that Rogers Corp would have to go 'hat in hand' to the plays to ask for this money Don't they normally just bump up my cell phone bill whenever they need a few extra dollars. It seems to put a lie to the line that Beeston has used about being able to go to Rogers when they need more cash. To me it seems a lousy way to run things.
It does remind me of the end of the J.P. Ricciardi days days, where one season he was given the money needed to build the team and the next yearbeing told that's all you get.
Anyway, the team could have used another starting pitcher and, it seems like, Rogers wasn't willing to kick in the money needed to get one.