The Blue Jays' signing of C Russell Martin yesterday to a five-year, US$82M contract represents GM Alex Anthopoulos "going against his basic nature," according to Cathal Kelly of the GLOBE & MAIL. The Blue Jays have "gone over the top and right up to their threshold." It is "not a huge bet by baseball standards, but it’s eye-popping" by Blue Jays standards. Anthopoulos "has taken a lot of bullets for team owner Rogers Communications Inc. on the subject of spending" during his five-year tenure. He has "done it happily -- there is no behind-the-scenes dissent over budgets." Anthopoulos has been "allowed to pick his spots," including the trade in '12 for SS Jose Reyes, P Mark Buehrle and P Josh Johnson. Otherwise, he has "run a major-market team with a somewhat less than major-market financial approach." The arrival of Martin points to a "new sense of urgency." Anthopoulos yesterday "put his hand up, signalling that he’s willing" to take the blame "if things don’t go to plan" (GLOBE & MAIL, 11/18). SI.com's Jay Jaffe wrote the Martin deal is "risky ... for the typically conservative Blue Jays, but the payoff -- finally returning to the postseason -- is a potentially huge one." The team has "the longest current postseason drought" in MLB and "is spending big money in an attempt to change that." The Blue Jays are hoping Martin "can repeat what he did" with the Pirates: "help a team end a two-decade absence from the playoffs." They "hope Martin -- who was born in East York, Ont., and raised in Montreal -- can bring that magic to his home country, for they haven't been to the postseason" since '93. The Blue Jays are "the only team not to have reached the playoffs since the introduction of the three-division format and the addition of the wild card in each league in '94 (SI.com, 11/17). MLB Network's Ken Rosenthal said the Martin signing was "a bit of a stunner," as it "was thought the Cubs would be the front-runner" ("MLB Now," MLBN, 11/17).
GOING GREEN? In Toronto, Richard Griffin asks, "Could this be the dawning of a Blue Jays age of spending freely in order to compete?" (TORONTO STAR, 11/18). Also in Toronto, Steve Simmons writes the Martin signing "makes little sense" financially for the "always-strapped Blue Jays." But "considering that overpaying is the only way the Jays can try to contend, this is an overpayment that was necessary" (TORONTO SUN, 11/18). Rosenthal said, "Of course it's an overpay. Welcome to free agency. Not the first player to be overpaid" ("MLB Now, MLBN, 11/17). But SNY's Eamon McAnaey said, "Toronto's been burned by this before and they're going to get burned in the last four or five years of that deal" ("Loud Mouths," SNY, 11/17).
