[MLB] Toronto Blue Jays Should Sign Prince Fielder

Toronto should sign Prince Fielder

Barring any unforeseen collapses, both the Boston Red Sox and New York Yankees will make the playoffs for the ninth time since 1995, aka the wild-card era. During that span there hasn't been a single occasion in which both teams missed the playoffs, nor has there been a year in which the Toronto Blue Jays have reached them.

As you probably know, life in the AL East isn't easy. And while the Tampa Bay Rays have proved it's not impossible to topple the Yankees or Sox, overcoming those teams' financial advantages is no walk in the park. However, thanks to some shrewd moves by general manager Alex Anthopoulos, the Jays are actually in good position to compete for a playoff spot in the next couple of years.

The Jays play in a large market and have some money to spend (unlike the Rays), which is why they don't need to just sit around and wait for their young, cheap talent to blossom. The Jays need to get aggressive in the free-agent market this offseason and make a major play for Albert Pujols or Prince Fielder. Don't believe me? Here are three reasons.

1. They have a need
With much thanks to Jose Bautista, Toronto is fourth in the American League in runs. However, it has gotten below-average production from first base, which should be one of the easiest positions to fill. Adam Lind has gotten most of the playing time there this season, and while his 23 homers indicate a slight rebound from his disastrous 2010 season, he doesn't appear poised to recapture his 2009 form, and his .299 OBP is putrid, particularly for a first baseman. He's already 28, which is actually a year older than Fielder, and although the Blue Jays have a number of excellent prospects, none of them profile as a game-changing first baseman. Lind has basically been a replacement-level player over the last two seasons, and upgrading to Fielder or Pujols could add anywhere from four to seven wins based on their typical wins above replacement output. Lind is signed through 2014, and you can always play him in left field or DH, while also putting him at first on nights when Pujols or Fielder is DH'ing.

2. They have money
If you head over to the indispensable Cot's Contracts, you can see that the Jays have a little more than $31 million committed to the 2012 payroll. That's basically what Alex Rodriguez will earn this year. Granted, this does not include raises that the likes of Brandon Morrow will earn via arbitration, but even when you add those figures in, they're still looking at commitments of less than $60 million. This is a team that had a $70 million payroll this year, and a $97 million payroll as recently as 2008.

Part of the reason Toronto stopped being a big-spending club was the fact that the Canadian dollar was so much weaker than the American dollar, but that is no longer the case. In fact, the Loonie is now the stronger of the two currencies. And while the Blue Jays might not have the same kind of lucrative TV deal that some of their AL East counterparts enjoy, there is no reason they should not be able to pack the stadium if the team is winning. There are just three MLB cities with a larger population than Toronto (New York, Los Angeles and Chicago), and the Jays drew more than 4 million fans in 1991, 1992 and 1993. They made the playoffs in all three of those seasons and won the World Series in two of them.

This is where the Jays' plan for toppling the Yankees and Red Sox has to diverge from the Rays'. Tampa will never be able to support anything close to a nine-figure payroll, but the Jays can. There is no reason Toronto should operate like Tampa if it doesn't have to.

3. They can't waste Bautista's prime
While the Blue Jays deserve credit for signing Bautista and helping to turn him into a superstar, they got lucky. No one in the world knew he could be this good, and the Jays should not waste the player development equivalent of a winning lottery ticket.

Right now, Bautista is the best hitter in the American League, and he is signed to a team-friendly contract that will pay him $14 million in each of the next four seasons. He will turn 31 in October, which means he should be able to maintain something close to his current level of play for the life of the contract. The Jays need to do everything they can to maximize their chances of winning while they still have Bautista in his prime, and that means filling a major need on the free-agent market this winter.

It seems likely that Pujols will re-sign with the Cardinals this winter, but that might be a good thing. First, while Fielder won't come cheap, he will almost certainly cost less. Furthermore, he's younger, and it wouldn't be surprising if he outproduces Pujols over the lives of their next contracts. While it's easy to point to the fact that players with Fielder's hefty build tend not to age well, it should be noted that he has been incredibly durable. Since his first full season in 2006, Fielder has never played in fewer than 157 games, and he leads the NL in games played this year.

Both the Yankees and Red Sox are stacked at the first-base/DH slot, which means that there will not be nearly as much competition for the services of Fielder and Pujols as there would be in other years. That will make it a lot easier for the Jays to get in on the bidding.

Toronto could probably sign one of these guys, and still have a payroll south of $80 million. Heck, it's possible they could sign one of them, as well as C.J. Wilson, be co-favorites in the AL East, and have a payroll south of $100 million. They're a .500 team this season, which is actually pretty good considering the unbalanced schedule that has them playing almost 60 games against the Yanks, Sox and Rays. And their lineup features burgeoning stars such as Brett Lawrie, Escobar and Colby Rasmus, while their rotation is headed by Ricky Romero and Morrow, two guys just entering their primes. This is a team on the rise, but it needs another boost to get over the hump.


Source: ESPN

 

Jays should have put Lawrie in the majors earlier so he can get rookie of the year

 

i think bautista & fielder in the same lineup makes any team a contender. AA needs to make something happen. jays definitely can't let bautista's talents go to waste and this may be the best chance they ever get. bautista at the three-hole and fielder batting cleanup instantly becomes the scariest 1-2 offensive punch in all of baseball (that is unless you miraculously have a 1-2 punch of matt kemp and bautista instead -whistle)

 

LOL Agree, Joey Votto would be a dream come true, A all star canadian coming to join the jays , But then again he still has a contract on him :(, So yeah, hopefully we get someone like that, but don't forget what happened the last time we did something like this or like this, BJ Ryan, Terrible year with the Jays, Troy Glaus Also pretty bad years...

 

Fielder will not sign in TO even if the money is there because not big market... will not help his endorsement deal.