Blue Jays president Mark Shapiro on building ‘championship-calibre team,’ future payroll, Rogers Centre renovation, more - The Athletic
On what the outlook for the payroll is in 2022 and beyond:
In each of the last two offseason debriefs with the media, Shapiro has discussed his expectation for the team’s payroll to increase, as they work to supplement the team’s young core with experienced players.
While his meeting with Rogers ownership to discuss the offseason budget won’t occur for another month, Shapiro said he expects the club’s payroll to again increase in anticipation of next season.
“Every indication I’ve received, and I think every indication that we’ve been shown, which is a demonstration of consistent and strong support, along with us fulfilling our end of that bargain, which is demonstrating that the team continues to improve, and we continue to perform on the field, as well as front office and run the business side, leads me to believe that we will stay on plan and the payroll will continue to rise, despite the fact that we’re still lagging behind it a little bit in revenues due to uncontrollable circumstances,” Shapiro said.
During the 2021 season, the Blue Jays ran a payroll of about $136 million, per Roster Resource.
Heading into next season, the Blue Jays have about $65 million committed to guaranteed contracts and another $50 million or so will be dedicated to arbitration and non-arbitration players, for an estimated total of $114 million as it stands now, leaving significant room to spend.
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On the prospect of re-signing free agents Ray, Semien and Steven Matz:
All three players had excellent, bounce-back seasons after the 2020 season was unkind to them and have set themselves up well for free agency this year. Both Ray and Semien, in particular, look poised to be two of the most coveted free agents this offseason. And none of the three will come cheap.
Atkins has previously said the Blue Jays would be interested in bringing all three players back next season, and Shapiro commented on that possibility, too.
“We would love to sign all three of those guys back,” he said. “I can talk about each of them and how strongly we feel about them as teammates, as performers, as players and as people, and they’re guys that we’re going to go into the market and compete for, but I’m not a believer that you have to sign anyone back; I’m a believer that you have to get better."
“And as I sit down with Ross and sit in on our meetings of preparation, there are multiple ways for that to happen,” Shapiro continued. “We’ll have the resources to do it, both in young talent that we could trade, and in payroll, so I guess what I’d say is I’m confident, it may not be in the exact same shape and form, but we’re going to get better. We’ll find a way to do it.”
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On the ways the team can improve the on-field product in 2022 and beyond
The Blue Jays will need to rebuild their rotation for 2022, replacing Ray and Matz, either by re-signing each or bringing in other equivalent starting pitchers who can fill those roles.
On the bullpen, Shapiro mentioned needing to add “experience and reliability” to that area of the roster. As for the lineup, the Blue Jays president echoed Atkins’ thoughts when he said the offence could benefit from some variety in both handedness — they were short on lefties in 2021 — and approach, namely, bringing in guys who are more patient to contrast with their many aggressive hitters.
“I would caution that just solving those problems will usually result in another set of problems coming up that we’re unaware of right now,” Shapiro added. “And there will be things that when you sit and talk to Ross in six months or eight months, there will be things that come up that we are not considering right now. So, some ability to adjust on the fly is really important, through either players in your system through trades, through some financial flexibility. There will be things that we have to do that we’re not expecting right now. But what we will do is continue to take the information that we have, the information that we can project, and continue to look to find ways to get better and that some of that will be through those things I mentioned.”
