Harsh Words About Alex Rios + What the 2010 Jays Need.

ESPN Writer Jayson Stark wrote a piece titled "The Road to Rios" yesterday.

You can read the piece here:

http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/columns/story?columnist=stark_jayson&page=rumblings090813


You'll have to scroll down past all the Stephen Strasburg news, past the "John Smoltz watch" and "Beware the Padilla" to find the read.

Or I could just copy and paste the entire thing below:

The road to Rios: Maybe the White Sox outfoxed the world on Alex Rios. Maybe he's going to wake up and earn every nickel of the $61.6 million they now have to pay him through 2014. But the tales we've heard from ex-teammates, and people who watched him coast through life in Toronto, make you wonder.

Rios is guaranteed $12 million to $12.5 million every year from 2011 to 2014. And that's star money. But is he magically going to turn back into a star just because he's playing for Ozzie Guillen, in a hitters' paradise? Not if these reviews from ex-teammates are accurate:

• "He's not a winning-type player. He's a guy who just doesn't have that burning desire to win, or be great."

• "He was a guy who just didn't go after it. He'd be sleeping in his locker 10 minutes before he had to go out on the field. And not just once."

• "He wasn't the same player after he got that [seven-year] contract. It sure seemed like he was a lot more motivated when he was looking for a contract than he was since he got the contract."

Meanwhile, scouts we surveyed seemed dubious, too.

"This guy should be a perennial 30-30 [HR-SB] guy," said one. "But to me, he's a classic underachiever. If Ozzie takes the wrong approach, he's going to lose him. He's a guy you've got to go real slow with. But whether Ozzie has that kind of patience, boy, I don't know."

Now take those words as you will, but words like that from former teammates don't say too much for Rios' work ethic.

As fans in Toronto know, Alex Rios is a very talented baseball player who made quite a number of baseball errors on a consistant basis.

Everything from dropping routine flyballs to baserunning blunders, some errors so mind boggling that even Little Leaguers were confused, while scratching their heads.

The fact of the matter is this.

Alex Rios is gone, the Jays have secured close to $61 million dollars in the deal, plus another $5.85 million in trading Scott Rolen's $11 million to the Reds and adding Edwin Encarnacion ($4.75 million) & Josh Roenicke's ($400,000) salaries to the payroll. *

*Contract totals courtesy of Cot's Baseball Contracts

http://mlbcontracts.blogspot.com/


In total between the two deals the Jays have $66.85 million to invest and they did manage to gain a third baseman, right handed power reliever and pitching prospect out of the deals.

In losing Alex Rios the Jays could have lost a possible 30-30 player, but they could have also ridded themslves of a lethargic, lackadaisical player, who's potential will never shine through.

The Jays gave Rios the time, and he did not answer according to the Jays expectations of giving him the large contract they did.

What's done is done and baseball fans can only wait and see if the potential the Jays originally saw in Alex Rios, when drafting him 19th overall in 1999, will pan out in Chicago.

A firey manager such as Ozzie Guillen could possibly light a fire in Rios, or completely crush his spirit.

Now, with he addition of $66.85 million to the payroll this writer thinks the following needs to happen:

1. Sign shortstops for next season.

Current Blue Jays shortstop Marco Scutaro has been exceptional for the Jays this season.

Scutaro has already set a career high in home runs, and is on pace to do the same in runs batted in.

Scutaro's current batting average of .296 is the best of his career, as well as his slugging perecentage .441 and on base percentage .387.

Scutaro has a good eye at the plate and draws a lot of base on balls 67, and boasts an exceptional .992 fielding percentage, while only making 4 errors in 110 games at the shortstop position.

Scutaro is currently in the final year of a two year contract, making 1.1 million on the season.

Scutaro, who is 33, a utility player for all of his eight year career before this season, is expecting to cash in big on the free agent market based on this exceptional year.

The Jays have the funds to re-sign him, but will they?

With Scutaro putting together such a fine season, the Jays would receive two draft picks as compensation if Scutaro did flee the Jays to sign with another team, due to Scutaro's Type A Free Agent status.

Are the two draft picks worth losing Scutaro to free agency?

Let's take a look at the free agent shortstops available on the open market next season and compare.

According to Cot's Baseball Contracts the following shortstops will be available on the free agent market at the end of the 2009 season:

Orlando Cabrera MIN
Bobby Crosby OAK
Adam Everett DET
Alex Gonzalez * CIN
Khalil Greene STL
John McDonald TOR
Marco Scutaro TOR
Miguel Tejada HOU
Jack Wilson * SEA

* indicates player whose current contract includes 2010 option

The Blue Jays two current shortstops in regular Marco Scutaro and backup John McDonald are both on that list and the Jays do not have a developmental player to take over anywhere in the future (the Las Vegas 51's currently have 27 year old Angel Sanchez as their everyday shortstop, but Sanchez is very unproven at the Major League level).

No one on that list of shortstops is really eye catching aside from Orlando Cabrera and Miguel Tejada.

Tejada is aging and far out of Toronto's price range, but Cabrera would be an interesting sign.

Cabrera is a player the Jays have attempted to grab on more than one occasion and his price tag is reasonable for a player of his calibre (Cabrera is currently on a 1 year, $4 million deal with Minnesota).

Option one for the Jays is to re-sign both Scutaro and McDonald and continue with what the Jays have had this year into next season or go out and get the likes of Cabrera, if Scutaro's price tag is too high.

Option two is re-sign John McDonald, the current backup shortstop for the Jays who is an excellent defensive player, but who struggles with the bat, and let Scutaro leave via free agency, while re-signing Angel Sanchez to back up McDonald at the position.

This move is not one I'd personaly like to see as I'm sure the Jays would than become owners of the least productive offense from the shortstop position in all of baseball.

2. Sign a catching core

The Blue Jays currently boast the catching combination of starter Rod Barajas and backup Raul Chavez.

Barajas is highly regarded by the Blue Jays pitching staff as an excellent game caller with some pop in his bat (10HR, 46RBI in 299AB), while Chavez (who lost the backup role to Michael Barrett out of spring training, but took over when Barrett suffered an injury) is very defensive minded (has thrown out close to 48% of runners who have attempted to steal on him and has only committed one error in 287INN) and has filled in adequately behind Barajas.

Barajas is in his option year of his one year contract with a one year option and is currently making $2.5 million, while Chavez was signed in the off season to a minor league deal worth $500,000.

Catcher of the future J.P Arencibia is in his first full season as the full time catcher at Triple A Las Vegas and is coming along slowly (.229AVG, 12HR, 51RBI in 363AB) and is not expected to make the jump to the big leagues by next season.

The price tags on both catchers should not increase by any drastic measure so resigning them both while waiting for the development of Arencibia is a no brainer.

3. Resign all the necessary players with one year contracts.

According to Cot's Baseball Contract the Jays have numerous players signed to one year contracts on their current major league roster and some of these players need to be resigned immediately.

The list includes:

Jose Bautista inf
1 year/$2.4M (2009)

Jason Frasor rhp
1 year/$1.45M (2009)

Brian Tallet lhp
1 year/$1.015M (2009)

Jeremy Accardo rhp
1 year/$0.9M (2009)

Kevin Millar 1b/dh
1 year/$0.85M (2009)

Shawn Camp rhp
1 year/$0.75M (2009)

Brandon League rhp
1 year/$0.64M (2009)

Dustin McGowan rhp
1 year/$0.4194M (2009)

Jesse Litsch rhp
1 year/$0.4144M (2009)

Casey Janssen rhp
1 year/$0.4139M (2009)

Adam Lind of
1 year/$0.4118M (2009)

Joe Inglett inf
1 year/$0.4113M (2009)

Jesse Carlson lhp
1 year/$0.4087M (2009)

Shaun Marcum rhp
1 year/$0.4052M (2009)

Scott Richmond rhp
1 year/$0.4023M (2009)

Josh Roenicke rhp
1 year/$0.4M (2009)

Ricky Romero lhp
1 year/$0.4M (2009)

Brett Cecil lhp
1 year/minor league deal (2009)

Randy Ruiz inf
1 year/ minor league deal (2009)

Marc Rzepczynski lhp
1 year/ minor league deal (2009)

Adam Lind will most certainly be handed a mutli year extension after the season he has been having, so Jays fans do not need to worry about him.

Ricky Romero, Shaum Marcum, Dustin McGowan and Jesse Litsch are most certainly locks to be resigned.

In this writer's opinon keeping Casey Janssen and Scott Richmond around as possible starters/long relievers is a good idea and they will most certianly come with an inexpensive price tag.

The Toronto bullpen has not been as effective as they were in 2008 when they were the best bullpen in the American League. That can be attributed to the fact that they have all had to work an increased amount of innings this season with the starting rotation decimated.

If all goes as planned and the starting pitching staff bounces back from injuries while pitching well, than perhaps the bullpen can return to the 2008 form.

Therefore, the Jays should bring back the entire 2009 bullpen, perhaps with the exception of Jeremy Accardo, who the Jays seem to have lost hope in and who is currently moving back and forth between the majors and Triple A on a consistant basis.

Marc Rzepczynski and Brett Cecil are still very young and have been more than impressive in forced starting rotation roles this season. I'm sure they'll be resigned and sent back down to the minors to develop further.

Jose Bautista and Joe Inglett both deserve to stay on this team. They are more than adequate position utility players who can both play numerous positions and handle decent bats from the right and left sides respectively. Bautista's contract is a little steep for a utility player, but the Jays will most likely be able to sign him to the same kind of one year deal, while an affordable one year contract for Joe Inglett should be easily attainable.

That leaves Kevin Millar.

Although Millar is a great veteran presence on the field and in the clubhouse and still boasts a powerful bat the Jays will need to add more of a right handed power punch to their lineup next season if they are going to contend.

You can read my article titled "Analysis of the Rios Move" for details on power hitters the Jays could go after below, scroll down in the article to find the information:

http://bluejaysmachine.blogspot.com/2009/08/analysis-of-rios-move.html


So aside from losing Millar and Accardo, this writer believes the Jays should take the recently added payroll and invest it in the shortstop position, backstop combination, resigning of their current players and investing in a big bat for next year.

If the Jays do this and can remain healthy, the 2010 season could be a bright one.

Also, if you're wondering if I've completely given up on this season based solely on this article you are incorrect.

Any team, at any time, could pull off what the 2007 Colorado Rockies team did, so there is always still hope for this year, its just becoming more doubtful after every game the Jays lose.