| Doug Benton. 28th November, 2005 - 12:36 pm
 With their recent deal being reported that would give closer B.J. Ryan $47 million over five years, Toronto has once again fell prey to the plague that always keeps small-market teams away from contending. The plague is wasting money the only chance you actually have some and then placing your franchise in even worse shape than before.
B.J. Ryan is a solid closer who made himself a lot of money with his stellar performance last season, but Toronto made a mistake in this signing. Look at the Blue Jays and closer wasn?t one of their glaring needs because of the emergence of Miguel Batista in this role. However, they went the sexy route and will live to regret this decision.
With all of the money at his disposal, general manager J.P. Ricciardi wanted to make a splash in an attempt to save his job after this season, but this splash will make a larger impact on the national level compared to Toronto. Now, closers like Billy Wagner will hike up his asking price and set-up guys like Tom Gordon, will be able to raise their asking price, which makes baseball a bidding war owners cringe at.
For Toronto, they would have been better off to make a run at AJ Burnett and then pick up an above-average reliever to help out in the late innings. They could have also saved some money and made sure stars like Roy Halladay and Vernon Wells stay in Toronto for a long time.
Either way, the signing of B.J. Ryan is smart, but the price is absurb and an ill-conceived way to begin the off-season. So while a bad signing usually affects the general manager of that team, this one will have a lasting affect on general managers all over baseball. |
