The Blue Jays were planning to increase their payroll to over $100 million this winter, but were scared off by the struggling economy. Toronto entered the season with a payroll of $80.9 million, and an additional $20 million might have allowed them to keep A.J. Burnett and/or sign a guy like Rafael Furcal. "The projected payroll was going to be $105 million," general manager J.P. Ricciardi said. "I think when (we) went to see A.J. (at his home in October), if he said he wanted to be a Blue Jay those two days, we could have had him done. "But then after that, as the market continued to crash, Paul Godfrey was actually ahead of the curve. He said, 'I think we're better off just standing still because economically, I'm not sure where this thing is going.' By the World Series, we pretty much realized we weren't going to have much money, unless we moved $10 million to sign $10 million."