Jays steal from both World Series teams
Unlike Tampa, Toronto can afford to pay young stars through their arbitration years
Major League Baseball is a copycat sport. Whenever a team experiences success with a certain formula or style of play, rebuilding clubs across the game try to emulate it.
It happened in the 1990s when the Cleveland Indians made a habit of signing their pre-arbitration stars to longterm extensions. In the early 2000s, Billy Beane’s “Moneyball” approach became the league’s gold standard. More recently, the Chicago Cubs and Houston Astros built championship teams around homegrown position players, while others dominated from the mound.
The Los Angeles Dodgers and Tampa Bay Rays would be in line to generate a similar following, except they’ve already done it. These two teams, on opposite ends of the financial spectrum, have been winning for long enough that their models are beyond reproach in today’s game. The sport’s upper class, in both big- and small-market form.
Financially, these organizations could not be any more different. The Dodgers have more resources than any team in baseball except for possibly the New York Yankees. During a span of four years earlier this decade, Los Angeles operated with MLB’s highest payroll. In 2020, the Dodgers trailed only the Yankees with a $95-million (U.S.) budget, per Cot’s Baseball Contracts. If paid out for a full 162-game schedule, the number would have been approximately $222 million.
By comparison, Tampa’s expenses are embarrassingly low. The Rays entered this season owners of the league’s lowest payroll each of the past two years. In 2020, Tampa’s $28.8-million price tag for the opening day roster was higher than only the Baltimore Orioles and Pittsburgh Pirates, each spending approximately $23.7 million.
The discrepancy in resources impacts how long homegrown stars remain with their teams, and the talent that can be acquired via free agency or trades, but the day-to-day goals these teams are trying to accomplish remain similar: athletic rosters with positional versatility, an emphasis on platoons, advanced scouting, a strong belief in analytics and pitching staffs littered with high-velocity arms.
The similarities can be tied to Andrew Friedman, who ran the Rays from 2005-14 before leaving to join the Dodgers as team president. In Los Angeles, Friedman implemented a similar player development system to the one in Tampa while also having the financial flexibility to acquire some of the game’s biggest names for the first time in his career.
The Blue Jays have drawn inspiration from both teams.
They clearly bought into the Tampa Bay model when they hired manager Charlie Montoyo away from the Rays. Since Montoyo arrived, the Jays started using more platoons, moving guys all over the field and taking a much different approach with the pitching staff. In-game decisions are often mapped out before a pitch is thrown, and analytics are the driving force behind everything. There’s a partnership between the coaching staff and front office that didn’t previously exist under John Gibbons after his former boss, Alex Anthopoulos, left town.
The Dodgers do all of this, too. They just do it better and with a greater margin for error because of their resources. Instead of having to trade away young players when they start to become expensive through arbitration, they can pick the ones they want to keep and discard the ones they no longer need. Not everyone sticks around. Last year the Dodgers let Hyun-Jin Ryu walk away, and this off-season a tough decision will have to be made on Justin Turner, but most of the good ones do.
Toronto’s approach figures to be somewhere in the middle, but the organization should be a lot more comparable to the Dodgers than the Rays.
Per Cot’s, the Jays ranked 20th in MLB with a $51.5million opening day payroll, a number that would have been closer to $132 million for the 40-man roster with a full schedule. They had the eighthhighest payroll in 2013, and salaries peaked four years later at $163 million.
Unlike Tampa, the Jays will be able to afford to pay their young stars through the arbitration years, which are still a couple of seasons away. A lucky few also will eventually sign long-term deals, and the Jays will at least attempt to improve that core with big free-agent additions, like they did a year ago by signing Ryu to a fouryear deal.
The Jays, similar to Tampa and Los Angeles, involve multiple departments in their decision-making process for daily lineups and pitching schedules. Analytics have big roles in creating specific matchups, and medical staffs get their say on who can be used and when. On the field, priority is given to high-velocity pitchers and players who can be used at more than one position.
These aren’t the “set it and forget it” rosters of years gone by. The teams look different almost every night and everyone on the roster has a role. Even for a ball club such as the Dodgers, who can afford just about anyone, nothing takes higher priority than player development. Whenever a prominent player steps aside, there are a couple of prospects battling for his spot.
The Jays haven’t reached that level yet, but they hope to within the next couple of years. Before that can happen, the defence will have to improve and the starting rotation will have to become a lot more reliable.
The player development side appears to be on track. A large class recently graduated to the big-league level and another will soon follow. How successful the Jays are at adding to the core will determine where they go from here.
Teams have been trying to copy Tampa Bay and Los Angeles for a while now. This year’s World Series matchup ensured that approach isn’t going to change any time soon. In the meantime, the Rays and Dodgers, set up for sustained success, will keep doing their thing. It got them this far. There’s no point in altering course now.