Blue Jays brace for an interesting spring
The Blue Jays, it seems, were never in real danger of alienating AL MVP Josh Donaldson by nickel-and-diming him at next Monday’s scheduled hearing before an independent arbitrator.
Any diminishing of the accomplishments of their star player — the biggest negative of the arbitration process — would have been over a relatively meager $450,000 difference.
Following his physical on Tuesday, the Jays officially came to terms on Wednesday with the 30-year-old Donaldson on a nice two-year contract worth $28.65 million (U.S.). He had asked for one-year, $11.8 million deal, an unprecedented arbitration demand.
In an afternoon conference call, Jays GM Ross Atkins admitted, in not so many words, he had been ready to wave the white flag and an accept arbitration defeat rather than attempt to point out the weaknesses of a man who just won the AL MVP and the Hank Aaron Award as the league’s best hitter. It risked perhaps alienating an entire clubhouse.
And besides, what precisely were his weaknesses?
“We would have gone into that hearing talking about how good a player Josh Donaldson is, that’s really the truth,” Atkins said. “We would not have had anything bad to say about him.
“The struggle with negotiations were the (comparisons with anything prior). When you’re already into record-setting territory (that’s) where the challenge came. We really would have approached that hearing with nothing but great things to say about what an incredible player and person he’s been to this organization.
“But did that smaller gap (between offer and demand) motivate both parties more? If anything, that gap actually just made the negotiations more open and more candid.”
The Jays and Atkins offered Don- aldson a very fair number for 2016 — slightly above a 50-50 compromise — then added on a $17 million value for 2017 that was either an estimate of what Donaldson’s 2017 arbitration value would be or an approximation of the next qualifying offer.
“The benefits were that we have clarity and we now feel as though we agreed upon terms that Josh was excited about,” Atkins said. “It means for the next two years we will not have to discuss those terms, other than if we were to get into talks about another deal. That gave us a good platform and a great way to start our relationship.”
Basically, all the Jays have done is insert a bookmark into the continuing negotiations with Donaldson. The pause allows the club to enter serious negotiations with Jose Bau- tista and Edwin Encarnacion for extensions during the spring without the financial burden that would accompany a multi-year Donaldson contract.
Or, this allows the team to add a five-year extension to the two-year Donaldson deal without compromising their policy of a five-year maximum.
“It only improves our ability to continue those discussions (with Bautista and Encarnacion),” the first-year GM explained. “Really, the more we get to know our players, the more time we get to spend with them individually, the more time we spend with agents the closer we can get to hopefully agreeing upon terms. We would love to have those guys here in the future. We’re going to work as hard as we can to do what’s best for the organization and those players.”
In terms of the timing of the Donaldson negotiations — especially when it comes to the perceived inevitability of extending the clubhouse presence of a man who makes mirrors fog by merely walking in the room — and the idea of extending him beyond the two current seasons to which he has committed, Atkins was coy about the logic of just two years.
The Jays’ thinking may have been twofold (and if they didn’t think it, these are the results by accident.)
First, would be to see what, dollarwise, they had left for Donaldson after signing either Bautista or Encarnacion.
Or second, it was a goal to not reveal their financial hand to their two aging sluggers on what will have to be a mega-deal with Donaldson, buying out, as it is, the most lucrative years of the Florida native in free agency.
“This is where I need to be careful, because I want to be respectful of (Donaldson’s) wishes, of the agent’s wishes,” Atkins said. “Any time you get into the subtleties of a negotiation you’re risking taking away from that, so all I would say to you is that we talked about many, many scenarios. We talked about several scenarios and ultimately decided, mutually, that it would be best to focus on two years. That was a mutually agreed upon decision.”
For a team that does not seem to have many question marks on the field, spring for the Blue Jays will be interesting off the field.
“It only improves our ability to continue those discussions (with Bautista, Encarnacion).” JAYS GM ROSS ATKINS ON SIGNING JOSH DONALDSON