Today was arbitration filing day in the major leagues and the Blue Jays could be heading down a road they haven’t been down in quite a long while.
The Blue Jays managed to avoid arbitration with Brett Cecil (who signed for $2.475 million), Marco Estrada ($3.9 million) and Michael Saunders ($2.875 million) but they failed to come to an agreement with either Danny Valencia or Josh Donaldson.
In Valencia’s case, the difference is only about $400,000 while the difference between the Jays and Donaldson is a little larger, at about $1.45 million. The Blue Jays have a policy of not negotiating one-year contracts with players once both sides have filed their amounts with the league but it doesn’t rule out signing a multi-year deal between now and the arbitration hearings.
If Donaldson and/or Valencia go to arbitration, it will be the first time that the Blue Jays have done so since 1997.
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In a move that will surely make a lot of Blue Jays fans happy, the Jays re-signed infielder Munenori Kawasaki to a minor league contract. While he probably won’t get a lot of playing time with players like Jonathan Diaz, Devon Travis, and Ryan Goins likely to end up in Buffalo. Kawasaki signed a similar deal last season and ended up getting 274 plate appearances over 82 games with the Blue Jays, hitting a respectable but light .258/.327/.296.
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Shi Davidi of Sportsnet tweeted that Cory Burns, designated for assignment after the Blue Jays picked up Matt West on waivers, has been sent outright to Triple-A with an invitation to spring training.
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Rounding things out, the Blue Jays’ annual Winter Tour is off to a roaring start as several Blue Jays served up meals to residents at the Ronald McDonald house in Toronto. Jose Bautista, R.A. Dickey, Dalton Pompey, Todd Redmond and Aaron Loup got into the action.
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Work has started on the 2015 edition of the Toronto Blue Jays Minor League Handbook. You can still purchase The 2014 Toronto Blue Jays Minor League Handbook, now available as an ebook at Smashwords.com, now at a reduced price of $2.99 US. You can purchase and preview the book at our Smashwords.com page!
The All-Star Break Supplement to the Minor League Handbook is also available at Smashwords.com for only $0.99 US! Get an update on how your favourite players did last season as well as a report on the 2014 draft!
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