Because there is a storyline here.  The Blue Jays have been complaining about the contracts of Rios and Vernon Wells almost since they signed them.  Now, with a waiver claim, they can be rid of Rios’ contract in a stroke of a pen.  Will they put up or shut up?  Stay tuned.

Because there’s $70 million remaining on his contract.  Because all we have heard is “my team can’t take on additional contracts”.  Because the hottest buzzwords are “payroll certainty” and “financial flexability”.

It really has little to do with Rios, per se.  He’s a fine ballplayer but not worth his contract.  In this climate, his contract is a bit pricey.

The Jays, as an organization, would probably be sad to see him go, but thrilled to be out from under those long term obligations.

He is arguably worth his contract NOW, to a team with a good revenue stream.  Since it is all downhill from here, for the last few years of that deal, he will cost way too much to a cheap team.

The Alex Rios story is interesting because in the spectrum of sports trades and transactions,of which many of us spend more than a reasonable amount of time tracking, it involved the following uncommon elements all in one package:

1) A very good young player , in
his prime, secured in a multi-year deal that was not considered a “bad contract”.

2) A name that had previously not been offered up much less beaten to death by rumorists. (we were suprised by the Peavy deal but tired of hearing of him)

3) A significant post waiver deadline deal involving an impact player and an actual mystery team. Not in the vein of the typical ” Holliday is on the block and we think he’s going to Detroit, St.Louis, San Francisco, Boston or New York”. One team claimed him and we don’t know who it is.

4) Again, it came out of nowhere which is fresh.

It’s a story because of Roy Halladay. If the Jays can jettison the Rios contract, it frees up much needed cash to offer an extension to Halladay.

It’s not a question of whether or not Rios is a good player or worth his contract based on the metrics or anything like that.  WAR and sabermetrics cannot account for a reeling economy and weak canadian dollar.  When players like Bobby Abreu and Orlando Hudson are both signed for less than Rios’ salary, it becomes a compelling story to follow. When competative, solvent sports franchises are acting like they are a half season from bankruptcy, the movement of a 66 million dollar contract when most people cant take on 600k is going to be newsworthy.

I suppose it comes down to what we believe is out there for teams in free agency after the season. I don’t believe we’ll see a Rios caliber player available to the tune of 2 years/ $7 mllion per. Last year was a situation of some very unique circumstances of surplus stock and extreme market uncertainty that can not be repeated.
So it would seem that Rios’ contract was fair market value at the time it was signed and that we should see at least a partial return to those values some time over the course of his contract. If that is the case then the Jays should either keep him as a core asset of some value or pull him off the waive wire and deal him in the off season when teams are geared up to spend some money and they can get some prospects in return.
Tim, keep doing what you’re doing. You are officially my “dealer”.

I had to double check something, but yep, my computer clock says August 9th, 2009.

All of this ‘Value’ analysis is done on a pre-financial crash analysis.  The market was adjusting very rapidly last year (Milton Bradley $30 for thee years in December, Bobby Abreu 1 year $5 million of Feb 12th).

“Even with the current economy, players have been paid more per win this year than they were in the 06-07 off-season. I don’t see any legitimate reason to believe he’s not worth his contract.”

Totally invalid statement.  If every player had just signed a free agent contract or an extension in February of this year, that statement would have some point.  Far and away the vast majority of contracts were guaranteed or agreed or set during pre-crash conditions. No one in this off-season is going to get a FA contract that resembles the rest of Rios’s contract for a player of his level.

A better question is why do we care that you don’t care?  I, for one, don’t.

You’re contributing to the exact situation you claim to deplore, and we’re supposed to buy in?  If you don’t like it, write about something else and stop googling stories you pretend to be sick of…

“A three-win player like Rios on the free agent market would command somewhere between $12-$15 million per year in the short-term,” the author writes, and then points out that, at an average of $11.7M over the life of the contract, Rios is a “bargain”.

Well, I’m sorry that you haven’t noticed, but Toronto isn’t in a position where it can afford to fill it’s roster with guys being paid market value—especially with so much of their limited payroll tied up in a player, Vernon Wells, being so extremely overpaid. That this is a story has absolutely nothing to do with the fact that Rios isn’t worth his contract as a player—of course he is, or a team wouldn’t have claimed him—it’s that he’s probably not worth his contract in Toronto, where they have payroll issues, a younger, cheaper player in Travis Snider they need to find room for, and other holes that need to be filled if they want to try to compete in the short term.

It’s hardly unthinkable that the Jays might cut bait on Rios, put Snider in RF and reallocate that money to a player who better contributes to the offence—which is the area that has plagued the team for the last several years.