Buffalo Boy's Blog

The Jays according to several sources except for the official Blue Jays website are indicating the Alex Rios has in fact been claimed on waivers.

What!!!! was my first reaction as I hear it on WGR 550 sports update, then I switched to The Fan 590 and got a little Toronto Sports talk perspective to settle me down and in fact Bob McGowan and the guys on The Fan were talking about the move.

The more I think about it, it makes sense. Short term the move sucks. There is no beating around that. They will have to replace Rios with a combination of kids and Jose Bautista. Not the optimal situation. But its short term.

Going into the offseason what is the Jays number one need? They have Marco Scutaro to resign which without Rios' money on the books they will probably sign him and they need bats, corner outfield and corner infield bats.

They don't need pitching. Saving Rios' and Scott Rolen's salary going into the offseason is a huge amount of money to reinvest considering that position players are not as costly as pitching. You can get corner ourfielders for a decent amount of money, you can get corner infielders for decent money.

They are up to their eyeballs in pitching so little has be spent there with the exception of Roy Halladay next year and Im not totally sold on him needing to be in Toronto long term especially if Brett Cecil and Ricky Romero continue to grow.

There is the very realistic possibility that the team may be cutting payroll short term only to allow a significantly higher payroll for the next GM.

That said, the waiving of Rios may mean that JP Riccardi's contract may be bought out a year early, which looking back...he didn't deserve this fate. A lot of things that should have gone right did not. There have been now 3 consecutive seasons in which injuries have plagued this franchise....my theory is they need a strength and conditioning coach/specialist to come in and do their work.

Ultimately JP's biggest failure was that the team has not stayed healthy which can hardly be blamed on him. He has had his moments, but he has made his mistakes as well. Reed Johnson being one of them that still doesn't sit well with Jays fans.

Something tells me that this is not the last move we will see, Lyle Overbay and Vernon Wells aren't exactly killing the ball and Well's defense is no where near what it has been in the past. Either one of them could go too as long as the fire sale is on. I think this could be Cito's team before too long.

Cito's teams were built up the middle of the diamond, solid catching, pitching, quality middle infielders and center field (Devo and Moseby). You build it up the middle its easy enough to find the outer pieces of a club.

Cito as GM? Any takers?

BTW after looking at Rios' numbers Im not as disappointed anymore:

He has hit a grand total of 3 home runs since July 1st and hitting for very little power with just a .413 slugging percentage. He should at least be pounding out doubles at Rogers Center and hes hardly doing that. He has just 6 doubles in that same time span giving him a grand total of 9 extra base hits since July 1st. That my friends is pretty pathetic for a corner outfielder.

Also, maybe it stems from this incident: Maybe he just didn't want to play in Toronto.