Talking Thomas
In November 2006, Blue Jays GM J.P. Ricciardi believed it was worth committing $18.12 to guarantee himself two years of Frank Thomas’ services. Now, even after Thomas drove in 106 runs in 171 games for the Jays, the team has decided not to pay him $10 million for the next 1.9 seasons.
That’s really what this comes down to. In order to get out of paying Thomas $10 million in 2009, the Jays also cost themselves 23 weeks of production from him this year. They could have waited and made the move in June or July in advance of Thomas collecting the 304 plate appearances he needed for the option to vest, but then they would have risked a grievance. And considering that Thomas almost certainly would have had solid numbers by then, there’s a good chance he would have won it. By rule, teams cannot release players solely for financial reasons.
So, $10 million. Or maybe $9.6 million, since that’s one roster spot that will have to go to someone else next year. At most, it would have been $11.6 million (if Thomas had reached 600 plate appearances both this year and next). I wasn’t particularly fond of the idea of spending $18 million on Thomas in the first place, but $10 million for 1.9 seasons seems pretty reasonable. Thomas was off to a slow start this year? He still had 11 RBI and 11 walks in 16 games. And it’s not like it was unusual at all for him. In 2007, Thomas hit .223/.357/.400 through May 15 and then .291/.384/.511 the rest of the way. In 2006, he hit .190/.264/.405 during April and .287/.403/.574 during the final five months. For the Jays to take this step now, it’s something they had to be thinking of at least as far back as spring training. It may have been part of their plans right from the start of the winter.
Adam Lind, once he’s eventually recalled, should prove to be an adequate replacement against right-handers. They’ll miss Thomas a lot more versus lefties. No combination of Matt Stairs, Rod Barajas and Marco Scutaro is going to come close to filling that hole.
If only some sort of compromise could have been reached. The Jays were on the hook for this year’s salary anyway. Why couldn’t they have approached Thomas and asked him to forfeit the option for $2 million-$3 million? Perhaps they did, but none of the reports out of Toronto suggest it. Thomas could have kept his job, and the Jays could have put their best team on the field.
It’s doubtful Thomas will be out of work for long after officially becoming a free agent this week. Seattle makes the most sense for both team and player. Jose Vidro doesn’t bring much to the table as a DH, and signing Thomas would allow the team to continue to develop Jeff Clement as a catcher. No other contender has a clear opening at DH, though Gary Sheffield is currently a question mark for Detroit. The Yankees are the Yankees, so they’ll sniff around. However, unless they’re willing to shift Johnny Damon or Hideki Matsui to first base, they won’t have many at-bats to offer. The Rays would seem to be the obvious fallback if the Mariners don’t pounce. I’d rank the possibilities: Seattle, Tampa Bay, Texas, Yankees, Kansas City, Minnesota, Detroit and Oakland.
