For the Toronto Blue Jays , this is the perfect pre-Christmas storm, an icy blast of horror for a team that may well turn out to be the worst in Baseball's American League East next summer.
In a league that does its spending in American dollars, the Canadian loonie has gone into the toilet, forcing expenses into the stratosphere and playing havoc with the team's budget. As a consequence, the Jays' payroll for the coming 2009 season will be chopped from $97 million US to $85 million US, give or take a few dollars. In Baseball, that's chump change. Right-hander A.J. Burnett has departed the Jays, jumping ship and signing on with the dreaded Yankees for $85 million over a five-year term. The Yanks, a bit ticked off at having missing the Baseball playoffs last October for the first time in 15 years, have also added prized free-agent starter CC Sabathia to their mix -- at $160 million over seven years.
The post-Burnett Jays are suddenly pitching-poor. They won't have right-handed starter Shaun Marcum available at all for 2009 as he recovers from a severe elbow injury. Up-and-coming righty Dustin McGowan is down and out at least until late May, recovering from shoulder surgery.
The team still doesn't have a first-rate starting shortstop -- apologies to the offensively challenged Johnny Mac -- and second base is a no-man's-land as the team awaits the return of Aaron Hill from his concussion problems.
Lyle Overbay is another year older at first base and doesn't appear capable of rediscovering the pop in his bat. Ditto for Scott Rolen at third.
The outfield, at least, appears in halfway-decent shape with Vernon Wells, Alex Rios and the young twosome of Travis Snider and Adam Lind. And the bullpen looks respectable even though closer B.J. Ryan isn't as dominating as he used to be.
As for the starters, the extent of the Jays' pitching woes was underlined late last week with the signing of right-hander Matt Clement to a minor-league deal. Clement hasn't pitched in the bigs since undergoing shoulder surgery three seasons ago, but even so, upon his signing, he somehow found the chutzpah to declare that he expects to be the Jays' No. 2 starter behind workhorse superstar Roy Halladay.
Last year, Clement pitched at three different minor-league levels within the St. Louis Cards organization, piling up -- and piling up is the proper term here -- an earned-run average of 5.23. Those are slo-pitch, coed league numbers.
The Jays, therefore, are down to Halladay and a Hail Mary on the mound for 2009.
Relievers Scott Downs and Brian Tallet will likely be pressed into temporary starters' service come spring -- and Casey Janssen and David Purcey will get a long look to see if they can plug some holes in the rotation.
All in all, it's likely to be a summer of pain for the Jays and their fans. The Yankees, Boston Red Sox and World Series finalist Tampa Bay Rays are already better than the Bluebirds, which essentially means that the Jays will be battling the Baltimore Orioles for the AL East basement.
The calm, quietly confident Cito Gaston is the right guy to run the bench and the team through what will surely be a long, hot, frustrating season. The fans -- with Ontario's economy in the dumpster and disenchanted by the Jays' 15-year record of nonperformance -- will stay away from the Rogers Centre in droves, compounding the team's money troubles.
And Halladay, though he won't come out and actually say it, will not be a happy camper this summer. He took a "hometown discount" when he re-upped his contract through 2010 a few seasons back -- and a large part of that arrangement was that the Jays would build a contender around him. It didn't happen last year with Burnett on board -- and it certainly won't next summer without him.
But, heck, every cloud has its silver lining. This could be the season in which brainiac GM J.P. Ricciardi finally gets his reward for a job poorly done -- the pink slip he should have been handed in 2006.
Record sports editor AL Coates can be reached at acoates@therecord.com
