With CBT 'not an obstacle,' Blue Jays can avoid Judge drama with Guerrero and Bichette | Canada News Media
Connect with us

Sports

With CBT ‘not an obstacle,’ Blue Jays can avoid Judge drama with Guerrero and Bichette

Published

2 years ago

 on

SAN DIEGO – The high drama surrounding Aaron Judge’s future – settled Wednesday when the New York Yankees reportedly ponied up $360 million over nine years to fend off the transformative ambitions of the San Francisco Giants and San Diego Padres – is both a sneak peek and cautionary tale for the Toronto Blue Jays.

Imagine for a moment what the 2025 Winter Meetings could be like for them with Vladimir Guerrero Jr. or Bo Bichette or, gasp, both on the open market at the same time.

As destructive as the reigning AL MVP’s potential departure would be to the Yankees and their competitive window, the possibility of losing two franchise pillars in the same winter would be simply ruinous for the Blue Jays and all they’ve built over the past few years.

The frenzy around Judge, 30, amid an industry suddenly spending like money ain’t a thang, has been omnipresent during the current winter meetings at San Diego’s Manchester Grand Hyatt because of the seismic nature of his decision and the ripples it will cause.

At the Letters
Ben Nicholson-Smith is Sportsnet’s baseball editor. Arden Zwelling is a senior writer. Together, they bring you the most in-depth Blue Jays podcast in the league, covering off all the latest news with opinion and analysis, as well as interviews with other insiders and team members.

Since they aren’t the Yankees – baseball’s flagship franchise for oxygen-sucking hysteria – the Blue Jays won’t be quite the same focal point three years from now. But Guerrero will be 26, Bichette 27 when they’ll be eligible for free agency, and assuming they continue on their current trajectories, the interest around them may match or even exceed the Judge Gong Show.

The uncertainty about their long-term status is relevant enough that Jose Berrios negotiated an opt-out after 2026 into his extension last year to guard against precisely such an outcome.

So, as the Blue Jays grinded through their business Tuesday – missing out on lefty Andrew Heaney to the Texas Rangers and centre-fielder Cody Bellinger to the Chicago Cubs – the need to extend Guerrero and Bichette to avoid such a perilous winter remains in the background.

“It’s unchanged,” Mark Shapiro, the Blue Jays president and CEO, said Tuesday when asked about how the club approaches long-term deals for its young stars. “Continue to dialogue, continue to have those dialogues in private, don’t believe in negotiating in public. Three years is a very long time but we’re also cognizant that three years can come quickly. We’ll take every advantage of what that means to our window to compete and always maintain an openness and a willingness and a desire to keep them here longer.”

Boiler-plate stuff but, to be fair, the time for deeper dives in search of the elusive “sweet spot” that fairly distributes risk between player and club is the spring, once the roster has been bolstered and the winter’s heavy lifting is done.

Still, the industry’s current spending patterns are noteworthy, driving up expectations for cornerstone talents like Guerrero and Bichette while making payroll management all the more critical for clubs.

Hence, Shapiro’s declaration that the sport’s Competitive Balance Tax (CBT) threshold, this season set at $233 million “is not an obstacle for us,” and “is not going to be what sets our budget, managing around that,” marks an especially significant turn.

After all, a year ago Shapiro said running payrolls to or beyond the CBT “is not something that we’re planning for as we sit here and look at the payrolls moving outward,” essentially treating the threshold as a cap. Staying in that range would make trying to build a winning club around a market-rate compensated Guerrero and Bichette extremely difficult, impacting the viability of potential extensions.

Yet this off-season, which could see 8-10 teams around the majors push past the CBT threshold, the Blue Jays have acted like a team willing to not only hit $200 million in major-league payroll for the first time, but also surpass it.

Already they have roughly $175 million on the books in guarantees to 10 players and arbitration estimates for 11 others, and had they succeeded in landing Justin Verlander, that would have tacked on another $40 million to the total.

Once you factor salaries for pre-arbitration players, the $16.5 million for player benefits, 40-man roster salaries and the mechanics of CBT calculation that counts a contract’s annual average value rather than the yearly payout against the threshold, and the Blue Jays would have been right there.

Drastic change. What’s behind that?

“Ownership commitment,” Shapiro said of team owner Rogers Communications Inc., which also owns Sportsnet. “We continue to grow revenues, our partnership revenue has grown, but we are still in this phase where our expenses are outpacing our revenues. When we complete the renovation, we’ll have a greater ability to compete within some of the higher levels of Major League Baseball, not necessarily the top teams in our division from a revenue perspective, but we’ll certainly be able to be more in line with supporting those payrolls.”

Helping underpin that is the new collective bargaining agreement negotiated in the spring which, among other things, allows teams to add sponsored jersey patches to uniform sleeves beginning next season (Shapiro says the Blue Jays are “actively seeking” a partner).

A handful of national deals with Major League Baseball also followed the CBA, creating additional revenue streams, while the Blue Jays expect a deeper local revenue pool once Rogers Centre renovations currently underway are completed after the 2023 season.

“The payoff in revenue is not coming from this phase,” said Shapiro. “It’s going to take a few years for us to produce the revenue that supports the team and supports the cost of the commitment to the renovation as well.”

By that point the Blue Jays, who ranked 11th in the majors in 2022 payroll according to Spotrac.com, could be comfortably ensconced in the 6-10 range, timing up with when it’s time to pay Guerrero and Bichette.

Waiting things out closer to the end of their free agency mitigates the Blue Jays’ risk of making a sizable financial commitment to a player who could get injured and decline, or struggle, or simply not live up to the deal. But it also counters the risk of having to outbid others after watching two elite players become increasingly dominant only to hit the open market for their best years.

The Blue Jays would certainly be able to pivot and spend elsewhere if Guerrero and Bichette were to leave, but players of their calibre are incredibly difficult to replace. Stars carry teams, stars sell and when properly supported, stars win.

If the CBT is indeed no longer going to be an obstacle, the Blue Jays can both pay the type of homegrown duo teams tank for years in the hopes of getting and win, too. The issue then is in finding the right balance between guaranteed money and discount of potential market rate, allowing club and player to share the risk.

“That is exactly what the nature of the long-term contract negotiation of one of your players is all about,” said Shapiro. “It’s where do you both get comfortable with the level of risk, us with what the commitment means and them with what they could potentially be giving up. The closer they get to free agency, the more that changes their equation of risk. It makes them probably less willing to give up the risk of what it means to be out there. … We’re looking for the sweet spot.”

That holds true for the Blue Jays, both in their current off-season pursuits and with their two franchise pillars, who could be to the winter meetings of 2025 what Judge is to the gathering of the moment.

Source link

Related Topics:
Continue Reading

Sports

NHL roundup: Hurricanes beat Flyers 6-4 for seventh straight win

Published

13 hours ago

 on

November 6, 2024

By

 

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — Martin Necas scored a go-ahead goal with 29 seconds left and the Carolina Hurricanes beat the Philadelphia Flyers 6-4 on Tuesday night.

It was the seventh straight win for the Hurricanes, who also got goals from Jack Roslovic, Jordan Martinook, Eric Robinson and Jackson Blake. Seth Jarvis added an empty-net goal in the final seconds.

Necas typically saves his game-winners for overtime, with nine in his career, but he was able to take care of business in regulation with his team-best seventh goal of the season.

Travis Konecny scored two goals and had two assists for the Flyers. Morgan Frost and Owen Tippett also scored for Philadelphia.

Aleksei Kolosov made 28 saves for the Flyers, who trailed 2-1, 3-1 and 4-3 but kept coming back. Carolina’s Pyotr Kochetkov struggled in net allowing four goals on just 16 shots.

Elsewhere in the NHL on Tuesday:

—

SABRES 5 SENATORS 1

BUFFALO, N.Y. (AP) — Bowen Byram and Tage Thompson scored 16 seconds apart to open the third period, and Buffalo snapped a three-game skid with a win over Ottawa.

Byram scored twice, JJ Peterka had two goals and an assist and Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen made 37 saves.

Ridly Greig converted his own rebound in cutting Buffalo’s lead to 2-1 with 7:31 left in the second period. Linus Ullmark made 29 saves in dropping to 1-4 in his past five starts.

Buffalo went up 3-1 on Byram’s second goal 21 seconds into the third period. The defenceman’s shot from inside the blue line sneaked through Ullmark, with the puck rolling down the goalie’s pad, dropping into the crease and trickling across the line. Thompson scored when he crashed the net, was knocked over by defender Jake Sanderson and was lying in the crease when Alex Tuch’s shot went in off his shoulder.

—

MAPLE LEAFS 4 BRUINS 0

TORONTO (AP) — Anthony Stolarz made 29 saves for his first shutout of the season in Toronto’s 4-0 victory over Boston.

Morgan Rielly had a goal and two assists as Toronto connected three times on the power play. William Nylander and Matthew Knies added a goal and an assist each. Mitch Marner had two assists of his own. Steven Lorentz rounded out the scoring into the empty net.

The Leafs played without captain Auston Matthews, who is listed as day-to-day with an upper-body injury.

Jeremy Swayman made 23 stops for Boston, which was coming off consecutive weekend shutouts of the Philadelphia Flyers and Seattle Kraken.

Toronto’s porous 31st-ranked power play scored for the second time in as many games at 8:44 of the second period when Rielly fired through a screen. Nylander banked in his team-leading 10th goal of the season on another man advantage 1:14 later for a 2-0 lead.

The Bruins entered the game 8-0-0 in the regular season against their Atlantic Division rival dating back to Jan. 14, 2023.

—

FLAMES 3 CANADIENS 2 (OT)

MONTREAL (AP) — Matt Coronato scored twice as Calgary came back to defeat Montreal in overtime.

Coronato tied the game with 2:46 remaining in regulation when he cruised into the slot and went off the post and in. He then buried the winning goal seven seconds into the extra period.

Connor Zary also scored for Calgary, which won its second game in seven outings. Dustin Wolf stopped 21 shots.

Joel Armia — with a short-handed goal — and Brendan Gallagher scored for Montreal (4-7-2). Armia also provided an assist, while Sam Montembeault made 32 saves as the Canadiens’ losing streak extended to four games.

Zary opened the scoring with his third 4:20 into the second period when he pounced on a loose puck in the slot and fired a shot past Montembeault.

Gallagher then slipped the puck between Wolf’s pads at 16:23 to level the score with his fifth of the season.

—

BLUES 3 LIGHTNING 2

ST. LOUIS (AP) — Jordan Kyrou, Alexey Toropchenko and Oskar Sundqvist scored to help St. Louis beat Tampa Bay 3-2.

Blues goaltender Jordan Binnington made 21 saves for his 149th career win moving him past Jake Allen for second place in franchise history, just two wins behind Mike Liut’s 151.

Nick Perbix and Victor Hedman scored, and Andrei Vasilevskiy made 20 saves for the Lightning who have lost three straight games.

Kyrou scored his fourth goal of the season 8:51 into the third period to give St. Louis a 3-1 lead.

Toropchenko scored his first goal of the season with 1:35 remaining in the second period to put St. Louis ahead 2-1 after Sundqvist tied the game with his first of the season 7:47 into the period.

—

ISLANDERS 4 PENGUINS 3 (SO)

NEW YORK (AP) — Bo Horvat scored the only goal in a shootout and New York rallied past Pittsburgh 4-3.

New York goalie Ilya Sorokin denied Rickard Rakell, Sidney Crosby and Kris Letang in the shootout and finished with 32 saves. Kyle Palmieri had a goal and an assist for the Islanders, who trailed 3-1 midway through the third period.

Simon Holmstrom and Jean-Gabriel Pageau scored in the third for New York. Horvat had two assists.

Evgeni Malkin had a goal and an assist to lead Pittsburgh. Crosby got his 598th career goal, and Michael Bunting also scored. Rakell added two assists.

Alex Nedeljkovich stopped 23 shots for the Penguins, who have lost seven of nine. They won their previous two following a six-game skid.

—

KINGS 5 WILD 1

ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) — Trevor Lewis scored twice, Kevin Fiala added another on the power play and Los Angeles beat Minnesota 5-1.

Warren Foegele and Quinton Byfield also scored for Los Angeles, which was playing the second night of a back-to-back after a 3-0 win in Nashville a night earlier. David Rittich made 23 saves for the Kings.

Fiala, who was traded to Los Angeles in 2022 by Minnesota for a first-round pick draft pick and defenceman Brock Faber, scored his seventh goal of the season. He now has three goals and six assists in his last seven games against the Wild.

Minnesota, which had won three in a row, opened the scoring in the second period on Zach Bogosian’s first goal of the season. Goaltender Filip Gustavsson stopped 23 shots for the Wild.

—

JETS 3 UTAH 0

WINNIPEG, Man. (AP) — Nino Niederreiter scored twice in his 900th NHL career game and Connor Hellebuyck made 21 saves to help Winnipeg defeat Utah 3-0.

It was Hellebuyck’s second shutout of the season and 39th of this career.

Gabriel Vilardi also scored for the Jets. Adam Lowry assisted on both goals by Niederreiter.

Utah ended a run of picking up points in three consecutive games (1-0-2).

Karel Vejmelka stopped 25 shots for Utah in its second stop on a four-game road trip.

Jets winger Kyle Connor had his franchise-record, season-opening points streak end at 12 games.

—

AVALANCHE 6 KRAKEN 3

DENVER (AP) — Arturri Lehkonen scored the go-ahead goal on a power play in his season debut and Nathan MacKinnon had five assists as Colorado beat Seattle 6-3.

Mikko Rantanen added two goals for the Avalanche, who snapped a three-game losing streak. Ivan Ivan, Nikolai Kovalenko and Chris Wagner also scored for Colorado.

Cale Makar had two assists but the star defenceman barely played in the second half of the game and appeared to be slowed by an apparent injury during a brief shift.

MacKinnon and Makar extended their season-opening point streaks to 13 games.

Lehkonen played for the first time since off-season shoulder surgery.

Jared McCann, Jaden Schwartz and Brandon Montour scored for the Kraken.

—

CANUCKS 5 DUCKS 1

ANAHEIM, Calif. (AP) — Brock Boeser, Danton Heinen and Kiefer Sherwood had a goal and an assist apiece, and Quinn Hughes recorded his 300th career assist in Vancouver’s victory over Anaheim.

Jake DeBrusk and Elias Pettersson also scored and Hughes had three assists for the Canucks, who have won six of eight. Kevin Lankinen made 21 saves in Vancouver’s sixth consecutive win over the Ducks.

Olen Zellweger scored a power-play goal early in the first period for Anaheim, which has lost seven of nine. Lukas Dostal stopped 31 shots.

Canucks goalie Thatcher Demko took shots from teammates again after the morning skate, and he could return to practice this week. The Southern California native and 2023-24 Vezina Trophy finalist hasn’t played this season due to a knee injury incurred late last season.

—

SHARKS 2 BLUE JACKETS 1 (OT)

SAN JOSE, Calif. (AP) — Alex Wennberg scored 3:11 into overtime and San Jose celebrated the return of No. 1 overall draft pick Macklin Celebrini with a win over Columbus.

Defenceman Jack Thompson scored his first career goal for the Sharks (4-8-2), who entered the night with the worst record in the NHL. San Jose has won four of five.

Celebrini, the top pick in the 2024 NHL draft, missed 12 games with a hip injury he sustained in the season opener Oct. 10 — an injury first incurred during the pre-season. Celebrini didn’t score and missed a shot early in overtime.

San Jose goalie Vitek Vanacek was fantastic in net, making 49 saves.

Blue Jackets right wing Kirill Marchenko scored for the second consecutive game. Columbus (5-6-1) has lost three straight.

Source link

Continue Reading

Sports

Canada’s Dabrowski and New Zealand’s Routliffe pick up second win at WTA Finals

Published

2 days ago

 on

November 5, 2024

By

 

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia – Canada’s Gabriela Dabrowski and New Zealand’s Erin Routliffe remain undefeated in women’s doubles at the WTA Finals.

The 2023 U.S. Open champions, seeded second at the event, secured a 1-6, 7-6 (1), (11-9) super-tiebreak win over fourth-seeded Italians Sara Errani and Jasmine Paolini in round-robin play on Tuesday.

The season-ending tournament features the WTA Tour’s top eight women’s doubles teams.

Dabrowski and Routliffe lost the first set in 22 minutes but levelled the match by breaking Errani’s serve three times in the second, including at 6-5. They clinched victory with Routliffe saving a match point on her serve and Dabrowski ending Errani’s final serve-and-volley attempt.

Dabrowski and Routliffe will next face fifth-seeded Americans Caroline Dolehide and Desirae Krawczyk on Thursday, where a win would secure a spot in the semifinals.

The final is scheduled for Saturday.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published on Nov. 5, 2024.

The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.

Source link

Continue Reading

Sports

Allen nets shutout as Devils burn Oilers 3-0

Published

2 days ago

 on

November 4, 2024

By

 

EDMONTON – Jake Allen made 31 saves for his second shutout of the season and 26th of his career as the New Jersey Devils closed out their Western Canadian road trip with a 3-0 victory over the Edmonton Oilers on Monday.

Jesper Bratt had a goal and an assist and Stefan Noesen and Timo Meier also scored for the Devils (8-5-2) who have won three of their last four on the heels on a four-game losing skid.

The Oilers (6-6-1) had their modest two-game winning streak snapped.

Calvin Pickard made 13 stops between the pipes for Edmonton.

TAKEAWAYS

Devils: In addition to his goal, Bratt picked up his 12th assist of the young season to give him nine points in his last eight games and now 15 points overall. Nico Hischier remains in the team lead, picking up an assist of his own to give him 16 points for the campaign. He has a point in all but four games this season.

Oilers: Forward Leon Draisaitl was held pointless after recording six points in his previous two games and nine points in his previous four. Draisaitl usually has strong showings against the Devils, coming into the contest with an eight-game point streak against New Jersey and 11 goals in 17 games.

KEY MOMENT

New Jersey took a 2-0 lead on the power play with 3:26 remaining in the second period as Hischier made a nice feed into the slot to Bratt, who wired his third of the season past Pickard.

KEY RETURN?

Oilers star forward and captain Connor McDavid took part in the optional morning skate for the Oilers, leading to hopes that he may be back sooner rather than later. McDavid has been expected to be out for two to three weeks with an ankle injury suffered during the first shift of last Monday’s loss in Columbus.

OILERS DEAL FOR D-MAN

The Oilers have acquired defenceman Ronnie Attard from the Philadelphia Flyers in exchange for defenceman Ben Gleason.

The 6-foot-3 Attard has spent the past three season in the Flyers organization seeing action in 29 career games. The 25-year-old right-shot defender and Western Michigan University grad was originally selected by Philadelphia in the third round of the 2019 NHL Entry Draft. Attard will report to the Oilers’ AHL affiliate in Bakersfield.

UP NEXT

Devils: Host the Montreal Canadiens on Thursday.

Oilers: Host the Vegas Golden Knights on Wednesday.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 4, 2024.

The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.

Source link

Continue Reading

Trending

Exit mobile version