Toronto has kept active this offseason in free agency, already capitalizing on a couple names like Andres Gimenez and Jeff Hoffman, and have continued by acquiring outfielder Myles Straw from Cleveland along with $2 million in international player bonus money, in exchange for cash considerations or a player to be named later. Essentially, this means that the Jays get a guy who won a gold glove award in 2022 and $2 million that they were hoping to use as a final push to sign Japanese ace Roki Sasaki, in exchange for giving up practically nothing. However, this deal goes was beyond just the surface and when you look at it a little longer, it’s hard not to notice that this deal was a major flub by the Blue Jays, and might have put them in an even worse spot than before.

The first issue with the deal is the part that includes what was probably the more desired piece in trade, and that was the $2 million in international bonus money. Toronto realistically did not need Myles Straw on the team, and surely was not a name that the team had circled when looking to find a potential trade to upgrade their roster. What the Jays were looking for on the other hand, was incoming Japanese pitcher Roki Sasaki. Sasaki was by far the most hyped pitcher coming into free agency when his transfer window was posted, this meant every team had a certain time frame to make their case for Sasaki in order to sign him. Almost every team you would expect made their offer for Sasaki, the Yankees, Mets, Padres, Rangers, and the team everyone had already thought he’d sign with in the Dodgers. As the window for teams to offer a contract started to close, Multiple teams were beginning to be informed that Sasaki would not accept their offer and sign somewhere else. At the tail end of the discussions, it was stated that the three finalists with the best offers for Sasaki were the Dodgers, Padres, and the Blue Jays. Toronto has made a name for themselves this off season for being in contention and “finalists” for many top free agents like Juan Soto and Corbin Burnes, but after this deal was done for Straw, Jays fans were more optimistic that the team would finally pull through and land a top tier player. Sadly as we all know by now, Sasaki did not decide to come north of the boarder, instead opting to prove all the early predictions right and signed with the L.A Dodgers. Toronto made a trade to get more money needed to offer Sasaki and be the highest bidder yet again, but when it comes to young and sensational talents, sometimes the dollar amount isn’t the end all be all. Now the Jays had this extra $2 million with nothing to spend it on, but they also encountered the second issue with the trade they made. As for Myles Straw himself, apart from being a former gold glove winner he is a terrible hitter. Only having a career .625 OPS and an OPS+ of 76, makes him a very underwhelming bat and well below league average. When it comes to this Blue Jays team, defense is the last thing they need to improve on with multiple gold glove and platinum glove winners on their roster already, but somehow they still can’t seem to understand that defense alone doesn’t win games, cause when there’s no one on your team who can score runs, the defense can only get you so far.

At face value, Straw should not be starting on this team, there are already other outfielders on the Jays that far exceed Straw’s value. However, Since Daulton Varsho had undergone shoulder surgery and may not be ready for opening day, Straw could see himself on the opening day roster and starting in the outfield for a good portion to begin the season while Varsho recovers. The bad news comes when Varsho returns to the lineup and replaces Straw, now where do you put him? By the time it comes to finding a new place to put him, fellow outfielders George Springer, Joey Loperfido, Jonathan Clase, and Davis Schnieder will all be far better in terms of value and Straw’s other listed position of shortstop is already taken by Bo Bichette and either Ernie Clement or Andres Gimenez. Its a very real possibility that When the team is fully healthy, Straw gets demoted to triple-A. He spent all of last year in triple-A for Cleveland, batting .240 racking up 104 hits and only launching 3 home runs. In all honesty, Straw isn’t a terrible player to have on the roster and it wouldn’t be the worst thing in the world even to have him play in triple-A…if the Jays didn’t have to take on his contract worth over $10 million per season. Straw’s contract is worth just over $10 million for the next two seasons until his buyout option comes into place in 2027, but until then Toronto will have to pay all $10 million for two years to a guy that realistically won’t even play in the MLB for half of those two years. It’s not like the $10 million per year puts the Jays in a strangle hold, since they have one of the biggest payrolls in baseball and can afford to offer $700 million contracts to Ohtani and Soto, but clearly they are trying everything to get as much money together in order to be a the top of the bidding list for every free agent they try to sign, and having to eat that money for someone they won’t use is just another kick in the teeth.

One of the biggest problems with the Blue Jays is not wanting to spend money on their current superstar Vladimir Guerrero Jr. and noone else wanting to take their money because of how the team is treating their young star. Simply put, Toronto is reckless and unsmart with their spending, in order to unlock the ability to spend money on other free agents they need to be willing to give their guys the money they deserve, and until they do that they will be left with only being able to take on bad contracts like this and have no plan for the future.