It's all about the Bordens baby

by Torgen on Jul 30, 2009 1:32 PM EDT

In 2008, the Jays' payroll in Canadian dollars (valued at the start of the preceding offseason) was about $100MM. In 2009, the Jays' payroll in canadian dollars (valued at the start of the preceding offseason) was about $100MM.

It's not JP Ricciardi's fault, or Paul Beeston's fault, or Rogers Media's fault that in the former case a Canadian dollar bought a US dollar and in the latter it only bought 80 US cents. But right now the Canadian dollar is worth about 92 US cents, and if that's where it ends up in November then it means that with zero additional investment from ownership, the Jays will have about $12MM USD to spend this offseason. Considering the one year deals some very good players signed last year, $12MM can buy some pretty significant improvements over this year's problem positions. In other words, keeping Halladay to win in 2010 isn't just posturing. (This also means that the Jays have the hardest GM job in baseball, not because of the teams they have to compete against, but because you have to succeed at everything every other team does plus currency speculation .)

Poll

How many US Dollars will $100MM CAD buy this coming offseason?

< $80MM

0 votes

$80MM-$84.9MM

0 votes

$85MM-$89.9MM

2 votes

$90MM-$94.9MM

4 votes

$95MM-$99.9MM

2 votes

>$100MM

1 votes

9 votes | Poll has closed

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Comments

I can't opine

on monetary policy or exchange rates, but you bring up a very good point. The loonie has really risen against the greenback just since this past offseason, and that should (though who knows if it will) affect the team’s financial disposition going forward.

"Let us go forth awhile, and get better air in our lungs. Let us leave our closed rooms... The game of ball is glorious." - Walt Whitman

by hugo on Jul 30, 2009 1:49 PM EDT reply actions

For that matter, it dropped like a stone at the end of September last year

If they’d been able to buy their next season’s payroll a month and a half earlier, we might have seen more free agent action. But of course they’d have to have known how low it was going to go.

They're not just hitting home runs. They're doing the little things, like hitting doubles.

by Torgen on Jul 30, 2009 1:59 PM EDT up reply actions