Alex Rios

If you can trade him for good value, than I might go for it. This is a bit of a risky strategy but assumes that you put Snider in right, Wells in CF and Lind in LF. (Wells will be busy). The risk is in relying on Snider and in compromising team defense.

However, if the Jays traded for something good like Alexei Ramirez and used the savings to pick up another roster player like Delgado (everyday DH), the net impact on the team should be a positive.

Problem is that this is a lot of ifs including (1) getting trade done (2) Snider getting called up (3) Snider holding MLB job and (4) picking up good roster player(s) in the offseason.

I would probably not leave Rios on waivers but might trade him if the deal was good. However, according to what I have read about Chi Sox, snagging Rios off waivers was as much about keeping another team in their division from grabbing him as it is about actually picking Rios up. If I was a betting man, I would say 85% probability Rios remains a Jay.

you’ll use the money to sign Roy isn’t the best logic. Roy would probably be less inclined to sign with the Jays when they are giving their players away, it doesn’t exactly show that the team wants to compete. Also who knows if Rogers even lets the Rios money be re-invested in the team. They need to get something usefull coming back or forget it IMO.

Looking the stats only 5 other players in all of baseball have more HR and SB then Rios those being:

Mark Reynolds
Hanley Ramirez
Curtis Granderson
Ian Kinsler
Matt Kemp

Of those 5 only 3 (Reynolds, Kemp and Hanley) have more RBI then Rios and he’s having an ‘off’ year by most accounts. So you let this player go for nothing????

I’m not saying keep him at all costs, but I’d have to expect the Jays to get some kind of a useful prospect back in return for Rios.

Is that true that if they let him go through waiver’s the white sox pay the entire salary? We should try this trick with Vernon.

I think we can all agree that Rios’ contract was not a good one, in the sense that there’s a minimal chance he provides $11+ million worth of value next year, let alone in 2014.

Hindsight is 20/20 and all, but in summary:

Best Move: If J.P. traded Rios in the offseason after 2007 when he was a 26-year-old two time All-Star who opened some eyes at the home run derby. That’s when his value was at its peak, and all those Cain/Lincecum for Rios rumors were floated. Alternatively, he could have traded Wells after the 2006 season instead of signing him to the monster extension and moved Rios over to CF where his plus skills at a more difficult defensive position would have increased his relative value.

Good Move: If J.P would have simply let Rios play out his arbitration years, realizing that tying down two outfield spots with high value contracts until 2014 is a bad idea when you’ve already got two young OF studs quickly rising through the minors in Lind and Snider. With six years of service, Rios would have been a free agent in the upcoming offseason anyways, but at least then we would have gotten compensation picks when he signed somewhere else or could have converted him into better assets at the trade deadline if he didn’t have the $60 million anchor attached to him.

Adequate Move: Getting bupkis for a young player still in his prime who you spent years developing through your system, but at the same time not being bound to pay him twice his market value for the next five years.