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So how would you complete the roster?

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December is just around the corner and we've already seen massive changes to the big league club as well as some implications for the future. It's clear that the team is all-in for the next two years. The question to my mind is: how far will the front office go to secure an end to the playoff drought?

I'm sure we're all aware of what's been going on, but let's go through it anyway. I'm sure I'll forget something:

Adam Lind was traded for Marco Estrada

Russel Martin was signed for 5 years and $82M (I love how the mlbtr poll had the Jays at fourth out of five options with 12.37%. The fifth option was "Other")

Brett Lawrie, Sean Nolin, Kendal Graveman and Franklin Barreto were traded for Josh Donaldson (4 YEARS!)

Anthony Gose was traded for Devon Travis

Justin Smoak and Andy Dirks were picked up on waivers and Juan Fransisco was designated for assignment, picked up by Boston and DFA'd again when they signed Pablo Sandoval and Hanley Ramirez. I believe he's still in DFA limbo at the time of writing.

(for e&n4e) Jays signed Jeff Francis to a minor league deal

A bunch of other stuff happened, like reacquiring Liam Hendricks for Santiago Nessy, declining options on Brandon Morrow, Sergio Santos, Dustin McGowan and Smoak (in favour of arbitration) and exercising options on J.A. Happ, Lind before the trade and Josh Thole. I'm sure there were more little moves, like moving Ryan Tepera to the 40-man roster to protect him from the Rule 5 draft. Anything I missed, don't hesitate to mention it.

So what are the options to complete the team?

There are still holes to fill. We could use upgrades at left field, second base and in the bullpen, specifically right handed relievers. Experience and past success in late innings is never bad. Depth at center wouldn't hurt. Pompey is... a discussion unto himself.

It's important to note that we already have platoon partners who can hit lefties for LF, 2B, 1B and CF in Mayberry, Tolleson, Valencia and Pillar respectively. Valencia and Smoak might end up as a workable platoon at 1st, a player like Didi Gregorius could provide defense at 2nd, hit righties enough and be backup shortstop and Matt Joyce could provide solid production at left. Mayberry can also play 1st as well as corner OF. Considering Dirks' injury history, I am not in favour of a Dirks/Mayberry platoon as the primary option in LF. Wont someone please think of the turf?? And Dirks' back.

Supposedly there is still some money to spend. I'm not making any predictions with this team, but they should at least have a payroll around their $137M level from last year. I have a beastly lack of faith in any increase. I could be wrong but I believe they have approximately $124M committed at this time, not including Estrada, Smoak, Dirks and the players making league minimum. Basis for that comes from K931's fanpost BlueJays 2015 Payroll Commitments. Check 'er out.

There are still some trade chips left, including Dioner Navarro. There is also some prospect capital to spend. I am not advocating for this. The possibility exists of exploring a trade of Aaron Sanchez to the Cubs for an infielder. In another vein, the argument could be made that we still require a top of the rotation, established "ace" type pitcher. Sanchez has risk. On one hand, trading Sanchez+ for a low-risk, front line pitcher would move Happ to the No. 6 rotation spot and he could be shopped for a left-handed hitting LF or 2B. On the other hand, you could keep Happ until the trade deadline, by which time Sanchez may be your ace. Back on that first hand, we don't know if Sanchez will ever develop his secondary pitches or become what we all want. Scooting toward Sensible City, when you consider how much cheap production you get from prospects who work out, how great would it be to complete the team and still have Hutch, Stro, Sanchez, Norris and the whole next wave including Hoffman, Pentecost, Castro, Smoral, Osuna, Labourt, Tirado and Ried-Foley? My opinion is, if Sanchez or Norris are traded for an ace, it needs to be someone with multiple years of control.

What if the team just spent money? Would you resign Melky? Aoki, Lowrie, A. Cabrera or Drew? What about Mark Ellis as a stopgap to create competition at 2nd (he's historically a good defender and an offensive bounceback candidate) as insurance until you make a run at Jose Fernandez or Jung-Ho Kang? Hector Olivera and Ellis are unappealing because of their injury risk, you say? That's a good way to segue, you say?

What I like about this offseason is that many of the injury-prone players are no longer with us (don't worry, they're still alive). That's not to say that Reyes, Bautista and Edwin don't have risk, but we're better off than with Lind, Morrow and Lawrie. How do you feel about rotating the DH position and subbing with strong defenders? The turf wears players down; rotating the DH might help prolong the careers of our core hitters. Would it be an ego-insult? Should that matter? Does it? Signing a hitter who could play a bit of LF to take most of the at-bats at DH might be appealing to Mike Morse or Torri Hunter (yeah I know), especially after the recent acquisitions. You would also need a strong defensive outfielder with a good enough bat like Aoki, Bourjos or Saunders to be the regular left-fielder and spell Bautista when he DH's. Having Bautista at 1st when Edwin DH's would allow you to keep both bats in the lineup and keep Smoak out of it. The problem with the idea is that it gets too complicated. You could never have Reyes at DH when Dickey pitches because having Goins and Thole in the lineup would just be too much to bear. For close to the average annual value of Hunter or Morse, you could probably resign Melky and have them all split the DH equally. He's not THAT bad out there, not yet anyway. This situation illustrates the value of versatile bench players.

I'm not advocating for any of these ideas necessarily. Just throwing them out there to spark creative discussion, no matter what the outcome. Kindly include your realistic beliefs and fantasies (for the rest of the offseason, ermherm).

WHAT SAY YOU

Editor's Note: This is a FanPost written by a reader and member of Bluebird Banter. It was not commissioned by the editors and is not necessarily reflective of the opinions of Bluebird Banter or SB Nation.