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Since we looked at which Blue Jays player the remaining playoff teams would like to pick up earlier this week, now we'll flip the topic around. For this exercise, instead of just picking the best player from each team, their salary, age, and position played should be considered, but not what it would take to acquire them. I'm not so sure just one of these players would have turned around the Blue Jays season, but it definitely wouldn't have hurt.
St. Louis Cardinals
This one is extremely easy in my eyes. The Blue Jays have a massive gaping hole the size of the Grand Canyon at the catcher position and Yadier Molina would fit into the team perfectly. He's signed through 2017 with a team option for 2018 worth $15 million. The contract is pretty affordable with an average of $14.5 million over the next four years. He hasn't hit under .300 since 2010 and he's played at least 130 games in every single season since 2008, which is a pretty amazing accomplishment for a catcher. Seeing a catcher for the Blue Jays doing this on a regular basis would be quite nice:
The only downside to Molina is that he's 31 years old and that's getting up there in years for a catcher. It'll be interesting to see if he's still worth $15 million when he's 35.
Los Angeles Dodgers
I'm not so sure this one is particularly difficult either. The Dodgers do have an abundance of starting pitching, but it's all pretty expensive and expensive starting pitching is not something the Blue Jays need anymore of. The right fielder phenom Yasiel Puig would be my choice for the Dodgers. Watching Puig is a privilege and he plays baseball different than any player I've ever seen in my life.
After defecting from Cuba he received a seven year $42 million contract with Los Angeles. There will be five years remaining on that contract after this season with an average annual value of about $6.9 million. WIth hardly any risk and immense upside, you could put Puig in right field and put Jose Bautista in left field and enjoy years of superstardom at both corners of the Blue Jays outfield. There's so many GIFs to choose from for Puig, but this blast is pretty amazing:
Boston Red Sox
I didn't really want to pick a player from this team, but we'll do this fast. In my eyes Dustin Pedroia is one of the more tolerable Red Sox and having him play second base for the Blue Jays wouldn't be all bad. He's hit above .280 in every full season he's played in Boston and his defence at second base is nothing to complain about. His contract isn't the most attractive with eight years remaining after this season due to the extension he signed this season that kicks in after his current contract expires. The average annual value would be about $13.5 million and would carry him into his age 37 season, which is pretty risky. If I could pick anyone from the whole Red Sox organization to come to Toronto I'd take their outstanding manager, he seems like a great guy.
Detroit Tigers
There's a lot of expensive players on the Tigers that would help the Blue Jays, but I'm not sure they would want to get tied up in any of those contracts. Cabrera's two remaining years at $22 million wouldn't hurt, but my final pick from the Tigers would be Max Scherzer. The right-handed pitcher seems like a great guy and has had a fantastic this year with a 2.90 ERA and a K/9 of 10.1. The best thing about Scherzer is that 2014 is his third and final arbitration year. The Blue Jays would have the chance to see if Scherzer could keep his fantastic pitching up next season and if he did, they could sign him to an extension. Having a Blue Jays starter hit 99 would be fun to watch:
Well there's my take on who the team would pick up from each of the remaining playoff teams if they had the chance. This was pretty exciting to write, but now I'm starting to realize that none of these players are ever going to play for the Blue Jays and that makes me sad. Maybe this wasn't such a wise idea... Anyway, post what your picks would be in the comment section.