Blue Jays arbitration projections announced

MLB Trade Rumours recently announced their projections for the Blue Jays arbitration earnings for the 2017 season. Although it may seem like boring news after what happened last night, it is something Jays fans will be interested in in the coming weeks or months once this baseball season is over and we once again look at, "next year."

It should be noted that, "service time data, the Super Two cutoff, and the 2017 MLB minimum salary are not yet official or known. We're using the 2.125 for the Super Two cutoff to be safe and the $508K for the MLB minimum."

In 2017, the Blue Jays will have five players who are arbitration eligible, due to see a change in their take home pay. In parentheses the number indicates the player's service time to date in Years.Days format followed by the projected dollar figure for the 2017 season. From MLB Trade Rumours projections, these include:

• Josh Thole (5.165) – $900K
• Darwin Barney (5.085) – $1.6MM
• Aaron Loup (4.040) – $1.2MM
• Ezequiel Carrera (3.039) – $1.2MM
• Marcus Stroman (2.148) – $3.5MM

If actualized, the projections will mark a raise for each of the players with Stroman seeing the largest increase from his current $514,900 salary to $3.5 million next year. It does make sense given that Stroman has produced the highest WAR total of any of the other Blue Jays' players who are arbitration eligible. Following him, Ezequiel Carrera is projected to get a handsome raise from his current $521,800 salary with Barney jumping similarly from $1.05 million to $1.6 next year. While still expected to get a raise next season, that of Josh Thole (increase from $800,000 to $900,000) and Aaron Loup (increase from $1.05 million to $1.2 million) are less notable jumps that will obviously be less talked about, considering that neither is a "lock" to be with the club for the 2017 season.

As I said, none of this is going to qualify as sexy news at a time when Josh Donaldson is sliding into bases with such ferocity it makes you quiver at home on the couch. That said, it is important news when starting to work out the potential roster budget for this year's off-season.

If anything, it helps harden the cement when you're making the argument for or against signing or resigning other players such as Jose Bautista, Edwin Encarnacion and Michael Saunders. It can provide you some firmer ground to stand on when making the argument that the Blue Jays can indeed afford to pay their big sluggers--if they so chose to.

Cue this up as a bookmark for later discussion and something to follow along with once the playoffs are over and we're caught in the dead of winter. It may be more important than you initially think.