After days of speculation, the Toronto Blue Jays have simply walked away from Alex Rios allowing him to be claimed on waivers by the Chicago White Sox. The Jays completely wash their hands of the underachieving Rios, not having to pay any of his $60 million in salary over the next 5 seasons. It would have been nice to acquire a player or a prospect for Rios, but getting out from under the hefty deal proved too tempting for J.P. Ricciardi. Consider this quote from the Jays General Manager: "This allows us to get out from under a contract and do more to address our club"
This season, the 28 year old Rios hit .264 with 14 HR and 62 RBI. He represented the American League twice in the all-star game with his best season coming in 2007, where he smacked 24 HR and drove in 85 runs.
Presumably, the Jays will dip into the minor leagues to call up top prospect Travis Snider, who is hitting .487 with 5 HR and 16 RBI in his last 10 games, or purchase the contract of veterans David Dellucci, Buck Coats or Aaron Mathews.
4 comments:
Bring up Buck!
And Randy Ruiz to replace Millar!
Has rios' stock dropped that badly that we couldn't even get a borderline prospect back?
Buck isn't THAT old, so it'd be intriguing to see what he could do given more time in the major leagues. And my goodness, Ruiz is destroying the baseball in Vegas, it's uneblievable.
I think the White Sox were definitely willing to trade prospects for Rios, but wanted the Jays to pay some of Alex's salary. J.P. decided that it was best off just dumping salary.
FANTASTIC!
Ruiz is in the fold!
I hope he gets a fair shake and Cito DH's him full time and moves Lind to the outfield. He's not a terrible outfielder, but it would be tough to put Joe Inglett in RF without the strong arm needed. Bautista has a great arm, but his bat leaves something to be desired.
Long live Randy Ruiz!
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