J.P. Ricciardi's last stand?
The Blue Jays have flown the Rogers Centre coop for their penultimate road swing of 2009 to Detroit, New York and Tampa Bay, where they'll face teams that are still playing games that actually matter.
Then they'll return to face the sad-sack Baltimore Orioles and the under-achieving Seattle Mariners for the final home stand of the season. The din of unanswered questions about the Jays will reverberate throughout the Rogers Centre.
With a loss Wednesday to Minnesota the Jays have already passed last year's 76 defeats. They were supposed to use 2009 as a springboard to contending in 2010. They began with victory after victory and even held first place. Then it fell apart.
There has been a parade of rookie starting pitchers and the release of veterans B.J. Ryan, Scott Rolen (via trade) and Alex Rios. And loss after loss.
So what now? Blow up the team or build around Aaron Hill and Adam Lind? What about general manager J.P. Ricciardi? He's about to go 0-for-8 in reaching the playoffs with one year remaining on his contract.
Before discussing J.P.'s future which is clouded by the status of interim president/CEO Paul Beeston who's still in the process of delivering (or not) a replacement for himself, we must also think about the pressing player personnel decisions the Jays must bandy about.
Number one is Roy Halladay. His value was never higher than just before the July 31 non-waiver trade deadline. It's lower now, maybe much lower, but he'll still command a fine return should the Jays find a trading partner in the off-season.
The Boston Red Sox were said to have offered pitchers Clay Buchholz, Justin Masterson, Nick Hagadone (the latter two sent to Cleveland for Victor Martinez) and one other prospect. Ricciardi turned that down. Now any team obtaining Halladay's service will only be guaranteed to have him for one season.
Halladay was 10-3 with a 2.85 earned-run average when he started for the American League in the all-star game in St. Louis. Since then he's been off-form outside of his one-hit shutout of the Yankees Sept. 4 at the Rogers Centre.
Halladay's lost four of his last five starts to fall to 14-9 and few people believe he'll continue his career in Toronto when his contract expires after the 2010 season.
The Jays jettisoned starting third baseman Scott Rolen to Cincinnati and outfielder Alex Rios, claimed on waivers by the Chicago White Sox. Toronto received nothing in return save for getting out of an almost $61 million US contract that carried through 2014.
Two more Blue Jays' regulars, shortstop Marco Scutaro and catcher Rod Barajas will also become free agents after the season.
Scutaro is enjoying a career season with personal bests in hits, runs, average, homers, RBI and walks. He's also an excellent fielder but will be 34 by next spring and unlikely to repeat his breakout numbers. Barajas has also set a career high for RBI as the first-string backstop and has 16 home runs (more than Vernon Wells). Barajas, though just turned 34 and even manager Cito Gaston thinks he'll head elsewhere as a free agent.
The Blue Jays are finishing the season with a rotation of Halladay, Ricky Romero, Scott Richmond, David Purcey and Brian Tallet. Rookies Marc Rzepczynski (2-4) and Brett Cecil (7-4) both 2007 draftees, have been shut down to limit the amount of wear and tear on their young arms.
Should Halladay be traded after this season, Romero, 12-7, would likely vie with Shaun Marcum, who spent this season rehabbing from Tommy John surgery, for ace of the staff.
Purcey, a 2004 first round pick, North Vancouver's Richmond, Cecil and Rzepczynski would form the nucleus of next year's rotation.
Ricciardi's main strength as a GM has been his draft record, led by 2003 first-round pick Aaron Hill and 2004 third rounder Adam Lind. That duo has carried the Jays' offence this year, each closing in on the century mark for RBIs.
All-star Hill, in line for the league's Comeback Player of the Year after missing much of 2008 with a concussion, smashed the team record for a second baseman with his 30-plus homers, far outdistancing Roberto Alomar's former mark of 17.
Outfielder Travis Snider, recalled in late August, is another of Ricciardi's first-round picks (2006) destined for regular duty in 2010. His hitting potential is highly regarded.
The GM's major drawbacks are that he hasn't led the ball club beyond 87 wins (2006) and they haven't reached the playoffs in 16 years, the last eight under his watch.
That, plus the money outstanding on long-term contracts ($15 million to B.J. Ryan for next year) including the jaw-dropping sum of $107 million owed to Vernon Wells for 2010-14 have increased the call for Beeston or whomever's running the Jays next season to send J.P. back to Worcester (actually West Boylston), Mass.
Custer's Last Stand wasn't pretty and neither will be the rest of the September scene at the Rogers Centre where the Jays were only able to muster 11,159 spectators for Halladay's last start against Minnesota.
Changes are coming.