Steve Phillips TSN Baseball Insider Archive

It’s a sad day for baseball fans in Canada. Edwin Encarnacion has moved on.

The slugger accepted a three-year $60-million deal with a fourth year $20-million option ($5-million buyout) from the Cleveland Indians on Thursday night — the very club that eliminated the Blue Jays in last year’s postseason. President Mark Shapiro’s former team now has Toronto’s former first baseman/designated hitter, a popular player who sits third all-time in homers in franchise history.

I know it hurts. When we hurt, we want to assign blame for the pain. When a player leaves a club that he wants to play for it’s usually because he got more money and years from someone else. That is not the case here. The Jays offered Encarnacion four years at $80 million right out of the gate. They didn’t react to the propaganda from Edwin’s agent that he was seeking a five-year $125-million deal. The Jays offered the soon-to-be 34-year-old a four-year deal. Their offer was double what he made in 2015.

Encarnacion’s agent, Paul Kinzer, misread the market in a significant way. Effectively, he was looking fastball and instead swung at the breaking ball in the dirt and whiffed. This wasn't the Blue Jays fault. They offered Edwin the longest term and most money and he passed. When the Jays moved on from Edwin and signed Kendrys Morales, many Jays’ fans said the team was cheap. How dare they make so much money and not be willing to spend it? It turns out they were willing to spend it and made the highest offer.



This was a catastrophic mistake by Kinzer. Shapiro and general manager Ross Atkins treated Encarnacion with respect. They extended the most significant offer and even extended the timeframe within which Edwin needed to decide to accept the deal. They gave him one last chance and told them they were going to go in another direction if he didn’t take the deal. The agent said they would do better in years and/or dollars, so the Jays moved quickly to Plan B. It was the right move.



The fans who are mad at Shapiro and Atkins for not waiting and giving Edwin more time are the same ones who would be mad if the Jays waited, then lost Edwin and didn’t have a reasonable backup option still available.



So instead of dwelling on what the Jays don’t have, it is time to focus on what they do.



The Blue Jays have arguably the deepest rotation in the American League: deeper than the Indians, Rangers, Rays and Red Sox. They have a top-five closer in the AL in Roberto Osuna. They have an MVP candidate in Josh Donaldson in the prime of his career. Troy Tulowitzki is the best defensive shortstop in the history of baseball. Kevin Pillar is a Gold Glove-calibre centre fielder. The Jays have one of the best leaders and game-calling catchers in Russell Martin. Good teams are built to be strong up the middle. Clearly, the Jays will be a good team.

Morales isn’t Encarnacion, but he is pretty darn good. He hit 30 homers last season and drove in 93 runs with a .795 OPS. Remember, he did that in a cavernous Kaufman Stadium in Kansas City. Morales is a switch hitter, which starts to address the lineup imbalance that has existed in Toronto the last few years.



The Jays still need to address both corner outfield positions and the bridge from the rotation to Osuna at the end of the game.



The corner outfield options in free agency include Mark Trumbo (47 homers, 108 RBI and .850 OPS), Brandon Moss (28 homers, 67 RBI and .785 OPS), Michael Saunders (24 homers, 57 RBI and .815 OPS), Ben Revere (two homers, 14 stolen bases and a .560 OPS), Angel Pagan (12 homers, 15 stolen bases, .750 OPS), and Chris Coghlan (the 2009 National League Rookie of the Year).



The outfield trade market still includes: Andrew McCutcheon (Pirates), Ryan Braun (Brewers), Charlie Blackmon (Rockies) as well as Jay Bruce (Mets) and Curtis Granderson (Mets).



The Jays still have a bunch of options available to them. The market is dragging deep into the off-season due to the perfect storm of a new CBA, agents misreading the market, a deep supply of corner outfield power bats and a robust trade market. Patience is the name of the game right now. Knowing when to pull the trigger on their priorities moving forward will be the challenge for Shapiro and Atkins.

I left Jose Bautista off of my list of available corner outfielders. I don’t see a path that leads him back to Toronto for his 10th season. The Jays want to become younger and more athletic. They want to change the clubhouse culture. They want to add balance to their lineup. They also want the additional draft pick they will get if Jose signs somewhere else.



I don’t anticipate the Jays making a play for Trumbo, though his power is obviously intriguing. His defence is worse than Bautista’s in the outfield. Toronto seems to have no appetite for trading a starter for an outfielder, which is what it would take to acquire McCutcheon, Braun or Blackmon.

I predict they will end up with one of Bruce, Moss or Saunders and one of Revere, Granderson or Pagan.



I also expect that Shapiro and Atkins will sign one of Jerry Blevins, Boone Logan or Travis Wood to replace Brett Cecil in the bullpen. If they lose out on those three veteran lefties Javier Lopez or J.P. Howell may fit.



Baseball shopping is a lot like Christmas shopping: the prices are lower after the holidays. There is a greater sense of urgency because players want to know where they will be playing in the upcoming season.

Steve Phillips was general manager of the New York Mets from 1997 through 2003, helping lead the club to a National League championship in 2000 and its first World Series appearance since 1986. His analysis appears each week on TSN.ca, TSN Radio and SportsCentre.