Chappy

No he wouldn't and he would likely be a cancer to this team if he was relegated to a backup. Get him the f*** out.

No way AA trades for him.

It was a poor April/May for Dickey, but he was actually quite good the following four months. Buehrle settled in as well as the season progressed. If Morrow can give this team 150 solid innings, this team takes a big step forward, the problem is counting on Morrow isn't enough.

I'm sure AA would have little trouble attracting significant interest for Rasmus.

Yup, but I would rather just extend Rasmus. He is young enough that we could get the best years out of him. I would much prefer to move Bautista.

AA has always tried to get guys with multiple years of control for the most part. If Rasmus is in the plans for 2014, I would think AA will explore an extension, otherwise deal him off for rotation needs.

I would be shocked if AA doesn't either extend Rasmus or trade him.

Your scenario commits more money to him in 2014 than what he is expected to make. I would think AA tries to get it below his projected salary to free more money in the short term.

I think 5/65 is probably what it would take. Something where he gets $3M in 2014, followed by 12/16/17/17. It frees up a bit more for the coming year, and the 2015 salary is team friendly. From 2016 onwards a lot of money will be off he books which makes this type of contract work.

Yup. I wouldn't be surprised at all if that happened.

Ken Rosenthal reporting today that Brandon Phillips will be moved. http://www.redlegsreview.com/2013/11/ken-rosenthal-brandon-phillips-is-goner.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+TheRedlegsReview+%28Redlegs+Review%29 I expect AA to be in on this.

Yup lots of payroll flexibility after 2015, I just hope we don't end up with several bad contracts as a result. As it stands, the only major commitment this team has past 2015 is Reyes. I could certainly see AA extending Rasmus and allocating some of his projected 2014 salary to future years.

I'm expecting Izzy to bounce back somewhat, that being said, if Kawasaki can be brought back and someone wants to take Izzy off our hands I would do that. The real problem is that Izzy should be the primary backup not the starting 2B.

Take JP out of the equation, assuming AA does either trade him or non tender him and that gets us to about $20M to work with as things currently stand. Happ and Janssen are obvious pieces that should be in play as well. I can envision Happ being moved as a salary dump and I'm sure it wouldn't be that hard considering what the FA market will be priced at. That gets us to ~$29M without losing anything significant. Definitely enough to get us another innings eater and catcher via FA and then AA probably looks to the trade front to get us that frontline SP.

TORONTO -- Blue Jays general manager Alex Anthopoulos might have to be a little creative this offseason in order to get the most out of his projected payroll for the 2014 campaign. Toronto is notoriously secretive about its annual budget, but various reports have suggested the club will be able to spend approximately $150 million next season. Anthopoulos has yet to comment on a specific figure, and he frequently talks about having certain parametres accompanied with an ability to approach ownership with various proposals. If next year's payroll does hover around $150 million, it would be an increase of approximately $30 million from 2013 and almost $77 million more than the club spent in '12. Despite the added funds, there likely will be a certain limitation on what the Blue Jays can do this offseason. The Blue Jays have 15 players under guaranteed contracts for 2014 and four who are eligible for arbitration. The current projected payroll appears to be $132.9 million, which would leave slightly more than $17 million on the estimated figure to spend in free agency or through trades. However, there are ways that Anthopoulos could increase the amount of available funds even if he does get capped at $150 million. Here's a closer look at Toronto's current salary commitments and several ways the club could increase the available money: Guaranteed contracts Edwin Encarnacion ($9M), Maicer Izturis ($3M), Jose Reyes ($16M), Melky Cabrera ($8M), Jose Bautista ($14M), Adam Lind ($7M), Josh Thole ($1.25M), R.A. Dickey ($12M), Mark Buehrle ($18M), Brandon Morrow ($8M), J.A. Happ ($5.2M), Casey Janssen ($4M), Sergio Santos ($3.75M), Dustin McGowan ($1.5M), Ricky Romero ($7.5M). Eligible for arbitration Colby Rasmus, J.P. Arencibia, Esmil Rogers, Brett Cecil Prominent pre-arbitration eligible players Brett Lawrie, Steve Delabar, Aaron Loup, Ryan Goins, Anthony Gose, Moises Sierra, Drew Hutchison, Luis Perez, Kyle Drabek, Jeremy Jeffress, Chad Jenkins, Brad Lincoln, Kevin Pillar, Todd Redmond. Each player would receive in the range of $500,000 if they made the 25-man roster. Total estimated payroll: $132,900,000 Areas for potential savings Arencibia: The Blue Jays have been exploring the market for a potential upgrade behind the plate. If that happens, Toronto likely would deal Arencibia to another team and offset the salary of his replacement while acquiring an asset in return. Arencibia could stick around in a backup role, but that would seem unlikely considering Thole is already contract for next season. Happ: The southpaw is owed $5.2 million in 2014, with a $6.7 million option for '15, which includes a $200,000 buyout. Happ is not the frontline starter the Blue Jays are currently in the market for, but he does provide some depth and is a relatively nice fit in the No. 5 spot. Toronto does have other back-end rotation options, though, and the club should have Hutchison, Drabek, Rogers, Redmond and prospect Marcus Stroman competing for that role next year. Trading Happ could remain a possibility, and his salary could then be allocated to other areas. Romero: The left-hander likely could use a change of scenery following a pair of frustrating seasons in Toronto's organization. The former ace spent almost the entire 2013 season with Triple-A Buffalo and still has $15.6 million in guaranteed money remaining on his contract. Romero likely will be difficult to trade, but even if the Blue Jays eat a large portion of his contract, any type of savings could be used to help upgrade the overall roster. Rasmus: This would seem like one of the more unlikely options, but the Blue Jays could open up some additional salary by trading the outfielder to fill another area of need. Gose is waiting in the wings and could be ready to take the next step on a permanent basis. That would result in a drop of production at the plate, but Gose does have plenty of upside in the field and on the basepaths. Still, it's hard to envision Toronto parting ways with Rasmus unless it receives a really enticing offer. Lind: The first baseman is set to earn $7 million next season, and the club could look to trade him and search for a cheaper alternative. The chance of that happening, though, doesn't appear to be all that great considering the Blue Jays recently picked up the option on his contract for 2014 instead of using a $2 million buyout. There would be cheaper alternatives available through free agency, but Toronto would still have to use a rather large amount of cash to replace Lind's production against right-handed pitching out of the designated-hitter spot. Bautista: Make no mistake about it, the Blue Jays aren't going to trade the slugger just for the sake of lowering their payroll. Anthopoulos emphatically dismissed the Bautista for Philadelphia's Domonic Brown rumours earlier this week, which really never seemed to make much sense in the first place. There aren't really any untouchables on Toronto's roster, but the Blue Jays would undoubtedly need a high-end starter in return for one of their franchise players.

Didn't see this posted anywhere. Nothing we all don't already know, other than speculation that the payroll will be around $150M. http://mlb.mlb.com/news/article/tor/blue-jays-general-manager-alex-anthopoulos-may-have-to-get-creative-with-payroll?ymd=20131114&content_id=63924540&vkey=news_tor

From AA's perspective it's probably more important to him to win now at all costs and worry about the future later. As it stands if this team isn't playing meaningful games down the stretch, he may very we'll be out of a job.

Based on what? He is actually a good pitcher. Would be a significant boost to our rotation, the only real issue is the cost of trading for him.

It's probably his third priority right now. Catching and SP need to be addressed first. Worst case, we could probably get by at 2B internally if the upgrade at catcher and SP is significant.

Getting rid of JPA should be the first priority. Addition by subtraction.

He probably ends up out performing every SP in the Jays rotation. That's just the way s*** flows.

Some, but many still think we should keep him around. Most fans really don't know how bad he is. They hear him talk about his HR's and RBI's and they end up thinking he is a run producer. Outside of these boards most fans don't know much about any advanced stats, let alone wrapping their heads around basic stats like WHIP and OPS. It's really just a small percentage from my experiences.

The average fan thinks quite highly of JP, it's f***ing ridiculous.

f*** JP.

He f***ing better be. It's painfully obvious that he needs to be replaced and it now appears like he very well will be. Replacing JPA could end up being the most significant improvement when it's all said and done.