Here is an interesting attempt to rank the contributions that each team received from their "core" players.
Each player's WARP (WAR) is multiplied by both an age indexing factor and a team control indexing factor. Young players with lots of team control see their WARP value rise - old players nearing free agency see their WARP value fall. A "core player" is arbitrarily defined as somebody with a Core Warp of 5.0 or greater.
The Blue Jays are found to have only one core player - Marcus Stroman. That's tied with the Padres for the fewest core players in baseball. Toronto ranks 28th in the composite Team Core Value ranking.
http://www.baseballprospectus.com/article.php?articleid=25034#.VGOV1TFVHhE.twitter
My Comments
1) I think this is interesting and I think it serves to highlight a lot of the concerns that fans have with the current structure of the Blue Jays roster. If you are a fan that thinks the Blue Jays need to take advantage of an apparent competitive window that could slam shut in the not too distant future, this article affirms your beliefs.
2) The study is purely descriptive. It is not predictive (the article mentions this explicitly). The WARP values are actual WARP values from the 2014 season. A "truer" rank of core value moving forward would use projections for future seasons. (This would likely turn Lawrie, Hutchison, and Norris into "core players").
3) The study has a potential bias towards teams with money. The Dodgers lead the league in Team Core Value largely because they have been able to purchase many years of control on good players like Gonzalez, Greinke, and Kemp. (But LA still deserves much credit for developing and smartly acquiring core guys like Puig, Kershaw, and Ryu). Veteran players like Cano and Ellsbury are also considered core players because of their production + how much team control they come with, but the study treats 3 years of arbitration control the exact same as 3 years of control at $25 million dollars. 6 years of a highly talented rookie should be considered a superior 'core' asset than 6 years of Jacoby Ellsbury at $21M, because the cost of your core affects the rest of your baseball team.