I was thinking about something and give the money being spend, if the Jays had done things differently, they could had been looking at a much better roster while spending even less money.
This is based on the players that were available at this time, but basically, for the money being spend, the Jays could had gotten Darvish, Anibal Sanchez, and a star 2B, while keeping promising prospect Henderson Alvarez.
Current money spend on a few players- 70M
Jose Reyes - 16M
Mark Buehrle - 19M
RA DIckey - 12M
Adam Lind - 7M
Brandon Morrow - 8M
Rickey Romero - 7.5M
Scenario - If jays got it right,
Don't do Miami Marlins Trade
Don't do RA Dickey Trade
Keep Henderon Alvarez and Adeiny
Trade Yunel (had to because of slur)
Don't sign Romero, Lind and Morrow to contract extensions, and go year by year
Sign Anibal Sanchez in 2012 off-season
Sign Yu Darvish in 2011 off-season to huge bucks
Trade the prospects NOah, Justin N. and Travis D'Arnaud for 2nd Baseman instead
You got this instead
Henderon Alvarez - a 4 something ERA guy in the AL, min. salary
Romero - 0 he be cut
Morrow - 6M
Lind - 3 M
Anibal Sanchez - 18M (give him 5 yr/90M)
Yu Darvish - 20M (55M posting fee, plus 6 yr/66M)
Super 2B (say Ian Kinsler) - 15M
Total: 62M
For 8M less, you get the following:
Rotation: Anibal Sanchez, Darvish, Alvarez, Stroman and Hutchison
1B - EE
2B - Kinsler or super 2B
SS - Adeiny, so so batt
3B - lawrie
C - Naravo
CF - Rasmus
RF - Bautista
LF - Melky Cabrer
No 3 catch roster, Gose - 4 Outfielder
Basically, you don't have Reyes speed but you a SS who's good defensively and durable. To compensate, you get a quality 2B. and a much stronger rotation