Memo to Toronto Blue Jay General Manager J.P. Ricciardi: You can take Vernon Wells out of the “holiday” greeting card, but please, please don’t take him out of the line-up.
Ricciardi and the Toronto Blue Jays brass took their annual off-season shopping trip to the winter baseball meetings in Florida this week and came back with a lot of room still on the old credit card.
They should use it to make a pitch to keep Wells, their standout centre fielder. He has one year left on his contract, turns 28 today and should be heading into the most productive stage of his career. If he ever finally learns the strike zone (some players never do) Wells is going to be unstoppable at the plate.
He’s already looking Devon White-like in centre field.
The Jays are a couple of players away from being competitive in the AL East and Ted Rogers has loosened the purse strings even further in a bid to field a team that will fill up all those empty seats at the stadium formerly known as SkyDome.
Ricciardi went to Florida shopping for pitching but came home without re-signing Ted Lilly, who threw more curve balls at the manager last year than he got over the plate.
The callow Lilly has a lifetime record that is one game over .500, and he managed to land a $40 million four-year deal. That shows you the inflated value of mediocrity in baseball. The Jays’ other main pitching target in a poor free-agent pitching market, Gil Meche, also got away.
Instead of trying to find arms that tread water at the .500 level, the Jays need to lock up Wells.
But they look like they’re doing the same prolonged disentanglement dance with him that they did with the last great man who got away- Carlos Delgado.
Wells is not included in the promotional pictures for the 2007 campaign, or in
their greeting card.
Speaking of a white Christmas, do you think somebody should tell J.P. that the colour barrier has been broken – since 1947?
Maybe the Jays have to get rid of Wells because they’ve already signed Frank Thomas. Just as striking is the lack of Latino players on the roster. Now that Bengie Molina is gone, among the position players and starters, it’s just Alex Rios and Gus Chacin.
If the Jays let the hard-working, five-tool Wells get away, they’ll just be going backwards and they will have blown it twice in a row with their franchise superstars.
Maybe management just needs someone to light a bonfire under it. Where is Damasco Garcia now that we need him?
Comments (2)
How can you even compare Wells to Devon White?? White was an slightly above average outfielder and was brutal at the plate. The only reason he got any notoriety was playing for a championship team in Toronto where stars are created by the fans who cheer for that team.( How many so-so hockey players have reached legendary status when they become leafs, read : Doug Gilmour). Wells is the face and cornerstone of this franchise, and may be the best allround player in the game, he can do everything exceptionally well. He should be paid as one of the top 5 players in the game, I just hope he means what he says when he would like to stay in Toronto. Please no more comparisons of Wells to has beens and never wases.
Posted by jim mccarthy | December 15, 2006 4:09 PM
Posted on December 15, 2006 16:09
It would be great if the Jays could keep Wells.
He's the kind of player that you can re-build a team around.
Still unless the Jays can beef up their starting rotation I think they're going to have a hard time making a serious run in the AL east.
Posted by OJ | December 9, 2006 3:33 AM
Posted on December 9, 2006 03:33