BLUE JAYS 101

After having some disagreements over one-year salary negotiations with Brandon Morrow that looked like they were headed to arbitration, the Toronto Blue Jays have announced that they have locked up their number two pitcher for the next three years at the team friendly price of 20 million. The deal also contains a fourth year club option for an additional ten million. This contract will buy out Morrow's two remaining arbitration eligible years (2012 and 2013) as well as his first year of free agency. 

This has to be considered a victory for Alex Anthopoulos and the Jays front office in an offseason that has been full of relative disappointments. The perennially underachieving Morrow figures to a solid value at this price even if he doesn't make the progress that has been expected of him for well over a year now. Morrow has combined for 7.1 wins above replacement over the past two years, a figure that saw him provide a value to the Blue Jays organization of more than 30 million dollars. If he were to go to free agency in two years, it's not out of the question that some minor improvements in his ERA could see him land a contract with an average annual value of 15 million dollars. Instead, if the Jays pick up their club option on him in 2015, they will have paid him an average of precisely half that figure per year. 

Few major league pitchers possess the strikeout prowess of  Morrow. His 11.5% swinging strike rate was second among all qualified starting pitchers last year. While some poor outcomes in statistical categories that are frequently referred to as luck based (batting average on balls in play and left on base percentage) have prevented Morrow from reaching the status that his strikeout abilities would suggest, he is still a valuable asset to the organization even if those issues never correct themselves.

With Morrow's new deal, this leaves only reliever Casey Janssen headed to arbitration this offseason. Janssen's eventual signing figures to be the last remaining piece of business for the Jays before the season opens, so it will bear watching – if only because there is little else to watch. 

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