Toronto Blue Jays general manager Ross Atkins has mentioned that he wants to stay around the same payroll as they did last season but his off-season plans heavily contradict that.
Blue Jays GM Ross Atkins continues to contradict himself
The Blue Jays were one of the teams to take a meeting with Juan Soto who is seeking a $700 million contract and are rumored to be after big time players such as Max Fried this off-season.
When looking at the Blue Jays current players on the roster versus their payroll from last season, that leaves them about $25-30 million to spend on free agents which is clearly not enough to fill all of their holes and bring in just one star player.
How are they in on Soto and Max Fried if there's also talk of a $25-30 million budget? This one's likely the simplest to explain. Last off-season, ownership at Rogers Communications Inc., which also owns Sportsnet, approved an offer of approximately $700 million for Shohei Ohtani but that was considered a special circumstance. The money was there for Ohtani, but wasn't available to redistribute elsewhere. -Nicholson-Smith
One again fans are scratching their heads as general manager Ross Atkins' plan does not seem to make any sense.
Atkins continues to state that he wants to make some big moves this off-season but with so little budget it is hard to see how he would be able to make big signings this winter unless his comments on the payroll were completely inaccurate which is a possibility.
Fans are discourage by Atkins for exactly this reason, he never seems to know what he is talking about.