The draft order and budgets are now set with Shields signing out in San Diego. It doesn't look good for the Jays and might explain why they are planning to blow the budget on international free agents.
Via MLB Trade Rumors you can see the situation... Jays are drafting #29 in the first round (the #3 compensation pick) and have a $5.63 mil cap to work with, the 7th smallest cap. For comparison....
Yankees: draft #16 & #30 and have a $8.21 million cap - the 6th biggest in MLB
Red Sox: draft #7, lost their competitive draft pick and 2nd round pick, cap of $6.48 mil, 2 slots above the Jays (A's inbetween)
Orioles: draft #25, 36 and have a $7.99 mil budget to work with (9th biggest)
Rays: draft #13, budget of $6.86 mil to work with (one notch ahead of the Red Sox).
So the Jays have the smallest budget and latest first pick for the AL East (kind of go hand-in-hand). Definitely a good year to blow a fortune on IFA's.
In other news, the Jays are hunting for more relievers on the cheap while the first spring training game is less than a month away (March 3rd vs the Pirates in Dunedin). 30 games in March (including one vs the Canadian Jr team) and 3 more spring games in April (2 in Montreal) before the season starts April 6th vs the Yankees. Also February 22nd is the pitchers/catchers reporting day for the Jays (a handful start on the 18th).
Also, Baseball Prospectus has their top 101 prospects. Jays are Sanchez #25, Norris #34, Pompey #42, Hoffman #73. Ex-Jays Syndergaard is #9, Barreto #74.
https://www.battersbox.ca/article.php?story=20150210103012401