I'm with Glevin in hoping that this leads to more Rios in CF and Wells at one of the corners. They should definitely try. This would be a good, tactful way to protect his ego and get him out of CF. "Well Vern, we really want you in the lineup, so we're going to put Alexi in CF and let him do all that extra running so we can protect you. We REALLY want you in the lineup, you're just that important to us."

Politics should have no place on the ball diamond. Unfortunately, as we saw with A-Rod and Jeter, they play far too big a role.

I'm with 92-93 on this one too, this is pathethic that Wells has reinjured this hamstring already.

Hammy's can be a real b*tch. I remember in a Jays Mariners preseason game in Vancouver years ago Edgar Martinez pulled his hammy and was more or less out all season. Vernons got a REAL problem - when you get recurring injuries to your hamstring you gotta think they'll keep coming back.

I wouldn't be surprised to see Rios in center, Lind in left (HOPEFULLY platooned with Patterson who would face lefties - I've gotta' keep working for my man Ryan), Snider in right, with Vernon "the Gimp" Wells at DH.

With 42 days before Detroit's at the Rogers for the opener - at least we've time to get Vernon well enough to DH if nothing else.

In Blair's blog he quoted Vernon as saying, "They're saying it could be scar tissue", resulting from the hamstring strain from the previous season.

I ask this question with admitted ingnorance, but could the MRI show that this is nothing at all to worry about?  I remember when Burnett thought he had re-injured his elbow and it turned out that it was just scar tissue breaking up from his previous TJ surgery.

I hate the fact that (potentially) VW's contract could preclude extending Doc. Let's face it, we need VW to have an all-star first part of the year so we can trade him to a contender who needs a power OF bat - he still has the reputation of a GG winner so maybe if someone sweeps in and takes ManRam from the Dodgers, those old talks of VW to the Dodgers could be rekindled...if he gets healthy and productive. If all this season provides is a chance to watch the kids break in at various points in the year, dumping VW without taking a bad contract back and extending Doc, it'll be almost as good as making the playoffs...the refuge of a Blue Jays fan (sigh).

Moving Wells to one of the corners and putting Rios in CF full-time has to be a consideration at this point. Vernon's defense already took a hit last season, and it figures to get worse if his hamstring isssues continue to pop up. At some point, putting Wells at DH and having an OF of Lind-Rios-Snider left to right might have to be a consideration, but that is only if Wells continues to get hurt, which remains to be seen.

Wells is not going to opt-out of his contract. I believe his opt-out is after the 2011 season, when he's owed $63 million over the final three years of his contract. No team in their right mind is going to offer Vernon more than $21 million per on his next deal, unless Ricciardi/Godfrey are running another ballclub by then. He will be here until the end of his contract, unless the Jays swing a deal for an equally bad contract (i.e. Michael Young, Barry Zito, etc).

Blair reports that Wells' injury isn't as bad as originally thought, and they're now considering 4 weeks a "worst case scenario".  That's the good news.  The bad news (and it's really bad news, especially for a CF) is that because of the nature of the injury Wells will now have chronic hamstring problems.  Blair even mused in his blog that for the rest of Wells' career he'll essentially be, "day-to-day".  Perhaps Wells to LF and Snider to RF might be an even better option than switching Wells with Rios.  It's scary to think that Wells might eventually become one very expensive DH.  Yikes.

http://sports.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20090224.wsptvernon0224/GSStory/GlobeSports/home

How many players make/made $20 million in a season even with the economy in good shape? I can't imagine that list includes even 10 players. A-Rod, Ramirez, Jeter, Giambi, Bonds, Sabathia, Santana, Teixeira.....??? Those are elite players. Even Delgado, arguably the greatest hitter in Blue Jays history, never touched $20 million in a season. So even if Vernon does well in 2009-11, what are the chances that a team pays a non-elite talent like him more than what the Jays already owe him? Unless Wells turns into Pujols over night, I would say the chances of him opting out are somewhere between unlikely and not in a million years (closer to the latter).

Burnett made a non-elite salary for a starter, even when the Jays overpaid him initially. He wasn't one of the top 10 paid players in the league, not even close, so it wasn't unreasonable to assume he would opt-out if he had a breakout season or two. Wells will be one of top 10-15 highest paid players in baseball when his salary starts to kick into the $20M+ range. Hard to improve on that, especially now with his health being a question mark long-term (which may effectively kill his "2-way" status as a player by the end of 2011).

Except Burnett didn't have a breakout season or two, he had one year where he started over 25 games with an ERA around league average.  Basically he is the same guy the Jays signed a few years ago except with more wear and tear on him.

I think most observers will tell you that Burnett pitched a lot better than his ERA indicated in 2008, especially down the stretch against Boston and New York. Take out his April (where I believe he had a finger nail problem), and he had a 3.75 ERA over 192 innings. He also lead the league in strike outs and threw 220 innings overall. That's in the AL East, not the National League. Burnett's value increased dramatically from the time he signed the contract to his opt-out. A flame throwing #2 starter in his early-30's is far more likely to get big dollars in free agency than a corner OF with bad hammy's and non-elite performance (what Wells might be in 2012).

As to who made $20 million in 2008 - via Baseball Reference - A-Rod, Giambi, Jeter.  A few others could be argued to be depending on how you allocate bonus money.  All time there are 8 contracts that were over $20 mil a year in annual value - ARod (twice), Clemens (twice), Sabathia, Santana, Teixeira, Ramirez (a second for him is on the way I'm sure).  There are another 12 in the $18-19 million range.  Most have been signed in the past 3 years.

Out of that list (steroids aside), there are four guaranteed Hall of Famers (Manny/A-Rod/Clemens/Jeter), probably the only starter in this generation young enough to get a chance at 300 wins (Sabathia), a top 3 starter in all of baseball (Santana), a hitter with the 47th best adjusted OPS+ in baseball history (Giambi), and a career .919 OPS hitter still in his prime (Teix). Those are elite talent. Where does Wells fit into that equation? He's not even close.

Even if the market does get better three years from now, how does that eliminate the warts in Vernon's game? You are assuming that $21 million will be the equivalent of $15 million today (for example), but many would argue $15 million today is an overpayment for Wells. Two years after Wells signed his contract, he is now enormously overpaid, and that is despite the fact that he had one of his better seasons in 2008 (offensively).

Delgado is not a relevent point as his contract ran out in 2004, well before $20 million annual values started being common (he signed when A-Rod, Manny, and Jeter got their big contracts).  It would be like saying 'Dave Stieb never got $10 million a year so it is crazy to pay that to Halladay' or 'Tom Henke didn't so neither should Ryan'.

Delgado signed his contract at the height of salaries in the late-90's/early-00's, right before the market went down again in 2002-ish. Those were the days when Chan Ho Park was getting $15 million a season, and (as you mentioned) guys like Jeter and Ramirez got their big contracts. The market for elite position players did not change much from Delgado's contract to Vernon's. It went down a bit after Delgado's contract (2002-04) but went up again after that. An elite offensive player would get $15-20 million back then, with the real top guys in the 20's. That is still the case today (Manny, Teix) and two years ago when Wells was signed. Of course some teams are foolish (Toronto with Wells, Anaheim with Hunter, etc), but I think since the beginning of the decade $20M has been the barometer for elite talent. Delgado came very very close to that, but never touched it. Wells will surpass it from 2010-2014. We are talking one of the richest contracts EVER. In the history of the game.

Whether you feel Delgado is a relevant comparison or not, doesn't change the fact that Vernon's salary is still reserved for the cream of the crop in baseball. He's not even close from a talent standpoint. Sure, salaries could inflate again. Then again, Ramirez signed his contract in 2000. Nine years later, how many players have surpassed him in salary? A-Rod, Clemens, Sabathia, etc? Less than 10, closer to 5. That's accounting for quite a bit of market change since it covers almost a decade.

My point is, if Wells were making $12-15 million a year, then an opt-out was at least a realistic possibility depending on performance. But expecting the market to change so much to the point where A-Rod money becomes a starting point for an 110 OPS+ corner OF in his 30's is a tad premature, IMO.