According to Baseball Reference.. Delgado made $19,400,000 in 2002 and $19,700,000 in 2004..

If the Jays maintain their current payroll of 80,500,000 in 2011, Wells’ salary will eat up about 28% of their payroll..

Delgado’s salary in 2002 was 19,400,000..The payroll that season was 76,864,333..Just over 25% of the teams total payroll..

Delgado did pretty good during those 4 seasons averaging more then 30HR and 100 RBI’s..But the team results weren’t there and his salary became a major problem..

The Wells contract will plague this team moving forward..Rumor has it, they are looking to unload Wells with Halladay..Nice move Riccardi..

MW: I wouldn’t believe that rumour. According to Cot’s baseball contracts, Delgado made $17.2 million in 2002 and $18.5 million in 2004.

No Delgado didn’t make 20 mil..He made 19mil and change for 2 of those years..We can debate weather or not Delgado is worth that kind of money but it wasn’t a good contract for a team like the Jays..

They just can’t afford to be wrong..Aside from Halladay and maybe Clemons, the big money players haven’t worked out..I just wonder how many more times will they will overpay to bring players to Canada..

Do you think the Jays have to pay more to bring free agents to Canada?..If so why?

MW: Delgado never even made as much as $19 million any season with the Jays. I do think the Jays have to pay more to bring free agents to Canada – big ones, anyway – because it’s a foreign country. It’s not home and we’re not exactly dealing with well-rounded world travellers here.

I see your point about Delgado but the payroll for the Jays when they signed him was around 76mil..

The payroll dropped a few seasons after his contract was signed..

The Wells and the Delgado contracts are very similar..The salary is “back loaded” ..The final four years of Wells’ contract pays him more then 20mil a season as did the last few seasons of Delgado’s contract..

If the payroll drops over the next few seasons, the Wells contract will end up eating a large percentage of the total payroll just like the Delgado contract did..

You have said in the past that the Wells contract may have been Godfreys deal but nonetheless, its a pattern we have seen from this organization for years and you’d figure they may have learned a thing or two..

In my humble opinion, there are only a handful of players worth 100 million dollar contracts..Wells isn’t one of them..Halladay is..

MW: Halladay is for what he’s done, but not necessarily for what he will do at ages 36+. Delgado never made as much as $20 million when he was with the Jays, and though the payroll was higher when Delgado signed his deal, Ricciardi’s complaints were legit, since the payroll he had to deal with from day one was far lower.

MW: It is twice as easy now to make the playoffs as it was in 92 and 93, but remember that the ’92 and ’93 Jays were the biggest spenders in the game. That’s certainly not the case now.

I’ve been hearing rumors lately that Wells and Rios are thought to be less than adequete outfielders by most experts. Ive even heard that The Fielding Bible ranked Wells as the 32nd best CF in the league prior to the 2009 season. Is there any truth to this rumor?

MW: I don’t remember Wells’ exact ranking in The Fielding Bible for the 2008 season, but it was definitely in the bottom grouping. He was bottom five in Zone Rating, I believe. Rios, though, is recognized as perhaps the best right fielder in the game by the same people.

regarding my post where I said the Jays could use BJs $10 million next year – I meant if some other team had decided to take him off their hands if he had performed a bit better the end of this season. Then, assuming the budget remained the same, they would have an extra $10 million. I wasn’t very clear.
Anyhow, not too important. He’s gone and it’s done.

Enjoy the weekend, Mike, though I guess that doesn’t make much of a difference for you (except the day games).

MW: Only one day game this weekend. No matter how well Ryan had pitched the second half of the season, no one was going to take that $10 million off the Jays’ hands.

I was also curious about the fact that BJ would have to be willing to go down to the minors. Is that a new rule? because I have never heard of it. I always figured if they are paying the player they could make him play wherever they wanted.

MW: Not sarcastic at all. They certainly could have won, but they couldn’t have reasonably expected to. Rolen sat because Rolen has sat for most day games after night games all season, and he’s stayed healthy and strong. It’s not a new rule that players with 5+ years of major-league service have to agree to be sent to the minors for anything other than a rehab assignment.

MW: Selig keeps his job because his owners are making more money now than they ever have, franchise values are higher than they’ve ever been, and MLB keeps setting attendance records. I don’t know how much that has to do with the Yankees.