1:51 PM Eastern
The Blue Jays officially announced Brandon Morrow’s new contract at a morning news conference at Rogers Centre. The righty, of whom everyone has very high hopes, signed a three-year deal worth a guaranteed $21 million. Morrow will get $4 million this season – which is just below the midpoint of the exchanged arbitration figures of $3.9MM and $4.2MM – and he’ll get bumped up to $8 million in each of 2013 and 2014, with the Jays holding a 2015 club option for $10 million. If they don’t exercise that option, it’ll cost them a million bucks to buy it out.
Morrow did pretty well for himself, even if he did leave money on the table in a best-case scenario. As Alex Anthopoulos said, though, he tells players that he hopes they do cost themselves money by signing long-term, because it will mean that they’ve performed well, and they’ll wind up getting that money back and more in their next contract.
In his two seasons with the Blue Jays, Morrow has been a bit of a tease. He has spectacular stuff, and in August of 2010 threw one of the best games ever pitched; a 1-0 shutout of the Tampa Bay Rays in which he had a no-hitter with two out in the 9th and struck out 17. He’s also had some brutal outings, with two starts this past season in which he failed to get out of the fourth inning and allowed a combined 12 runs on 12 hits, and a blow-up against the Red Sox in which he gave up nine runs on 10 hits in just 4 1/3 innings.
Morrow admitted today that there are some games in which he pitches like Cy Young and others in which he looks like a guy who should be in A-ball, and that he knows that the difference between the great pitchers and everybody else with great stuff is simply the ability to be consistently good.
He also said that he might be too nice a guy. Morrow mentioned that a common thread among great pitchers is that they go to the mound with a bit of a chip on their shoulder. He went on to say that he believes that in one’s demeanour, there needs to be “a certain level of a**hole in order to succeed.” Morrow added that “it pays to be a bit of a jerk out there”. And he’s right.
Think back to Roy Halladay, arguably the greatest pitcher the Blue Jays have ever had. Nice, quiet, soft-spoken guy, to be sure, but out on the mound he was always angry. In 12 years of covering Halladay with the Jays, I believe I saw him smile on the mound only once – when Marco Scutaro and John McDonald made a bit of magic around the second-base bag – but that was it. The other two pitchers who you could argue were the best in Blue Jays history, Dave Stieb and Roger Clemens, were complete, utter, unrepentant a**holes between the white lines (at least).
Morrow said that losing to the Yankees on September 2nd – a one-run loss in which he gave up a two-run Yankee Stadium Special to Brett Gardner – made him mad. So did getting his ears pinned back by the Red Sox in each of his next two outings. After that, he channeled that anger and aggressiveness, took it out to the mound with him, and ran off a streak of 18 consecutive scoreless innings in his last three starts of the season against the Yankees, Rays and White Sox. Both John Farrell and Anthopoulos said they thought something “clicked” with Morrow in that time, and Morrow said it was that he was bringing out his inner a**hole – being the aggressor on the mound instead of trying to pitch like Greg Maddux.
The Blue Jays, and Morrow, will be very well-served if that chip stays on his shoulder for the rest of his career.
Omar Vizquel wasn’t there, but Anthopoulos touched on his signing a minor-league deal with an invite to Spring Training, saying that the Hall of Famer-to-be is coming to camp expecting to make the team, not simply to be a mentor or a coach. That said, Anthopoulos also believes that the time that Adeiny Hechevarria will spend with Vizquel during Spring Training, and that Yunel Escobar will spend with him all year, can be nothing but a help to the two young shortstops. If Vizquel makes the team, he’ll earn $750,000 for the season.
Anthopoulos also mentioned that the Jays are continuing to discuss trade possibilities, with the likeliest add being a late-inning bullpen arm. Last night, the Jays got close in discussions with the Rangers about acquiring Koji Uehara, but things fell apart. There are reports that Uehara exercised his no-trade clause to stop the deal.
The next Blue Jays event on the calendar, barring another deal, is the annual State of The Franchise. That’s set for next Monday, January 30, and I’ll be there to fill you in on all the goings-on. Make sure you give me a follow on The Twitter to get it all in real-time, you can find me @wilnerness590.
If you’re interested in following the storymakers of today and last night, go find @2Morrow23 and @VizquelOmar13.
Comments are always welcome – I read them all and reply to most!
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Looking forward to the SOTF soiree next week. My favourite thing about being a season ticket holder. Think anyone will bring up Fielder to AA or Beeston?? :)
- RainaTwo blog posts in a 24 hour period is pretty sweet!
Mike, I want to give you some credit. My wife has gotten more into baseball because she enjoys listening to Jays Talk so much. Later last season she began asking me some evenings “Isn’t there a game on?” 4 years in and marriage keeps getting better. For me, I always find your commentary to be above the hysteria that seems to affect a rather large portion of the Jays fan base. Keep up the good work!
Anyways, compliments given, I have one stylistic complaint. In your blog posts, you double space after a period. When this practice is used in internet writing, it leaves some awkward spaces at the beginning of a line (see above). You should think about skipping this altogether.
MW: Jordan Bastian tried to talk me into doing that years ago. It’s a really hard habit to break, but Twitter is helping.
- Josh CGenerally speaking, I think its a fair contract. Seems like an in-between contract where if Morrow pitches to his potential, this will be a good deal for Jays and if Morrow is the same inconsistent pitcher he has been for the past 2 years then the Jays still aren’t severely overpaying. It’d be a very trade-able contract.
Personally, I am weary of the Jays payroll. Quietly, they are likely going to be in the low $80s million mark for 2012 with only 2 bonafide/established all-stars on the roster in Bautista and Romero. I think their payroll will easily move into the high $80s to $90+ million range in 2013 just to keep the team and core of young players in tact (considering raises for the players). So really, without making external improvements, they are significantly increasing their payroll. This reminds me too much of early 2000s when Rogers bought the team and increased the payroll from $52 mil to $76 mil but the dramatic increase in payroll was primarily just to keep existing players (Delgado, A.Gon, etc.).
MW: I’m not sure having a payroll that’s forced to increase because of internal factors is a bad thing. Why do you think so?
- JTmichael,
- darrell bishopomar vizquel indeed. sure bet hall of famer invited to camp. how about that?
11 gold gloves for the man. incredible.
and was kinda thinking they might do the same sort of thing this winter when a few teams were kicking the tires on pudge for a backup catcher spot. or maybe he was kicking their tires. not sure about that.
was thinking with j.p. getting a vast majority of the games this yr. behind the plate. maybe a perfect opportunity to get pudge to hang around for a season and show em’ the ropes.
how cool might that have been michael?
might not have helped the team all that much in the win column but a great what if all the same i think…
omar and pudge… 2 hands down hall of famers, 24 gold gloves between them, both on the same team. and coulda been the blue jays? man…
that would have really been something my friend i tell you.
9 year, 214 million, 23mill/season? For a 1B who doesn’t hit lefties all that well, is a defensive liability and is a huge risk to pack on the pounds and become unproductive in 5 years?
I’m glad the Jays didn’t sign him, thats ridiculous. Well done Prince.
MW: And even better done Scott Boras. The man is a magician.
- RickWell Mike AA is continuing to make moves out of no where. Vizquel is now aboard and so is Cordero. And I like both moves alot. And I thought the Jays were going into the season with the roster they had. Do you see the Jays trading for a starter still or are they set? In your opinion
MW: I think they’re still trying to deal for a starter, but I’m guessing Alex didn’t like the landscape.
- Mikeits good they got Cordero to set up because I don’t trust the set up guys the jays have. Too inconsistent.
- yesMike,
You mentioned the Blue Jay greats with Chips on their shoulders when they pitched? Where does Pat Hentgen fall? It is circumstantial evidence to suggest that pitching angry helps. I don’t think Doc would say he was angry but focused because I think he would say that you need to be in control your emotions (note that I do not believe you can be angry and in control). And what about our prospect Kyle Drabek? He got angry on the mound….and then got shipped to the minors. It may be important to be ‘ramped up’ but that is really just being motivated and invested.
MW: Drabek was angry at himself, not at the opposition. Hentgen was not a happy man when he was on the mound.
- JamieWineLove the Morrow signing. I think it will work out very well.
- Doug D