Without offers, Kelly Johnson set to accept Toronto Blue Jays arbitration offer -MLB Update
Searching for better deals and keeping their options open might not be the way to go for all players when they become free agents after the Major League Baseball (MLB) regular season comes to an end and for Toronto Blue Jays second baseman, Kelly Johnson,
there were no exceptions.
After failing to reach a decent deal with any other club around the MLB, Kelly Johnson is expected to according to recent reports, agree to the arbitration offer by his team, the Toronto Blue Jays, sooner than later.
The Toronto Blue Jays could have received two supplemental draft picks next year if he had signed elsewhere or even not at all, but being in need of a second baseman for the upcoming season with the experience of Kelly Johnson, the team was also a little
desperate in this occasion, now making it a win-win for both sides involved.
Terming it a winning situation for both stakeholders is exactly what Toronto Blue Jays general manager, Alex Anthopoulos, did.
“Specifically with Kelly, part of the appeal was that we knew that we didn’t have a second baseman for the following year,” Anthopoulos said. “Obviously we want to continue to try to be as good as we can as a team. Knowing that we had the ability to offer
Kelly and get him back on a one-year, non-guaranteed deal, I think almost ever GM would tell you he’d rather have a one-year non-guaranteed than a multi-year deal. There’s a certain value to that, knowing what the market was out there, the free agent market
at second base and what the options were.”
This does not go to mean that Anthopoulos could not have chosen from the vast free market which had a number of such baseman to pick from, but the GM wanted someone who had the experience of Johnson, which is not an easy task to do and would result in the
team having to start from scratch.
At the age of 29, soon to be 30 in February, Kelly Johnson will most likely receive a deal of his liking when he and the team go into arbitration in the upcoming days.
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