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Tuesday, 29 April 2025
As Blue Jays search for fifth starter, Yarbrough’s fit even more apparent
NEW YORK – Ryan Yarbrough is experienced enough to know better than to take anything for granted, but the 33-year-old lefty felt he was in a good position to break with the Toronto Blue Jays as the end of spring training neared. Though he’d only signed a week into camp, the sides knew each other from two months together at the end of 2024, the club was “super cool” about not making him feel like he had to “go crazy to hit the ground running,” and there seemed to be a need for his versatility with Max Scherzer’s uncertain status.
So when the Blue Jays didn’t add him to the roster Feb. 23, leading to a major-league deal with the New York Yankees a day later, “it was definitely weird,” Yarbrough said, as “I didn’t see myself not being there.”
“I feel like I had a good camp, everything was trending in the right direction, velocity was up from the off-season,” he continued during an interview over the weekend. “And I guess from the front-office side, they just wanted to go in a different direction. I’d envisioned myself, just because of how I did last year with the team and what I brought last year, in a similar role this year. I thought it was a really good fit. I don’t know how it all worked out. But I guess from a guaranteeing standpoint, they didn’t feel that and wanted to go in a different direction.”
What Yarbrough means by “guaranteeing standpoint” is that the Blue Jays wanted him to sign an advanced consent, which would have allowed them to keep him on the roster up to 45 days without guaranteeing the entire $2-million major-league salary called for in his minor-league contract. Doing so would have left him on the roster bubble and there was no need for him to carry such risk when, as it turned out, the Yankees were willing to lock him in for the same $2-million base salary, plus performance incentives.
Even before Scherzer’s first start of the regular season lasted only three innings, leading to an injured-list stint that’s ongoing with no timeline yet for a return, the decision by the Blue Jays appeared risky. His fit on the roster as a swingman-type reliever is more apparent now that the club is again scrambling to cover a rotation vacancy that next comes up Wednesday.
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Manager John Schneider said Sunday the current approach to filling the opening “is see what other people are doing in terms of starting, maybe rolling through it one more time and then sticking to four (starters for a stretch).”
“I know we do have a lot of off-days, but I think trying to avoid doing the four-man kind of regularly right now would be important,” he added. “So see what Easton Lucas is doing and see what Jake Bloss is doing, Eric Lauer, see how Wednesday goes and kind of go from there.”
None of that is ideal, as the Blue Jays are understandably wary of burdening their veteran workhorse trio of Jose Berrios, Kevin Gausman and Chris Bassitt.
Still, three off-days this month give the Blue Jays an opportunity to be creative in how they roll out the rotation and consider running a partial four-man that would eliminate one outing by the fifth spot through the end of May.
Here are two possible tracks:
Using a partial four-man would mean Berrios, Gausman, Bassitt and Bowden Francis each sacrifice two starts on an additional rest day during that span. Given the Blue Jays’ limited depth, is it worth it, even for a stretch?
Here’s the difference in the two tracks for each starter:
Whatever they decide, they need to settle on a starter for Wednesday.
Old friend Casey Lawrence, who made 10 appearances over two previous stints with the Blue Jays in 2017 and 2022, was claimed off waivers from the Mariners on Monday and is a new option. The 37-year-old went five innings on April 25 against Miami, allowing eight runs but only two earned, while throwing 83 pitches, leaving him on turn for Wednesday.
Lauer is also on turn and he’s coming off five shutout innings with five strikeouts for triple-A Buffalo against Rochester on Thursday. While he isn’t on the 40-man roster, the Blue Jays opened a spot Sunday when they transferred Ryan Burr to the 60-day IL, so no issue there.
Bloss, after three shaky starts to open the season, has had consecutive solid outings, following up a 4.2-shutout inning, seven-strikeout performance with 4.1 shutout innings and five strikeouts in Sunday’s 2-0 win over Rochester.
Lucas, optioned after two electric starts followed by two rough ones for the Blue Jays while covering for Scherzer, walked four and allowed two runs in 5.1 innings in his first outing back with Buffalo last week.
Scherzer, meanwhile, got back up on a mound over the weekend in New York but cautioned that though his progress was positive, he’d only taken “baby steps” forward and is unsure what will happen as he begins to rebuild volume.
All of which adds up to no clear answers, underlining how well Yarbrough, who’s logged 11.2 innings over seven outings with a 5.40 ERA for the Yankees so far, could help fill the current void, the way he and others envisioned back in the spring.
“It was a little strange because from a player standpoint and a coaching-staff standpoint, you understood where I fit in and how I helped,” said Yarbrough. “They told me when I did the offer, ‘We’re going to take it down to the deadline,’ because they had other stuff they had to go through and figure out with other roster positions. And it just literally came down to the wire. They told me 9:30 that morning. …
“Luckily I found something really quick and it’s been it’s been good over here.”
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Jimmy Butler returns to lead Warriors past Rockets for 3-1 series lead
SAN FRANCISCO — With Jimmy Butler’s tailbone still hurting at the end, he came through in remarkable fashion and in every which way despite all the pain.
The Golden State star returned from a one-game absence and rejoined the starting lineup Monday night for a 109-106 Game 4 Warriors victory in their first-round series against the Houston Rockets, limping at times as he led his team one win away from advancing to the Western Conference semifinals.
“More than anything I just wanted to play. This is the best time of the year for everybody, this is why you go through what you go through,” Butler said. “So to be able to miss a game, I don’t like it, but I’m back, I’m back in a big way.”
Butler contributed 27 points, six assists, five rebounds, blocked a shot and converted all 12 of his free throws while playing 40 minutes, less than a week after he sustained a pelvic contusion in a frightening fall early in Game 2 last Wednesday.
“Tonight was great. He played through the injury, it was beautiful,” teammate Draymond Green said. “But it’s just his presence. What his presence does for this team is humongous. The first three quarters, he couldn’t move. Not sure how he started moving in the fourth quarter, but first three quarters he couldn’t move. Yet he never complained. He stuck with it.”
Butler participated in the morning shootaround earlier in the day and just needed to have a successful warmup to be deemed good to go.
“I thought it was winning time,” Butler said of his play down the stretch, thrilled he began to “move a little bit better.”
Butler played just more than five minutes during his initial stretch and nearly 18 minutes by halftime in a heated game delayed twice in the second quarter by skirmishes that featured four technical fouls and a flagrant 1.
On Sunday, when Butler spent much of the day working with the medical staff, Kerr said Vice President of Player Health and Performance Rick Celebrini couldn’t predict how many minutes Butler’s body might be able to handle until he’s actually back out on the floor in live action.
He said he’s still in “a lot of pain, I’m not going to lie to you.”
“It’s a good pain when it’s all toward winning. I feel like they got me here to help do something special and if I’m out there on the floor I’m expected to produce and help win, so I’m glad I was able to do that tonight,” he said. “… Today I woke up and I was good enough so I was able to go out there and compete.”
The star forward underwent an MRI exam on Thursday in the Bay Area that revealed he injured his pelvis and has a deep gluteal muscle contusion. The Warriors lead the best-of-seven series 3-1 and can clinch the first round when the series resumes Wednesday in Houston.
Golden State won 104-93 on Saturday without Butler. With Butler back, Kerr hoped to be able to rest Curry more regularly — but he still played 39 minutes.
Butler went down hard when fouled by Amen Thompson late in the first quarter and then missed the rest of the Warriors’ 109-94 Game 2 loss Wednesday.
Butler tried to secure a rebound when Thompson undercut him and sent the Warriors star’s feet high into the air so that he came down straight onto his tailbone. Both players thudded to the floor and Butler grimaced in pain grabbing at his backside. He stayed in briefly to shoot two free throws before going to the locker room.
In the Game 1 win against the Rockets, he had 25 points on 10-for-19 shooting, seven rebounds, six assists and five steals in 42 minutes of action. The Warriors are 27-9 since Butler made his debut at Chicago on Feb. 8, including 23-8 in the regular season, a play-in tournament win over Memphis and the games facing Houston.
The Warriors know how much they will need Butler if they want to make a deep postseason run.
“We had to have him. If this were the regular season he’d probably miss another week or two,” coach Steve Kerr said. “But it’s the playoffs, he’s Jimmy Butler, so this is what he does. The rebound at the end was just incredible, the elevation, the force then of course knocking down the free throws to clinch it. Jimmy was just amazing.”
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A look at the largest payroll gap in modern MLB history by the numbers
What is the difference between the World Series favourite Los Angeles Dodgers and the tied-for-last-place in the National League East Miami Marlins? It turns out, about $406 million.
The Marlins head to Chavez Ravine Monday to kick off a three-game set against the Dodgers, for a matchup of what is considered to be the largest payroll gap in modern MLB history.
The Dodgers will dole out $325.9 million in salary this season — as calculated by MLB’s labour relations department — resulting in an estimated competitive balance tax bill of over $150 million, bringing their grand total to $476 million.
A stark contrast to the $69.1 million in guaranteed money Miami has committed to its roster.
The series is a perfect depiction of the vast disparity in financial might that exists between the big-market clubs at the top of baseball’s financial scale and those at the bottom, whose lack of resources (or unwillingness to use them) necessitate a drastically different approach to team building.
To get a better idea of how much this gap has grown and just how large it has become, we’ll take a by-the-numbers look at MLB’s biggest spenders in contrast with its most frugal clubs.
Payroll
Major League Baseball first attempted to address the growing divide between the highest and lowest spending franchises by instituting the Commissioner’s Blue Ribbon Panel on Baseball Economics after the 1999 season.
The stated goal of the panel was to come out with a report examining “the question of whether baseball’s current economic system has created a problem of competitive imbalance in the game.”
At the time, the New York Yankees paced the majors with an $88.1 million payroll, 72.9 million more than the last placed Florida Marlins at $15.2 million.
Fast forward to the present day, and it’s clear that despite modifications to MLB’s collective bargaining agreement over the years in an attempt to create more competitive balance, this gulf has only grown.
|
Year |
Highest payroll team |
Amount |
Lowest payroll team |
Amount |
Difference |
|
2024 |
Dodgers |
$456 million |
Athletics |
$83.9 million |
$372.1 million |
|
2023 |
Mets |
$475.5 million |
Athletics |
$81.8 million |
$393.7 million |
|
2022 |
Mets |
$330.6 million |
Athletics |
$65.3 million |
$265.3 million |
|
2021 |
Dodgers |
$318.2 million |
Pirates |
$61.8 million |
$256.4 million |
|
2020 |
Yankees |
$239.8 million |
Pirates |
$69.8 million |
$170 million |
Data provided by Spotrac
First implemented in 2003, the competitive balance tax thresholds mean that big-budget teams have to pay for exceeding a predetermined payroll threshold. There are also additional surcharge thresholds and increasing penalties for each consecutive year a team exceeds the tax line.
Yet, this has done little to deter baseball’s high-rollers from pushing the envelope each successive season, with Steve Cohen’s New York Mets and Mark Walter’s Dodgers exceeding the superfluous spending seen by the Yankees through the 2000s and 2010s.
With the measures in place having done little to change results, commissioner Rob Manfred has publicly addressed MLB’s “massive disparity problem” with both the New York Times and discussed the possibility of a salary cap on FS1’s “The Herd.”
Attendance
While national and local media revenue make up a large portion of an MLB team’s cash flow, research from Sportico done in 2024 indicated that ticket sales were still the leading revenue stream at 31 per cent.
There is a strong correlation between spending and ticket sales, particularly when it comes to the bottom end of the spectrum, with the Athletics finishing last in both categories for three straight seasons.
Meanwhile, at the other end, the Dodgers have led in ticket sales and have been top five in payroll for five consecutive years. (Omitting the 2020 COVID-19-affected season, as there were no ticket sales).
|
Year |
Highest payroll team |
Average attendance |
Lowest payroll team |
Average attendance |
|
2024 |
Dodgers |
48,657 (1st) |
Athletics |
11,528 (30th) |
|
2023 |
Mets |
32,994 (11th) |
Athletics |
10,275 (30th) |
|
2022 |
Mets |
33,308 (6th) |
Athletics |
9,973 (30th) |
|
2021 |
Dodgers |
34,625 (1st) |
Pirates |
10,611 (25th) |
|
2019 |
Boston |
36,106 (7th) |
Pirates |
18,412 (27th) |
Data provided by MLB attendance reports
So far this season, the Dodgers are pacing MLB in ticket sales yet again at a staggering average attendance of 52,174 per game. The Marlins sit 28th with 12,027 and have recorded eight games with four-digit crowds.
The best way to fill seats is by fielding a competitive product for fans to enjoy. So, will spending a fortune on personnel guarantee success and a return on investment?
On-field performance
As evidenced by the Dodgers, Yankees and Mets, and the Athletics, Pirates and Marlins, there appears to be a relationship between spending a lot of money on players, filling seats in the ballpark and winning games.
However, there are exceptions. The Tampa Bay Rays stand out as a modern example of a team that has eschewed this trend, finishing bottom 10 in payroll in each of the last five years while accumulating 419 wins, fourth-most in the majors, and a World Series appearance.
The 2023 Mets shattered baseball’s previous payroll record and proceeded to flounder, leading to them offloading the expiring deals of future Hall of Famers Max Scherzer and Justin Verlander at the trade deadline.
|
Year |
Highest payroll team |
Record |
Lowest payroll team |
Record |
|
2024 |
Dodgers |
98-64 |
Athletics |
69-93 |
|
2023 |
Mets |
75-87 |
Athletics |
50-112 |
|
2022 |
Mets |
101-61 |
Athletics |
60-102 |
|
2021 |
Dodgers |
106-56 |
Pirates |
61-101 |
|
2020 |
Yankees |
33-27* |
Pirates |
19-41* |
But these big market behemoths aren’t leaving anything to chance. A losing season and missed playoff opportunity despite a gargantuan payroll certainly didn’t discourage the Mets from shelling out $765 million over 15 years to Juan Soto this past summer for the largest contract in sports history.
The Dodgers gave out $450 million in guaranteed money this past off-season, causing even Hal Steinbrenner to remark that it’s “difficult” to keep up with them.
At the same time, the Marlins are primed to potentially trade away one-third of their MLB low $69.1 million payroll if they opt to deal starter Sandy Alcántara ahead of this season’s trade deadline.
Doing so would only continue to widen the ever-growing chasm between baseball’s highest and lowest spenders.
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