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DUNEDIN, FLA — Talk about a closer: No sooner had the Toronto Blue Jays finally put the lid on the garbage pail after yesterday's 10-0 loss to the Tampa Bay Rays, then in walked Phil Lind, a baseball fan who also happens to be the vice-chairman of the board for Rogers Communications, the club owners.
If he sought out right fielder Alex Rios, he did it behind closed doors.
But Lind's a pretty good guy to have in town if you're planning to sign a player to the size of contract the Blue Jays and Rios's agents are said to be negotiating.
"It's not done," said general manager J.P. Ricciardi, when asked about online reports that the team was on the verge of getting Rios's name on a contract extension worth close to $65-million (all figures U.S.) over six years, with a $15-million option for 2015.
Rios is already under contract this year for $4.835-million.
"We're still talking with them. I don't know if it's as close now as it's ever been … when you're talking about these things, something could change at any minute. But we're getting closer, I'll put it that way."
The Blue Jays already have seven players under contract through 2010, which also happens to be the expiration of Ricciardi's own contract.
But if the reported terms of Rios's deal are accurate — and they're certainly in the ballpark of what a player with his service time and numbers could expect — he would be locked up through 2015.
Only Vernon Wells, who is in the first year of a seven-year, $126-million extension, is signed for anything resembling that length — although he has an opt-out clause after 2011.
The team is also negotiating with second baseman Aaron Hill, and Ricciardi affirmed yesterday that the team will shut down talks if deals aren't reached with both players by Sunday.
Ricciardi described both players as being "the next group going forward beyond 2010."
The Blue Jays have a workout at Yankee Stadium scheduled for Sunday, then open the regular season on Monday against the New York Yankees.
"I'd give it the workout in New York," Ricciardi said. "If it's not done, it's not done. I don't want it hanging over anybody's head."
Rios's agent, Paul Kinzer, was in transit to Arizona and not available for comment.
The contract extension would cover four years of free-agency for Rios, who isn't eligible until the end of the 2009 season.
The Blue Jays started negotiating with Rios's representatives in October, and Ricciardi said "it's taken longer than I thought it would," without getting into specifics.
"We're creeping toward getting done," Ricciardi said. "Most of our stuff we start usually gets done and I think this will eventually. It's just been a circuitous route to get where we are."
Rios's agent has several people working on the dossier, and the player himself said he did not want to sign in October, "because you have to see how the market's going to sit first, and go from there."
Along the way, the Blue Jays also explored the possibility of trading Rios to the San Francisco Giants for pitcher Tim Lincecum.
Rios revealed the Blue Jays' original offer was for less than six years.
Was money still an issue? Of course it is, he said. "It's just numbers … and some other stuff, too."
That "other stuff" could be an opt-out or no-trade clause.
"It's the closest it's been since we started here," said the 27-year-old Rios, a two-time all-star who has hit .288 with 52 home runs and 254 runs batted in 3 1/2 seasons. "Let's see if it gets done."
Counting the cost
Blue Jays' players signed through 2010, with duration and dollar values of contracts:
- A.J. Burnett: three years, $36-million (opt-out clause after 2008).
- Scott Downs: three years, $10-million.
- Roy Halladay: three years, $40-million.
- Lyle Overbay: three years, $17.5-million.
- Scott Rolen: three years, $33-million (includes $4-million bonus payable in 2010; has right to ask out after 2008).
- B.J. Ryan: three years, $30-million.
- Vernon Wells: seven years, $126-million (includes opt out after 2011) and $25.5-million in bonus paid out in three instalments of $8.5-million on March 1 of 2008, 2009, 2010.
All currency U.S.
Around the Horn
Final tune-up or not, Roy Halladay said yesterday that "you can't ever forget it's spring training, and there will be different situations and different things going on." Right. In his last start of the Grapefruit League before Monday's season opener at Yankee Stadium, Halladay looked on as his team made five errors behind him — three by 18-year-old second baseman John Tolisano, including two on one play — in a 10-run fifth inning in which six of the runs were unearned. Halladay, who gave up his first walk of the spring in the game, failed to retire a batter in that inning, but when asked later about it his first concern was to admonish himself for doing a lousy job of changing speeds. As for Tolisano, a second-round draft pick last year out of Sanibel Island, Fla.? Halladay watched the end of the inning in the dugout, then went over to give Tolisano a pat on the back. "I feel for the kid who was out there," Halladay said. "He's a tough kid, and he will handle it fine. But it's a tough situation for him to be in, to get in a game and have something like that happen. I hope it doesn't leave a bad taste in his mouth." Manager John Gibbons didn't want to go down that road, saying simply that people will pay money to see Tolisano play some day. … The Blue Jays released Sal Fasano yesterday morning. That's no surprise, since the popular veteran's days were done when Rod Barajas signed with the team. … General manager J.P. Ricciardi said reliever Armando Benitez still hasn't received his work visa and blamed the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization service because it "lost a piece of paper." The Blue Jays hope the matter will be expedited, but until then the native of the Dominican Republic is technically on a visitor's visa and can't pitch in games in which admission is charged. … Catcher Gregg Zaun has been hobbled by tightness in his lower right hamstring, and did not start yesterday. … Frank Thomas hit his second double of the spring. … Toronto Blue Jays president and CEO Paul Godfrey told a Toronto radio station yesterday that the team briefly floated the idea of signing Barry Bonds, but decided he would be too much of a distraction to the team.
