Blue Jays plan to extend qualifying offer to Melky, hope to keep him
Melky Cabrera can double his salary if he desires.
The Blue Jays have decided to extend him a qualifying offer, which is expected to be in the range of $15 million to $16 million this winter. That would almost precisely double his salary, as Cabrera signed a $16 million, two-year deal with Toronto two winters ago.
Word from someone familiar with the Blue Jays' thinking is that they are so pleased with Cabrera both on and off the field that it is an "easy decision" for them to make him a qualifying offer. Toronto actually hopes it leads to another multi-year arrangement with Cabrera, who should be one of the better hitters on a thin market.
Toronto got some heat for giving Cabrera a two-year deal coming off his PED suspension, but the Blue Jays actually preferred the multi-year deal at the time, and it worked out. They also unintentionally set a trend of setting an $8 million mark for guys with PED brushes, as Nelson Cruz and Marlon Byrd signed for that precise annual salary the following winter.
That will change this winter when Cabrera, and of course Cruz, who leads the majors in home runs, hit the market again.
Cabrera sounds like he wants to make it work on Toronto, too.
“I love the city of Toronto, I have great teammates, a great club,” Cabrera recently told Blue Jays writers. “This was the club that gave me the opportunity after I got in trouble [with a 50-game PED suspension] a few years ago and I want to stay."
Of course, sometimes things change when players hit the market. But in this case, Cabrera really does owe the Blue Jays for believing in him when he was at his lowest point.
Credit goes to him, too, for pulling himself up following his suspension and performing, especially this year. Cabrera, 30, was hitting .301 with 16 home runs and 73 RBI when he went down with a broken right pinky earlier this month. He also had a .351 on-base percentage, .458 slugging percentage and 81 runs scored.
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