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Toronto Releases $8M Man

If you haven’t already heard, the Toronto Blue Jays have released Future Hall of Fame 1B/DH Frank Thomas (long time White Sox, short time A’s & Blue Jays). Blue Jays’ GM J.P. Ricciardi was quoted as saying,

“I don’t know that we have the luxury of waiting two to three months for somebody to kick in because we can’t let this league or this division get away from us.” 

Maybe this is a salary dumping (they still need to pay him over $7M for 2008) or maybe they just think that they have a shot at a playoff berth and the thought of waiting for Thomas to start hitting, which he always does when the weather gets warmer, but maybe this just doesn’t sit well with Ricciardi and Blue Jay management right now.My thoughts are that they knew his spring tendencies when they signed him before last season, so not wanting to wait until he gets hot at the plate is a sad excuse. Some players, for whatever the reason, just don’t get started at the plate until it gets warmer out and they still put up their typical numbers. If the Blue Jays do not know this about Thomas then shame on them, but again, I don’t think that’s it. I think the timing is bad, they do not have anyone hotter than Thomas in a position to take his place. Back to the salary dumping idea, they are currently 12^th in MLB at over $98M and this will drop them down to 13^th. All this really does is ensure that he does not reach the 376 plate appearances that would have automatically kicked in Thomas’ team option for the 2009 season. This does allow Toronto to call up one of their top prospects in Adam Lind (OF).But where does this land Thomas? We have already seen sluggers like Sosa and Bonds remain unsigned for the start of the season, so what does this do for Thomas? Now maybe Bonds isn’t signed due to the PED (performance enhancing drugs) allegations and media frenzy that go hand in hand with him, but what about lovable Sammy Sosa? This naturally brings us to the next relevant question and that is: Which teams, if any, will be interested in picking up Thomas? Here’s my list (in no particular order):·         Tampa Bay Rays·         Minnesota Twins·         Seattle Mariners·         Los Angeles Angels of AnahiemTo me, the Angels need him the most to help protect Vladimir Guerrero and to keep him away from the Mariners.*Please share yout thoughts in the comment section below!*

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