
The Toronto Blue Jays have signed all of their arbitration eligible players to deals throughout the last few days.
The Jays have signed Shaun Marcum, Jason Frasor, Brian Tallet, Casey Janssen, Shawn Camp & Jeremy Accardo to deals to avoid the arbitration process.
Marcum was the first to ink a new deal on Monday signing a one year deal worth $850,000 for the 2010 season.
Marcum is coming off a year layoff with the Jays recovering from Tommy John ligament surgery on his pitching elbow.
Marcum will come into Spring Training with the expectation of becoming the Blue Jays staff ace in the starting rotation due to his overall experience.
Marcum is 23-15 with a 3.84 earned run average across 64 career starts with Toronto.
Jason Frasor received the largest pay raise of the eligible players with a new one year deal worth $2.65 million. Frasor earned $1.45 million last season. Frasor is coming off a career year in which he posted a record of 7-3 with an earned run average of 2.50 and ended the season as Toronto’s closer recording 11 saves.
Brian Tallet signed a $2 million deal while Shawn Camp signed for $1.15. Accardo signed for $1.08 million and Janssen signed for $700,000.
Toronto has now gone 13 straight seasons without going to an arbitration hearing, even though general manager Alex Anthopoulos changed his stance on the process this offseason.
Due to his experience working the arbitration process in past years the familiar Anthopoulos stuck to his guns, letting the eligible players knows that he would not negotiate contracts after his unofficial deadline on Tuesday.
This was not a scare tactic whatsoever.
The idea behind Anthopoulos setting a deadline was to not waste valuable man hours, as well as team funds on trying to sort out deals when players would most likely end up in an arbitration hearing anyways.
Anthopoulos made note of these mistakes in the past and in his first run as general manager wanted to avoid making similar mistakes.
The decision paid off as all players are now locked into deals and ready to report to Spring Training.
In other Blue Jays news, the Jays have signed on two more players to minor league deals with invitations to Spring Training.
The Jays have signed outfielder Jeremy Reed & right handed pitcher Steve Register.
The 28 year old Reed, who will compete for a fourth outfielder’s spot with Joey Gathright, spent last season with the New York Mets hitting for an average of .242 with 0HR & 9RBI across 161 at bats in 126 games.
Reed’s career numbers are .255AVG with 11HR, 107RBI & 19SB across 1222 at bats in 462 Major League games with the Seattle Mariners & the New York Mets.
Register is a 26 year old right hander who split last season between the Colorado Rockies and Philadelphia Phillies organizations.
Originally selected as a third round draft pick in the 2004 Entry Draft, Register was a combined 2-5 with an earned run average of 3.92 in 50 minor league relief appearances.
He also appeared in one game for the Phillies.
In 11 career Major League games with the Rockies and Phillies, Register has a record of 0-0 with an earned run average of 8.25 allowing 16 hits across 12 innings pitched while striking out nine and walking seven.