The Toronto Blue Jays offseason is going prove the Indians Dolans are not cheap
Opinion by Tim Shirer
Obviously, the Cleveland Indians season isn't over yet, far from it with the World Series starting next Tuesday. But the Toronto Blue Jays season is over and now the offseason for them begins. But the Blue Jays offseason should be closely watched by Indians fans or should I say those people who have claimed to be Indians fans and have enjoyed calling the Dolans cheap for more than a decade.
The reason I say these people need to watch Toronto’s offseason is because of Mark Shapiro and Ross Atkins. I had said when Shapiro left the Indians and went to the Blue Jays the Indians were better off and then he took Ross Atkins who is basically a clone of Shapiro with him.
The reason the Indians are better off without Shapiro is going to become very clear in the next three months. People who enjoyed calling the Dolans cheap are going to realize it was not the Dolans being cheap that was the problem. The problem was Shapiro and his attempts to win with a low payroll. Shapiro is the cheap one and it’s going to be proven over the next three months or so as he begins to dismantle the Blue Jays in an attempt for a much lower payroll. Look, Toronto is a big market and has loads of money behind them.
This to me proves what I have been saying for several years, that’s it’s not that the Dolans are cheap, it’s that Mark Shapiro thinks he’s so smart that he can win by spending less. Even when he has a huge budget in Toronto, he still thinks that his penny pinching ways will work.
There is no way the Mark Shapiro would have traded for Andrew Miller, no way. Two reasons, he would have been absolutely unwilling to trade the prospects that the Indians traded to the Yankees and also and the bigger reason, no way would he have taken on Andrew Miller’s salary, no way, no how would Shapiro have had the guts to make that trade.
It is going to be interesting to see how these same people who have barbecued the Dolans for years by calling them every name in the book will react if the Indians go on and win the World Series and then if the Blue Jays dismantle their team for a much lower payroll.
Will these hateful people admit they were wrong? Absolutely they won’t. In fact one of them who spent time in the Mansfield reformatory will say that he never criticized the Dolans. This same guy is a big time Trump supporter (although he is unable to vote for him) so reality is a non-issue for him, so obviously he might not be a good example.
Let me just say this. It’s going to be fun to talk to some of the people who are normal thinking individuals that called the Dolans cheap. Then point out to them that Shapiro is doing the same thing this winter to the Blue Jays what he did to the Indians for a decade. Cut payroll and tell the fan base how smart he is and that his plan is the only plan that will work because he’s smarter than the rest.
The only criticism of the Dolans is that they were very loyal to Mark Shapiro and did not firing him on several occasions like they probably should have. Honestly can you really say that loyalty is a negative thing in the world today, I don’t think so.
POSTED 10/20/2016 22:28
Lake County Sentinel
