MLBTR projects the Blue Jays’ 12 arbitration-eligible players will cost the team $43 million

MLB Trade Rumours released its annual arbitration salary projections on Monday, and here’s what they have for the Blue Jays and the 12 arb-eligible players on the roster…

All told, that’s just a shade over $43 million for the group. Add that to the $58 million the team has committed to the 2022 payroll currently (George Springer, Hyun Jin Ryu, Randal Grichuk, and Lourdes Gurriel), and you have just over $100 million before considering free agents and other players who would flesh out the roster.

Of course, these are just projections and, obviously, nothing is set in stone, but MLBTR is generally pretty good with these things, so it’s a good place to start thinking about the off-season. Looking up and down this list, I would assume that 10 of these players are tendered contracts, with Jacob Barnes being a pretty easy choice to cut loose and Trent Thornton being a realistic 40-man roster casualty.

Another thing to consider is that a few of these players are long-term deal candidates. Teoscar Hernandez and Jose Berrios aren’t far from free agency and the Blue Jays should be looking to sign Vladdy Jr. to a long-term deal this winter. But even if any of these three players ink multi-year deals, their salary for 2022 would likely come in somewhere around these arb-based projections.

Long story short, the Blue Jays have quite a bit of financial flexibility to work with this winter. I don’t think signing both Robbie Ray and Marcus Semien would be out of the question, assuming they want to return.