LOL at the Blue Jays giving Russell Martin 82 million. WTF just happened? Hilarious

[Jayvegas420]

Welcome to Toronto Benny. Every year its the same

[Jayvegas420]

anyone who thinks that Martin is worth that much money, must be anxiously awaiting Buster Posey's $235,000,000.00 signning!

[daneblazer]

Zach Duke getting 15 mil, wtf is going on. If my kid is left handed he's getting a baseball glove glued to his hand

[PAYTON20]

how is baseball not bankrupt??

Its such a dead game now

MLB is actually the 2nd highest grossing sport

Not far behind the NFL

Over $8 billion in revenue in 2013. So many fans, so many games = $$

[thetrinity]

pirates were in a tough spot because an inept team like this was going to massively overpay martin, they really did need him for at least 2 or 3 years with no real catching prospect until reese mcguire gets here probably in 2017. theyll have to make due with cervelli/stewart/sanchez. martin has probably 2 good years left max

[pavyracer]

They pay a lot of money to play a sport you rarely get injured unless you are a pitcher.

[lakerboy]

Citing batting average as a reason not to pay someone = LOL

man do you work for the union?

[lakerboy]

Not only that, but 5 years for a 32-year old catcher.

Hard to find good catching these days though. Now they just need some guys to throw it to him.

catchers can play till 37-38. what about cutler?

[Simon Gruber]

There is pressure on the Jays front office to go all in this season with a slew of very good offensive talent in their prime.

This was very good signing by the Jays. It's unfortunate they made that trade with the Mets, but that's their hand now and they're correctly playing it in my opinion. Navarro is terrible, and they needed to improve in that area. Martin is not only a solid bat, good for .280 and maybe around 10 homeruns, he's great defensively and a leader on the field. 32 is not old, and you can be certain that another team would've given him around the same money/term.

[Mr KLC]

The Dodgers have reached an agreement on a trade with the Blue Jays that will bring veteran catcher Russell Martin back to Los Angeles, reports Arash Madani of Sportsnet (via Twitter). Martin will earn $20MM in 2019 — the final season of a five-year, $82MM contract with the Jays. Presumably, Toronto is paying down a hefty portion of that remaining salary as part of the trade.

The Blue Jays have formally announced the trade. They’ll send Martin and cash to Los Angeles in exchange for minor league shortstop Ronny Brito and minor league right-hander Andrew Sopko.

The addition of Martin shouldn’t strictly take the Dodgers out of the running for Marlins star J.T. Realmuto, though there’s certainly less urgency for Los Angeles to meet Miami’s lofty asking price with this deal in place. Still, it’s not inconceivable that president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman could make a strong offer for Realmuto even with Martin and Austin Barnes on the roster. Barnes has a minor league option remaining and is capable of playing the infield, and some reports have indicated that Miami would like a catcher with MLB experience as part of a Realmuto deal (in addition to multiple top prospects); Barnes could fit that description, speculatively speaking.