Blue Jays Make First Off-Season Moves, Say Goodbye To Jon Rauch

Now that we’ve finally gotten that fantastic little piece of baseball goodness known as the World Series done with, teams around the league have gotten busy making some preliminary offseason moves to their personnel. No except here in Toronto, as the Blue Jays have made option decisions on the two players on the roster that has them, picking up Edwin Encarnacion’s $3.5 million club option, while declining Jon Rauch’s $3.75 million for next season. That the team would let Jon Rauch go is no surprise. The right-hander was part of a failed experiment with the goal of solidifying the bullpen during the late innings, and instead put up his worst season since entering the league. At 33-years old, Rauch provides little to the future of the club in terms of well…being a reasonably good reliever. In making the move, the Jays potentially forgo a type-B compensation pick in case Rauch opts for arbitration and signs with another team, although I could be wrong on this ma...