THE Toronto Blue Jays we are going to have a very important off-season this winter. There are a ton of different moves for Ross Atkins and the rest of Toronto’s front office to make.

Extending the contracts of Vladimir Guerrero Jr. and Bo Bichette will be two of the team’s top priorities, but recruiting outside free agents will be an important part of improving the roster. Toronto is rumored to have serious interest in Juan Soto, which would be a franchise move for the Jays.

But the Blue Jays currently have a ton of money invested in players who aren’t contributing like they should. Instead of finding a way to cut ties with these players, general manager Ross Atkins will bring them back when they don’t really deserve it.

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Blue Jays pitcher Chris Bassitt received a lot of attention last season at the trade deadline. But Toronto had a very strict plan when it came to its approach to deadlines. They were going to trade all of their expiring contracts while bringing back any player that would surely be on the 2025 roster. This idea makes sense to a certain extent. But with Bassitt in particular, it doesn’t make much sense.

Toronto pays Bassitt more than $20 million per year to become a league-average pitcher. If the Blue Jays had traded him, they could have terminated his entire contract and still brought in a ton of prospect capital. Instead, the Blue Jays kept him and he is back for 2025 after posting an ERA above 4.00 in 2024.

Bassitt is by no means a bad pitcher. But the Blue Jays could have — and should have — terminated his contract and used that money to sign an even better pitcher in free agency.

Instead of having Bassitt, the Blue Jays could have a package of two or three solid prospects plus some money to send to Soto, Guererro, Bichette or another free agent to improve their roster.

One of the most confusing players on the Blue Jays roster is pitcher Alek Manoah. Sometimes Manoah looks like a Cy Young nominee. Other times he looks like he’s getting crushed by a good college baseball team. How this happens really doesn’t make much sense. But one thing is for sure: The Blue Jays can’t trust him in their rotation until he figures out how to find some consistency.

However, Ross Atkins brought him back to the organization for another year. If Manoah has a good winter and spring training, he’ll likely have another chance to make the Opening Day roster, which will infuriate Blue Jays fans everywhere.

The Blue Jays would have been better off trading him when he had some value last year. Now, most teams probably view Manoah as a lost cause, forcing the Blue Jays to keep him and try to turn his career around.

Although there is a chance that Manoah could To turn his career around, the Blue Jays don’t have time to continue letting him make a debut at the big league level.

The most overpaid player on the Blue Jays roster is their center fielder George Springer. If the Blue Jays want to win games in the American League East, they’ll need to spend their money as efficiently as possible. Spending $25 million a year on a struggling veteran outfielder like Springer doesn’t meet that definition.

Toronto should look to buy Springer, which could potentially cause him to lose part of his contract or attach prospects to him in order to get his money off the books. That would do wonders for the Blue Jays to add some serious talent to their roster this offseason, but general manager Ross Atkins probably won’t do it.

In fact, Atkins will likely keep Springer on the roster for the duration of his contract rather than cut ties with him to save money. This is one of the most expensive decisions he could make, as Springer holds a roster spot while making $25 million per season to put up around 1.0 WAR for a full year. You can find players worth 1.0 WAR for less than $2 million per year, but the Blue Jays are spending $25 million to get that mediocre production.