GM: Toronto open to re-signing Scutaro, Barajas

Last month manager Cito Gaston indicated that catcher Rod Barajas wouldn’t be back in Toronto next season, but new general manager Alex Anthopoulos said yesterday that he’s interested in re-signing both Barajas and fellow free agent Marco Scutaro. Blue Jays fans are free to interpret that as a sign Gaston himself might not be back in 2010, but it’s worth noting that along with saying “we like both players” and “we’d like to bring them both back” Anthopoulos added “but we can’t make a bad deal.” In other words, there’s a big difference between being open to re-signing a player and being open to re-signing a player at market value. Re-signing Barajas figures to be the easy part thanks to his .661 OPS, although certainly as a veteran catcher with good power it’s possible that some team will overpay via a multi-year deal. On the other hand there’s little doubt that Scutaro is about to cash in on the open market following a career-year that saw him hit .282/.379/.409 with 12 homers, 35 doubles, 14 steals, and 90 walks while starting 143 games at shortstop. My guess is that Barajas will only be back in Toronto if he’s willing to accept a modest one-year deal and Scutaro will find his big payday elsewhere, because handing out multi-year contracts to a pair of 34-year-olds likely isn’t how Anthopoulos wants to kick off his tenure as J.P. Ricciardi’s replacement.