For those still calling this a "debacle" of Jays management, I would hightly encourage you to read this article:
http://www.sportsnet.ca/baseball/mlb...s-encarnacion/
Couple nuggets:
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Nov. 6 – Seeking to bring negotiations to a quick resolution, the Blue Jays break from typical negotiating practices and counter against themselves, upping their offer to $80 million over four years. A performance-based vesting option for a fifth year at $20 million, or a straight team option for $20 million with a buyout factored into the $80 million guarantee is raised. There’s no counter-offer from the Encarnacion camp, which wasn’t prepared to make a deal with free agency so near. .
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Nov. 8 – The impression the Blue Jays have is that the Encarnacion camp is set on getting $100 million. There’s communication between the team and the player, underlining that the Blue Jays could move on if he doesn’t accept. They want a signal that they’re in the ballpark.
. The Encarnacion camp, despite being told dialogue with other players was set to start, doesn’t feel a divorce is imminent. The Blue Jays, meanwhile, conclude from the lack of urgency on the other side of the table that there’s at least one other team willing to be in the $80-$100 million range. Both were wrong.
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Nov. 12 – The sides speak again with the Blue Jays saying the door to an Encarnacion return isn’t closed, that Justin Smoak could potentially be traded, but the $80 million offer was off the table, and creativity would be needed. The notion is raised that $90 million over four years would have gotten a deal done. The sides agree to stay in touch.
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I get it sucks that EE isn't a Jay and obviously with the deal he signed with Cleveland he would have fit great but that would not have gotten it done at the time. Jays did some miscalculating for sure, but IMO this is a clear case of EE's agent failing to get his job done for his client. He tells the Jays he needed 90 million to get a deal done and then turns around and only gets his clients 65 mill guaranteed and its the Jays fault?