YOUR MOVE, VERNON WELLS

Reports are spreading that the Blue Jays have made a 7-year, $126-million offer to Vernon Wells.

The Jays are a in catch-22. They're damned if they do since $18 million per year is a lot of cash. They're damned if they don't, since Wells is the marquee player on a team that's got a tenuous foothold both on and off the field. The Jays are well aware, no doubt, what the public (and media) fallout would be if little to no effort was made to retain Wells. Of course, this presumes an awful lot about Wells' abilities, but damn it, that's besides the point right now!

Seven years, $126 mill isn't a lowball, half-hearted offer like the one the Jays made to Carlos Delgado following the '04 season. It's important to keep in mind that with Toronto baseball, the best teams weren't always the most profitable -- look at the '92-93 teams -- and Rogers Communications may have accepted that they might have to take a loss on baseball operations to get a playoff team.

Jays GM J.P. Ricciardi has apparently made Wells and his agent an offer they can refuse. If they do, it'll be rather easy for the Jays and the Toronto media to a guy who's only about the money, much like they did when Roberto Alomar flew the coop in 1995.

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