If the 2014 World Series taught us anything, it taught us once again that it’s not always the best two teams that make it to the fall classic, it’s the hottest two teams.

It’s difficult, if not impossible to argue that the Dodgers and Angels were clearly the best two teams heading into the postseason, yet both were eliminated in the first round by streaking teams. And then both of those teams (the Cardinals and Orioles) were eliminated by two even hotter streaking teams which were, of all things, the two Wild Card teams from their respective leagues.

The point here is that any team that makes it into the postseason has a legitimate shot at making and winning the World Series regardless of who has the better team on paper or what the Vegas oddsmakers say. The difficult part, of course, is getting to the postseason.

On Monday it was announced that former Dodgers catcher Russell Martin signed a five-year / $82 million deal with the Toronto Blue Jays – a team that hasn’t even been to the postseason since 1993. To say that this caught baseball analysts and experts off-guard would be an understatement. Most felt that Martin would either re-sign with the Pirates or, more likely, sign with the Cubs or even the Dodgers.

As expected, catcher Russell Martin was among the first top-tier free agents to be signed this off-season, although nobody expected it to be with the Blue Jays.
(Photo credit – Peter Diana)

Although the Pirates, Cubs and Dodgers were undoubtedly uncomfortable with giving Martin a five-year deal that would take him to age 36, most believed that he would get it – especially after his outstanding 2014 season where his triple slash was .290 / .402 / .430 for a very impressive .832 OPS. But to sign with a team that hasn’t finished closer than 11 games back in their division in the last five years and, as noted, hasn’t been to the playoffs in 22 years tends to suggest that Martin is more concerned about the money than with winning a World Series ring.

In no way is this a knock on Russell Martin and in no way am I suggesting that MLB players shouldn’t seek the biggest and longest contracts they can get, of course they should. If they are truly that good they are entitled to the best financial security that they can get for the rest of their (and their kid’s kid’s kids) lives. Heaven knows the Dodgers have plenty of these contracts on the books. But it seems to me that if Martin was truly looking to win a World Series title, he would have been better off signing a shorter and (slightly) lesser contract with the Pirates Cubs or Dodgers – all of whom have a much better shot of making it into the playoffs (and a potential World Series title) than do the Blue Jays over the life of Martin’s new contract.

Here again, this isn’t to say that the Toronto Blue Jays won’t make it into the postseason during the next five seasons and, as we just saw, once you get in anything can happen. But based on the Blue Jays track record over the past two decades, it appears that Martin may have signed with yet another clunker, this in spite of the money he will get.

The one caveat to Martin’s five-year / $82 million contract is that it does not include a no-trade clause. In fact, no current Blue Jays player has one. And while this does not absolve the Blue Jays from having to pay Martin a lot of money over the next five years, it could make trading him a little easier if the three-time All-Star doesn’t perform up to expectations or gets injured.

On the bright side, the extremely likable backstop was born in Toronto so he is, in essence, going home – and that, no doubt, factored into Martin’s decision to sign with the Blue Jays.

…well, that and $82 million.