The Toronto Blue Jays finished third in the AL East this past season, fifteen games behind both the Yankees and Red Sox. And their big plan to close the gap is to sign B.J. Ryan for five years and $47 M.

Cousin Larry, I am serious.

What has happened to all these sabermetric GMs? They are either committing seppuku on themselves or their teams. J.P. Ricciardi may have made the worst move in saber-GM history this time though.

Ryan had a nice, if not great, season this past year as the O's closer, his first year as a closer in seven major-league seasons. He recorded 36 saves in 70.1 innings and had a good but not great 2.43 ERA. His 25.2 VORP ranked 15th among all relievers (behind Todd Jones), and his 11.8 Win Shares were 16th among all relievers. As for his overall career, he owns a 3.54 ERA in 381.1 innings, again nice but far from stellar for a reliever.

You get the idea. He had a good year, has never closed before, the O's finally gave up on Jorge Julio, and the rest is history.

But maybe I am selling Ryan's 2005 season short. Maybe it's somehow so historic that the Jays (or J.'s) are assured of a premier closer for years to come. I mean, how many closers recorded at least 30 saves and 60 innings as well as at least s strikeout an inning, especially a lefty reliever?

Well, I looked it. There have been 47 pitchers who have done it in baseball history, some multiple times, and six of them, including Ryan and Brian Fuentes this year, have done been lefties. My question is then whether somehow who has achieved that combination of accomplishments is likely to repeat it multiple times with five years. Given that the Jays signed Ryan for such an astronomical sum for five, one would assume that they expect him to perform at this level for a number of the seasons in the contract.

Here are 47 pitchers that have done it along with the number of times they repeated the task in the next five years:

That comes out to 48 repeat seasons in 191 tried or 25%. Only six men have accomplished the feat at least half the time over the next five years, and only two (Nen and Hoffman) were 100%. Frankly, the Jays will be lucky if Ryan repeats the feat more than once in the next five years.

By the way, Brian Fuentes is also a lefty whose 29 and accomplished the feat this past season. And he made $320 K last season. Of course, he won't be a free agent for some time, but it illustrates how Ryan's set of accomplishments are not so rare today.

Speaking of which, fellow lefty closer Billy Wagner, a pitcher who has consistently performed well over his career, signed for just $43 M with the Mets, albeit over just four years. MLB.com hails the signing, "the Mets on Monday appear to be the strongest team in the National League East and a significantly stronger entry in the New York baseball market". Somehow, I was reminded of the Mo Vaughn years. Anyway, the Braves' youth and talent might have be underestimated by that reporter.

Frankly, as a Phils fan, I am fine with my team saving the $10+ M a year as long as they spend it elsewhere (like the rotation, at third, and behind the plate). Besides how many pitchers save thirty games (as a baseline) consistently in their mid-thirties?

Here are the only pitchers to save at least 30 multiple times from age 34 to 37, Wagner's ages for the four-year contract:

Yes, Wagner's talented enough to join the list, but is he worth the $40 M price tag?

My response is the same that it was with Thome (a substantially worse bet). The Phils never made the playoffs with these players at the height of their powers. If they must go, if the Phils must tear down what they built when the moved to a new stadium in order to rebuild the team, that's fine as long as it's part of a plan.

I was happy with the Thome deal until the Phils threw $22M into the deal, almost half of Thome's remaining contract. Basically, Thome has to be through for the deal to work to their advantage now (unless their pockets are so deep that a seven-digit buyout does not phase them). Now Wagner does not re-sign even though retaining him was Gillick's stated highest priority. It makes me wonder what exactly the plan is. Hopefully Gillick is smart enough to let it evolve within some basic framework.

At least, he didn't sign a career middle reliever coming off a career year to the most lucrative deal for closer in baseball history. I wonder what Ed Wade would have done.