Toronto Blue Jays Have Turned the Tables on the New York Yankees

For years the Toronto Blue Jays have been like the rest of the AL East, feeding off the leftovers of the New York Yankees and their seemingly endless flow of cash. But now it seems the Yankees have finally hit the silk lining in their once-thought bottomless pockets, and are now picking up scraps from the rest of the division, in particular the Blue Jays.

Toronto, in the meantime, went on a spending spree of their own over the winter, swiping the free agent ATM card more than a few times by signing Melky Cabrera, Mark DeRosa, Henry Blanco, and Maicer Izturis to a heaping grand total of $27.5 million worth of contracts.

But the Jays weren’t done by just signing some of baseball’s most sought after free agents, they went out and cut deal after deal, trading for Cy Young winner RA Dickey, and doing a South Beach style swap meet with the Miami Marlins in the acquisition of pitchers Josh Johnson and Mark Buehrle, as well as All-Star shortstop Jose Reyes.

When all was said and done, the Blue Jays were opening the checkbook and bleeding the pen dry, while the Yankees were crunching numbers, watching the salary ceiling, and looking for the MLB blue light specials on aisle 15.

Oh Karma…she is a wonder, isn’t she?

The team once considered to be the equivalent of the Dark Galactic Empire with Darth Steinbrenner at the helm has now reverted to penny-pinching and careful manipulation of contracts, while the bottom feeders in the division have now become the man-eaters and are poised for their first World Series run since the early 1990s.

Just remember Toronto fans, the Yankees attempts at buying a World Series trophy have generally been met with disappointment and failure. The teams that were able to capture the hardware and bring it home to Yankee Stadium were loaded with their own home grown talent as well as a healthy mix of some expensive mercenaries.

But it’s fun to watch the carnage, isn’t it?

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Michael Collins is a Rant Sports Senior Writer, and Atlanta sports columnist. Follow him @GaSportsCraze on Twitter and here on Facebook