Yesterday Ted Lilly signed a 4-year,$40 million dollar contract with the Chicago Cubs. He was one of the two choices for the Jays to fill their 4th rotation spot. And today the other choice for the Bluejays Gil Meche has turned the Jays down, and has signed a 5-year, $55 million dollar contract with the Royals.

Now where does that leave Ricciardi? Well he does have Halliday, Burnett, and Chacin, but no 4th and 5th spot starters. He can fill those spots with Shaun Marcum, and Casey Janssen, but neither of them proved to be reliable last season. He could spend the remainder of his money on either Jeff Suppan, or Mark Redman but neither will be cheap. Of course neither is Barry Zito, and getting him is not in the stars for the Jays, and would cost them around $18 million annually, and that's money they don't have especially if they're set on re-signing Vernon Wells.

Now the last choice would be to trade Vernon Wells who is only making around $5.5 million dollars in his final year of a five year contract. He is expected to get a huge raise, and trading him could be an option. Since the Whitesox have traded Freddy Garcia to the Phillies for two prospects there have been rumours that they are also shopping Jon Garland. Jon Garland was an 18 game winner last year, and a swap for Vernon Wells would make sense for both sides.

Ricciardi has a tough choice, with his 4th, and 5th starting spots. Everybody know if the Jays want to contend next season they need a good pitching staff. So this offseason will be crucial in determening if the Jays are contenders, or pretenders.