That one team

Why do offseasons in baseball seem to go the route of "The Posiedon Adventure?"
One money-engorged middle market team goes berserk and makes a couple of through-the-roof signings, and suddenly everybody panics.
In past years, it has been the Dodgers (Kevin Brown, Shawn Green, Darren Dreifort), the Rangers (Alex Rodriguez, Chan Ho Park) and Phillies (Jim Thome, David Bell) warping the free-agent market, overpaying for mediocre talent (or in the case of A-Rod, vastly overpaying for great talent), driving up the asking price for every other free agent.
This year, it's the Blue Jays. Dripping with cash for the first time in a few years and eager to create a fan-base buzz, the mediocre Jays have made B.J Ryan, a one-year closer who saved 36 games last year, the highest-paid reliever in baseball.
Ryan, at $47 million over five years, will make more than Mariano Rivera next year. More than Billy Wagner. More than Eric Gagne.
Tuesday, The Jays practically drowned in their own drool in shoving a five-year, $55 million contract under the nose of starting pitcher A.J. Burnett, which he promptly accepted.
Burnett is this year's Carl Pavano, a former Marlins pitcher with an inflated reputation who just nabbed a market-setting contract. Pavano has proven to be a good, but not great, starter for the Yankees. Here's believing the same will happen with Burnett in Toronto.
Now, I want the Indians to re-sign Kevin Millwood as much as the next Clevelander. But does it make sense that Burnett, a relatively young pitcher whose postseason experience is limited to one middle-rotation gig during the Marlins' World Series title in 2003, is slated to make more than Millwood, a veteran hurler who learned from pitching guru Leo Mazzone in Atlanta, was teammates with future hall of famers Greg Maddux, John Smoltz and Tom Glavine, and won an ERA title with the Indians this year?
This is the madness of offseason baseball. For some reason, Burnett and Ryan were considered fashionable in a weak market, and the Blue Jays were eager to flaunt some cash.
But there's a caveat, a conscience that should be whispering in the ear of Toronto management after vastly inflating their payroll while adding just two players.
Learn the lesson of the Dodgers, who couldn't wait to dump the reaminder of Brown's seven-year, $105 million contract on the Yankees two years ago after Brown's pitching elbow finally failed him. Learn the lesson of the Rangers, who woke up one morning and realized the record $252 million contract they gave A-Rod in 2000 was suffocating their team financially. They are now paying the Yankees $9 million a year for the favor of taking A-Rod off their hands in 2004.
Learn the lesson of the Phillies, who didn't want to pay Thome and his unraveling back anymore, and shipped him to the White Sox.
In three years, that could be you, Toronto. Don't say you weren't warned.