DUNEDIN, Fla. — Over the course of the 2021 season, Bo Bichette played 159 games, led the American League in hits, represented the Toronto Blue Jays at MLB’s all-star game, and produced 4.9 fWAR for a team that finished with 91 wins. Meanwhile, Alek Manoah made 20 starts for that team after it promoted him for his MLB debut in May, pitching to a 3.22 ERA over 111.2 innings while producing 2.0 fWAR and finishing eighth in AL rookie-of-the-year voting. This week, after neither player agreed to terms with the club on a pre-arbitration deal, the Blue Jays unilaterally renewed their contracts for 2022 — Bichette at $723,550; Manoah at $706,200 — under its formulaic process for determining pre-arbitration salaries, as reported by Sportsnet’s Shi Davidi . That came after Bichette turned down an offered salary of $747,100, and Manoah rejected his own at $712,400. Why would either of these two players turn down those higher salaries, knowing that by doing so they would earn less — $23,550...