Centre Court wrote:One of the main takeaways from Shapiro's PTS interview is his concern over the lack of depth at the AAA level - particularly with starting pitching. He said injuries inevitably happen and he feels the Jays ae vulnerable because they don't have anyone on the farm to step up if needed. Which is the exact concern many of us had when AA went on his deadline trading spree.
We pretty much never had any kind of depth at the AAA level during AA's time here which is why he was king of the waiver wire. AA didn't really bother building guys up at each level. Once he felt they were ready to go he brought them in regardless of if they were in A ball or AA ball.
He hit one out of the park with Osuna but other than Stroman, AA was unable to draft and bring a legitimate starter into the rotation during his time here. The only other one would be Hutch who isn't even slated to start in the rotation and the same goes for Sanchez.
I know AAA depth is something most teams struggle with and that AA believed in flipping prospects for major league ready guys, but now that you can't stockpile picks the same way you could before (which AA exploited better than anyone), relying on internal depth is going to be key. The rotation has been relatively healthy the last couple of seasons thanks to guys like Dickey and Buehrle always taking the ball, but that will become a bigger issue going forward with less and less guys being able to do that.