AA won't rule out "big splash" in free agency

[Rhettmatic]

http://www.sportsnet.ca/baseball/2012/0 ... ig_splash/

Regarding this coming off-season, Anthopoulos was asked whether he plans on addressing team needs via free agency moreso this winter than in years past.

"I don't think we'd rule out the big splash," he offered. "I think at this stage we have the best feel for what we have on this club. I think now when you start looking around the diamond, you look in the bullpen, at least we feel we have the makings of a very competitive team so if you're looking at an area to really tackle in free agency, obviously you're looking at that rotation."

"We're a team that's really been competitive and contending all year, take away obviously the rough stretch here, but we've been right there with all these injuries," he said.

"We still fought our way through it to stay alive in this thing and you start thinking about if everyone does come back if we can make a trade or add a big free agent, certainly things can change, so I wouldn't rule it out or come out and say to expect it, but I definitely feel like this is the closest we've been to having a real solid team that's going to be able to stay together for a long period of time."

[diddykong]

of course he wouldn't, he'll wait till after season tickets are sold.

[Santoki]

Have I traveled back in time or was this season just a dream and it's December 2011 right now?

[Wo1verine]

It will be interesting to see what happens this winter because if Hech is playing full-time at 2B or SS, we're going to need another bat to help offset his poor offense.. Ideally we would acquire a SP or 2 and a LF rather it comes in the FA market or not shouldn't matter if we indeed are going to spend some $$.

[jrsmith]

I thought this clown would have learned to handle these things a little better by now, but he is still going full out with the bull.

[gei]

I've learned to never get my hopes up when it comes to the Jays and free agency.

[TheMainEvent]

What a tease.

[Skin Blues]

If only there was a young potential ace starting pitcher available for $100M over 5 years... hmmm... now Greinke is looking at a Hamels/Cain-like deal, at almost $50M more than Darvish got. That's if he hits free agency (Cain and Hamels didn't; seems he won't either), and if he chooses to play here (which he's lready said he dones't want to).

These are the dangers of saying "Players X, Y and Z will be free agents next season, we'll just sign one of them". Boy, would Darvish ever look good in a Jays uniform...

[diddykong]

lets be honest people, rogers WILL never spend money on this team. thats why AA is using this whole "controllable assets" route. through this route, he doesn't have to spend big bucks, (bautista's deal isn't big IMO). teams like the a's and marlins retool almost every year and still have playoff appearances. this isn't AA's fault, its rogers fault, there only interested in TV money and what ever revenue comes from that.

[limegameboy]

If only there was a young potential ace starting pitcher available for $100M over 5 years... hmmm... now Greinke is looking at a Hamels/Cain-like deal, at almost $50M more than Darvish got. That's if he hits free agency (Cain and Hamels didn't; seems he won't either), and if he chooses to play here (which he's lready said he dones't want to).

These are the dangers of saying "Players X, Y and Z will be free agents next season, we'll just sign one of them". Boy, would Darvish ever look good in a Jays uniform...

Yu Darvish is 2 shades short of Ricky Romero status right now.

[LittleOzzy]

Not happening.

AA might not rule it out, but Rogers will.

[torontoaces04]

Here we go again...

[Chevy Chase]

Here we go again...

worst photoshop ever!


And I will say this. Last year he never spoke about a big free agency pick up. He would never confirm a thing about Darvish and always denied any rumours about Pujols or Fielder. The media kept linking us to these players as they would have been great fits here even at the prices that were pay for them. That being said, AA always maintained that it wasn't Rogers buy himself that didn't feel the team was close enough. This didn't change the fact that I was pissed in the off season that they didn't pick up one of the above.

But lets be truthful, this is the first time we are hearing about a big FA splash.

[BigLeagueChew]

Again, AA has said he will spend when he feels the team is ready to compete. If you don't think that will happen then fine, there's nothing that can be said to prove it, however, I'll hold him to his word on that. It just comes down to him being able to build a team to get to that spending point via trades or average cost free agents.


The injuries have really hurt us more than anything, it's hard to compete with 2/5th's of a starting pitching staff, and recently without Bautista.

[Sifu]

Not happening.

AA might not rule it out, but Rogers will.

Rogers profit is flattening, and the company isn't growing as fast as it hoped to. What does this mean? Less money for the Jays.

[Raptor04]

In some ways, I can see why AA chose not to spend last off-season. And the believer in me wants to trust that he'll follow through by increasing the payroll by making a splash. I mean going into the 2012 season, we didn't quite know what to expect from:

-CF (Rasmus production was non-spectacular pre 2012)
-3B (Unclear of the impact Lawrie would make in his first full season)
-1B/DH (only two decent players in EE and Lind)
-A bunch of starting pitchers with no expecatations (Morrow had potential, but only finally showed he has ace consistency when healthy this season, and completely unprovens in Alvarez/Hutchinson couped with injuries again to Litsch and McGowan)
-A **** bullpen (might be putting it lightly)
-LF (this remains a hole, but easier to fill now with a year more experience of Gose/Davis/Sierra/Marisnick)
-2B (not quite sure of what to expect from Johnson)

Now we go into the offseason and we've handled a lot of those problems. Rasmus has shown glipses of actually meeting his potential as an everyday CFer, Lawrie looks like the real deal and a fixture at 3B for years, Encarnacion has taken a step towards being a more elite hitter, we've actually got some good options to fill 4/5 of our starting rotation vs 2/5. The bullpen is a helluva lot better with consistency over the next few years. And finally the overall development of our minor leaguers close to breakout talent (D'Arnaud/Hech/Gose).

We've essentially trimmed our grocery list so we can go pickup the necessities at the corner Mac's instead of making a full-fledge trip to the Superstore. With many more positions covered heading into next season, couped with the increased attendance that Rogers placed as a stopgap excuse, and it makes a whole lot more sense to have waited until this offseason to open our pockets.

But if they don't spend this time, TO HELL WITH THEM. BOYCOTT ALL GAMES

[kwamebargnani]

Big free agent splash as in Jamie Moyer, Brad Penny, Freddy Garcia and so on.

[diddykong]

Big free agent splash as in Jamie Moyer, Brad Penny, Freddy Garcia and so on.

oakland can sign these guys and turn them into gold like they did with colon

[Kurtz]

Raptor, that's a good post, but I disagree with your assertion that we're more set going into next year than we were going into this one.

Rasmus and Lawrie were pencilled in as starters for the next few years then, and will be going into next season too - not much change.

1B/DH - Same exact situation, only looks like EE is better offensively than we thought, and Lind is not.

LF - Bigger hole going into next year than this year. This year we had Snider/Thames/Davis competing for the spot. As of now, it's just Davis for next year. Gose has no value in LF and Sierra is probably not ready.

2B We went into this year with a solid vet at 2B, and as of now, we've got nothing at the spot for next year.

For SP: We went into this year expecting that Romero was a solid #1 and Morrow had the potential to be one too. We're going into next year expecting that Morrow is a solid #1 and Romero has the potential to be one too. Beyond those guys, we've learned absolutely nothing new about the staff, other than that Villaneuva may be a solid #5, and Alvarez may not be good enough to be the #3 we were hoping for.

Our bullpen does look better going into next year than last, absent Francisco/Frasor and replaced by Delabar and Lincoln.


On the net, we're no more certain, and none of our prospects are ready to make the jump other than D'arnaud. IMO we should have spent last off-season, but if AA didn't believe in the team then, I don't see what would make him a believer this off-season.

[Santoki]

Again, AA has said he will spend when he feels the team is ready to compete. If you don't think that will happen then fine, there's nothing that can be said to prove it, however, I'll hold him to his word on that. It just comes down to him being able to build a team to get to that spending point via trades or average cost free agents.


The injuries have really hurt us more than anything, it's hard to compete with 2/5th's of a starting pitching staff, and recently without Bautista.

I don't buy the injuries to the starting rotation. The only significant blow was Morrow. If AA had gone out and brought in someone more established (like a Gio) then you don't see Drabek in the rotation. If he doesn't rely on McGowan to be healthy, you don't see Hutchison up here so early. So, 2/3rds of the guys that got hurt, shouldn't have even been in the rotation to begin with. That's all on AA. Even with Morrow, you know the guy has an injury history, so you half expected it would come eventually.