Before anyone carved Thanksgiving turkey, the Toronto Blue Jays general manager traded his manager to the Boston Red Sox, went back to the future to hire a surprise replacement skipper (John Gibbons), signed controversial outfielder Melky Cabrera to a two-year deal and overhauled his team’s roster in a 12-player trade with the Miami Marlins. Then, a week before Christmas, Anthopoulos acquired reigning NL Cy Young Award winner R.A. Dickey from the New York Mets.
Talk about getting your holiday shopping done early. Anthopoulos is hoping to give Blue Jays fans the gift of the playoffs in 2013, the 20th anniversary of the second of the franchise’s back-to-back World Series championships (and the last time it played in the postseason).
Since the Tampa Bay Rays joined the AL East in 1998, the Blue Jays consistently have finished in the middle of the pack (eight third-place finishes and five fourth-place finishes). The Rays’ rise since 2008 has pushed the Blue Jays further back, and last season they finished fourth for the fifth consecutive year and posted their worst record since 2004. After the Baltimore Orioles’ surprising playoff charge in 2012, Toronto is the only AL East team not to make the playoffs in the past four seasons.
The Blue Jays figured to be better in 2013 even before Anthopoulos went shopping. Injuries to Jose Bautista, Kyle Drabek, Drew Hutchison, Sergio Santos and J.A. Happ last season derailed a team that was in contention at midseason. With that group healthy and a platoon of offseason reinforcements having arrived, Toronto is potentially as strong as any team in the division.
Gibbons went 305-305 as the team’s manager from 2004-08 and was a surprise rehire. But Anthopoulos, an assistant GM during Gibbons’ first managerial stint, built a good working relationship with him. And a good working relationship is something Anthopoulos lacked last season with manager John Farrell.
2013 OUTLOOK
What could go right: Reyes and Cabrera should add to a potent offense, and Dickey, Johnson and Buehrle bring stability to the rotation. It’s enough to start dreaming about World Series hero Joe Carter throwing out the team’s first ceremonial playoff pitch since 1993.
What could go wrong: If injuries continue to plague the team, Romero struggles again and Encarnacion regresses to pre-2012 form, the Blue Jays still could win 90 games—but that likely wouldn’t be enough to reach the postseason.
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