While driving through downtown Toronto earlier this week, Alex Anthopoulos was stopped at a traffic light. The Blue Jays general manager glanced out his car window and could not help but smile at what he saw.
"There was a panhandler there asking for change," Anthopoulos said during a recent phone interview. "She had a sign up asking for a donation, and at the bottom of her sign, she wrote, 'Go, Jays, Go!' I haven't seen that before.
"It makes you think, 'Wow, people are really getting excited about this team.'"
Compared to a year ago, there has been a noticeable increase in interest surrounding the Blue Jays in Toronto. Much of the buzz this season is due to the changes made on the field and behind the scenes by Anthopoulos and his retooled front office, a group that assumed the reigns in October.
One of Anthopoulos' goals when he took over for J.P. Ricciardi as general manager in October was to be transparent with the fan base in any move he made. Anthopoulos would make no promises of timelines for contention. Instead, he would relay his long-term vision and philosophies, explaining how each decision he made fell within his goal of building Toronto into a baseball powerhouse again.
So far, the Blue Jays have exceeded expectations at the Major League level. Many preseason forecasters had Toronto finishing last in the American League East. The Jays currently are in fourth place, but are six games above the break-even mark and boast a talented young pitching staff and baseball's most powerful offense.
The road back to the World Series, where the Blue Jays have not been since 1993, involves more than success on the big league stage, though. Anthopoulos knows that fans live and die with the club in Toronto, but the young general manager is quick to note that his vision includes stengthening the organization from the ground up.
In that sense, there is a lot more Anthopoulos wants to accomplish.
"I'm always looking ahead," Anthopoulos said. "Whether it's weeks, months, years ahead, I always feel like we have a lot of work to do. I think it's always going to feel that way until we get to the point where we make the playoffs, and then we win a championship.
"There's always something to do. There's always work to be done. There are always ways to improve. We're not close to where we need to be in every level of the organization, but we're moving in the right direction.
"I still have so many things I want to get done, so many. I just know I'm going to have to be patient, and it's going to take time. There are just so many things I want to tackle, and I know it takes years."
When he took over, Anthopoulos reorganized the front office, focusing on dramatically increasing the number of bodies in his scouting department. Over the past 10 months, Toronto has also become a force in the international marketplace, especially in terms of pursuing top talent from Latin America.
In these areas, the Blue Jays have flexed some financial muscle.
In July, the Jays signed Venezuelan right-hander Adonis Cardona with a $2.8 million bonus, the largest awarded to a Latin American amateur player in club history. Toronto also reeled in highly touted Cuban shortstop prospect Adeiny Hechavarria with a four-year, $10 million Major League contract in April.
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