No team has done more to remake its roster this winter than the Blue Jays. They’ve pulled off not one but two blockbuster trades, a 12-player deal with the Marlins in mid-November and then a seven-player one with the Mets in mid-December, and they even traded last year’s manager, John Farrell, to the Red Sox and rehired John Gibbons, who piloted the team from mid-2004 to mid-2008. Meanwhile, general manager Alex Anthopoulos has been active on the free agent market as well as the waiver wire, cycling through a dizzying array of relievers and catchers, some of whom have already been lost via additional waiver claims. One way or another, the result is a vastly different lineup and rotation from the ones in place for Toronto’s worst season since 2004, one that will represent drastic increase in the team’s payroll from last year’s $83.7 million to $113 and counting and could give the Jays an excellent chance to return to the postseason for the first time since 1993.
Unfinished business: You’re still here? The Blue Jays have addressed nearly every area of need this winter except whichever half of their designated hitter/first base combo isn’t being occupied by Edwin Encarnacion, who thumped 42 homers while making 82 starts at DH and 66 at first. The disappointing complement to the slugger is 29-year-old Adam Lind, who hit .255/.314/.414 with 11 homers in 353 PA. Lind hasn’t been able to live up to the promise of his 35-homer 2009 campaign; he has hit a pathetic .186/.226/.281 against lefties in the three seasons since then, and even his .268/.321/.480 since righties in that span is near replacement level for a player on the far left of the defensive spectrum. Lefty David Cooper, 26, represents an in-house alternative; alas, the .300/.324/.464 he hit in 145 PA last year is superficially shiny but not much more substantial than Lind’s recent work. A low-cost free agent such as Jim Thome or Travis Hafner would force Encarnacion to the field more often than not and require a platoon partner, but either could probably outhit Lind even given their latter-day limitations.
Preliminary grade: A. No team has remade its fortunes in more impressive fashion this winter than the Jays, who are poised to seize the day in the AL East given the relatively lackluster winter work of the Yankees, Red Sox and Rays.
http://mlb.si.com/2013/01/22/winter-rep ... blue-jays/
