According to Bruce Arthur of the Toronto Star, Toronto Blue Jays GM Alex Anthopoulos is confident in the team he has put together. But he’s also prepared to make the tough decisions should they be required as the season progresses.
http://www.thestar.com/sports/baseball/ ... rthur.htmlPlayoffs or bust can incentivize selfishness, and ignores big-picture planning, too. But Anthopoulos’s promoter and protector, Jays president Paul Beeston, spent his off-season avoiding the clumsy, fumbling shivs of his bosses. He found out he was being replaced when his old friend Jerry Reinsdorf called to say Rogers had called to hire White Sox executive Kenny Williams, for Beeston’s job. The mess ended with a one-year goodbye for Beeston, and maybe Anthopoulos. Strange days, but the once-boy wonder can’t think like that.
“I don’t. I’m 37 years old, and I still think I’m young in my career, and I never sit down and look at my status or my career,” says Anthopoulos. “I guess I feel it’s like a jumping-off point — jumping off in a good way, moving upwards. Because the nucleus we have in place has a chance to be together for a long time. And I think we can continue to add because we’ll have even more financial flexibility a year from now. There’s a ton of young talent on the team; there’s more on the way.
“So I feel like we’re finally in a position to go on a long run with some of the young talent that’s starting to emerge.”
That’s a convenient line of thought, but there’s something there. The Jays have young arms, power bats in their prime, one contract that lasts past 2016. They have between $20 million-$30 million (U.S.) coming off the books next summer, after they finally dipped into free agency this winter. There’s not enough depth, and they’re leaning too hard on the kids, probably. The division’s mediocre; maybe there’s enough, and maybe not. But there’s something here.
Still, playoffs or bust would loom for most people. Anthopoulos is one of those people who feels like making the best decision helps him sleep at night: as he puts it, “I think something is right or wrong because the process is right or wrong.” He wants to do the right thing.
In a division where nobody’s projected to run away and hide, what if the arms hold up, and the unbalanced lineup mashes, and the injuries aren’t crippling? What if the trade deadline approaches and the Jays are close, or leading? Is the right move to go for it? Is the right move to wait? Playoffs or bust, they say. The bet here is that Alex Anthopoulos will try to do the right thing for the franchise, whatever the hell that will be.
“We have the assets to do it,” says Anthopoulos. “We have the assets in terms of dollars, and minor-league currency. The toughest decision is, do you want to trade your young players? And I hope we’re in that position. I’d be thrilled if we were in that position.
“I want to be in that position where we have to make a really tough call — you know, we have a young player we don’t want to part with, but it can really put us over the top. I mean, I’d love to have a gut-wrenching decision like that, because it would mean that we have a shot. Which is what you want.”
