Major League Baseball

Blue Jays taking new approach

Published Apr. 2, 2010 12:13 a.m. ET

share

facebookxredditlink

foxsports

The Toronto Blue Jays are heading into a pivotal season. While the fans will be focused on the field, the real test will be how the new management team does behind the scenes.

first-year general manager Alex Anthopoulos is 7 months into an ambitious reinvention of the organization, enacting a plan that seeks to develop a sustainable winner in the model of the New York Yankees and Boston Red Sox, lacking the long periods of losing and missing the playoffs.

``The way the Yankees and Red Sox are set up there shouldn't be too many peaks and valleys,'' Anthopoulos said in a recent interview with The Canadian Press. ``They can still have down years in which you don't get performance, there are injuries, they have a bad draft, but it shouldn't be cyclical for them.

``Their GMs don't get the credit they deserve,'' Anthopoulos said of New York's Brian Cashman and Boston's Theo Epstein. ``You take away the payroll from them and they'll still be successful because they use their resources very well. That's why we have to make sure we build it in a way to sustain it. We need to try and build towards being a team that's not cyclical.''

While many point to the vast revenue streams the Red Sox and Yankees draw upon as the driver of their success, crediting money alone is far too simplistic, Anthopoulos says.

Rather, he says the Yankees and Red Sox have used their financial might to support a combination of clever roster management, smart free-agent signings, and productive drafting and trading to turn over their cores without bottoming out on the field.

If only it were as straightforward as it sounds.

The Blue Jays head into 2010 with a decent young core led by second baseman Aaron Hill, designated hitter Adam Lind, outfielder Travis Snider, center fielder Vernon Wells plus pitchers Shaun Marcum, Ricky Romero and Brandon Morrow.

They also have a handful of top prospects in the minors - highlighted by pitcher Kyle Drabek, first baseman Brett Wallace and catcher Travis D'Arnaud, acquired in the Roy Halladay trade - that will be sprinkled into the roster over the coming seasons.

The challenge is in augmenting that group and then finding a way to keep the talent coming in a steady stream.

And this season will be largely about identifying additional pieces that can be added to the core, and trying to turn everyone else into an asset for the future. The development of youngsters such as Marcum, Morrow, Snider and Romero plus on-the-cusp prospects like Brett Cecil, Mark Rzepczynski and J.P. Arencibia is what matters most.

``The key for this organization moving forward is just going about your business the right way,'' said Vernon Wells, the team's clubhouse leader. ``I think that's the biggest thing, to respect the fact you're blessed to put on a uniform each and every day, and go out and play the game as hard as you can each and every night. That's the only way you're going to get better. That's the only way you're going to learn.''

The other way to augment the franchise's talent base is through the draft and international free agent signings, and those are areas of priority for Anthopoulos.

The scouting department has grown to about 70 people, dwarfing the staff under former GM J.P. Ricciardi.

Anthopoulos has also made the Blue Jays players on the international market once again.

They were among the finalists for Cuban pitcher Aroldis Chapman, who eventually signed with Cincinnati for $30.25 million over six years, and are soon expected to finalize a $10 million, four-year deal for another Cuban, shortstop Adeinis Hechavarria. Visa trouble is believed to be what's holding that up.

The dollars involved in those deals show that team owner Rogers Communications Inc., fully supports Anthopoulos's vision, and the necessary money will be available to the Blue Jays provided there is a plan to spend it wisely.

Once the team's talent level has reached a high enough level, there will be additional funds to push the roster forward via free agency. By then the farm system should be deep enough to provide chips that can be used in trades, and to replenish the holes left by aging veterans.

That's precisely what the Yankees have done over the past 16 seasons, and the Red Sox for the last 12. Neither looks to have a roster crunch coming.

``I think that you're looking at a couple of teams that absent a salary cap can continue their record of excellence,'' Blue Jays president Paul Beeston said. ``If you want to look at them as sustainable, competitive teams, they're clearly there.

``But that doesn't mean that other teams can't join them,'' Beeston added.

The Blue Jays believe they can not only get back to their glory years, which culminated with World Series wins in 1992 and '93, but this time sustain the good times.

``Up until '94, we were almost the New York Yankees,'' Beeston said. ``When Jack Morris was looking for a job, we were one of the premier places he wanted to come. Dave Winfield, Paul Molitor, too. We'd make trades, players signed on here, they didn't look to get out. But we were at that time the highest revenue club in baseball.

``We should be in that position in a city the size of ours with a winning team to generate the type of dollars to allow us to be competitive.''

share

Get more from Major League Baseball Follow your favorites to get information about games, news and more

in this topic

Major League Baseball