Earlier today, Blue Jays GM Alex Anthopoulos took questions from reporters and denied rumblings that he's scouring the trade market early on in the year. Here's more from the GM's presser courtesy of MLB.com's Gregor Chisholm..
- There has been talk of the Blue Jays prioritizing a big bat for some time now but the GM said that isn't exactly the case. Anthopoulos believes that the talk started when he was asked a hypothetical question in an interview about what he might look to add early in the season and responded by saying that he would seek out offense.
- As for this week's rumblings that he's diligently looking for an impact starter and a bopper? "I’ve had zero dialogue with GMs right now on anything remotely resembling that," Anthopoulos said.
- It's unlikely that you'll see the Blue Jays go after elite free agents, thanks in large part to payroll constraints and the club's aversion to long-term deals. Anthopoulos said that it's much more likely that the club will add impact players via trade in the coming years. AA talked about the team's policy on contract length and the possibility of exceptions being made last month.
- In the past, Anthopoulos has implied that doling out more than $100MM to an import such as Yu Darvish was risky, but the GM backed off of that assertion. “I think when you’re spending over $100MM on a player, no matter who it is, there’s always an element of risk there. But like anything else, obviously very talented, great stuff, good athlete…whether it’s a player from here or a player from Japan or anywhere else, there’s always an element of risk no matter how good the players are."
Isn’t the owner of the Blue Jays one of the top 5 richest owners of the MLB? I’m surprised their payroll isn’t at least 100M.
The owners are Rogers Inc and they run it like a business i.e. profitable.
Considering Rogers own the tv rights without any deals and an entire nation watches Jays game, I suspect the payroll could easily go 100MM+ but likely won’t.
toronto pro sports teams are so cheap. they are owned by the richest company (ROGERS AND BELL) in canada maybe top 5 in NA. but are tOO CHEAP!!!
Rogers doesn’t like to lose money. They are easily the most expensive phone/internet/television provider. No questions.
If they Blue Jays don’t EARN them money, no point of having them around.
The Jays are a marketing platform more than anything else. Rogers is more interested in the ads around the stadium and the expensive commercials during broadcast than the players on the field.
That being said, they missed out an oppurtunity with Darvish. The amount of advertising revenue would have been incredible. “Generic Japanese tech company? You want a poster infront of the bullpen? Sorry, that will be 5x the regular price”
The real truth is that if Rogers puts out a winning team, they’ll get Canadian ratings and all of North America watching the World Series on their broadcast. But shoveling money does not make a winning team. A winning team is made up of solid draft picks that mature through the minors and develop into a great core team, which takes time.
People need to cool down, grow some team loyalty and cheer for the team whether they win or lose and be grateful if they win, rather than betrayed if they lose.
I have always felt that the size of the payroll is usually connected to attendance, regardless of who owns the team. Toronto’s ranked 25th out of 30 in people per game, so once the fan base comes back the payroll would probably jump.
Yet some teams can bump their payroll if they get a lucrative TV deals?
Reds? Angels? Dodgers likely?
Jays will never get a lucrative TV deal because they are owned by a cable company that gets TV rights automatically which is watched by entire nation. Jays attendance should be the secondary source of income for the organisation.
I’m here in Seattle and we have had attendance drop steadily for 5 years, and the payroll drops as well.
That sucks though for Toronto. Also, the stadium itself isn’t that great or new, so there’s that as well.
So you figure Rogers gives zero value to the Jays for their ratings on their TV deal?
Typical AA.
Says nothing. Gives out nothing. He basically talks a lot without saying anything.
1 – He is looking for a big bat + pitcher
2 – He will never accept that he is looking for the aforementioned.
3 – Rogers will never dole out another huge contract which he hides in a team policy of max 5 year contract which is absolute garbage.
its easy to say this now after Darvish has performed and looked good.
The reality is that Free Agency is not the way to build a team, cheap or not. They’ve modeled themselves after the Rays and Rangers, and it takes some time for winning to come to fruition.
Rangers took a huge risk with Darvish, that was a huge investment, but they are a much much much better team, so a risk like that could put them over the top. There is zero need for AA to take such risks like that at this point.
Its easy to sit back and say oh they are cheap oh they are this, but the reality is this is the most exciting team that the jays have had in a long time, and the park is still empty. So the fans aren’t holding up their end of the bargain.
It frustrates me that we don’t even know for sure if they even bid for Darvish or not.
Modelling themselves after Rays is a good way but Rays will never be over the top contenders until they dish out some contracts.
Modelling themselves after Rangers is perfect but you have to accept that Rangers did ultimately dish out big contracts to Beltre and Darvish. Which every contender has to, otherwise you can’t grow all stars at every position.
I just don’t want Jays to be the next Rays, they have the talent to win but will never be over the top like Rangers/Yankees/Detroit because they don’t have the payroll.
I agree fully about the rangers, but the rangers weren’t good over night.. They developed stars then added on the pieces to take them further. Jays willl get there, it just wasn’t there year..
and knowing about the bid for darvish would be worse I feel like. It if was 50.7 million, people will be pissed that it was so close, if it was 32. million people will be pissed it was so low.
so damned if you do really
Agree completely. It takes a lot of time, and some, ok a lot of, luck. The Rangers have taken numerous risks and hit on them more times than not. Colby Lewis has performed better than they ever dreamed. Hamilton for Volquez. Napoli for Frank Fransisco. Teixera for Andrus, Harrison, Feliz, and Salty. All made possible by building a fantastic farm with the right coaches. Then there’s Darvish. It was a huge investment/risk, but one the Rangers could afford to take. So far it’s panned out. They did their homework and got their guy.
The Jays will get there. They’re already a really good team. Drabek looks sharp.
It’s a shame the fans still aren’t filling the Rogers Center.
Maybe it’ll just take the Jays getting to the postseason to rejuvenate the fan base. That’s what did it for the Rangers.
It will be a fun series coming up. Darvish/Drabek bill.
I’d say typical of any GM of any sports team. I mean, what are they suppose to say besides good things about the team. Not like they’d thrash their own players that they acquired.
meh, just need a Jeff Baker or two – some RHB with big platoon splits that can play multiple positions – to take some platoon bats away from Lind or Thames.
Reed Johnson.
D’Arnaud is an unbelievable prospect, a couple years away from having an impact. Gose will be as productive as Raja Davis and Drabek will be a solid MLB starter when we throws strikes. There is a lot more to very excited about in the farm system (a lot). But we do need to make moves, especially when there staring you in the face in the off season. Darvish would have been PERFECT for toronto (ask Brian Colangalo) not to mention the many other All-Star caliber players that moved this off-season (not fielder of Pujols, lets not dream). There needs to be proven talent to go along side all of the developed gems.
I hope Gose is better then Davis.
They can always sign Vlad Guerrero if they want a better hitter in the lineup, and play EE in left. Has to be some way to improve that lineup, that may be it.
Shoulda signed Manny
Thames hasn’t been there worst hitter at this point so no need to consider replacing him…
1B and catcher are the big holes right now, and apparently rightfield too.
In fact he has been one of the best, and is hitting over .300 vs Lefties and Righties
the league will catch up to him though, he doesnt have a good approach
What “big bats” are gonna be easily acquires? Pablo Sandoval? Peter Bourjous? Torii hunter? Carlos Lee?