AL East Notes: Anthopoulos, Betances, Rosenthal

The Blue Jays sit atop the AL East but most feel that the club will try to fortify its starting rotation before the trade deadline.  Jays GM Alex Anthopoulos hinted to Peter Gammons of GammonsDaily.com that if his team did make a move, the price might be too high for a big-name arm.  “We are pretty much maxed out in terms of payroll, but more important, we cannot keep trading our young [minor league] pitchers,” Anthopoulos said.  “We also have to be realistic about whom we can extend if we make a trade for him….We have been feeling out teams and doing background work.  I think we’d probably look at something where we have a pitcher for the rest of this season. That makes sense.”  Gammons wonders if this means the Jays wouldn’t pursue David Price or Jeff Samardzija since neither pitcher is likely to sign an extension with Toronto to becoming a free agent after 2015.  James Shields (a free agent this winter) would also cost a lot, while Gammons suggests names like Francisco Liriano, Jason Hammel or Justin Masterson as possible fits.

Here’s the latest from around the AL East…

• Dellin Betances no longer frets about trade rumors like he did in his younger days, the Yankees reliever tells Brendan Kuty of NJ.com.  “I try not to pay too much attention,” Betances said. “Actually, I haven’t heard anything. But this has happened so many times that — you always hear rumors that are coming up.”  CBS Sports’ Jon Heyman recently explored Betances as a possible trade chip the Yankees could use in a package for Samardzija, though with Betances pitching so well, Heyman noted New York would be hesitant to move the right-hander.
• In an Insider-only piece for ESPN.com, Christopher Crawford breaks down what each of the five AL East teams could look for in the upcoming amateur draft.
• The struggling Red Sox may not look to help their lineup by trading for a notable hitter, FOX Sports’ Ken Rosenthal said in a recent radio appearance on WEEI’s Dennis & Callahan Show (WEEI.com’s Nick Canelas has a partial transcript).  “To expend what you’€™d have to expend to get that player, I’€™m not sure the Red Sox want to do that because right now they’re in a situation where they are protective of what they have,” Rosenthal said.  “They have depth in young talent all over the place, we know that; left side of the infield, catching, pitching to some extent. But their idea is to keep this going, and I’€™m not sure you keep it going by trading for a big-money hitter and expending prospects to do it with one or two years left on the guy’€™s contract.”
• From that same interview, Rosenthal also touched on Orioles slugger Nelson Cruz, who “looks like a player that a lot of people underestimated” coming off his PED suspension in 2013.  “The price was not to the liking of a lot of teams early on, and he’€™s not that offensive-defensive mixture that most teams seek now….He’s a guy that clearly has shown that whatever was going on with him, assuming that nothing is going on now, he is back to the player that we thought he should be.”  Cruz is currently slashing .295/.361/.612 with a Major League-leading 16 homers.
• Rosenthal notes that the Red Sox didn’t pursue Cruz last winter.  Cruz’s success notwithstanding, I’d say it’s hard to fault Boston for that non-move since the club was seemingly set in the corner outfield spots and David Ortiz is the everyday DH.