NATIONAL HARBOR, Md. – The New York Yankees left the Gaylord National Resort and Convention Center with Aroldis Chapman and Matt Holliday in the fold, while the Boston Red Sox loaded up with Chris Sale, Tyler Thornburg and Mitch Moreland. The Tampa Bay Rays picked up catcher Wilson Ramos and the Baltimore Orioles, well, they may not even know what they’re up to.
Against that American League East backdrop, the winter meetings haul of Steve Pearce, left-handed depth arm Brett Oberholtzer and Rule 5 righty Glenn Sparkman the Toronto Blue Jays headed north with little to inspire instant faith that another post-season run in 2017 is possible, let alone likely.
Overreaction at this point is premature – even after reports emerged Thursday night that primary target Dexter Fowler had reached agreement with the St. Louis Cardinals – since the winter’s business across the industry is far from complete, especially when it comes to the club’s key areas of need.
So for now Blue Jays fans will have to be patient and trust general manager Ross Atkins when he says, “we feel like we’re in a good position and have a good handle on where things stand.”
Exactly when the payoff from this week’s work comes is uncertain, but now that Fowler is off the table, expect Atkins to spread his resources across the roster. The Cardinals made what the highly respected Derrick Goold of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch described as an “over-the-top offer,” which is often what it takes to win the day in free agency.
On Tuesday, Atkins indicated the Blue Jays were comfortable with their positions in various negotiations, and as he left the winter meetings Thursday, well before the news on Fowler broke, he said “nothing major” had changed.
“There’s always a little wiggle, always movement, even if it’s not in the position, it could be in language, just saying that you’re open to things, or open to dialogue and discussion is movement,” he said. “That’s daily.”
One industry source believes re-signing Michael Saunders is at the top of their list of alternatives, although the Blue Jays have also expressed interest in Ben Revere and Brandon Moss. On the trade front, they’d take Jay Bruce, but right now the New York Mets are treating the outfielder as a commodity that can return an asset, not a salary dump.
Bobby Wilson, Chris Iannetta and Geovany Soto are among the backup catchers they’ve looked at, while Jerry Blevins, Mike Dunn and Javier Lopez are some of the left-handed relievers under consideration, depending on price. Oberholtzer, signed to a minor-league deal with a spring invite, will have a chance to compete for a swingman job in the bullpen, while Sparkman is a starter coming off Tommy John surgery with mid-90s stuff that could also play up in a relief role.
The Blue Jays by now are well aware of how their list of alternatives to Fowler prices out, and now the market has, to a certain extent, dictated their next moves.
“The meetings are definitely a time when things pick up and we feel like we made progress,” said Atkins. “We’re excited about adding Steve Pearce at the beginning, excited about a lot of the dialogue on trade fronts and free-agent acquisitions that could occur.
“It’s always a good time of the year for the momentum to pick up.”
Pearce, signed Monday to a $12.5-million, two-year deal, pushed the Blue Jays commitments in guaranteed salary and arbitration projections to nearly $130 million. Add in another $5 million or so for 0-3 service time players, and that would leave Atkins roughly $25 million to bolster his roster.
Certainly the AL East champion Red Sox moved further ahead of the field with their wheeling and dealing, adding one of the top three pitchers in baseball, an elite set-up man and a nice piece at first base. A scary thought is that they may not be done now that they have a surplus of starting pitching, and if they could find a taker for Clay Buchholz’s $13.5 million, they might have the flexibility to add another bat (Jose Bautista, Edwin Encarnacion, looking in your direction).
That’s why the season starts as wild card or bust for the rest of the AL East and it will be up to the Red Sox not to fall back to the pack.
Chapman’s decision to rejoin Dellin Betances and Tyler Clippard in a once-again scary bullpen adds to the intrigue around the Yankees, who continue to assemble assets of all nature as they try to emulate the Red Sox model as they rebuild on the fly. They aren’t better than the Blue Jays right now, but they’re in position to steal some wins from them.
Same thing with the Rays, unless they decide to strip down, while the Orioles were described by one rival executive as a “mish mash.” Still, they finished 89-73 like the Blue Jays last year before losing in the wild-card game and shouldn’t be dismissed until there are no value plays to be found on the market.
Put together, there’s very much a roadmap back to the post-season for the Blue Jays, but the right moves are needed in the days and weeks ahead to keep them on the right path.
“We start the off-season with a strategy to win as many games as possible given our resources and given our opportunities,” said Atkins. “Other teams’ moves or transactions couldn’t increase that anymore. The needle was already pointed at, ‘What can we do to win’ as aggressively as it can point. The other transactions couldn’t possibly make our desire or our strategy and our view more significant to try to win.”
The test of their strategy, their desire and their aggression is still to come.