On paper it makes sense for the Toronto Blue Jays to pursue bullpen help, but interim GM Tony LaCava isn’t limiting himself to relievers as baseball’s Winter Meetings approach. The Blue Jays plan to pursue relievers and starters alike while keeping an eye out for outside-the-box upgrades.
“We’re going to continue to look for opportunities,” LaCava told the Jeff Blair Show on Sportsnet 590 The FAN. “Alex (Anthopoulos) taught us that very well: Just keep shaking the tree and you never know what’s going to fall out. We’ll try to follow suit with that.”
So far the Blue Jays have re-signed Marco Estrada, traded Liam Hendriks for Jesse Chavez and signed J.A. Happ. They’d like to continue adding to their roster without taking away from the lineup that led MLB with 891 runs.
“It should be able to do the same type of damage it did last year, so ideally we don’t want to diminish that,” LaCava said. “That being said if something that makes the whole 25-man roster better, we’d certainly look at that. But we’re not going in there with the intention of moving any of our core pieces.”
Baseball’s Winter Meetings start Dec. 7 in Nashville, the hometown of free agent left-hander David Price. While LaCava declined to offer specifics, he acknowledged that Price will be in high demand.
“David’s earned free agency. He certainly deserves the chance to go out and talk to all of the teams,” LaCava said. “Like every other team that’s in the market, David Price has to be attractive to them. Without getting too much further, I would say that he deserves where he’s at and it’s certainly a heck of a competition to sign him.”
The Blue Jays aren’t expected to be serious suitors for Price, a candidate for a $200 million free-agent contract.
