As the familiar high-stakes manoeuvring by the Boston Red Sox and New York Yankees played out at this week’s winter meetings, the Toronto Blue Jays stayed true to their vision for building a winner.
General manager Alex Anthopoulos left Lake Buena Vista, Fla., having pulled off only one move at baseball’s annual swap meet, picking up Canadian infield prospect Brett Lawrie in a trade with Milwaukee for starter Shaun Marcum.
It was a deal that drew mixed reviews from fans, who were split over the decision to give up an established and solid pitcher for a 20-year-old big on potential but short on track record.
Yet the trade, the 14th pulled off by Anthopoulos in just over 14 months on the job, underlines the organizational philosophy the Montrealer believes will propel his club past its more flamboyant rivals.
Lawrie is the sixth former first-round pick Anthopoulos has added via trade, to go along with four second-rounders, fitting into his grander strategy of stocking all levels of the system with high-ceiling talent.
By doing so, he believes he can turn the Blue Jays into a sustainable winner, a team able to field all-stars all over the diamond and fill holes by either promoting from within, or using prospects as trade chips to bolster the big-league club.
A reminder of how tough a challenge that is was provided by the Red Sox, who picked up slugger Adrian Gonzalez and reached an agreement with Carl Crawford, and the Yankees, who laid the groundwork for a deal with Cliff Lee.
Anthopoulos believes free agents are best used to put contending teams over the top.
Right now the Blue Jays are in the talent-acquisition mode, and trades have been one of his most effective avenues in accomplishing that.
Lawrie fits right into the mould, and his addition is the latest example of Anthopoulos’s persistence in trying to obtain a player he likes.
Anthopoulos began calling Brewers counterpart and fellow Canadian Doug Melvin about Lawrie shortly after he started on the job and didn’t let up until a deal was struck.
There are similar stories behind the deals for starter Brandon Morrow, top pitching prospect Kyle Drabek, single-A outfielder Anthony Gose and single-A catcher Travis d’Arnaud.
“He was pretty persistent,” Melvin said after the trade’s announcement. “With Alex, there’s a lot of phone calls.”
Drabek and d’Arnaud, along with Michael Taylor, were all picked up in Anthopoulos’s first trade, with the Philadelphia Phillies last Dec. 16 for ace Roy Halladay. Taylor was flipped to Oakland for Brett Wallace that same day, and he was subsequently sent to Houston for Gose, whom Anthopoulos wanted all along.
To get Gose, Anthopoulos horned in on Philadelphia’s talks with the Astros over the summer for Roy Oswalt, and once Gose was packaged to Houston for the ace right-hander, Anthopoulos pounced to get his man.
The trade for Morrow came exactly a week later, after some two months of negotiations.
Anthopoulos had followed Morrow from well before Seattle made him the fifth overall pick in the 2006 draft, and kept trying to pry him away from the Mariners until Brandon League and prospect Johermyn Chavez did the trick.
Last winter he signed free agent Alex Gonzalez and retained John McDonald to play shortstop to plug gaping holes, and when opportunity arose, found a more permanent solution by acquiring Yunel Escobar, along with lefty prospect Jo-Jo Reyes in a July 14 deal with Atlanta for Gonzalez, and minor-leaguers Tim Collins and Tyler Pastornicky.
A similar course is likely to be followed this winter to plug the holes at both infield corners and behind the plate. Same goes for the bullpen, where the looming departures of closer Kevin Gregg and left-hander Scott Downs, both free agents, leave worrying voids.
Anthopoulos has also been creative in trades, with one of his most intriguing deals being the Nov. 4 acquisition of catcher Miguel Olivo from the Colorado Rockies for a player to be named later or cash.
The Blue Jays immediately declined Olivo’s US$2.5-million option for 2011, offered him arbitration and are set to obtain a compensatory draft pick if his preliminary agreement with Seattle is finalized. In essence, the deal allowed Anthopoulos to buy a pick, something that others may copy down the road.