TORONTO — Alex Anthopoulos feels he’s starting to “hit his stride” as general manager of the Toronto Blue Jays.
Whether he’ll be with the team for his peak years remains up in the air.
Anthopoulos didn’t shed any light on his contract status during his season wrapup news conference Monday at Rogers Centre. The GM’s future has become a front-burner topic since the Blue Jays were eliminated from the playoffs by the Kansas City Royals.
Anthopoulos, whose deal expires at the end of the month, has said he’d like to return but he decided to put contract talks aside during the post-season so it wouldn’t become a distraction. He will be negotiating with new president Mark Shapiro, who will replace the retiring Paul Beeston next week.
“That will be addressed at the appropriate time,” Anthopoulos said of his future with the team. “The appropriate time is not today.”
The 38-year-old Montreal native helped end the team’s 22-year playoff drought by making some impressive off-season moves and then landing more top-flight talent at the trade deadline. Anthopoulos used a different approach over the last year and it paid off.
“By design last off-season we really targeted a certain type of player,” he said. “We walked away from a lot of players that were talented and productive that didn’t fit what we were trying to do. I don’t know that as a GM I would have done that a few years earlier.
“I was probably so caught up on value, contractual status, salary, things like that. You learn from your mistakes, you learn from some things if you don’t adjust.”
Signing Canadian catcher Russell Martin and acquiring third baseman Josh Donaldson gave the clubhouse a different feel. The trade deadline acquisitions of David Price, Ben Revere, Troy Tulowitzki and others helped build on the team’s impressive core.
With Donaldson and sluggers Jose Bautista and Edwin Encarnacion powering the offence, Toronto won the American League East title with a 93-69 mark and beat Texas in the American League Division Series.
The Blue Jays hung with Kansas City in the ALCS but going 0 for 12 with runners in scoring position proved costly in Friday’s must-win game at Kauffman Stadium. The Royals took advantage of their opportunities and advanced in six games.
“We had a great club this year,” Anthopoulos said. “I don’t think that’s overstating it, we really were. We didn’t get it done, but we got close.”
Anthopoulos’s future will obviously have a huge impact on where the franchise goes from here. It’s also unclear what kind of stamp Shapiro wants to put on the team, which leads to more questions than answers right now.
Will Shapiro keep the team’s policy of five-year maximum deals? Will the club’s overall salary go up or down? Does Shapiro plan to bring in his own people or will Anthopoulos, manager John Gibbons and the rest of the coaching staff remain?
Expect things to become clearer over the next few weeks as Shapiro gets settled in.
At the moment, the Blue Jays appear set with position players so team offence should be strong again next year. However, the pitching situation will need to be addressed.
Price and Marco Estrada could go the free-agent route, Mark Buehrle is expected to retire or sign elsewhere and a decision needs to be made on whether to pick up the option year on R.A. Dickey’s contract.
That could leave big holes in a starting rotation that may include Marcus Stroman, Drew Hutchison and perhaps relievers Aaron Sanchez and Roberto Osuna in 2016. Dipping into the bullpen would create vacancies there too, so there will be a need to add arms via trade or free agency.
Price was excellent after the trade deadline but struggled at times in the post-season. Anthopoulos said there is “strong interest” in trying to bring him back, but he will command top dollar on the open market and may be out of Toronto’s price range.
Estrada, meanwhile, was arguably the team’s most dependable starter this year and the GM feels optimistic he’ll return.
“The fact that both sides have a willingness to have it get done, we’re going to do everything we can to have him back here,” he said.
Anthopoulos also made a point to give Gibbons credit for leading the team to an East title despite injuries and early-season bullpen issues.
“I can’t give him enough credit for the way he kept it together,” he said. “Really it was a reflection too of the way that clubhouse was handled day in and day out. Even if we were under .500, the mood stayed the same.”
The team’s second-half surge led to regular sellouts and record television ratings. Baseball was finally back in a big way in Toronto.
Sportsnet said in a release that Friday’s Game 6 broadcast drew a network-record average audience of 5.12 million, with more than 12 million people tuning in at some point.
“It’s the talk of the league. It’s been the talk of the players. I think we put Toronto back on the map,” Anthopoulos said. “And really I think we put the sport in Canada back on the map. That’s in direction correlation (to and is) really a credit to the fans.”
The sting of watching the Royals play the New York Mets in the World Series will hurt for a little while. But the future looks bright in the Ontario capital.