No more Mr. Nice Guy

If the Boston Red Sox are serious about making a run at John Farrell, the Blue Jays should tell them the bidding begins at a couple of buckets of KFC, a case of Rolling Rock and the latest version of Call of Duty. Then general manager Alex Anthopoulos should get all Clint Eastwood over the phone and tell the Red Sox: "You obnoxious, sun-shines-out-of-your-behinds New England clam chowders. Go stuff yourself."

Finally, come April 9th, 2012, the first time the Blue Jays play the Red Sox, Ricky Romero or whoever is pitching that day should plant one in Carl Crawford's ribs. In short, it's time for Alex Anthopoulos and the Blue Jays to grow some. For those unaware, the imploding Red Sox, not content with throwing up all over their shoes down the stretch in the regular season, seem intent on blowing the fingers off anyone who comes near them in the aftermath.

Their misery loves company.

Having run two-time World Series winning manager Terry Francona out of town amid suggesting an over-reliance on pain killers and his marital woes were part of the problem during Boston's historic choke, they're now trying to come up with a managerial Plan B. In this case, according to the same Boston Globe that reported their starting pitchers' penchant for fried chicken, beers and Xbox in the clubhouse during games (though not on days they were pitching!), the Red Sox may be targeting Blue Jays manager John Farrell to replace Francona.

That Farrell, the former Red Sox pitching coach hand-picked by Anthopoulos last winter has two more years on his contract with the Blue Jays, hasn't apparently occurred to them. And why would it? Maybe they read the interview Anthopoulos gave to Sportsnet's Shi Davidi a couple of weeks ago with regards to the possibility that Blue Jays assistant general manager Tony LaCava was in the running for the general manager's position in Baltimore. Anthopoulos conceded that losing his most trusted front-office advisor would sting - "it would be a very, very massive loss"-and losing him to a division rival would make it doubly worse. But Anthopoulos stated clearly that when it comes to their staff, the Blue Jays are open for business: If another team wants to hire away a Blue Jays employee, all they have to do is send a text and set up a lunch date. Whatever happens between them after that is between consenting adults.

No one has to ask permission. There are no defined windows for negotiation and there is no expectation of compensation should a key employee run away with the team next door. "If you have that philosophy, in the long run it will serve your organization well, you'll continue to attract outstanding employees because they know they have the freedom, they have upwards mobility, they're never going to be held down," Anthopoulos said to Davidi of his free love approach. "Selfishly I don't want any of our guys to leave …(But) if things go the way we hope they're going to go, a lot of people will be leaving because people will be looking to hire our employees." Can't you see Red Sox owner John Henry reading that and shouting down the hall: "Hey, does anyone have Farrell's new cell phone number? This is too easy!"

How do the Red Sox treat their people? They may very well have wanted to toss aside general manager Theo Epstein after watching Crawford hit .256 with 11 home runs and 56 RBI in return for the $142-million contract Epstein gave him. But when they realized the Cubs were looking to take him off their hands they didn't give him away. Epstein's first task as the Cubs new general manager will be figuring out which prospects he'll trade himself for, a deal that will be finalized once the Red Sox announced Ben Cherington as Epstein's replacement on Tuesday. According to the Boston Globe, one of Cherington's first jobs will be to hire a new manager, and square in his sights, reportedly, is Farrell.

And just to be clear: The Blue Jays should tell the Red Sox to go to hell, whether Farrell wants to go back to Boston or not. No amount of compensation is the right amount. The Jays can't be seen to be in the business of throwing lifelines that their rivals are going to hang them with. The organization under Anthopoulos has done a great job marketing hope. Blue Jays fans haven't seen a meaningful game of baseball played in Toronto since 1993, but are well versed on the impact-level talent in the minors. They understand sandwich picks. For the most part they accept that this might not be the time to back the money truck up to Prince Fielder's house. They saw Pat Gillick build a championship team with patient precision and are willing to see if it can work again. But at some point playing with the big boys means not playing nicely all the time. At some point Blue Jays fans will want to be assured that someone besides Brett Lawrie has a pulse.

Eventually this club will have to run the catcher; throw at someone or go into second spikes up. Alex Anthopolous may be a nice guy, but nice won't win you the American League East.

Michael Grange will provide insight and analysis on all the top stories in sports.