Davidi: Blue Jays pin present and future on kids

TORONTO – The spring training countdown is down to days rather than weeks, and as camp’s arrival nears so does the end of an off-season where perception and reality travelled widely divergent paths for the Toronto Blue Jays.

While Alex Anthopoulos stayed on his stated course by building through trades, adding free agents on short-term deals and locking up internal pieces, frustration and disappointment grew within a restive fan base that bought into rampant speculation and clamoured for runs at Prince Fielder and other big names.

For some, a big spending spree became an article of faith and the organizational cone of silence that allowed the Blue Jays to pull off the stealth acquisition of closer Sergio Santos from the Chicago White Sox, later backfired in that regard, allowing expectations to stray too far from what was actually happening.

As a result, there is a sense in some corners that the winter was a failure, despite a potentially game-changing rebuild of the bullpen, a reinforcement of the bench, and the locking in place of a couple more core pieces (Brandon Morrow, Casey Janssen).

Whether the winter was indeed a failure, or whether Anthopoulos and the rest of the front office will be vindicated for betting on the potential of their youth rather than the track record of the market’s available talent, starts being determined next week, when camp officially opens in Dunedin, Fla.

As they have been the past two years, much of the Blue Jays’ hopes rest on their young players stepping forward, particularly in the starting rotation where the consistent, innings-eating starter manager John Farrell and others in the organization wished for did not materialize.

A handful of mid-to-front of the rotation starters changed hands via trade in recent months– Matt Latos, Gio Gonzalez and Trevor Cahill among them – and others such as C.J. Wilson and Mark Buehrle found free-agent fortune, the Blue Jays passing on them all, deciding the acquisition cost was either too high or preferring their internal options instead.

They were also outbid in the posting process for Japanese starter Yu Darvish, and rather than bringing in a steady, low-ceiling starter for the back of the rotation, Anthopoulos refused to block the bevy of talented but unproven arms the club has accumulated.

Instead, barring a trade, the Blue Jays appear poised to ride their youth and see where it takes them, with ample options should adjustments be needed along the way.

The provisional rotation, it seems at this point, is ace Ricky Romero, followed by Morrow, Brett Cecil, Henderson Alvarez and Dustin McGowan, but non-roster invitee Aaron Laffey, sophomore Kyle Drabek, and prospects such as Drew Hutchison, Chad Jenkins and Deck McGuire are all due for long looks as well.

If Morrow is able to maintain the approach he closed out last season with, Cecil can find his way after a troublesome campaign, Alvarez can stick after an impressive debut, McGowan can stay healthy and one of the kids makes a leap, things could get interesting.

But that’s a long list of things to break right, and the questions around the rest of the roster must be taken into account, too.

In centre field, Colby Rasmus needs to find his way after a difficult year on a multitude of levels; left field must be sorted between Travis Snider, Eric Thames, or perhaps someone else (Edwin Encarnacion or even Kelly Johnson should another option at second base emerge?); Canadian sensation Brett Lawrie began his career with a bang but is not yet money in the bank and catcher J.P. Arencibia is still only a sophomore.

Add in that Santos has only two big-league years of pitching under his belt and that new set-up men Francisco Cordero and Darren Oliver have wisdom on their side but Father Time as an opponent and ifs can be spotted all around the diamond.

That’s not necessarily a bad thing, because if the potential all times right the Blue Jays may finally emerge from the pack and take a real and lasting step forward.

But when betting on youth, you can never be sure when the time is right.

Maybe it’s this year, maybe it’s not, but either way the season’s looming arrival is bound to bring perception and reality back together again for the Blue Jays.

Shi Davidi is the MLB Insider for sportsnet.ca. Come back to read his insight and opinion regularly.