TORONTO – The Toronto Blue Jays are at their budgetary limit for the 2014 season but general manager Alex Anthopoulos has “every confidence” that he’ll have additional resources to work with at the trade deadline if his team is in contention at that time.
Speaking to a group of writers Thursday night, he added that it’s still too early to be worried about such things, he’s having “no dialogue whatsoever” in regards to trades right now, and that things won’t likely pick up on those fronts until the middle of June once the draft is well back in the rear-view mirror.
“I hope we’re in that position (to be buyers),” said Anthopoulos. “It’s late May and we obviously need to see how we play in June and we’ll re-evaluate things at the beginning of July. If we’re in a good position at the beginning of July, we’ll know the landscape a little more with what our needs are.
“I have every confidence in the world that I can have that conversation (for more money) with Paul (Beeston, the team president), and Paul has that conversation with ownership.”
Guy Laurence, the new CEO of parent company Rogers Communications Inc., got a first-hand look at the Blue Jays last weekend when he took in a game. He’s been overseeing a restructuring of the company and when asked if there were any implications for the Blue Jays, Anthopoulos replied: “The directive and the mandate was keep winning. I got a slap on the shoulder and then he left. Seems pretty straight-forward to me.”
Still, there are questions about how a request for additional payroll would be viewed given that the Blue Jays had to hatch a plan to defer a total of $14 million in salary from Edwin Encarnacion, Mark Buehrle, Jose Reyes, Jose Bautista and R.A. Dickey to try and sign free agent Ervin Santana in the spring.
If the money wasn’t available then, it won’t suddenly be there now.
Anthopoulos acknowledged that with a payroll roughly at $135 million, “we’re at our number to start the year,” but pointed out that regardless of how Santana’s deal was structured, “money was coming out of the bank account of the Toronto Blue Jays, that money was being spent, and it was an add.”
“There may be reasons to structure things a certain way and some of those things are internal,” he added later. “We’ve been able to add to payroll. We may need to be creative, we may need to do some things, but we’ve been able to add payroll when needed.”
The need to be creative may factor in if the Blue Jays aren’t in a slam-dunk position to be buyers ahead of the July 31 non-waiver trade deadline.
A smooth ride atop the standings would make the decision to free up additional dollars an easier one, but there may be reluctance to invest further if the promise of a good return on the investment was less certain.
After last year’s flop, the bar for additional resources has been raised, but Anthopoulos sounded undeterred, saying, “depending on how we’re playing and what’s available … if we have a need come the trade deadline, I have every confidence that we’ll have the resources to do that. I don’t have any doubts about that.”
Anthopoulos added that starter Brandon Morrow is expected back around the all-star break from a tendon injury in his index finger, while prospects like Marcus Stroman or even Sean Nolin, currently recovering from a groin injury, could also factor.
“We’re a long ways away,” he said. “So much can change in the next six weeks or eight weeks, really.”
Anthopoulos also said the team’s draft and player payroll budgets are separate entities and that there’s no borrowing from one to the other.
“I think the draft is something that’s always very important to us,” said Anthopoulos. “It’s something that you can never neglect. It’s just so key, it’s so important especially with where some of the salaries have been going, free agency and things like that. The draft is always going to be extremely important for us.”