HOUSTON – The Toronto Blue Jays stood pat as the non-waiver trade deadline came and went Thursday with general manager Alex Anthopoulos saying the prices for the players he wanted were too high and that additions could still be made during August’s waivers period.
In contrast, the club’s two chief AL East rivals bulked up as the New York Yankees added Martin Prado and Stephen Drew while the Baltimore Orioles picked up left-hander Andrew Miller.
The Tampa Bay Rays, on the fringes of the race, swapped out ace David Price for left-hander Drew Smyly and second baseman Nick Franklin while the Seattle Mariners, three games back of the Blue Jays for the second AL wild card, added centre-fielder Austin Jackson.
“I guess I would say we were definitely very active, but the prices for us on the players we inquired about, generally speaking, I think everybody would be happy we didn’t do those deals,” Anthopoulos said on a conference call. “I know everyone would like to make a splash, add players, but to add players just to make the team worse just to say you did something wouldn’t make a whole lot of sense for us.”
The lack of moves won’t be met well in a clubhouse that was very hopeful of some fortifications beyond the return to health of Edwin Encarnacion, Adam Lind and Brett Lawrie. Anthopoulos said money wasn’t the problem, the acquisition cost was the main issue, and repeatedly mentioned the possibility of making waiver claims in August.
“I can guarantee you every team will probably put in a claim I would think over the course of the month,” said Anthopoulos. “That’s not strategy, it’s your only option at this point. I don’t think any club will ever sit there and say, ‘Well, let’s just wait to try and claim someone on trade waivers,’ that wouldn’t make any sense. It’s just that’s the next course of action, now. That’s the period we’re in. The calendar is going to turn to August 1st and that’s the period for all clubs. I’m not going to guarantee we’re going to claim anybody or make any deals, based on past years I think we’ve always claimed at least one player and as a policy we always run all players through at some point. You try to get your deals done July 31st, if they don’t get done, you still have a window to get something done in August but it’s more complicated.”
Still, a trade would have pleased the Blue Jays players who believe they can win this year.
“We’ve heard ’92, ’93 and I think we’re tired on hearing it,” closer Casey Janssen said. “We want to put our on stamp on Toronto and across baseball. For me in my eight years here, I’ve never been this close, never had such an opportunity to make it into the playoffs and I think that’s where this excitement level for this trade deadline was. It’s finally our time, it’s finally beating down the door and we wanted to come on the scene as strong as we can. Like I said, it didn’t happen, we just have to regroup and go about our business again.”