TORONTO – No question, the Toronto Blue Jays won the non-waiver trade deadline frenzy by a wide margin against its rivals in the American League East, arguably against everyone else in the majors, as well.
Think about it – a stud shortstop in Troy Tulowitzki, a true ace in David Price, two high quality relievers in Mark Lowe and LaTroy Hawkins, plus a versatile outfielder with speed in Ben Revere, acquired in four trades over 4.5 days, using 11 pitching prospects and one star regular off the big-league roster.
Those are significant upgrades to 20 per cent of the team made by general manager Alex Anthopoulos. Win, lose or draw, that’s master-stroke stuff.
"No one ever has done anything close to it in team history, maybe even in the history of the game," said team president Paul Beeston. "He was relentless, he was focused, he got what he needed and he deserves all the credit."
Beeston, of course, has pretty much seen it all with the Blue Jays, overseeing the work of Hall of Fame GM Pat Gillick when he made celebrated deadline acquisitions such as David Cone, Rickey Henderson and Mookie Wilson, and less successful moves like the one for Tom Candiotti.
So his words carry the proper historical context.
Still, you’d expect Beeston to give him props – it’s the praise from outside the organization that’s more telling.
One rival scout, a tough marker, gave Anthopoulos’ work an A-minus, saying the four deals checked off nearly every one of the club’s needs. The only thing keeping the mark from being an A-plus is that the Blue Jays managed to get only one starter instead of two.
Anthopoulos certainly tried to bolster a rotation that did improve but is lacking in supporting depth, as even after the deal for Price, he revisited talks with the Cincinnati Reds for Mike Leake, who was eventually dealt to the San Francisco Giants. The two teams discussed the free-agent right-hander before things with the Tigers heated up, but they couldn’t push things across the goal-line.
Once that avenue closed, Anthopoulos shifted gears to get Lowe from the Seattle Mariners – GM Jack Zduriencik was his first call of the morning – and later add Revere and all the roughly $1.2 million left of his 2015 salary from the Philadelphia Phillies.
"Sure, it would have been nice to continue to add (a second starter)," Anthopoulos told his third news conference of the week, "but for various reasons we just weren’t able to get anything done from that standpoint."
The Blue Jays are looking at other ways to build up their rotation depth, and have contacted the representatives for the recently released Edwin Jackson about joining the team on a minor-league deal. Beyond that, there’s always the potential for a waiver deal, although getting something done in August requires some luck.
But compared to where the Blue Jays were before the week started, they’re in far better shape for a run at the post-season.
"We’re more complete," said Anthopoulos.
Complete enough to claim a wild card spot, certainly, but complete enough to chase down the New York Yankees atop the AL East?
The rival scout thinks so, especially after the rest of the division did little to nothing before the deadline.
The Yankees didn’t act like the Yankees, adding only outfielder Dustin Ackley while promoting top pitching prospect Luis Severino in eschewing moves of prominence. The Baltimore Orioles picked up outfielders Gerardo Parra and Junior Lake, the latter costing them reliever Tommy Hunter.
The Tampa Bay Rays sold off reliever Kevin Jepsen and outfielder David DeJesus for future pieces while the Boston Red Sox traded Shane Victorino for infielder Josh Rutledge.
Key for the Blue Jays is that they had the minor-league inventory to make things happen.
Over the past eight months, starting with the acquisition of Josh Donaldson from the Oakland Athletics, the Blue Jays traded away 14 minor-league pitchers and two position player prospects.
Anthopoulos’ strategy of focusing on pitchers in the draft created all that currency, and amateur scouting director Brian Parker will need to again scour the continent for more young arms to feed the beast.
Teams always want pitching in trades, something evident over and over in the deals the Blue Jays make.
"Alex built the farm system that allowed us to do the deal with the Marlins, he built the farm system that allowed us to do the deal with the Mets and then he rebuilt the farm system to allow us to do the deals with the Athletics, the Rockies, the Tigers and the ones (Friday)," said Beeston. "That takes time and he built and dismantled the farm system twice in six years. I don’t know if it’s been done before."
Impressive as it is, all that matters now is whether or not it pays off, and that the Blue Jays post-season drought dating back to 1993 comes to an end. Anthopoulos, awake 38 straight hours at one point this week, along with the rest of the front office have done their part, now it’s up to the players.