BOCA RATON, Fla. – These General Managers Meetings started with the unemployed Alex Anthopoulos accepting the 2015 Executive of the Year Award.  Then he went home and the Toronto Blue Jays’ contingent – as they did before he arrived – went to work.
Tony LaCava and his crew of assistant GM Andrew Tinnish, pro scouting director Perry Minasian and director of analytics Joe Sheehan spent the week moving in and out of meetings on such items as instant replay, pace of play, potential rules changes on slides into second when trying to break up double plays, youth programs and international baseball relations.
But the most important work they did was in gathering information and figuring out what other teams were looking for and willing to give up, laying groundwork for future wheeling and dealing in order to help the Blue Jays get back to the playoffs in 2016 and this time, go one round further.
“We knew the free agent landscape last week,” said LaCava in his final meeting with the media before heading home. “Now we have a better idea of the trade landscape, but that changes daily. Hourly sometimes.”
For the first time in his decade and a half in a big-league front office, LaCava is the point man at one of these big-league get-togethers, after serving as the trusted lieutenant of J.P. Ricciardi and then Anthopoulos. And he’ll do things differently as he finally gets his chance to run the show.
Anthopoulos was a never-stopping whirling dervish of energy. One wondered if he ever slept, and he often didn’t.  He was relentless in the pursuit of his targets, and managed to land quite a few of them.
LaCava definitely admired the way his predecessor did his business.
“Alex’s style was great, it worked tremendously for him,” the interim GM said. “We’re different in that regard, but he did a great job doing what he does.”
Well known and widely respected among his peers, LaCava says he isn’t going to change who he is as a result of his new title.
“I’ll have to be me,” he explained. “I’m probably not that aggressive, maybe, but I’m persistent, too.”  Those last three words were punctuated with a sly smile.
As Anthopoulos wasn’t before him, LaCava isn’t caught up in being the general manager of a big-league baseball team. He clearly wants the full-time job, but as he said earlier in the week, “I want the best guy we can get to lead our team. If I’m that guy, so be it, and if I’m not, I’m OK with that.”
It certainly says something about LaCava that he’s going into his 14th season with the Blue Jays. He’s on his third president and, if he isn’t named GM (though he’s certainly a strong contender for the permanent position), will be working under his third general manager.  That’s not something that you see very often.
“In our game it seems like there’s a lot of movement and turnover,” LaCava said. “But the way I feel about the city and the people I work with, I would not want to leave. I never even dreamt of leaving.
“I hope I can make it 20 [years]. I didn’t dream that, I didn’t know that until I got here and I realized what it was like. Again, the city, the people, the fans even more so this year after we saw what happened when everyone got ignited. I want to be here, I want to stay as long as I can and as long as they’ll have me.”
LaCava was part of the team that helped build a team that cut a swath through the American League over the final two months of the 2015 season and came within two wins of getting to the World Series. Most of that team remains in place, albeit with a big change at the very top, but the mission remains the same: Assemble the best possible 25-man roster.
The groundwork has been laid. Once Marco Estrada decides Friday afternoon whether or not to accept the Blue Jays’ qualifying offer, the heavy lifting will begin and, as he has done in Toronto since 2002, Tony LaCava will be carrying a lot of the weight.