TORONTO – Next up in the Toronto Blue Jays’ ongoing refurbishment is the bullpen, a pivotal area of need that will either bolster the work done so far by Alex Anthopoulos, or threaten to undo all he’s accomplished.
Already this off-season the general manager has upgraded the team’s defence through the acquisitions of Russ Martin, Josh Donaldson and, on Wednesday, Michael Saunders and Justin Smoak, while a solid case exists that the offence is improved, as well, despite the losses of Adam Lind and Melky Cabrera.
The starting rotation has the potential to improve substantially with Aaron Sanchez’s significant upside likely to replace J.A. Happ’s stability, leaving a relief corps that finished 12th among AL teams in ERA and has been stripped of three late-inning pieces as the most glaring problem area.
Compounding matters is that the bullpen is now down Sanchez and Kendall Graveman, both of whom were expected to open the season in relief roles, meaning there is crucial work remaining in the days and weeks ahead.
“When you start the off-season, you may have five, six areas you want to address. We’ve been able to knock some of those out,” says Anthopoulos. “Now we can really focus our attention to the bullpen, it’s probably a little bit easier to operate that way. I got asked, ‘Do you have an order?’ I don’t have an order, you have all these things and you have to take them as they come.
“You need to be able to react and not get paralyzed because you thought this was supposed to come first, and you may miss an opportunity if you do that.”
The first opportunity was Martin, and though the financial commitment likely meant pricing them out of the market for Cabrera, the Blue Jays decided to spend their money on an elite defensive catcher with the potential to help the entire pitching staff.
Offensively it could end up being a wash, too, as both players have a .754 career OPS.
Once Martin was locked up, the Blue Jays shifted gears to the tender deadline and settling the rest of their lineup. Though talks with Cabrera continued, an apparently wide gap between the sides never narrowed in a meaningful way, and with the potential platoon of Andy Dirks and John Mayberry Jr. for left field in his back pocket, Anthopoulos set out to do better in the outfield.
Nelson Cruz and Nick Markakis headlined the other available free-agent outfielders, but the Blue Jays managed instead to get the middle of the order bat they were seeking via trade. Donaldson did cost Brett Lawrie, Graveman, Sean Nolin and Franklin Barreto, but with a projected arbitration salary of $4.5 million and four years of control left, he was a perfect fit both in the lineup and in the payroll.
The holes in offensive production pretty much filled at that point, the Blue Jays revisited Saunders with the Mariners and sent Happ to Seattle to get him, betting on the combination of his upside and defence rather than on a recovery by Dirks supplemented by Mayberry against left-handers (both were non-tendered, though the Blue Jays still have some interest in re-signing Mayberry).
“We really tried to get some clarity trade and free-agent-wise for corner outfield before going down this path,” says Anthopoulos. “Once it became apparent to us this was the best option for us, we didn’t want to miss the opportunity.”
In also re-signing Smoak for $1 million a day after non-tendering him, the Blue Jays largely settled their position players. Another first baseman like Smoak could be added to compete for playing time and the Blue Jays continue seeking an upgrade at second base, but the heavy lifting is done.
The rotation is also pretty much set, with Sanchez likely to compete with Daniel Norris and Marco Estrada for a spot alongside Mark Buehrle, R.A. Dickey, Marcus Stroman and Drew Hutchison.
“We feel better about our position player group, we feel better about our offence, I’d still like to upgrade second base if we could, clearly,” says Anthopoulos. “We feel pretty good about our rotation, you can never have enough, and you can never not improve, so we’d still be open to doing that, but we need to do some work to the bullpen. At least we can spend a little bit more time on that, both from the trade and free agent front.”
Brett Cecil, Aaron Loup, Estrada and long-man Todd Redmond appear to be the only sure bets for the bullpen right now, with internal candidates like Norris, Chad Jenkins, Rob Rasmussen, Steve Delabar, Kyle Drabek and Ryan Tepera in the mix.
“If we can add two (relievers), that would be our hope,” says Anthopoulos. “If it ends up being one so be it, if it ends up being three, that’s fine as well. Ideally we’d like to add more than one.”
Finding a closer is a part of that, although the Blue Jays could bring in a few relievers to compete for the job during spring training. Few top relievers have come off the board thus far – Koji Uehara re-signed with Boston, Zach Duke joined the White Sox and Andrew Miller appears to be nearing a decision – so a plentiful market awaits.
“Ideally you’d like to have someone named for the (closer’s) job,” says Anthopoulos. “I don’t think we’re afraid to have candidates. … We’re more concerned about having good relievers.”
As well he should be. Six of the top 10 big-league teams in bullpen ERA reached the post-season, and the three playoff clubs with the worst relief corps (St. Louis 18th, Dodgers 22nd, Detroit 27th) were eliminated in no small part because of that.
The Blue Jays feel their bullpen played a key role in their failure to make the playoffs this past season, and now they have a chance to ensure it doesn’t happen again.
