I love Alex Anthopoulos. He’s got that easy, politician’s way about him when he address the press concerning his actions. He throws in words like, “realistically,” and “ideally.” He takes time to explain the process to us, even though we don’t really understand it, before or after it’s explained, because we don’t really know what kind of money he can spend, what organizations are asking for trades, or what goes on at those closed door meetings when all the GM have to wear their red cloaks and carry decanters of goat blood—you’ve head about those, right? But, when he’s done talking, we feel like we kinda know, and that’s why we can never get to upset with him. He takes time to explain to us what he’s kinda up too, and that’s more than a lot of GM’s do.
Well, what Alex is kinda, up too this time around is what Alex does very well: wait and see. The Jays have some good building blocks on a respectable payroll in a big payroll division. Like any savvy organization, why go out and spend heaps of cash if it won’t give your team the tools it needs to compete? Sure, signing Pujols or Fielder would put an extra thumper in the lineup behind Son of Odin, AKA, Jose Bautista, but another bat at the cost of few solid arms in the Rogers Center’s left field prison cell—or maybe the starting rotation—would be money better spent.
Fans love the idea of a big free agent sign, but if the Jays did land Fielder, come next year when even more balls fly out of the Rogers center—with or without a man in white helping—and the Jays are still losing games, you would hear the same grumbling you do now, “gosh, they should have signed Dirk Hayhurst to hold the pen down.” Okay, you wont hear that, but you will hear the cry for solid firemen in the pen, louder even because the discrepancy between offense and pitching will be more apparent, especially if leads are getting erased by poor relief.
And Alex knows solid pitching doesn’t have to be expensive. The Rays seem to prove that every year. And what organization doesn’t want to pull off the kind of thrifty magic that Andrew Friedman has when it comes to finding undervalued, impact making arms? Unfortunately, not every organization has the crystal ball/statistical nexus/charismatic skipper combo Friedman’s does. What the Jays do have, however, is a cash flow far superior to the Rays. Even though the Jays draw 25th in average fan attendance, (Tampa is 29th, FYI) they are backed by the corporate juggernaut of Rogers. The money is there, and is available to Alex IF he finds the right people to spend it on.
Let me take a step back and say that being a GM isn’t easy. Fans see big names, they see money, the think “why aren’t we buying?” They get angry at the GM when he doesn’t act on the media’s hyped projections of what we could have. And who can blame fans for thinking that? After all, baseball is an entertainment business. However, the GM is also responsible for making sound investments for the benefit of his corporate overlords. Not as exciting, I know, but important because it can create sustainable entertainment, no April fire-sale heartbreak, oh, and continued employment for the GM.
While teams—cough, cough, the Marlins— maneuver a full court press on big name, ticket selling talent in hopes of bolstering the reboot of their franchise, other team’s strategies are less garish: make smart buys, reinforce good talent. That’s what Alex is trying to do. He’s looking for specific pieces, and taking his time about it because he can.
Why the slow play? Because teams aren’t asking reasonable prices for the pieces they’re selling just yet, and probably wont be until the biggest names—ones that will make the most payroll waves—sign. Once you see the big fish get netted, you’ll see more names hit the trading block. Other teams will have economic concerns, which will make them more likely to wheel and deal. Enter the picky buyer looking for the right pieces, with the money to back up him up. Alex knows that in a little while, his money will got farther. The real test of his success or failure this off-season will be what he does when that moment shows up.
Bake a cookie, win a book!
