Carson on MLB: Youth route best for Jays
Posted December 30, 2011 1:37 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
The grumbling amongst Blue Jays followers is starting to turn into a dull roar.
Since the end of a 81-81, fourth place—again—season general manager Alex Anthopoulos has picked up the closer his team needs going forward in Sergio Santos; a light-hitting, defensive catcher in Jeff Mathis; outfield depth in Ben Francisco and infield bench depth in the form of Luis Valbuena. The cost has been limited, with the biggest loss being highly-touted pitching prospect Nestor Molina.
Throughout this off-season the Jays have been rumoured – from outside the organization – to have been in on talks to acquire Gio Gonzalez, Andrew Bailey, Mat Latos and now they are said to be in on Jair Jurrjens. The hang up to date has been Anthopoulos’ unwillingness to dip heavily into the vast prospect pool that he has accumulated since taking over as general manager in 2009. At some point however, he’s going to have to fish or cut bait on a number of these young players if he’s ever going to fill the holes on his 25-man roster.
As it stands, the Blue Jays list of top prospects is pitching heavy, with arms taking up seven of their top 10 according to Baseball America. One of those, right-hander Noah Syndergaard (No. 7 according to BA) was reportedly requested by the Athletics in trade talks involving Gonzalez. Toronto could also dangle a couple of former top prospects in pitcher Kyle Drabek and outfielder Travis Snider, both of whom have seen their stock drop as they were passed on the organizational depth chart. It’s not that both aren’t in the team’s immediate plans, but 2012 might very well be a make-or-break season for these two youngsters.
The top three position player prospects according to BA, catcher Travis d’Arnaud and outfielders Anthony Gose and Jake Marisnick, are about as untouchable as you can get. Catchers with d’Arnaud’s skill set don’t come along very often. Gose and Marisnick are both projected as everyday starters over the next three years and the fact that the club still doesn’t fully know what they have in Snider and current centre fielder Colby Rasmus will keep the two prospect’s stocks high.
Five of the pitchers on the list – Justin Nicolino, Aaron Sanchez, Deck McGuire, Syndergaard and Asher Wojciechowski – were drafted in 2010 and have blasted through the minor league system. They will also represent a wave of pitching that should arrive in Toronto around the same time, and combined with current Jays Ricky Romero, Brandon Morrow and Henderson Alvarez, should give the team a formidable pitching staff. Also factor in 20-year-old right-hander Drew Hutchison, who played at three levels in 2011 and put up eye-popping numbers – 1.04 WHIP, 10.3 K’s/9 IP and 4.9 K/BB. Of all the prospects, I feel he has the chance to be the top of the rotation arm they crave.
But at some point a couple of these arms will flatline. It’s inevitable. It will be up to Anthopoulos and his staff to decide who should stay and who should be used in trade talks. Right now, I can’t see where any of these youngsters should be involved in deals, unless someone like Tim Lincecum or Felix Hernandez is coming the other way.
Fans might not like to hear this, but I feel that the Jays are going to be quite inactive the rest of the off-season. Anthopoulos has a long-term plan for this franchise, with sustained playoff contention being the ultimate goal. It makes the most sense. He may surprise because we never really know what he’s working on but with the names that have come off the board recently, I’d be shocked if anything else of substance is done.
If we learned anything from the wheel-spinning Ricciardi, it’s that a plan never seemed to be in place, and if there was one, it morphed from year-to-year. And while most of us hoped that the team would dip into the free agent pool, let’s remember how a lot of money was wasted over the last decade on the likes of B.J. Ryan and A.J. Burnett and how it took Anthopoulos over two years to fix it.
Yes, Prince Fielder would be an excellent addition to the middle of the Jays lineup, but not at the term and amount of money that Scott Boras is trying to secure for his client. That was never part of Anthopoulos’ vision.
What this all points to is another fourth place finish, something not a lot of you want to hear. Trading away any of the players that they have scouted heavily and brought into the fold doesn’t make any sense with the team being far away from contention. And I don’t remember hearing anyone in the front office say that 2012 was their year to contend anyway.
