Jays’ plan B doesn’t include Burnett

GM eyes two bats, swap for pitching Utilityman McDonald back from Tigers

Spending his newfound money is going to be tougher than Blue Jays general manager J. P. Ricciardi initially thought when he arrived in California for this week’s GM meetings. Those wrapped up yesterday with Ricciardi having done plenty of talking to teams and agents, but emerging with nothing on the dotted line other than re-acquiring utility infielder John McDonald — a plan in the works ever since Toronto first traded him to Detroit in July. The fact that this off- season is shaping up as the tightest in years when it comes to player movement has Ricciardi looking at possibly ruling out free- agent pitcher A. J. Burnett as his prime winter target. Ricciardi now says he’s happy with his starting rotation as is, will focus heavily on landing two more solid bats and could pass on Burnett in favour of a trade if he can’t get a deal signed by the start of the winter meetings in Dallas three weeks from now.

“ The market is looking tighter than ever,’’ said Ricciardi, who has roughly $ 160 million ( all figures U. S.) to spend the next two seasons. “ I just don’t see a whole lot happening right now. There seems to be a handful of players everybody wants and there’s only so many teams they can go to.’’ The acquisition of McDonald, 31, who replaces Frank Menechino as the primary backup, won’t affect whether the Jays move any members of a crowded infield. McDonald was traded because of that crowding but the idea was always to repatriate him, a process finalized in late October when the Tigers said they would give him back for roughly the same undisclosed amount they spent to get him.

Despite all the rumours, two players not coming to Toronto are Philadelphia Phillies outfielder Bobby Abreu and pitcher Jeremy Affeldt — or any of his teammates — from the Kansas City Royals. Ricciardi did hold talks with the Phils, but ruled out Abreu because his salary “ is an exorbitant amount of money for us.’’ As for the Royals: “ We don’t see a match with Kansas City in any way, shape or form.’’

That leaves the Jays looking at free- agent outfielder Brian Giles of the Padres and perhaps dealing for outfielder Kevin Mench of the Rangers, but both are attracting plenty of interest. The Burnett situation is complicated because his agent, Darek Braunecker, has been paring down a list of 20 interested teams to about a half- dozen.

Braunecker wants a five- year deal worth more than $ 10 million annually and is skeptical a deal can be done by the winter meetings. He won’t use last year’s signings by similar pitchers as a gauge since Burnett “ is at the top of this year’s freeagent list. We’re going to approach it that way.’’

That could mean more than $ 13 million a year. Ricciardi will soon explore trades for starting pitchers in detail and would want to move quickly.

“ Obviously, if we see a deal we like, that could take us out of the (Burnett) running,’’ he said. “ Most of these things are done at the start of the meetings period, so we’d want to know which way we’re going before that.’’