Ace lefty David Price, the cream of baseball’s trade-deadline crop, is joining the Blue Jays for the stretch run.
Alex Anthopoulos has done his job, now it’s up to the players
When Blue Jays GM Alex Anthopoulos shocked the baseball world, by acquiring Troy Tulowitzki on Tuesday, he called it first and foremost a “baseball trade” that would help the team now and in the future.
As much as he dislikes the “all in” term, his deal two days later for lefthander David Price — the Jays sent three very good pitching prospects to Detroit and took on $7.4 million in remaining salary for two months, while knowing there was little chance of re-signing Price long-term — showed Anthopoulos was most definitely all in. He pushed his remaining blue chips, and perhaps his future with the club, to the centre of baseball’s pennant races.
The Price acquisition, for lefties Daniel Norris, Matt Boyd and Jairo Labourt, is a deadline deal unlike any other July transaction Anthopoulos has made in six seasons at the helm. It is the GM’s 10th July trade leading up to the deadline since 2010. And until this season, the biggest names among the 17 players he brought in were outfielder Colby Rasmus (2011), shortstop Yunel Escobar (2010) and lefthander J.A. Happ (2012). Tulowitzki and Price tower over that list. All in.
“That term gets used all the time,” Anthopoulos said. “I know it’s convenient. I really dislike the term. I totally don’t agree with it. I don’t believe you ever operate that way. We’re always focused on the short and long term. We’re two out in the wild-card. Obviously the Yankees have been tremendous this year. We play them 13 more times. We have a very good team and we have enough time.”
When his manager, John Gibbons, was asked the same question, regarding Anthopoulos going all in on the strength of the Price deal, the third-year skipper enthusiastically endorsed the concept.
“Oh yeah, no doubt,” Gibbons said. “I thought we were all in coming into the season. I had that feeling and, as the season has gone on, we identified some areas we needed to improve on and he’s done that. In my heart and in my mind I knew there were some areas (we needed) to upgrade to get over that hump a little bit. I felt the same way coming out of spring training as far as excitement of the team. That was primarily with the addition of Josh (Donaldson) and Russell (Martin).”
The Jays played the first 100 games at .500 and realized they had important issues to take care of. They needed another starting pitcher. They needed another late-inning reliever. They needed better defence at shortstop, especially in late innings of games with the lead. They already had the best offence in terms of scoring runs — and isn’t that what offence should be defined as.
The Jays took care of the bullpen by activating Aaron Sanchez and putting him in a semi-closing role with Roberto Osuna. One improvement. Then he added Tulowitzki, taking care of the defensive problem and adding another run-producing bat for the next five seasons. Another improvement. Then he went all in with Price, who is an undefeated 7-0 in his career at the Rogers Centre and an impressive 28-19 vs. the AL East, including 10-7 in 26 starts vs. the Yankees. “When we made the move for Tulo, it was like we’re pushing all in again,” former starting ace R.A. Dickey said. “You’ve got to give Alex a lot of credit. He really wants to win badly. He’s doing a good job of getting us the personnel to do that.
“You like it (as a player) when it’s up to us. If we don’t make it, it’s all on us. It’s good to have a GM who really wants to fight for you. I feel with as many games as we have against division opponents, in particular the Yankees, we’ve kind of loaded our barrels up here and I feel good about it. I’m not going to make any predictions, but I certainly feel better than I did a couple of weeks ago.”
Of course this is all on paper and, as multiple Blue Jays pointed out when asked about the club’s revitalized chances of making the playoffs, the games aren’t played on paper. Just ask the A’s. Last year when they acquired Jeff Samardzija, Jason Hammel and then Jon Lester at the deadline, and they had a 2.5-game lead in the AL West entering July 30, 2014. The rest of the schedule they went 22-34, barely hanging onto the second wild-card spot and losing to the Royals.
The Tigers obtained Price from Tampa Bay at the deadline last July to get them over the hump and finally win the World Series. They won the AL Central by a game and were bounced out of the playoffs in three games by the Orioles.
“You look at the two trades (Anthopoulos) made, they’re impact guys,” Gibbons said. “They’re top of the MLB. So, it’s not like he went out and grabbed some guys you’re hoping can do something. We dove in head first. It’s a pretty impressive clubhouse out there now, no doubt about it. I can sense a little more enthusiasm today, similar to like when Troy showed up.”
Gibbons is correct. There weren’t any other two players available that Anthopoulos could have brought in to make a bigger impact. And with the money owed to Price, the GM truly is “all in.”
Until now, the biggest names Anthopoulos had acquired at the deadline were Colby Rasmus, Yunel Escobar and J.A. Happ