Fire up the hot stove

While the early player moves could hardly be described as franchise altering - Jeremy Hermida from Florida to Boston for prospects; J.J. Hardy from Milwaukee to Minnesota for speedster Carlos Gomez; Canadian-born Mark Teahen from Kansas City to the White Sox for Josh Fields and Chris Getz and the White Sox buying out 2005 World Series MVP Jermaine Dye - it's an early indicator that this off-season could be a frantic one.
With the expected free agent market lacking the attraction of a year ago, where the Yankees rolled out a couple of Brinks armoured cars to secure CC Sabathia, Mark Teixeira and A.J. Burnett to lick-start their march towards an unprecedented 27th World Series title, it seems likely that the trade market might be the most prudent, certainly financially, way to restock the cupboard.
For the Toronto Blue Jays, coming off its most disappointing year in recent memory, the season ended with a player revolt(?) against manager Cito Gaston before the sudden dismissal of underachieving general manager J.P. Ricciardi. Now, the club sits at a crossroad. The fan base has been very vocal - at the box office, in the blogosphere and on the radio - letting the front office and the ownership that they aren't going to stand for mediocrity any longer. All one had to see was announced crowds in the 11,000 range - the lowest in the 20-year history of SkyDome/Rogers Centre - as the season drew to a close to recognize a severe level of disinterest towards this once-proud and successful ball club. This at a point in time where the Toronto sporting public is being force fed sub-standard professional teams at every turn.
The tarp had barely been pulled across the infield at Yankee Stadium, but the other 29 teams have wasted no time in positioning themselves to knock the world champions off its high perch in 2010.
In the early 90's, the Jays were the franchise. Solid drafting and trading had turned this team into perennial playoff team and the additions of Jack Morris and Dave Winfield, two stars in the twilight of brilliant careers were brought to put them over the top in 1992, which they did. Ditto in 1993 when Dave Stewart and Paul Molitor arrived to help deliver title No. 2. That's why at this time, free agency is not an option that GM AA can entertain. Drafting (especially extra picks obtained due to free agent defections) and trading have to be the foundation of the rebuild. The appointments of Dana Brown, Mel Didier and Mel Queen to advisory roles tells me that we won't have to worry about ego getting in the way of GM AA putting the team first. Much like the Gillick years where the baseball department was chock full of bright and respected baseball minds. And decisions, I would think, like the franchise-altering trade with the Padres that brought Robbie Alomar and Joe Carter to Toronto would have been made after long debates on the baseball department. I'm thinking that has not been the case since November of 2001.
There's a lot on GM AA's plate right out of chute. He has to see what free agent eligible starters Rod Barajas and Marco Scutaro are planning on doing. Same for shortstop Plan B John McDonald. Clearly, based upon the week old rumour that the Jays and Cubs might be talking about the framework of a Vernon Wells-Milton Bradley (seriously?) deal, the team is clearly going to investigate all options to jettison their centre fielder with five years left on a contract where he'll earn a reported average of $19.3 million through (gulp!) 2014.
And then there's this little problem about what to do with Halladay.

The options:

A) Trade him this off-season with the rebuild in mind, bringing in prospects to fill holes at catcher and short with a major league ready starter and another arm in return.
B) Trade him at the July 31st deadline to a contender for prospects. (Like the Indians and Phillies did with Cliff Lee).
C) Keep for the season, let him leave via free agency and receive two first round picks as compensation.
Or (and this seems like the longest shot):
D) Make enough moves this off-season to regain his confidence in the only organization he knows, and sign him to an extension during the season.
The first option seems most likely at the present time. But with what the Phillies got out of Lee, especially in the post-season, the trading partner may wait until the end of July. Letting Halladay go for draft picks is a gamble from a fans' point of view, but we have to reserve judgement until after next June's draft to see how GM AA and his new staff perform. The re-signing option is based upon moves this off-season, what the budget is for 2010 and if they can get Wells' contract off the books, a lot has to break before the aforementioned D)-option is even on the radar.
The promotion to general manager of 32-year-old, Canadian-born Alex Anthopoulos (from this point on referred to in my columns as GM AA to save my typing fingers and stave off carpal tunnel syndrome) is to be applauded on several levels -- most importantly a fresh approach after eight years of wheel-spinning. The re-modeling of the scouting department was long overdue.
Clearly this franchise is back in full rebuild mode, no matter the media reports. Outside of Aaron Hill, Adam Lind and hopefully Roy Halladay, this current gaggle of Blue Jays are average at best and not close to being a contender. Sorry for the bluntness but the days of candy-coating is long past. Going back to the fiasco that was the Tim Johnson era, the perception of the Blue Jays as a top notch franchise, one that the MLB jerseys best players would clamor to play for, is a distant memory.