Jays In Holding Pattern

What I would love to do this morning is look ahead to the Jays off season and play the game of trying to figure out what they will do to improve the team for next year. The problem is we really don’t know what the goal of the team will be for 2010 or what the budget will be.

The firing of JP over the weekend was expected. His credibility was spent with the fans and media and Rogers had no choice but to replace him. Overall I don’t think that JP did a terrible job. Competing with the Yankees and Red Sox is a no win situation and the Jays did as well as could be expected. The unbalanced schedule forces them to play 26 games with the Yankees and Red Sox each season. If the Jays were in the Central division they would have played these teams half as much and may well have been in a playoff race as often as not. JP also leaves the team with young talent that is already starting to mature.

For the moment, the GM of the team is Alex Anthopoulos but even he does not know if his position is permanent. The Jays have been in the process of hiring a new president and word now is that this will take place by the end of October. Once a new president is in place the GM position will be reassessed. Anthopoulos states that he has the authority to make player and managerial moves but do not expect anything significant to take place until the president’s position is finalized and a direction is set for 2010.

My guess is that Anthopoulos’ future lies with the future of Beeston. If Beeston stays highly involved with the Jays going forward then Anthopoulos may well get the chance to be the permanent GM. If a new president takes over all baseball operations then look for a proven GM to be put in place. Over the past few years Anthopoulos has made friends with the Toronto media and they will give him a chance to succeed. Whether the fans buy into this is less certain.

The big question regarding the future is whether the team will increase of decrease the player budget. While some in the media forecast a budget increase the signals do not look that way. The Jays recently laid off much of their marketing staff and that may well foreshadow budgetary cuts on the field as well.

The pressing matter player wise is Roy Halladay. Halladay wants to see that the Jays are committed to spending the money necessary to compete with the Yankees and Red Sox next year or he will not consider re-signing. The chances of this happening are remote. The likelihood is that Halladay will be moved this off season. Whether the Jays will be able to get more for him then they could have received at the trade deadline is an unknown. For future fan relations it may have been best to have let JP make the Halladay trade a couple of months ago instead of saddling the new GM with this responsibility and fan backlash.

On the field the team has promise. Hill and Lind had great years and if Snyder can take his game to the major league level the Jays have a strong young offensive core. Even without Halladay, the starting staff has potential with kids like Romero, Rzepcynski and Richmond, but they will need some veteran leadership. The bullpen does not have a true closer but has quality depth with Frasor, Camp, Accardo, Downs and League. The team will try to move Overbay over the winter and it is uncertain whether Scutero or Barajas will be back.

How the team fills the holes or uses the money available if Halladay and Overbay leave is impossible to forecast until Rogers decides on the budget and direction of the ream. For now any speculation would just be a guess. All we can do is hope that once a permanent president is announced the direction will be made clear as well. Hopefully this happens while fan interest in the team can be rekindled.