TORONTO -- A key tenet of Alex Anthopoulos's approach in running the Toronto Blue Jays is creating options for himself, and it's because nothing was forcing his hand that he stood pat as Saturday's non-waiver trade deadline came and went.
The rookie general manager felt there was more value in the compensatory draft picks potential free agents like Scott Downs, Jason Frasor, Kevin Gregg and John Buck will bring the team should they sign elsewhere this winter, than in any of the offers he was presented with, so he refused to settle for sub-par stock.
Without any financial pressures forcing him to make deals, Anthopoulos was able to aim high in his talks with several teams, and then stick to his price-point as the minutes ticked away. As things stand now, that foursome could bring back as many as six picks within the first 50 or so spots in the 2011 draft if they move on this winter, so he had no reason to accept anything less.
"For me any negotiation is about your alternatives and that's what you base it off of," said Anthopoulos. "If you don't have that many alternatives, or your alternatives aren't strong, than your decision-making process changes.
"But alternatives are key."
The same principle applies to Jose Bautista, a rumour-mill darling the past week whom the Blue Jays hold under contractual control through next season. Aside from his emergence into a core piece both on the field and in the clubhouse, Anthopoulos really had no reason to move him unless the return forced his hand.
No such proposal came.
"He's a player I think the world of," said Anthopoulos. "There's no question he's an important part of it."
The lesson for his counterparts, if they haven't figured it out yet, is that once Anthopoulos sets his price he doesn't come off it, and he won't accept less talent just because a player is more major-league ready than another option. So draft picks and the shot at an elite player they bring carry far more appeal to him than a collection of mediocrity.
"(The draft pick) may not pan out, maybe a 20 per cent chance and it's still further down the road, but back-end starters, middle relievers, utility players -- we can acquire those players," he said. "The biggest challenge we have, and almost every club has, is getting those elite players.
"No matter what we do, unless it's value for value, we're always going to shoot high and try to get those impact players."
The lack of movement was well received in a clubhouse that had begun to feel the weight of weeks worth of speculation. Players were asked seemingly every day about the latest hot rumour and the whole process became tiresome.
"It started to, I can't lie," said Downs, who pitched a scoreless ninth in a 2-1 loss to the Cleveland Indians. "But it's a business, I've got a job to do, (Anthopoulos) has a job to do, and we have a job to do as a team. I'm glad to see everybody back together."
Bautista agreed: "There were a lot of rumours out there, but the end result is I'm where I wanted to be."
Across the diamond from them, the Indians were far busier, dealing Saturday's scheduled starter Jake Westbrook to St. Louis in a three-way deal that also included San Diego, and sending closer Kerry Wood to the New York Yankees.
"Every time I talked to my agent it was nothing going on until (Friday) night," Westbrook said before taking a flight to St. Louis. "I'm excited to go to a club contending for a playoff spot and pitch in some meaningful ball games."
The Blue Jays are hoping they can say the same in the near future.
Asked before the game how far away he felt his team was from being a contender, manager Cito Gaston said, "maybe a couple of years, that's what I think."
He added that the Blue Jays might have been in better shape right now had Adam Lind and Aaron Hill performed the way they did last season and the relievers had been better.
"If those guys were hitting, maybe we would have won some of those games, maybe we would not have," said Gaston. "The problem we had this year is we lost some games out of the bullpen. That's what has really bothered us a lot. Then there's time we didn't score, but there are times we didn't pitch well out of the pen, either. It's real close now, but you've got to win those games."
Regardless, the Blue Jays are likely to be younger next season, when prized prospects like starter Kyle Drabek and catcher J.P. Arencibia are expected to complete their climb to the majors. It's very possible the team takes a step backwards as they experience growing pains to take two steps forward in 2012.
"There's a good chance that might happen," said Gaston, before qualifying his answer. "If these kids come back and pitch like they have this year, and if the guys come back and hit, if Lind comes back and Hill comes back and Vernon (Wells) just does what he's doing and Bautista comes back and does something close to what he's doing ... you talk about (Yunel) Escobar, (Fred) Lewis, (Travis) Snider, that's still a pretty good hitting lineup there, pretty good power there, so I think the thing that will throw them a step back might be the bullpen.
"The bullpen might have a problem if (Downs, Frasor and Gregg) are not there."
The Blue Jays know now that they'll have those three through the end of the season, at least, and having veterans anchor the bullpen is something Anthopoulos believes is "certainly a great formula for a staff."
But change is coming, if not in an August waiver deal, than in the off-season.
"There were a lot of scenarios out there that we could have made a trade that would have been the right value, but I don't think anyone in our room or myself specifically walked away and said this is really going to be a changer for us, this is really going to impact the club," said Anthopoulos. "If we weren't really compelled to do something, we weren't going to do it.
"When you have players who could have draft-pick compensation attached to them, you have a lot of options."
