Blue Jays ready to swap and shop as baseball Winter Meetings get under way

SAN DIEGO – As general manager Ross Atkins and the Blue Jays front office get set to ramp up their off season business, they do so with what they hope will be seen as ample currency.

There is the cash of telecommunications giant and mostly benevolent owner Rogers Communications. Atkins last week suggested the money is there and that the keeper of cel phones, exorbitant cable packages and the like is on board wth his ambitions.

But perhaps more significantly as the baseball world descends on this scenic southernmost California city, Atkins will be courted by rival GMs here, those looking to pry away one of the team’s three big-league ready catchers.

Committed to the poker element of the process, Atkins is adamant that the team could head into 2023 with each of Danny Jansen, Alejandro Kirk and Gabriel Moreno in the fold.

The likelihood of this is up for debate, of course.

For a team that Atkins willingly acknowledges is in need of improvement this off season, the ongoing task of maximizing the high-end assets already in place, this is may be the most valuable currency he takes to baseball’s annual convention.

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With that in mind, the GM verbosely talks up the value of each of his men behind the plate, no doubt rehearsing a speech to his counterparts here as he attempts to extract a big piece in return.

How expendable is Jansen, one of the longest-serving players on the Jays roster?

Atkins will make the case that the 27-year-old Wisconsin native is indispensable for his ability to both work with all arms on the pitching staff and pass on information to the higher ups. As such, Jansen is, Atkins will suggest, as important as some on the coaching staff. The Jays front office also believes that Jansen’s offensive output is underrated.

What about Kirk? Has the value ever been higher for the kid with the sublime hitting skills, a young player who hails from just south of here in Tijuana, Mexico? Likely not. But Atkins will argue that Kirk, who at age 24 was a first-time all star in 2022, wields one of the most important bats in the Jays lineup. With outfielder Teoscar Hernandez already gone via trade, can Atkins afford to part with another bat if the price isn’t right?

And then there is Moreno, an athletic marvel considered one of the top prospects in the game. Teams bidding to pry him away will hear how Moreno’s athleticism is such that not only is the upside considerable, but so is the potential to shift him to other positions.

There is truth to all of these assessments as, I suppose, there is to the possibility that the Jays could keep all three and create productive roles for each.

The greater likelihood, however, is that one is dealt, which adds to the fascination the days and weeks ahead hold for Jays fans.

The potential return, of course, will be critical.

The needs are clear for a team aiming to maximize the value of having stars such as Vlad Guerrero Jr., Bo Bichette, George Springer, Alek Manoah, Kevin Gausman and others in the fold. Time is also ticking for a Jays team that two months ago was flatly swept away by the Seattle Mariners in two demoralizing wildcard round games.

The needs are certainly clear for the Jays. As Atkins acknowledged at the Toronto chapter of the Baseball Writers Association of America luncheon this past week, starting pitching tops the to-do list. The team simply can’t afford to head to spring training with a rotation of Manoah, Gausman, Jose Berrios (ideally an improved version) and question mark, question mark.

With the hole in right following the Hernandez trade, there will be a re-order of the Jays outfield and ideally a left-handed bat will be brought in to the righty heavy order.

Not all of it needs to get accomplished this week, of course, and likely won’t. But the sense from Atkins is that things could move quickly at the first Winter Meetings session since 2019..

“When you come together, there’s power to that because everyone is maximizing those windows with other teams,” Atkins said. “We spend the bulk of our time with representatives of other players and with other teams, that does push things to the forefront.”

The Jays have certainly been a team able to make a splash in recent off-seasons, a process the front office hopes to continue from its base here on the San Diego waterfront.

“We are in a great position,” said Atkins, who suggested improvements are likely to come more through free agency than via trade. “We understand from a business and practical standpoint what we think is ideal for the Toronto Blue Jays organization and (Rogers) is 100 per cent on board with that.

“We have a mutual understanding of where that range is and if we need to go past that, I’m sure they’ll answer the phone when (team president Mark Shapiro) phones.”

How that money could be spent should start to unfold over the next three days.

“We don’t have the full picture painted on exactly how to do A, B and C to make our team better,” Atkins said.  “But we do have a very clear understanding of where we could take our next strategic step.”