Atkins strikes out in quest for starting pitcher

Ross Atkins arrived at Major League Baseball’s winter meetings this week expecting “significant” moves to be made across the industry. He was right, but the Blue Jays didn’t get involved in any of them.

The first in-person winter meetings since 2019 lived up to the hype with a flurry of activity across three days in sunny California, including deals for top free agents Aaron Judge, Justin Verlander and Trea Turner. Other big names — such as outfielders Cody Bellinger and Japanese slugger Masataka Yoshida — found new homes, too.

The Jays were linked to a lot of players, especially in the fast-moving starting pitcher market, yet came away with nothing to show for it. Missing out on Verlander was expected; reported misses on the likes of Andrew Heaney, Kyle Gibson and Jameson Taillon perhaps less so.

While the lack of activity has been getting a lot of negative reaction on social media, Atkins insists there’s no reason to panic. He viewed this week as just another step across a drawn-out off-season.

“We don’t see Thursday as a deadline,” said the Jays general manager, who was scheduled to depart San Diego in the morning. “We don’t see that as a culmination. We see each day of the off-season as an opportunity for us to get better. We’re excited about our young core, and we see opportunities to make it a significantly better team.”

One might have assumed, based on the wide variety of arms connected to the Jays in recent days, that they were shopping for two starting pitchers, but indications out of San Diego suggest they’re in the market for just one.

Verlander was considered a longshot, but if his asking price had fallen within an acceptable range — he wound up going to the New York Mets for $86.6 million (U.S.) over two years — they would have tried to bring him on board to fill that spot. Under those circumstances, the Jays would have devoted almost all their available resources to one player, limiting their flexibility elsewhere on the roster.

For a pitcher as good as Verlander, that was a sacrifice they were willing to make. He appears to be the only free agent who fell into that category, because there have yet to be any indications whatsoever that the Jays are pursuing Carlos Rodón or Chris Bassitt, who also find themselves on the upper end of the starters’ market.

The narrative people around the Jays were trying to sell during these meetings is that they expect a bounceback year from José Berríos and more of the same from Alek Manoah and Kevin Gausman. Club officials also insist they’re comfortable with Yusei Kikuchi and Mitch White battling it out for the final spot in the rotation.

From their perspective, that leaves one hole. There are scenarios where that candidate could still become a front-line piece through trade, but the stated need, and the one more likely to be pursued, is a back-end starter.

“Based on how we were built last year, I think it’s probably run prevention,” Jays assistant GM Joe Sheehan said of his club’s biggest area of need. “I don’t want to say it’s that linear because there are ways to tweak the offence to hopefully make it a little bit more balanced, or a little bit better going into next year.”

Limiting the expenses to a backend rotation piece would make that secondary goal a bit easier to accomplish. The Jays are expected to pursue a left-handed hitting outfielder, and outside of Bellinger and Yoshida that market has yet to move. Possible targets include Brandon Nimmo, Michael Brantley and Michael Conforto.

Keeping Kikuchi or White in the rotation would also free up another spot for a high-leverage reliever. Otherwise, they’re likely headed for the ’pen because White is out of minor-league options and Kikuchi is unlikely to volunteer to be demoted for the second consecutive year.

Of course, the problem with that is Kikuchi or White could be asked to make upwards of 30 starts next season. Hey, I never said it was a good idea, just one the Jays are apparently leaning toward if it means having the ability to make a big move or two elsewhere.

“I think there are a lot of good players there that are still free agents,” Sheehan said. “There are a lot of good players available in trade. I think we’re in a fortunate position where we don’t have 16 holes to fill; we’ve got a pretty complete team returning. Obviously, we traded Teoscar (Hernández) and added a good reliever. But yeah, I think there are still good players available.”

That’s true, but the number has dwindled since the start of the week.

Twelve pitchers cracked the MLB Trade Rumors top-25 list of free agents and six have already signed. Three others — Rodón, Bassitt and Kodai Senga — haven’t appeared to be heavily targeted by the Jays, at least not yet.

Other names such as Noah Syndergaard, Nathan Eovaldi, Sean Manaea and Ross Stripling are still very much available. But that group will shrink in the coming days, and the last thing the Jays want to be doing is searching for pitching when there’s only a competent arm or two left up for grabs.

Spring training is still more than two months away. In 2019, the Jays didn’t sign Hyun-Jin Ryu until late December.

The following winter, they didn’t add George Springer and Marcus Semien until January. They’ve had delayed starts to off-seasons before and the plan has worked out fine enough.

Maybe history will repeat itself and the Jays are saving their big moves until later, but until then there will be angst within the fan base. A lot happened this week, but from a Toronto angle these meetings were a total dud.