Anthopoulos on Acquiring Pitching: “We’re Going to See If We Can Add a Body or Two”

It’s no secret the Toronto Blue Jays are in desperate need of pitching. But what Blue Jays GM Alex Anthopoulos is remaining very guarded about is how he’s going to remedy that situation.

After unexpectedly acquiring Troy Tulowitzki, the Blue Jays may have temporarily diverted the attention away from outsiders’ concerns about Toronto’s starting rotation (which is now one arm short after designating Felix Doubront for assignment).

During yesterday’s press conference, a few questions slipped in about the Blue Jays’ greater need for starting pitching. And like any astute General Manager, Alex Anthopoulos remained relatively vague on the situation.

But there was one follow-up interview on MLB Network’s High Heat which caught my attention, specifically AA’s comments on potential moves to acquire some pitching prior to Friday’s trade deadline. Check out the video below.

Most of the interview surrounds the acquisition of Troy Tulowitzki, but close to the end (around the 2:50 mark), Tony Massarotti asks AA about pitching, and he sounded quite confident something would get done in the near future.

“I guess all I can say at this point is I hope so. We’re talking to clubs, we’d like to. But it’s so hard to make trades and to try to handicap.

We have enough time in the next few days to try to get something done, hopefully we line up. But we’re going to see if we can get a body or two.”

A body or two? Or two?

Man, I don’t want to say with complete certainty that the Blue Jays are going to make another big trade this week and solve their lack of pitching problem, but AA looks (and sounds) like a man who is extremely confident in his ability to make something happen.

And not only for one pitcher, but potentially for two?

I think most would be more than happy if the Blue Jays simply acquired one mid-level starter, but then Alex Anthopoulos hinted the club might grab two of them by Friday.

Ordinarily, this would be a fairly innocuous comment from any other baseball executive. By no means is this a promise the Blue Jays will trade for a pitcher, but it just gets me that he finished it off by saying “or two”.

Need I remind everyone the last time AA spoke so confidently, it was a precursor to the Russell Martin signing and the Josh Donaldson trade.

So after shocking the baseball world with the Troy Tulowitzki trade, does Alex Anthopoulos has yet another trick up his sleeve? My guess is yes.

[Related: Was Alex Anthopoulos Given the Green Light to Spend this Offseason?]

Image courtesy of Andrew Francis Wallace/Toronto Star