CHICAGO — Alex Anthopoulos headed through the underground to the O’Hare terminal towing his suitcase Wednesday afternoon.
Before the new Blue Jays general manager departed for Toronto he said: “We still have some balls in the air,” as the annual general managers meetings ended.
One obvious ball would by ace right-hander Roy Halladay.
While the New York Yankees, the Philadelphia Phillies, the Los Angeles Angels and the Boston Red Sox appear as possible destination for Halladay, Anthopoulos remained steadfast in his stance about not talking trade specifics or mentioning players by name.
Earlier in the meetings when asked about dealing within the American League East division, Anthopoulos said his philosophy would be to take the best offer for any player, no matter if it was within the division.
Former Jays GM J.P. Ricciardi said he didn’t want to deal within the AL East leading to the non-waiver trade deadline.
“I’m targeting a number of players and trying to expand talks to include a third team,” Anthopoulos said of trade talks.
“We’re going to be relentless in our pursuit.”
When does it reach the panic stage for the Jays, who do not have an everyday shortstop or a No. 1 catcher?
“It’s very early,” Anthopoulos said. “We’re not at that stage until the trade market has fully extended itself and free agents have signed.”
Teams continue to talk via phone until reconvening at the winter meetings next month in Indianapolis.
Down time
From Halladay (32 starts) to Brian Burres (two), the Jays employed 13 starting pitchers this season due to injuries or lack of effectiveness.
“We thought we were hit the hardest by injuries until we did an analysis,” Anthopoulos said.
“We were 14th when it came to starters losing time to the disabled list, 16th among relievers.
“We don’t want to be 14th or 16th overall we want to be 28th.”
Between Halladay and Burres, Ricky Romero made 29 starts, while other starts were made by Brian Tallet (25), Scott Richmond (24), Brett Cecil (17), Marc Rzepczynski (11), David Purcey (nine), Casey Janssen (five), Robert Ray (four), Bryan Bullington (three), Jesse Litsch (two) and Brad Mills (two).
“It’s like anything else, you are so in tune with your team that you think it’s the worst in baseball, like getting a man in from third with less than two out,” Anthopoulos said.
