There is going to be an excess of players coming in the next year to a few positions, which in turn, probably means the Blue Jays need to deal from their depth at those positions, with the hopes of obtaining value somewhere else on the roster.  With J.P. Arencibia already smashing bombs at the major league level - lets hope he can bring up that batting average now - and probably the Jays #1 prospect Travis D'Arnaud just added to the 40 man roster, a few more of the key C prospects will be due to be added to the 40 man in 2012.  Those players include Carlos Perez, A.J. Jimenez and Yan Gomes (not as big a problem as the first 2 names but a C prospect nonetheless).  To clear room for these players, AA will either have to move Arencibia to 1B or DH - which creates an even bigger logjam at those positions - or send him packing.

Another combination of positions where Toronto is full of players is 1B/DH/LF.  Adam Lind has been a great player for the Jays at times, but is he going to be the starting 1B on a World Series winning club?  (Note to the haters: I'm not saying he isn't, I'm just posing the question to make you think about it).  Lind, Eric Thames, Travis Snider, David Cooper, Rajai Davis, E5 and whoever else AA may sign or trade for are going to be filling 3 positions; talk about fitting a square peg into a round hole.  On top of that, Toronto will have Anthony Gose and Michael Crouse - and possibly Brad Glenn and Sean Ochinko if they can move up a level or two this season - looking for room on the 40 man roster next year.  This creates a real glut at those positions and provides the opportunity to again deal from strength.

With AA at the helm, there are no shortage of possible moves out there to surprise the fans,  Here are a few of those possibilities.

The Jays could deal Arencibia and possibly Lind and one of their LF's in the next year or so, to make room for some of these prospects.  The Rays could use Lind (obviously in a package deal) and if AA was able to obtain either B.J. Upton or James Shields - two players that have been talked about in off-season moves - he could either use Shields to add to his pitching depth, or flip either of them to possibly the Nats (looking for a CF) or Reds (looking for a SP) or to anyone else interested.  Believe me, there would be no shortage of interest in Shields in a very thin pitching market that has C.J. Wilson as probably the top arm.  AA could easily get an already good position player, or a package of minor leaguers better than what they received for Shaun Marcum last off-season.  From the Reds, AA's targets would probably be Joey Votto, Yonder Alonso and/or Brandon Phillips and it would behoove the Jays to include Adeiny Hechavarria in a deal for Phillips, as their infield would be pretty solid for a few years at that point.

There's also the talk surrounding Bailey right now from Oakland.  The Athletics are interested in Alonso - if AA were able to pull off some sort of 3 way deal - and need OF's pretty badly this off-season, so Toronto matches up very will with them.  And hey, if Oakland thinks Josh Willingham was a great pickup, they can't be too disappointed with Thames.  In addition, the Jays are already a close trading partner with the Athletics.

Your Thoughts?