Since the beginning of November 2013, the Toronto Blue Jays have only made 19 transactions after making 52 transactions over the same period in 2012. The quiet offseason has caused worry among some segments of the fanbase, who believe that the club needs to do more to fill significant holes in their starting rotation and lineup. The reason for the lack of moves, Bluebird Banter has learned, is that general manager Alex Anthopoulos wanted to give some time off for beat writers and bloggers who follow the team.
"They've worked so hard since last offseason," Anthopoulos told Bluebird Banter in an exclusive interview, "last offseason there were so many moves--we made 15, 20 waiver claims--and the writers had to write about each one of them. Every day there was some sort of move and they would have to go online and find out who David Herndon and Scott Maine and Tyson Brummett were.
"We were a bit reckless--maybe that's too strong of a word, how about 'trigger-happy'--last offseason and we never thought about the ramification of our actions on the reporters and bloggers."
Anthopoulos then recounted a story a beat reporter told him a story about how his Christmas shopping was interrupted with the news that the Blue Jays had outrighted Mickey Storey in order to claim Russ Canzler. Rushing to his car to get his laptop to write up the story, the unnamed reporter accidentally ran into a group of orphans, shattering the only Christmas present they were going to get that year--a Blackberry Playbook tablet.
"I'll never forget that story, it will live with me for the rest of my life," Anthopoulos said, "I mean when they're older the orphans would realize that Playbooks are as useless as Phiten necklaces, but my decision to claim Canzler brought tremendous grief to those kids."
Anthopoulos added, "to prevent something like that from happening before the Christmas break, I spoke with Dana [Brown], Andrew [Tinnish], and Tony [LaCava] that we would not be making any moves even when it might be something that benefits the club. They worked their butts off last offseason and then were forced to sit through and write about 2013. I think it is time to give writers a break, let them spend more time with friends and family. I mean we'll do a Jared Goedert here and a Stevie Tolleson there because sometimes I just can't resist, but those are like two- or three-paragraph stories max.
"We'll see what we can do in January. We'll see how the market develops then. If all the players are gone by then and we finish in last place again, well, at least I'll know in my heart that bloggers and reporters were able to spend quality time with their loved ones, to live their lives."
We at Bluebird Banter thank Alex Anthopoulos for speaking with us and for mistakenly believing that we have a life outside of blogging and that lack of team news means that we end up doing posts on wildly speculative trade suggestions, endless analyses of free agent targets, and unfunny satirical pieces.
UPDATE
@Minor_Leaguer I can neither confirm nor deny. Signed a non-disclosure as part of the settlement.
— Brendan Kennedy (@BKennedyStar) December 18, 2013