Alex Anthopoulos talks

Alex Anthopoulos talked on the Jeff Blair show this morning. There wasn't anything real exciting news coming out of their chat. What they did talk about:

• On Melky Cabrera: 'Once we traded for Michael Saunders, we were out on Melky.'
• They are 'not going to have a payroll where the Dodger or Yankees are.' No kidding.
• He is hopeful to make a trade for a bullpen arm, but nothing is close at the moment.
• Alex said that they had interest in some of the free agents (relievers) that signed (during the winter meetings), they just didn't like the numbers.
• Blair asked are we getting to the point where Aaron Sanchez going to be closer this year? 'No I don't think so. We view Aaron as a long term starter, Aaron's ceiling as a starter is so high he's going to get every shot to start.' I am coming around to Blair's opinion that, even though the Jays say Sanchez is going to be a starter this year, and even though that's the best spot for him, I'm getting the feeling that Aaron will end up being in our bullpen, at least for 2015.
• Alex said they wanted Brandon Morrow for the pen, but they didn't want to lie and tell him he would be looked at as 5th starter. Since Morrow wanted the chance to start, they weren't really a match.
• Asked about Takashi Toritani, Alex said "We've scouted him. The scouts like him. We talked about him internally. He would fit. We've had talks." That's about as close as you are going to get to Alex saying 'we offered him a contract'.

• Blair asked about the rumors around Paul Beeston. Alex Paul has been involved in everything this season. We haven’t been slowed up at all. We haven’t had any change at all.

• There was also a general discussion about Cuban players, with Alex saying the big problem, at the moment, is that it is hard to scout Cubans.