Going Deep: Alex Anthopoulos decided it was time this offseason for Toronto Blue Jays to go all in and do a major makeover

When Alex Anthopoulous moved into J.P. Ricciardi’s office in 2009, the then-32-year-old baseball executive admittedly took reaching a consensus to new lengths. Decisions weren’t made until every angle had been covered, every stone unturned, every point debated and dissected. . .  you get the point.

Well, there’s a new AA in the captain’s chair at the Rogers Centre and the result is a team that’s not completely new, but was substantially remodeled over the offseason.  It’s a remodeling that has rejuvenated interest in Canada’s Major League Baseball team and – barring a rash of injuries - certainly will be the defining moment of the native Montrealer’s tenure as the man in charge of baseball operations for the Toronto Blue Jays.

After three seasons of being the guy that took a few pitches before taking a swing (contrary to the grip-it-and-rip-it approach that former hitting coach Dwayne Murphy pushed on the players), Anthopoulos came out swinging after the Jays’ 73 wins in 2012 represented their worst season since their 67-94 campaign in 2004.

When Anthopoulos learned the Miami Marlins were ready to jettison most of their best players, he didn’t hesitate to get team president Paul Beeston’s blessing. When the GM saw an opportunity to bring National League Cy Young Award winner R.A. Dickey to Canada, he effectively and efficiently pulled the trigger on a deal with the New York Mets.  He decided the time was right to take a run at the vulnerable competition in the American League East, even if it meant losing some of the promising prospects Anthopoulos had drafted. He decided to sign Melky Cabrera, even though the smooth-hitting outfielder was suspended for 50 games last season for PED use and was shunned by his San Francisco Giants teammates during their World Series title ride.

He made the decision – a difficult one that he knew would spark criticism – to bring John Gibbons back for a second time to manage the Blue Jays.  As the National Post’s outstanding columnist Bruce Arthur reported during spring training, Detroit Tigers manager Jim Leyland – one of the game’s elder statesman – gave him props for that one.

As Anthopoulos told Arthur in Florida, he still seeks input from the people around him. But he understands now that as the guy in charge, the buck truly stops with him.

“I don’t agonize over decisions as much,” he told Arthur.  “And I think this off-season was really where — you evolve, I think. I think what I learned is — in the beginning, you still want to be a good leader and be inclusive, and I certainly still want to be all that.

“Over time I’ve just forgot that, at times, as an assistant GM I did all kinds of things but I had an opinion. I gave my opinion, and it was my opinion, and I didn’t have to worry as much about it. Just boom, that’s it. But as a general manager you’re leading the organization, and you’re not doing the job by yourself, and you want everybody included, everybody involved, respect everyone’s opinion. But … I forgot that now that I’m a GM, I forgot to actually ask myself my opinion; to pretend I’m in the room and say, ‘Hey, what do you think?’ Because that opinion should carry a little more weight, because if it’s wrong, it’s me anyway.”

There are many weeks to pass, games to be played, pitches to be thrown and swings to be taken before Anthopoulos’s decision will be deemed genius or a series of gambles that went wrong. But for now, the still-boyish-looking GM’s offseason of decisions, decisions, decisions remind one of Pat Gillick’s transformation from Stand Pat to Gambling Gillick in the early 1990s. Blue Jays fans, who for two decades now cling to the memories of Joe Carter touching them all while Cito Gaston managed a star-studded roster back-to-back World Series championships, have a sane sense of optimism that their sandlot heroes are ready once again to play some serious fall ball.