Alex Anthopoulos was on the Fan 590 this morning at 10am right after touching down in Florida for the meetings, and you can listen to it here. He talks about offseason acquisitions, but said he was late getting to the interview because he was “caught on the phone trying to get, not a trade done, but a signing done”. He said he still wasn’t finished. Any guesses on who it is?

Also, Jays Journal is now on Facebook, click the link and hit that “like” button, as Mat Germain and I hope to have some good discussions going on that board! There’s one up right now starting with the Jays 2011 bullpen, and we’d love to hear your offseason ideas.

Probably the most overlooked member of the Jays coaching staff, first base coach Torey Lovullo, was also on the Fan590 in Toronto recently, and it’s worth a listen. Here’s the link to the radio clip. One highlight was learning that Lovullo actually played for Brian Butterfield and Dwayne Murphy back in the day, and knew Bruce Walton previously from west coast college baseball. (more…)

Newly appointed bench coach Don Wakamatsu will not be blocked though should he get the nod for the New York Mets managerial position, but here’s to hoping he sticks with the Jays in 2011 and beyond, mainly because of his experience as a catcher to help J.P. Arencibia develop and as a Major League manager to give John Farrell constant quality feedback. On to the non-tenders…

Edwin Encarnacion – Encarnacion, evidently the “throw in” portion of the Scott Rolen trade with the Reds, really did a sufficient job as the Jays third baseman considering the Jays were lacking options at the hot corner. He endured constant criticism for his fielding throughout his tenure with the Jays and adopted the nickname E5, which was unfortunate considering he was popular with teammates in the clubhouse, had a great attitude going back to the minors, and he was one of the nicer players when I saw the Jays before games during their interleague series in San Diego in June. While, according to Fangraphs and UZR/150, Encarnacion had his best fielding season of his career, he did commit 18 errors in 95 games, which was the highest on the team.

Offensively, Encarnacion put together a .244/.305/.482 line in 96 games in 2010, and showed more patience at the plate with 60 Ks, tying his career low for Ks in a season. He is in his final year of arbitration, and the reason he is making a case for a raise (which he will likely get) from the $4.75M he made in 2010 is because of his power potential. This season marked only the 2nd time in his career he’s topped the 20 homer mark, hitting 21 dingers to go along with 51 RBIs. This was all boosted by his scorching end to the season, where he went 8-for-19 (.471) with 5 HR and 10 RBI in his final 5 games of 2010. (more…)