Veteran Blue Jays reporter John Lott of the National Post tweeted the first news this morning that the Blue Jays are officially talking to the Bisons and Shi Davidi of Sportsnet has published the bulk of the comments from Toronto GM Alex Anthopoulos to reporters on the subject prior to today's Jays-Red Sox game.
Anthopoulos is being politically correct when he says the Jays are still talking to Las Vegas (technically, they can go back there). But, of course, nobody believes him.
"It all comes down to geography, more than anything else," Anthopoulos said. "Las Vegas has been good for us and we may very well end up being there. At this stage we want to at least take a look. … Vegas has been great. The only challenge is geography."
Anthopulos said Charlie Wilson, the Blue Jays' director of minor-league operations, is in charge of the club's negotiations. The Bisons are likely being represented by team president Jon Dandes and VP/General Manager Mike Buczkowski. I have put in a call for comment to Buczkowski, who has been unable to say anything until today because of the rules of MLB and the minors.
"I don't want to get ahead of ourselves," said Anthopoulos. "Just in fairness, Charlie is the one doing all this, I know everyone wants to link everything, if ever came to that point I'd have a lot more thoughts on it, but in fairness to everybody, Las Vegas, to everybody else, it's just like free agency right now, everyone just declared free agency."
I heard from multiple folks Friday night in Toronto that the Blue Jays want a four-year deal, but Anthopoulos said today that's not an absolute and could go for two years.
"We're open to either," said Anthopoulos. "Our lean is always to go shorter, no matter what it is, player contracts, things like that, but we're fine with four."
---Mike Harrington
Twitter: @BNHarrington
