Jays get their (young) man

Sports

Posted By MIKE RUTSEY, QMI AGENCY

Posted 1 month ago

In Thursday's conference call explaining his acquisition of outfielder Anthony Gose, Blue Jays general manager Alex Anthopoulos sounded as if he was bouncing off the walls with joy.

In rhapsodizing about the centre fielder he acquired from Houston for Triple-A first baseman Brett Wallace, you almost thought that Anthopoulos would start yodeling with glee, start tap dancing with excitement.

Wallace and his lumpy physique were supposed to be the Jays first baseman of the future, a future that was as close as 2011.

In Gose, we're looking at the Jays centre fielder of the future and given he's 19 and playing at the Class-A level, it could be another four to five years before he sees the bright lights of the Rogers Centre.

With Anthopoulos the future isn't now, it's down the road a piece and a big part of it, like Gose, is a can that was kicked further down that never ending road. Still, in picking up Gose, Anthopoulos believes he has hit a home run.

"It's very exciting to add him to the organization," Anthopoulos started off. "He's a player that we've been after for quite some time. He was part of the Roy Halladay talks in the winter and we were unsuccessful in acquiring him there and we acquired about him in spring training. This is a player we've been fond of for a while. He's an athletic centre fielder with outstanding competitiveness, makeup, leadership skills. He's a game-changer who is playing a premium position that is very hard to find with a skill set that is very hard to find.

"You're looking at plus-speed, plus-defence, plus-arm, plus-makeup and a bat that we think will emerge and really come on. These guys are not easy to find at all."

This season at Clearwater, Gose, who bats left, has appeared in 103 games batting .263 with 17 doubles, 11 triples, four home runs and 20 RBIs while adding 36 stolen bases. The 6-foot-1, 190-pound native of Paramount, Calif., was the Phillies second-round pick in the 2008 June draft. In 2009, he led all minor league players with 76 stolen bases while hitting .259 for Lakewood of the South Atlantic League.

For most of the season, Anthopoulos has been talking about how his team has to get faster and more athletic and in acquiring Gose, a separate side deal to Roy Oswalt going to the Phillies, the GM believes he has achieved both those goals and hit a home run.

So will Gose be the Jays' version of Carl Crawford, the speedy all-star outfielder for the Tampa Bay Rays?

"Actually that's a good comparison," Anthopoulos replied. "That's a name that came up when we talked about him. It's somebody from a statistical standpoint where there are similarities there. He's someone that I know that the numbers when you read them off the page aren't eye-popping but we spent a lot of time scouting this kid."

But just don't expect to see him next season or in 2012 either.

"I think it's going to take a little bit of time, there's a lot of development but again he's a 19-year-old and to get to the big leagues at 22, 23, 24, it's still a ways away but it's still a very young player," Anthopoulos said.

With Wallace now out of the picture it's back to the Abbott and Costello 'Who's On First' routine for 2011 with DH Adam Lind popping up as the likely replacement for Overbay.

But Anthopoulos believes things will work themselves out and that problem was never part of their thinking as far as acquiring Gose.

"We're really not sure right now," he said about their next first baseman.

On Gose, though, Anthopoulos is dead certain.

mike.rutsey@sunmedia.ca

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