Blue Jays GM willing to move roster player in 'creative' trade

Alex Anthopoulos usually flies under the radar when it comes to trade talks, but the Toronto Blue Jays general manager made some interesting comments Tuesday regarding his trade deadline philosophy.

Anthopoulos, who now looks like a genius for acquiring Josh Donaldson from the Oakland Athletics last offseason, hinted he wouldn't be opposed to dealing a player off his 25-man roster in order to improve the club.

"We're looking to add and it's hard to take away from the big-league club," Anthopoulos said during a TV appearance. "I was on the phone with one team and I mentioned that we may need to be creative. As much as we don't want to take away from the current 25, we bounced around some ideas and concepts.

"That's not the path we want to go down but we can't seem to get what we want from a prospect standpoint we'll need to open it up and be creative, similar to what Oakland and the Red Sox did last year with Jon Lester and Yoenis Cespedes. We're open to doing something like that as well."

The most likely scenario includes the heavy-hitting Jays dealing away a bat in order to upgrade their pitching staff. Toronto is averaging a MLB-best 5.4 runs per game, but ranks 23rd in ERA (4.16), 18th in WHIP (1.30), and 21st in strikeouts (603). The team's greatest need, however, is a proven closer.

Anthopoulos has already targeted Philadelphia Phillies closer Jonathan Papelbon, and more recently Chicago White Sox righty Jeff Samardzija. Other options to improve the rotation could include A's lefty Scott Kazmir, and Cincinnati Reds ace Johnny Cueto, among others.

ESPN play-by-play man Dan Shulman speculates slugging first baseman Edwin Encarnacion could fetch the Blue Jays a top arm on the market.

The Blue Jays are 44-42 entering play Wednesday, sitting 1 1/2 games back of the New York Yankees for the American League East lead.