--C Rod Barajas will return to the Blue Jays next season after the team picked up his $2.5 million option. He hit .249 in 104 games for Toronto this year.
--Interim president Paul Beeston was hoping he wouldn't be in his current position long. "Suffice to say I'm not sitting back," he told the Toronto Sun. "It will be a week or so before I get the job description in full. I'm trying to get my hands around it. It's moving faster rather than slower." The names of former Jays GM Pat Gillick (leaving the Phillies) and Stan Kasten (current president of the Nationals) have been bandied about, but nothing more than bandied to this point.
--General manager J.P. Ricciardi quickly backed off any serious talk of getting the club getting into the high-priced Manny Ramirez sweepstakes. "If he fits with what we're trying to do, then he's a fit," Ricciardi said. "For the most part, he's probably not a fit."
--Former Baltimore pitcher Adam Loewen, a native of Surrey, British Columbia, is in Hawaii starting his transformation into a first baseman/outfielder.
"The fact that I grew up watching the Blue Jays and was a huge fan all my life, and the fact that I'm Canadian, that played a big part of it," Loewen said of his decision to sign a two-year minor league deal with Toronto. "They said they saw me as an everyday player."
The Jays think it will take Loewen, who pitched for Canada in the 2006 World Baseball Classic, some 1,000 at-bats to be ready for a career as a hitter.
--C J.P. Arencibia, who hit .298 with 27 homers and 105 RBIs in high Class A and Class AA this season, was hitting well as a member of the Phoenix Desert Dogs of the Arizona Fall League. Through 16 games, he was batting .286 with four homers and 17 RBIs.
BY THE NUMBERS: 87-76 -- RHP A.J. Burnett's career record in the major leagues, posted with Florida and Toronto.
QUOTE TO NOTE: "The talks have been moving along, what his thoughts are, what his concerns are, things like that. It's just been very productive." -- GM J.P. Ricciardi on RHP A.J. Burnett, who can opt out of his contract within 15 days after the end of the World Series.
