In a single work week, Blue Jays GM Alex Anthopoulos has answered almost all of his club’s off-season questions, added more than $50 million to the team’s annual payroll and become the talk of the baseball world while re-energizing fans at home.

It has been an exceptional few days for the 35-year-old, capped Friday by the widely reported free-agent signing of left fielder Melky Cabrera, who was second in the NL batting race last season when he tested positive for performance-enhancing drug use and was suspended 50 games.

By late Friday, the Jays had not officially announced the deal, which was first reported by ESPN Desportes, the network’s Spanish affiliate, and is believed to be worth a team-friendly $16 million over two years.

The Cabrera signing comes less than three days after Anthopoulos engineered a 12-player deal with the Miami Marlins — expected to be made official over the weekend — in which he acquired shortstop Jose Reyes, a four-time all-star and former batting champ, along with veteran starting pitchers Josh Johnson and Mark Buehrle, in exchange for a package of prospects.

In terms of impact moves, the week recalls December 1990, when over the course of four days GM Pat Gillick acquired Devon White, Roberto Alomar and Joe Carter, who would all become key contributors on a Jays team that won three division titles and two World Series over the next three seasons.

But Anthopoulos is not done yet.

Although he has plugged all of his club’s on-field holes, he has yet to hire a manager to replace John Farrell, whose embarrassing exit to pursue his “dream job” in Boston now seems a distant memory.

Anthopoulos said last week he would like to resolve the manager issue before baseball’s winter meetings open Dec. 3 in Nashville.

He could also still trade one of the four catchers currently on the club’s roster — most likely 26-year-old J.P. Arencibia — either for more pitching help or another bat to replace or platoon with Adam Lind as the designated hitter.

But right now Jays fans are content to simply dream on the 2013 season and enjoy the frenzy.

Cabrera, 28, was expected to be seeking a short-term deal in his first foray into free agency, with the hope of boosting his value before going after a more lucrative, long-term deal without the taint of his PED use.

The former San Francisco Giant was hitting .346 in August when he tested positive for elevated levels of testosterone.

Although Cabrera was eligible to join the Giants’ playoff roster, the club chose to leave him off and went on to win their second World Series title in the last three years.

The switch-hitting Dominican has a career .284 average and .338 on-base percentage and is likely to be slotted into the second spot in the Jays’ new-look lineup behind Reyes and ahead of right fielder Jose Bautista and Edwin Encarnacion.

The all-Dominican foursome would be among the most formidable top of an order in baseball.

Drafted by the New York Yankees as an amateur free agent, Cabrera played four unremarkable seasons in New York and another in Atlanta before setting career marks in Kansas City in 2011, hitting .305 with 18 home runs.

While there are doubts he will be able to duplicate his breakout 2012 season without the benefit of performance-enhancing drugs, it should be noted that while he boosted his batting average considerably, he did not show any increased power last season.

Either way, Anthopoulos and the Jays are ready to give him a second chance.

After a 2012 season derailed by injury and underperformance — in which heightened expectations went disastrously unmet and an eager fan base grew more cynical as the year wore on — Anthopoulos’s aggressive moves this week have been almost universally welcomed by Jays fans.

The club’s annual payroll will climb into the $120 million range in 2013, in line with the league’s top 10 spenders.

At a news conference after the final game of the season, Anthopoulos said additional revenue from increased attendance and TV ratings this season would be reinvested in the team’s payroll and that Rogers Communications, the club’s corporate owner, would loosen the purse strings.

At the time it sounded like lip service, but this week Anthopoulos kept his word. The Jays are all in.

New-look Jays

STARTERS

SS Jose Reyes

LF Melky Cabrera

RF Jose Bautista

1B Edwin Encarnacion

DH Adam Lind

3B Brett Lawrie

CF Colby Rasmus

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C J.P. Arencibia

2B Maicer Izturis/Emilio Bonifacio

BENCH

OF Rajai Davis

C John Buck

IF Izturis/Bonifacio

STARTING ROTATION

RH Josh Johnson

LH Mark Buehrle

RH Brandon Morrow

LH Ricky Romero

LH J.A. Happ

BULLPEN

RH Casey Janssen

RH Sergio Santos

RH Steve Delabar

RH Brad Lincoln

LH Brett Cecil

LH Darren Oliver

RH Esmil Rogers

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