John Gibbons says the Toronto Blue Jays were targeting free agent pitcher Ubaldo Jimenez before the right-hander reportedly agreed to a four-year deal with Baltimore Orioles Monday night.

“Ubaldo is one guy we were targeting,” the Blue Jays manager told Brady & Walker on Sportsnet 590 The Fan, Tuesday. “Alex (Anthopoulos) was in constant contact with his agent. Nothing ever developed, obviously but there’s no question that we would’ve rather seen him go to the National League.”

Gibbons on Brady & Walker

Despite the club’s interest in the 30-year-old Jimenez, it is being reported that the Blue Jays never made him an offer.

Gibbons says Anthopoulos has been working hard to add a veteran starting pitcher.

“The big talk all winter was that Alex was going to look to acquire some pitching,” Gibbons explains. “He’s still doing it. No one is working harder. It’s never that easy. We were looking for a veteran-type guy. Someone with a track record but things don’t always work out. Most teams were looking at the same guys we were. There were some trades that came along that ended up falling through.”

Even without Jimenez, Gibbons says he is very comfortable with the starting pitchers on the Jays’ roster. He believes the club has improved depth and some young arms that are closer to being ready to pitch in the big-leagues.

“We got more talent in the room (and) more depth,” he says. And we got some guys we can fall back on. We got (Drew) Hutchison, (Kyle) Drabek. They’re both healthy. We got some young up and coming kids. So we got some guys that are down there in the minor leagues if they don’t make it with us out of camp. And we’re high on them all.

“We’re going to put together the best pitching staff we can. We’ve got some good options down here. We’ll see where it all goes.”

Entering spring training, the Jays have a staff in which R.A. Dickey, Mark Buehrle, Brandon Morrow, and J.A. Happ appear locked into starting jobs. The fifth spot could be decided in spring training and Gibbons is very high on a few of the up-and-coming internal options in the system.

“You look at a guy like Stroman,” Gibbons says. “He’s a college kid so he’s experienced. He’s not a young high school kid. In (Hutchison), he had some experience in the big leagues with us a couple years ago so they have some things going in their favour. The most important thing is that they’re both very, very talented.”

The X-factor, according to Gibbons, is Morrow, the hard-throwing right-hander who has struggled with various injuries throughout his career. Gibbons says the Blue Jays will need Morrow to be healthy and effective if they want have a reliable rotation in 2014.

“Morrow really is the key guy,” he explains. “We were expecting a lot of him last year. He’s got one of the best arms in baseball and we missed him for most of the year. He’s kind of our wild card. We need him to be good. That’s for sure.”

Morrow, 29, had a challenging 2013 season in which he only pitched 54.1 innings after suffering a forearm injury in May. He finished with a 2-3 record and a 5.63 ERA in 10 starts.

“We pitched like garbage,” Morrow told reporters in Dunedin Monday. “Starting pitchers were awful the first month, myself included.”

The Blue Jays’ starters ranked 29th in the majors last season with a combined ERA of 4.81.