Baseball news!!! Sources tell me #Bluejays are NOT one of the teams closing in on Ervin Santana. #Jays — Mike Wilner (@Wilnerness590) February 10, 2014

Mike Wilner decided to poor some cold water over Kenny Rosenthal’s article on Fox Sports Website last night after Rosenthal had said that the Jays were one of the teams that had been talking to Ervin Santana.

Whether Wilner is right or not seems secondary at this point as the Jays are still looking into Ubaldo Jimenez and could very well have him higher on their list than Santana at this point. But like I’ve also written, the Jays could still be playing the waiting game and waiting for the market to come to them and with the Jays having both of their draft picks protected puts them in a much better position to land one or both if the bottom falls out of the market.

Buster Olney summed up my claim in this tweet he sent out this morning.

Worth repeating:The Jays are in a great position to sit back and wait for Ervin Santana or Ubaldo Jimenez to agree to a deal on team's terms — Buster Olney (@Buster_ESPN) February 10, 2014

I don’t see a lot of teams willing to give up their pick to sign a mid rotation starter unless they have an injury that happens during Spring Training and even then they still might not want to budge. As I’ve said the last little while that with AA not being active most of the winter he has saved most of his chips for now when this game of poker might just work as AA waits out the market.

As for disenfranchised Blue Jays fans that have watched the team go thru a dismal winter when it comes to moves, Wilner’s tweet last night seemed to disappoint a lot of fans who are expecting the Jays to pick up a pitcher and in their minds the free will the team and Anthopoulos won with them last season is nearing the end if he doesn’t land a pitcher to improve the ball club.

Having said all that, Once Santana signs doesn’t mean that the rest of the market will move quickly, the Tanaka signing proved that when we all thought that the signings would come fast and furious. It could be like last season when the Brewers waited till the end of Spring Training to sign Kyle Loshe.

I would expect that the Jays land one of Santana or Jimenez because of their position when it comes to their protected picks. And if it they don’t sign them it won’t be for a lack of trying either.