It’s no surprise Alex Anthopoulos isn’t big on new year’s resolutions.

Despite last year’s splashy, all-in gambles, the Blue Jays’ GM is by nature more inclined to reason and rationality than hopeful flights of fancy.

“If you aren’t going to do something on Dec. 30, why would you on Jan. 1?” he says.

So Anthopoulos won’t be making any grand pronouncements as he rings in 2014 with his family Tuesday night.

At the halfway point of his fifth off-season at the Jays’ helm, he remains resolved to acquire a starting pitcher to bolster the weakest link in 2013’s dispirited letdown. However, he’s typically tight-lipped on any progress.

For instance, he won’t say whether or not he has contacted the agent for Masahiro Tanaka, the coveted Japanese right-hander who became a free agent last week when his team, the Rakuten Golden Eagles, agreed to make him available to major league suitors.

“I have said that we’re definitely going to inquire on any free-agent pitchers that are out there,” Anthopoulos added vaguely.

So presumably there has been at least some dialogue. But the Jays remain long shots to bag the 25-year-old, who went 24-0 with a 1.27 ERA for the Eagles last season and is easily the top free-agent pitcher available. The New York Yankees, who have reportedly already begun courting Tanaka, are considered front-runners, while the L.A. Dodgers, L.A. Angels and Chicago Cubs are among the other top suitors.

Highly regarded for his impeccable control and devastating splitter, Tanaka, who must sign before 5 p.m. on Jan. 24, is expected to command at least $100 million.

Anthopoulos wouldn’t characterize how aggressively the Jays would pursue the pitcher, but acknowledged he’s a rare talent.

“For one, it’s rare to see free agents in their mid-20s,” he said, likening it to when Alex Rodriguez reached free agency as a 25-year-old in 2000 and signed what was then the most lucrative contract in baseball history — 10 years, $252 million — with the Texas Rangers.

Meanwhile, the market for the next-best free-agent starters — Matt Garza, Ubaldo Jimenez and Ervin Santana — has been stalled by Tanaka’s status. Regardless of where Tanaka signs, as soon as the ink dries on his contract competition for the others starters should ramp up.

Where the Jays could potentially hold an advantage lies in the fact they finished among the bottom-10 teams in the league last season and therefore do not have to give up a first-round pick to sign those free agents tied to draft-pick compensation, such as Jimenez and Santana.

While Anthopoulos says his priorities have not changed since the beginning of the off-season, his expectations appear to have been slightly altered.

Earlier in the off-season he had said trading for a starting pitcher was more likely than acquiring one via free agency. Today, he figures either could happen.

“I would say it’s 50-50 at this point,” he said. “Free-agent prices tend to change as the winter goes along. I don’t know that I’d say one is more likely than the other at this point.”

Anthopoulos also said he has more “clarity” about his own team than he did three months ago.

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Brandon Morrow, for example, is fully recovered from the nerve injury that forced him to sit out two-thirds of last season (“We feel very confident that he’s fine and he’s good to go”) and Anthopoulos added that he sees more promise in some of the organization’s young pitchers — especially Drew Hutchison, who missed half of 2012 and all of 2013 recovering from Tommy John surgery, and highly touted prospect Marcus Stroman — after watching them in the Arizona Fall League: “Seeing how good they looked and the command they had was encouraging.”

With the swagger of last year’s bombastic off-season overhaul proving hollow, perhaps Jays fans should be comforted by these more subtle signs of progress. But they would probably feel better with a pitcher in hand rather than two on the farm.

Spring training opens in six weeks.

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