There is a strong belief that 23 months into his tenure, Blue Jays ownership has already discussed a contract extension for their 34-year-old GM, Alex Anthopoulos. The problem with the report is that the Boy Wonder has always refused to discuss any terms of his original deal from October 2009, leaving open the all-important question, “An extension to what?” Anthopoulos still refuses to elaborate.

“I’m very happy,” is all the first-time general manager would say. “There are only 30 major-league jobs out there. These are not easy to come by. The organization has treated me well. The one thing I can say is there is nowhere that I’d rather be. I don’t think it’s important to announce the contract status of front office personnel. It’s not like a player. If they want to let me go tomorrow they can and it won’t make a difference. The length of the contract is incidental. You know how I feel.”

But don’t look for the resurgent organization to be letting him go any time soon. The Jays’ iconic president, Paul Beeston, deserves full credit for insisting on the then-surprising move of replacing J.P. Ricciardi with his young assistant-GM, Anthopoulos. The move was made to fire his mentor at the end of the ’09 season when Beeston had been forced to fly to Baltimore to quell a clubhouse revolt against manager Cito Gaston that spelled the end of the GM’s reign with one year remaining on his deal.

The belief among fans and media at the time was that Anthopoulos would be merely interim, that the Jays needed to place a veteran, Gillick-like hand on the tiller of the foundering Jays ship. Instead, Beeston went with his gut instinct, sharpened from years of leading what had been the best organization in baseball under Hall of Famer Pat Gillick in the mid ’80s to mid ’90s.

Beeston came to the decision after a year of being back in the Jays office, by listening to a smart young Montrealer sit in his office and talk passionately, with simple conviction about his vision for the Jays moving forward, about moving back to its roots, a plan under Gillick that involved scouting, player development, trust in the spoken word, long-term planning and simple humanity.

Anthopoulos has delivered all that and Beeston has been vindicated. It is easy to believe, despite Anthopoulos’s protestations, that the Rogers ownership group has indeed moved to lock up its GM for at least the next five years. Following is a list of his top accomplishments in the 23 months of his tenure.

Returning trust, respect and humanity to the Jays’ brand

One of Anthopoulos’s quaint beliefs is that his word is his bond and that should be enough. Examples abound.

When he signed John Buck as a free agent in ’10 to be the Jays’ catcher for a year, he told him he would be the starter. When J.P. Arencibia made his debut with four hits and two homers, Buck was back in the lineup when healthy and finished out a meaningless September to much head-scratching from fans, parlaying his 20-homers into a nice contract with the Marlins. Anthopoulos kept his word.

When Scott Podsednik was signed to a minor-league deal with an invitation to spring training, it was with a chance to earn a role as the Jays’ fourth outfielder. When he was injured and lost that chance, he reported to Triple-A Las Vegas, but then chose free agency to look for a major-league job elsewhere. Was it in his contract? No, it was an understanding he had with the Jays’ GM that he could ask for his release at any time. It’s a trust in the Jays that by word of mouth is now passed from one player to other potential free agents and among agents that represent key pieces to a winning puzzle.

Revamping international and Caribbean scouting

There was a time in the ’80s under Gillick and Epy Guerrero when the Jays were one of the major players in the Caribbean and the streets of towns and villages in the Dominican Republic were teeming with kids wearing Jays hats.

One of the first gambits under Anthopoulos was to become a major player for Cuban refugee pitcher Aroldis Chapman, remaining in the mix until the envelope was opened. With Marco Paddy at the forefront, the Jays followed that up with a winning bid on shortstop Adeiny Hechavarria. Now agents and Latin American free agents fully expect the Jays to be in the mix for any future stars. The prestige of the city and the organization in international circles has returned to where it was.

Making difficult decisions for the organization, not the fans, not for himself

The problem with the previous regime was that whenever the Jays won 85 games, the GM would change the long-term plan to a short-term one and the next year would try to win 87. They would next finish under .500 and start the rebuild again. The president and ownership trusted Ricciardi’s judgment — for six years, then by the time they pulled back, reining in his ever-increasing payroll demands. It was too late. Ricciardi was fixated on the short-term goal of competing with the Red Sox and Yankees.

Bringing minor leagues back to Canada

Even as an assistant GM, Anthopoulos could not understand why all teams had pulled their farm teams from Canada. The first chance he had, he took one of his short-season Class-A affiliates and moved it to Vancouver. The Eh-Canadians have become a huge success and is a nice part of Rogers’ cementing the Jays brand across the country. You can bet when the Vegas agreement runs out following the 2012 season, Anthopoulos will at least explore a Triple-A affiliate in Canada.

Taking chances with the draft to strengthen the farm

The old philosophy was to select college players that could reach the majors in a short period of time, thus cutting the cost of development. The result was faster arrivals, but lower talent ceilings. Anthopoulos bulked up scouting with the philosophy that instead of each draft producing one major-league star, he wanted two.

Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading...

Thus the Jays have allowed major-league Types A-B players to leave as free agents in order to claim the draft pick compensation. Pushing the envelope, they even traded for catcher Miguel Olivo, tore up his option year then offered him arbitration in order to earn the Type-B supplemental pick.

If the following player balance sheet reflected trades, not manipulations of the draft, here is what Anthopoulos would have reaped in terms of free agents for compensation picks: departing free agents Kevin Gregg, Miguel Olivo, John Buck, Rod Barajas, Marco Scutaro and Scott Downs, plus unsigned ’09 draft picks James Paxton, Jake Eliopoulos and Jake Barrett for signed draft picks Joe Musgrove, Dwight Smith, Jr., Kevin Comer, Jake Anderson, Dan Norris, Kellen Sweeney, Aaron Sanchez, Justin Nicolino, Noah Syndergaard, Asher Wojchiechowski and Marcus Knecht.

Time will tell, but it’s likely Rogers ownership has already ensured that Anthopoulos will be there to greet those young guys when they arrive around 2014-15.

Read more about: