DUNEDIN, FLA.—Kevin Pillar is living in the now.

Up-and-coming youngsters have dominated the conversation since the Blue Jays entered a rebuilding phase last summer, but the 30-year-old outfielder — the club’s longest-serving player — isn’t treating as gospel the front office’s prediction that they won’t be competitive until 2021.

“We still have 25 guys on our roster that go out and compete every single day,” Pillar said. “If we don’t like it, we can go out there and change that. That’s the challenge we’re kind of taking. It’s not us versus them, but it’s just us doing what we need to do to win games.”

Pillar is clearly among those optimistic about the Jays’ future, but says the players who break camp with the team can’t be worrying about when top prospects Vladimir Guerrero Jr. and Bo Bichette will be promoted.

“We are players. Our job is to go out there and play, regardless of what product is on the field … That’s what I do. That’s what I expect my teammates to do,” Pillar said.

The youth movement and different structure to spring training under first-time manager Charlie Montoyo have been a refreshing change, Pillar added: “Coming in, kind of a blank canvas, it has me excited to be back here in Dunedin ... It keeps me on my toes.”

Pillar — a .261 hitter and steady supplier of highlight-reel catches over six years as a Jay — says he has been impressed with the organization and communication under Montoyo and his rebuilt coaching staff. Saying goodbye to bench coach DeMarlo Hale, hitting coach Brook Jacoby and first base coach Tim Leiper — people he had considered family — was tough in the off-season, but Pillar is on board with what their successors are preaching.

“They come from places that all have a pedigree of winning, so hopefully they all bring something that they’ve learned,” Pillar said of Dave Hudgens (from the Houston Astros, replacing Hale), Guillermo Martinez (Jacoby’s successor from Blue Jays system) and Mark Budzinski (from the Cleveland Indians, taking over from Leiper).

FELICIDADES, MANNY: As word that free-agent Manny Machado had signed a 10-year, $300-million U.S. deal with the San Diego Padres filtered through the Jays clubhouse on Tuesday afternoon, there was at least one fan of the deal in the room. Montoyo, a longtime member of the Tampa Bay Rays staff before becoming the Jays’ manager, was full of praise for his one-time American League East opponent.

“Good for Manny,” he said of Machado, who takes over at shortstop in San Diego, where current Jay Freddy Galvis was the everyday starter last season. “I know Manny from being in this division and always talked to him at third base when he was with the (Baltimore) Orioles. I liked Manny.”

LEADING ROLES: If there was any internal fallout after Jays right-hander Marcus Stroman held court over the weekend — saying he had expected a long-term contract offer by now, and hoped to have more veteran players in the clubhouse — it wasn’t apparent in Dunedin.

“It’s fine,” Montoyo said. “He wants to win. Stroman wants to win. So that’s all good.”

Pillar said the situation is an opportunity for veterans such as himself, Stroman, Kendrys Morales, Justin Smoak, Aaron Sanchez and John Axford to step up as leaders.

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“We don’t have that one alpha or that one veteran here ... You kind of want to have someone in every sort of department of the game,” Pillar said, adding that it’s an area he focused on in the off-season.

“I’ve been able to sit back and watch — for the last five, six years — the way guys went about it. And I’ve kind of tried to figure out what sort of leader I’d like to be, whether it’s verbally or on the field or in the weight room, or just the way I walk around this place.”

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