General manager J.P. Ricciardi had no difficulty adding clout to his lineup the last two off-seasons, having imported Frank Thomas, Troy Glaus and Lyle Overbay to help form, along with Vernon Wells, as lethal a 2-3-4-5 combo as any in the American League.
As for beefing up the pitching staff? That's a different matter. The top of the rotation, Roy Halladay and A.J. Burnett, was superior to that of the Red Sox and the Yankees in 2006 by most key measures (strikeout rate, innings per start, base runners allowed). The rest of it, however, is a wasteland. Permitted to increase his budget from $72 million to $90 million over the winter, Ricciardi made generous offers for C-list hurlers Ted Lilly (Toronto's third starter last year) and free-agent Gil Meche but lost out on both. Though the Cubs and the Royals wildly overpaid for Lilly (four years, $40 million) and Meche (five years, $55 million), respectively, that's small consolation for the Blue Jays' G.M., whose club will have to win some 11-8 games to keep up with Boston and New York.
The four leading candidates for the three vacant starters' slots had a combined 16 big league wins and a 5.36 ERA last year. Toronto would benefit greatly from a bounce-back season by talented 26-year-old lefty Gustavo Chacin, who missed most of last season (elbow and forearm injuries) after a strong rookie year in 2005 (13-9, 3.72 ERA). Odds are against it, though. Since 1995 eight pitchers have thrown 200 innings in their rookie years, as Chacin did, and only Freddy Garcia and Matt Morris even came close to regaining their first-year form. (And Morris missed almost two entire seasons before recovering.)
SI.com - 2007 MLB Scouting Reports