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Blue Jays' Lind questions management: 'Were we really trying to win?'

Reuters

As yet another disappointing campaign winds down for the Toronto Blue Jays, veteran first baseman Adam Lind expressed his skepticism over some of the personnel decisions made throughout the course of the season.

Lind, the club's longest-tenured position player, seemed irked by management's decision to keep Marcus Stroman in the minor leagues to begin the season, bestowing the final spot in the rotation to Dustin McGowan instead. McGowan lasted just six weeks as a starter before yielding to Stroman, who emerged as arguably the club's top starter this season.

“I guess the question is, did we really have the best 25 guys out of the gate? You know the guy’s going to come up in six weeks. What’s the difference?” Lind said.

The 31-year-old also appeared perturbed over the decision to bench center fielder Colby Rasmus during the final month of the season, as the impending free agent was relegated to a bench role in favor of less experienced players like Anthony Gose, Kevin Pillar and Dalton Pompey.

“We never really had a set team,” Lind told the National Post. “It was like McGowan just filled the void for six weeks. And then you look at what we did in the outfield in September. Were we really trying to win? But I guess every team goes through that, trying to figure things out. April’s probably a big feeler month for a lot of teams. But why didn’t Marcus make the team out of camp? We all knew he was going to come anyway.”

Lind also expressed his desire to see his team make some significant moves this offseason, as he's confident the American League East will be a stronger division in 2015.

“It would be nice if we can sign one of the big three (free agent) starters out there. (James) Shields, (Max) Scherzer or (Jon) Lester,” Lind told the Toronto Sun. “It would be nice to try to get one of those.”

“The other teams are going to get better,” Lind said. “I mean, the Yankees and the Red Sox are not going to accept the fates that they had this year. They’re definitely going to improve. It’s going to be a heck of a bidding war for those three guys and I wouldn’t be surprised if all three guys ended up on those two teams.

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