Blue Jays' LaCava: No intention of moving core pieces

Alex Anthopoulos no longer works in the Toronto Blue Jays front office, but his successor is adopting many of the philosophies instilled by the former general manager.

"We're going to continue to look for opportunities," interim GM Tony LaCava told Sportsnet 590 The FAN. "Alex taught us that very well. Just keep shaking the tree and you never know what's going to fall out. We'll try to follow suit with that."

Anthopoulos shook Oakland Athletics GM Billy Beane's branches hard enough last offseason to land the golden apple, now-reigning AL MVP Josh Donaldson.

Donaldson spearheads one of the league's most prolific offenses, which returns every core piece. That makes some of the decision-making easier for LaCava, who doesn't intend to try fix what isn't broken.

"It should be able to do the same type of damage it did last year, so ideally we don't want to diminish that," LaCava said of the offense. "That being said if something that makes the whole 25-man roster better, we'd certainly look at that. But we're not going in there with the intention of moving any of our core pieces."

With the rotation seemingly addressed following the acquisitions of J.A.Happ and Jesse Chavez, in addition to the re-signing of Marco Estrada, the Blue Jays front office will turn its attention to the bullpen, as the team is reportedly searching for relievers with closing experience.

Though the combined $59 million spent on Happ and Estrada likely ate up any remaining money that might have been used for free-agent ace David Price, LaCava was noncommittal about the team's stance on whether or not the left-hander remains a viable target.

"Like every other team that's in the market, David Price has to be attractive to them," LaCava said. "Without getting too much further, I would say that he deserves where he's at and it's certainly a heck of a competition to sign him."