Winter Meetings will keep Blue Jays busy

TORONTO — The Blue Jays typically don’t make a lot of moves during Major League Baseball’s annual Winter Meetings, but there’s a good chance that will change this year. With so much work left to do, it kind of has to happen.

Mark Shapiro, Ross Atkins and the rest of Toronto’s front office will descend upon the Washington, D.C. area at the end of this week with a lengthy shopping list. Two corner outfielders, a backup catcher, at least two or three relievers and possibly a first baseman, to name a few.

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MLB.com and MLB Network will have wall-to-wall coverage of the 2016 Winter Meetings from the Gaylord National Resort & Convention Center outside Washington, D.C., starting next Monday. Fans can watch live streaming of all news conferences and manager availability on MLB.com, including the Rule 5 Draft on Dec. 8 at 9 a.m. ET.

Toronto has been linked to just about everyone possible this offseason, and that speculation should only increase when front-office executives and agents all gather under the same roof. The attention is a byproduct of a team coming off its second straight American League Championship Series appearance, and with nine free agents — including two of the game’s best in sluggers Edwin Encarnacion and Jose Bautista — it’s not going away any time soon.

“There’s a lot of different ways to score runs,” Atkins recently said when asked about possibly replacing the production of Encarnacion and Bautista. “We were very dependent on [the home run] last year and we may be again … but there’s doubles and triples and walks and less strikeouts, oftentimes with guys who don’t hit as many home runs.

“We’re looking to score as many runs and prevent as many as possible. Another piece to the …

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