Blue Jays lose out on Jason Bay, Raul Ibanez

The price for Jason Bay was too high and the Seattle Mariners backed away from a deal for Raul Ibanez, leaving the Toronto Blue Jays offence as is for the finish of the season.

Blue Jays general manager J.P. Ricciardi was forced to stand pat as the 4 p.m. ET non-waiver trade deadline came and went Thursday, despite finding himself more active than expected.

For a brief while, he thought manager Cito Gaston would be able to pencil into his lineup either Bay, the Pittsburgh Pirates slugger from Trail, B.C., or Ibanez, another offensively productive left-fielder.

Instead, the 54-54 club will get no external boost for the final two months of the season as it attempts to undo a 108-game trend of mediocrity and pull back into contention.

The Blue Jays begin a three-game series at Texas on Friday night 9½ games behind the Tampa Bay Rays for first in the American League East and 6½ games back of the wild-card leading Boston Red Sox, who ended up snagging Bay in a three-way deal that sent Manny Ramirez to the Los Angeles Dodgers.

While that may not sound like much, the Minnesota Twins, New York Yankees, Texas Rangers and Detroit Tigers are also in front of the Jays in pursuit of the Red Sox.

"I don't think we're on the middle ground, I think we're in it," Ricciardi said during a conference call. "We're relatively within striking distance in the wild card and there's still two months to play.

"I don't think we ever thought about, 'Hey, we're going to be sellers.' The thought process is if we can continue to add without taking anything away leading to us going forward, that we would try to do that."

Price too steep for Bay

That certainly wouldn't have been the case with Bay, a player the Blue Jays front office has long admired and someone assistant GM Tony LaCava helped draft with the Montreal Expos back in 2000.

The Pirates are believed to have asked for starter Shaun Marcum and top prospect Travis Snider in any potential deal, nipping things in the bud quickly.

"It was pretty steep for us," Ricciardi said.

The talks with Ibanez picked up some steam afterwards, with the Mariners eventually walking away at the moment of truth.

The deal was said to be a 2-for-1 featuring two major leaguers, although a source vehemently denied talk that the offer featured starter David Purcey and reliever Brandon League.

"We were ready to go forward," Ricciardi said. "At the end of the day, they probably weren't as comfortable with making the trade as we were — that happens."

The deadline also came and went with no calls about starter A.J. Burnett, who can opt out of his five-year, $55-million US deal in the fall.

He has been the subject of speculation, but will finish out the season in Toronto.

Catcher Gregg Zaun, who said earlier this week he would welcome a trade, didn't get his wish and will have to close out the year as backup to Rod Barajas.

"We got some hits on Barajas, but none on Zaunie," Ricciardi said.

Good news on McGowan

The Blue Jays did get some good news on starter Dustin McGowan, who had surgery Thursday to repair fraying of the labrum in his right shoulder and should be ready next spring.

The 26-year-old did not need reconstructive surgery on his torn rotator cuff, which would have kept him out even longer.

"It's encouraging news," Ricciardi said. "He should be ready for spring training.

"We might have to bring him along a little bit slower. But everything looked good, went good."

The right-hander was 6-7 with a 4.37 ERA in 19 starts and has been out since leaving a July 8 outing against Baltimore after four innings, saying the pain was too much to bear.

Ricciardi added that he's not concerned about third baseman Scott Rolen, who said Wednesday that his left shoulder, operated on three times, had a "mechanical issue" that kept it from "functioning properly."

Rolen said surgery wouldn't be necessary and that regular rest and a rehab-type program would allow him to keep playing.

The 33-year-old sat out Wednesday's 3-2 loss to the Rays, and is in an 0-for-17 rut and batting .163 (13-80) in July.

"We just got to get him [to] back off a little bit and give his shoulder a chance to rest a little bit," Ricciardi said. "Medically, no one has any concerns long-term about him continuing to play.

"His shoulder is as strong as it could possibly be. It's just a little fatigued from overwork."

A more productive Rolen would certainly help the Blue Jays make an unlikely run in the standings, especially in light of the Red Sox picking up Bay.

The Yankees also plugged some holes by picking up Xavier Nady from Pittsburgh and Ivan Rodriguez from Detroit, which helped its bullpen by getting Kyle Farnsworth in return.

"It's nice to see Manny [Ramirez] out of our division," Ricciardi said. "Regardless of what other people do, we still control what we have.

"We play these teams a lot. It's all in front of us.

"But we've got to get more consistent as a club. We haven't had that all year.

"We win five in a row and then we kind of go back a little bit. There's a reason why we're .500."