Blue Jays GM Alex Anthopoulos comments on John Farrell deal

Blue Jays general manager Alex Anthopoulos held a conference call Sunday to discuss the trade that sent manager John Farrell and reliever David Carpenter to the Boston Red Sox in exchange for shortstop Mike Aviles over the weekend. Among other things, Anthopoulos spoke about the process of the deal and how things did not go as well as he hoped, reports Scott Lauber of the Boston Herald:

"I thought there was, to be completely candid, gamesmanship and a lot of things that went on from a negotiating standpoint, not on our end," Anthopoulos said.

"But I thought there were a lot of things that were coming out that were completely false. We’re pretty good at not putting things out there in the media, or leaking things, or saying things. There was just a lot.

There were some things, we don’t know where it came from or how it started, but probably (the negotiations) didn’t go as smoothly as we think it could have."

Anthopoulos stated that he was unhappy about the false rumors, and that information on the deal was announced prior to its official but completion, but that there is nothing to be done about it. He added that the Jays have now granted all of their coaches the opportunity to seek employment with other teams -- some may join Farrell in Boston -- and that 1B/DH Adam Lind was never a part of the compensation discussion.

If the Blue Jays had not added David Carpenter into the deal, Anthopoulos said the team would have likely removed him from the 40-man roster.