TORONTO - Alex Anthopoulos unveiled his long awaited blueprint for the Toronto Blue Jays on Saturday and a by-product of his ambitious philosophy is likely more waiting for fans desperate to see a winner.

The rookie general manager from Montreal's vision is to build a franchise that can consistently win 95 games on the principle of sustained success through scouting and player development.

That's no simple undertaking in the American League East, home of the freshly minted World Series champion New York Yankees and wild-card winning Boston Red Sox, and Anthopoulos is adamantly against trying to take shortcuts to leapfrog them through free agency.

The gist for fans seeking signs of hope and an imminent end to a post-season drought stretching back to 1993? Be patient, forget about a boat-load of free agent signings this winter to bolster the club, and prepare yourself, barring a miracle turnaround, for ace Roy Halladay's departure, if not via trade then as a free agent after the 2010 season.

"I know that everything we will do will be obviously to improve the team, but it won't be the quick fix, or it won't be to sacrifice the ability to have a long, sustained run of success here," Anthopoulos said on a conference call ahead of his first general managers' meetings, which start Monday in Chicago. "We're not going to put all our eggs in one basket ... for one year at taking a shot at success and then sacrificing four years down the road."

It's a sensible approach both different from and similar to that of the fired J.P. Ricciardi, but one unlikely to resonate with an increasingly indifferent fan base or sit well with Halladay's win-now mindset, pointing to a looming divorce.

While Anthopoulos, clearly learning from his predecessor's mistakes, wouldn't out and out say Halladay was on the block or put any time frame on when the Blue Jays might be contenders again, you didn't need a magnifying glass to read between the lines.

"There are several players I'd be very reluctant to trade. That being said, I have to be open-minded to anything that could make this club better going forward," said Anthopoulos, adding later that: "(Halladay) stressed ...[next page]