It was really just a throwaway line by Toronto Blue Jays manager John Gibbons during his daily pre-game scrum with the media here on Monday, but it might have provided a bit of insight into his own future with the team.
Gibbons was talking about the pleasant surprise that his starting pitching has been this year after being tagged as the prime area of concern at the outset of the 2014 Major League Baseball season.
During the off-season, Toronto general manager Alex Anthopoulos was dragged through the mud for failing to land another starting pitcher or two to bolster a rotation with Mark Buehrle, R.A. Dickey and Brandon Morrow as the Blue Jays looked to rebound from a disastrous 2013 campaign.
Even after the early-season loss of Morrow to a finger injury, the Blue Jays starters, for the most part, have been the least of Toronto's worries. The rotation has been solid thanks to unexpected production from the likes of Drew Hutchison, rebounding nicely from Tommy John surgery, and rookie Marcus Stroman.
Heading into Monday night's game here against the Baltimore Orioles, the Blue Jays sported four starters with at least 10 wins this season in Buehrle (12), Dickey (13), Hutchison (10) and Stroman (10). J.A. Happ has nine.
Including Stroman's effort on Monday, Toronto starters have worked six innings or more in a club record 21 straight games, the longest such streak in the major leagues.
And given that prized youngsters Aaron Sanchez and Daniel Norris are expected to audition for starter's roles heading into next season, Gibbons was asked if he felt the rotation still needed an influx of additional talent to bolster the team's hopes in 2015.
"I don't know what's going to happen next year," came the curious response from the manager. "I don't know what's going to happen with me, I don't know what Alex, what his plan is. I try to stay out of that area. But … the [starting pitchers] have been good."
Gibbons has a contract that is guaranteed through next season, so his comment about his own future with the team was odd.
Although Anthopoulos has been criticized in some circles for his re-hiring of Gibbons in the first place (he was brought back into the fold in November 2012), there is little debate that he has done a good job keeping a team riddled with injuries in the playoff hunt all season.
Toronto came to Baltimore four games back of the second wildcard playoff berth in the American League with 14 games left to play, but the Orioles (90-60) thumped the Blue Jays (77-72) 5-2 at Camdon Yards.
Although Stroman (10-7) pitched six innings, it was not one of his better outings, getting beat up for the five Oriole runs off nine hits.
With the win, the Orioles can clinch their first AL East title since 1997 with a win over the Blue Jays in Tuesday's second game of the three-game set.
Despite their differences in the standing, there are comparisons to draw this season between the Blue Jays and the Orioles. Like Toronto, the Orioles entered the season with concerns about their starting pitching. And like the Blue Jays, Baltimore has endured its fair share of serious injuries.
But Baltimore manager Buck Showalter has kept his team in first place for 78 days heading into Monday's action.
Gibbons said that he was recently shown a comparison of the two teams that relied heavily on sabermetrics to explain why Baltimore has been able to thrive while Toronto is fighting for its playoff lives.
"The pitching was really, really close, the offensive side was really close," Gibbons said. "The difference was the defence. It was interesting."
That plus the fact that Baltimore has continued to play with incredible consistency – its longest losing streak this season was four games. "We've been hoping that they'd cool off a while, but they really haven't hit a very long stretch where they weren't winning games," Gibbons said.
The game Monday took on a measure of nastiness in the sixth inning when Stroman threw a first pitch that sailed dangerously close to the head of Baltimore batter Caleb Joseph.
That drew an immediate response from Ted Barrett, the home plate umpire, who issued warnings to Stroman and both benches that similar actions would not be tolerated.
An inning earlier, Joseph angered Jose Reyes when the catcher planted his foot on the plate before he had possession of the ball as the Blue Jay was sliding safely in for Toronto's second run.