AL East now playing catch-up with Blue Jays

• The Blue Jays remain the offseason darlings of the AL East
• Blue Jays manager: "It's still the toughest division in baseball"
• The Red Sox locked up a power bat in Mike Napoli

NASHVILLE -- The Boston Red Sox and Tampa Bay Rays made moves Monday to upgrade their rosters, and the New York Yankees revealed why they have to be next. But the Toronto Blue Jays remain the offseason darlings of the American League East.

"It's still the toughest division in baseball," says John Gibbons, back for a second stint as Toronto manager but helming a roster boosted by Jose Reyes, Josh Johnson, Mark Buehrle, Emilio Bonifacio and John Buck in a trade with the Miami Marlins and the signing of Melky Cabrera. "I sit back, look at the team and dream. I don't know if it's our time, but we think we're very competitive. There's no substitute for talent, and we think we've got a lot of talent."

What the rest of the division is doing, meanwhile, is trying to stay ahead of Toronto — or, in the case of last-place Boston, trying to catch up.

The Red Sox locked up a power bat in Mike Napoli, who agreed to a three-year, $39 million deal. Though he has spent most of his career as a catcher, Napoli figures to be the regular first baseman for a team that added another right-handed power bat in outfielder Jonny Gomes.

Napoli has reached 20 homers in five consecutive seasons, but the Texas Rangers didn't attempt to bring him back after his batting average dropped to .227 this year from .320.

"Gomes and Napoli together are going to bring a lot of positives to the Red Sox clubhouse," says Tampa Bay's Joe Maddon, who has worked with both as Rays manager and previously as a coach with the Angels.

But Maddon has issues of his own — the annual Rays exercise of piecing together an offense. Their move Monday was typical, a one-year, $2 million flyer on first baseman James Loney, who Boston cast off after acquiring him in its August blockbuster deal with the Los Angeles Dodgers.

Loney once was seen as a cornerstone of the Dodgers' future with Matt Kemp and Andre Ethier, and he hit .288 from his 2006 debut through 2011, but without the power desired from a first baseman.

"He's right at (age) 28, that sweet spot where we like to get guys who have maybe underachieved a bit," Maddon said. "I like the challenge of what we do and how we do it.

"We're going to be good again, trust me — really good."

That's because the Rays consistently pitch well and, while Maddon accepts the free agency loss of outfielder B.J. Upton to the Atlanta Braves, he'd like to see his club avoid trading pitching depth to upgrade the offense. "In order to win 90-plus games on an annual basis," he said, "we have to pitch like that."

Toronto has 20 games to make up in the standings just to reach a playoff spot. But Gibbons, fired by Toronto in 2008 after posting a 305-305 record in four-plus seasons, is back with what he sees as the strongest team he has had to date — he says he already is thinking of a batting order that begins with Reyes, Cabrera, two-time home run champ Jose Bautista and 42-homer man Edwin Encarnacion.

It's still the AL East, though, even if the Yankees will be without Alex Rodriguez because of impending hip surgery. And Dan Duquette, general manager of the upstart Baltimore Orioles, candidly has stated he's looking to add a power bat.

"Boston had a down year, but you know that's not going to last," Gibbons said. "There's too much pressure on them not to go out and improve."

Short hops: David Wright and Joe Mauer were announced as the first two members of the USA's entry to the 2013 World Baseball Classic. ... Joe Torre, who will manage the USA in the WBC and is an MLB executive vice president, said he's optimistic a rule change could be in place to change how rosters are handled in September. Rosters expand from 25 to 40 on Sept.1, but some have suggested making teams declare an active roster for each game with a limit of 25 to 30 players.