NATIONAL HARBOR – Major League Baseball’s annual winter meetings begin Monday morning with great expectations. After all, it’s been a slow off-season as far as player movement is concerned, but with a brand-spanking-new Collective Bargaining Agreement in place, one would think that all the MLB clubs have arrived at this newly designed enclave of shops, restaurants, hotels (and even a ferris wheel on the Potomac River) ready to wheel and deal.

Count the Toronto Blue Jays among that group, as they arrive in Maryland with a bunch of holes to fill, including a couple of corner outfield spots, some bullpen roles, a little first base help and a backup catcher.

Dexter Fowler is clearly on the Blue Jays’ wish list in the outfield. The free agent catalyst would be a big score, but if he decides to go elsewhere, one would think the prime target might be Adam Eaton, who is likely to be part of the White Sox’ winter sell-off. Some others the Blue Jays might consider on the free agent market include Michael Saunders, Gregor Blanco and heck, maybe even Ben Revere.

Former Baltimore Oriole and Tampa Bay Ray Steve Pearce has been linked to the Blue Jays ever since they claimed him on waivers back in 2014 and he refused the claim so that he could go back to Baltimore because of an injury to Chris Davis. Pearce would fit beautifully as a complement to Justin Smoak at first base, and other free agent options for that spot include Ryan Raburn, Mark Reynolds, Chris Johnson and Rickie Weeks.

There’s word that Mitch Moreland of the Rangers is becoming a Blue Jays’ target, which would indicate that they’re not completely sold on Smoak as the strong half of a first base platoon – a feeling shared by many Jays fans. And if that’s true, free agent Justin Morneau emerges as a fit, as well as Brandon Moss. Of course, there’s always the possibility that Edwin Encarnacion, finding the market far softer than he’d anticipated, comes back to the Jays incentivized to get something done. The question then would be how willing the Jays would be to take him back, knowing that counting on Encarnacion and Kendrys Morales to share time at first base and DH over the next three years is basically asking for trouble.

Behind the plate, there are some intriguing possibilities to help take some of the load off Russell Martin. With R.A. Dickey now an Atlanta Brave, there’s no need to have a backup catcher who specifically exists to catch once every five days and hopefully not much more. The Jays can bring in a different backstop who can spell Martin in a day game after a night game or who can give him a breather that might be able to nip some of those nagging injuries in the bud. There’s no question Martin wants to catch 140 or more games a season, but even if he wasn’t going to be 34 by Opening Day, that’s pretty unrealistic. The ideal backup catcher for the Jays is someone who can catch 40 or 50 games in a season.

The name that jumps out the most for me is Wilin Rosario, a right-handed hitter who played parts of five years with Colorado before heading east to South Korea this past season. Rosario, like Eric Thames, made mincemeat out of the KBO, batting .321/.367/.593 with 33 homers in 532 plate appearances for the Hanwha Eagles. Back stateside, he’s posted a career .779 OPS and has thrown out an above-average 28% of attempted basestealers.

Rosario is looking to come back to North America and see if the jump in his numbers is real. I think he’d be a great piece for the Blue Jays to take a flyer on.

Other potential candidates to back up Martin include Brayan Pena, a strong-armed, switch-hitting veteran cut loose by the Cardinals, and Hector Sanchez – another switch-hitter who hit the ground running in San Francisco before having a couple of bad years. Sanchez came back to post an .872 OPS in limited action with the Padres this past season after having an OPS over 1.000 in 200 plate appearances for San Diego’s triple-A Charlotte club.

From there, you move into the “won’t really hurt you” group that includes Bryan Holaday, Eric Fryer, Hank Conger and Kurt Suzuki.

Ryan Hanigan doesn’t hit, but he’s got a big arm behind the plate. Bobby Wilson doesn’t hit, but he’s an excellent pitch-framer. Dioner Navarro hasn’t hit for a couple of years, but Blue Jays fans seem to really like him.

Of course, the more options there are, the more likely it is that the Blue Jays will take their time to sift through them and see where the market goes. But the feeling certainly seems to be that the Blue Jays – and a lot of other teams – are here in the shadow of the Washington Monument looking to make some things happen this week.