Jose Bautista and R.A. Dickey are feeling positive about the Toronto Blue Jays offseason so far.

Speaking to the media for the first time since the end of another disappointing campaign, two of the club’s leaders in the lineup and on the pitching staff respectively feel that a small shakeup was necessary to improve the club.

“You’re talking about minimal changes that can have great effect and we’ve had some great moves so far that can make us better,” said Bautista.

The Blue Jays led the American League East for the early part of last season before slipping to the wild card battle and eventually out of the playoff picture altogether.

“We’re not that far away. We were very close last season at the deadline, two games out of first place,” said the 34-year-old outfielder.

It has been another busy offseason for general manager Alex Anthopoulos.

After acquiring all-star third baseman Josh Donaldson from Oakland for Brett Lawrie, he struck a deal with the Seattle Mariners to acquire outfielder, and Canadian, Michael Saunders.

“For Saunders, playing in his home country is going to help,” said Bautista. “Playing on the turf is going to help him. He’s a fast guy that can maybe leg out some more hits and get some more balls to skip through the infield.”

“I think they were necessary moves. In the sense that we’ve been [in the playoff conversation] two years now and there needed to be somewhat of a shakeup,” said Dickey.

Despite seeing Melky Cabrera leave in free agency, there is a renewed optimism around the Blue Jays.

“I’m as excited as I was in 2013,” said Dickey. “We all know what happened in ‘13, so I’m not getting my hopes up too high. There’s a lot of baseball to be played but it’s nice to look on paper and see some names there in the lineup that you know are going to be special players. It’s comforting.”

Dickey and Bautista were joined by Aaron Loup, Todd Redmond and Dalton Pompey as the team kicked off their annual Winter Tour in a gymnasium filled with eager, cheering students at Joshua Creek Public School in Oakville, Ont.

The Blue Jays still have many holes to fill, specifically in the bullpen. Toronto has been linked to many relievers on the market, including Francisco Rodriguez and the team’s closer, Casey Janssen, but nothing has come to fruition yet.