TORONTO -- A look at five storylines to watch this season with the Toronto Blue Jays:

Starting Pitching

There are more than a few question marks here, which isn't promising considering the Jays starters went 46-57 last season with a 4.81 ERA. Knuckleballer R.A. Dickey, left-hander Mark Buehrle and Brandon Morrow lead the rotation with Drew Hutchison and Dustin McGowan completing the quintet -- at least to start with. The Jays will carry an eight-man bullpen, however, to have extra arms if needed.

 

Anthopoulos-Gibbons

General manager Alex Anthopoulos brought John Gibbons back last season to manage the Jays after John Farrell departed for Boston. Anthopoulos rolled the dice prior to last season, bringing in a list of big-name players from the Miami Marlins and New York Mets, along with other recruits. The big shakeup failed big time. The GM went the other route this off-season, with only a few moves. If Toronto continues to fail on the field, how much longer does Anthopoulos -- or the affable Gibbons -- have?

 

Attendance

About the only thing that went up last year for the Blue Jays was attendance. Despite the poor results, 2013 attendance reached 2,536,562 for an average of 31,315 at the Rogers Centre. That marked a considerable jump from 2012 when attendance totalled 2,099,663 for an average of 25,921. The Jays jumped from 23rd to 14th in total attendance among MLB teams. Will Toronto fans remain on the bandwagon if the product disappoints again this season?

 

Defence

One positive this season looks to be defence with a healthy Melky Cabrera plus Colby Rasmus and Jose Bautista in the outfield and Ryan Goins adding his fielding skills to an infield already brimming with talent in that area with Brett Lawrie and Jose Reyes. The Jays underachieved on defence last season with Cabrera not moving as well as he is capable of and Maicer Izturis and the departed Emilio Bonifacio not performing that well in the infield.

 

The Bench

With Toronto going with an eight-man bullpen, the Jays bench will be very thin. Backup catcher Josh Thole, whose main job is to handle Dickey, is a career .251 hitter whose average dropped to .175 in limited major league action last season. The other two are outfielder Moises Sierra and utility infielder Maicer Izturis. The bench is weaker without the retired Mark DeRosa and departed Rajai Davis. And Toronto pinch-hitters hit .212 last season, 16th in the majors.