BOSTON -- Friday, it was Billy Koch zipping through Canadian customs. Monday, it was Alex Gonzalez's turn to peel that maple leaf off his shirt.

The winter meetings still had three days to run by the time new Blue Jays general manager J.P. Ricciardi had finished dealing Gonzalez to the Cubs on Monday for left-hander Felix Heredia and a minor leaguer to be named later this month. So you never know who might be the next big name to be deported out of Toronto: Raul Mondesi? Shannon Stewart? Videotapes of Joe Carter?

"We're not done," Ricciardi said Monday, after his second trade in 72 hours. "That's why we're here. I've got reservations through Thursday. So . . ."

	“	I don't call this rebuilding, I call it having fun. ... I feel like when I was a little kid flipping bubble gum cards at my friends. What's the worst that can happen? I'm going to make mistakes. I know that. But I'm not afraid to make mistakes. If I make them, at least they're going to be aggressive, well-thought-out mistakes. ”
		— J.P. Ricciardi

So don't let that transactions column out of your sight. That's the moral of this story. The Toronto Blue Jays are going to keep these winter meetings interesting single-handedly if they have to.

Of course, back home in Toronto, they might be in danger of taking that word, "single-handedly," a little too literally. What they see north of the border is a new GM coming to town, listening to his marching orders to cut payroll and then dealing away an all-star shortstop and a 26-year-old closer for, well, what exactly?

For three minor leaguers and a relief pitcher who had a 6.17 ERA this year. That's what.

But it's never really that simple, of course. There are two sides to this story. And payroll slicing is only half of it.

The Blue Jays did lose $43 million this season, according to the prestigious accounting firm of Bud & Selig. They drew fewer fans than the Tigers. They averaged only 1,400 more fans per game than that endangered baseball species, the Twins.

That's the sad half of this story -- the sight of a once-booming franchise losing its way, its identity and its hold on its public.

"Look at what's happened to that team," said one American League executive. "That's a classic example of what a work stoppage could do to a franchise. Before the strike, they were one of the powerhouse franchises in the game. And now look at them."

Oh, they're no powerhouse anymore. That's for sure. They're struggling to figure out what they are and where they're going and who their fans are. And to stay afloat in the meantime, they're jettisoning recognizable faces to save many dollars Canadian.

But when Ricciardi was asked if he was worried that people in Toronto might perceive this as a Marlins-type fire sale -- which it's not -- he replied: "I hope not. I keep coming back to one thing -- the fact that we've got good young players here. And at some point, those good young players have to play."

These aren't the Blue Jays of Paul Molitor and John Olerud and Jack Morris anymore. And soon, they won't be the bash-and-slash Blue Jays of the late '90s, either. They're turning into J.P. Ricciardi's Blue Jays already, before your eyes.

"In Oakland, we tried to do this (in the post-McGwire mid-'90s) with no talent," said Ricciardi, the former A's assistant GM whose eye for that talent was a big reason the A's developed into such a low-budget force these last few seasons. "So we had to go out and do it basically from scratch -- in the draft, with six-year free agents, with the Rule 5 draft.

"But here, our process is accelerated because we've got so many good young players. I just came out of a meeting where teams were asking about all our young players. Well, at some point, we've got to find out what those players are all about."

So Gonzalez's place at shortstop will be taken by the mega-talented, 21-year-old Felipe Lopez, who hit 23 home runs at three levels this season. And Kelvim Escobar will step up to take Koch's place as the closer.

Sometime next summer, Orlando Hudson (.305, with 30 doubles at Double-A and Triple-A) should show up to assume second base. And Eric Hinske, obtained from Oakland in the Koch deal last week, looms as the third baseman of the future.

Pitchers Roy Halladay and Chris Carpenter are still just 24 and 26 years old, respectively. Vernon Wells' ETA is right now, no matter which other outfielder stays or goes. And there's no telling how many more upwardly mobile young players Ricciardi might deal for between now and Opening Day.

Mondesi is out there to be had, most likely by the Mets or Orioles. And the Blue Jays will even pick up some of his salary ($24 million over the next two years) -- "but I'd have to get something (good) back," Ricciardi said. "This guy's a good player."

But in the meantime, first baseman Carlos Delgado is staying. And the payroll will hang in there between $71 million and $73 million. And as Ricciardi tries to instill youth, energy and offensive discipline, his hope is that the Blue Jays of the next year or two will actually be more watchable, not less watchable, than the disappointing group they've run out there in recent years.

"I don't call this rebuilding," he said. "I call it having fun. . . . I feel like when I was a little kid flipping bubble gum cards at my friends. What's the worst that can happen? I'm going to make mistakes. I know that. But I'm not afraid to make mistakes. If I make them, at least they're going to be aggressive, well-thought-out mistakes. What I keep saying is, if I screw up, I know my wife and kids are still going to love me."

It remains to be seen whether the baseball fans of our beloved neighbor to the north will still love him. But he has spent many a night scouting this team's farm system. He has an impeccable record for talent-judging. And now that he's the guy with the real-world authority to start flipping real-life human bubble cards, if it doesn't work, it won't be because J.P. Ricciardi didn't make a thousand moves to try to make it work.

"These guys watched me sit in the office till 9 o'clock at night the last couple of weeks," Ricciardi laughed. "After all that, I said, I've gotta trade somebody."

Jayson Stark is a senior writer for ESPN.com.