Alex Anthopoulos was offered a five-year, $10 million contract to remain with the Toronto Blue Jays.

Anthopoulos was also offered an early opt-out in his contract, likely after one year.

Anthopoulos instead decided to leave the Jays and not work under Mark Shapiro, which stunned nearly all of Major League Baseball.

"I just didn't feel like this was the right fit going forward," he said. "It was not an easy (decision). Obviously, everyone knows how I feel about the organization, the city, the country."

Alex Anthopoulos left the Toronto Blue Jays on Thursday, the same day he was named the Executive of the Year by his peers.

Anthopoulos, who spent six seasons with the Blue Jays, rejected an offer to remain in what might have been a diminished role under new team president Mark Shapiro.

"I don't know that I've had to make a harder decision in my life," Anthopoulos said. "I just didn't feel like this was a right fit for me going forward."

Anthopoulos declined to say whether Shapiro might have wanted more of a say in baseball operations than Paul Beeston, the outgoing president.

Toronto Blue Jays general manager Alex Anthopoulos has turned down a multiyear extension offer and is leaving the club, according to multiple reports.

The executive's contract was set to expire Saturday.

During his season-ending news conference Monday, Anthopoulos said he had "great discussions'' with incoming president Mark Shapiro.

Anthopoulos replaced J.P. Ricciardi as the Blue Jays' general manager in 2009.

The Toronto Blue Jays only have two proven starters under contract for the 2016 season. David Price, Marco Estrada and Mark Buehrle will all be free agents this winter.

Price will be one of the top free agents on the market. He is expected to sign a six- or seven-year deal at $25-$30 million annually.

"I know he's very open to being back here," Alex Anthopoulos said. "We'll certainly be in the game."

Royals leadoff hitter and defensive dynamo Alcides Escobar was voted MVP of the ALCS on Friday night following a 4-3 win in Game 6 that put Kansas City in its second straight World Series.

Escobar set a postseason record by getting a leadoff hit in the first four games of a series -- he scored in two of those games. And he wound up going 11-for-23 against the Blue Jays, joining Dustin Pedroia of the Red Sox as the only hitters to have at least 10 hits and five RBIs from the leadoff spot in LCS history.

David Price will be available out of the bullpen for the Toronto Blue Jays during Wednesday afternoon's Game 5.

Price is scheduled to start Game 6 if the Kansas City Royals don't wrap up the series at Rogers Centre.

"You could see David for a couple of innings, definitely," John Gibbons said. "You could see [Aaron] Sanchez for multiple innings, [Roberto] Osuna, you could even see [R.A.] Dickey if it came down to it. Not an ideal spot, but we need [Marco] Estrada to be really good, and he normally is."

With the Kansas City Royals leading 12-2 in the top of the ninth inning on Tuesday night, the Toronto Blue Jays sent Cliff Pennington to the mound.

In over 100 years of postseason play, a Major League position player had never taken the mound before.

Pennington's first pitch was a 91 fastball for a strike.

Roberto Osuna has not been able to throw his slider, his strikeout pitch, because of a broken nail embedded in the middle finger of his pitching hand.

Osuna was given an anesthetic ointment on Monday and said it will be difficult for him to throw the slider if he is asked to pitch for the Toronto Blue Jays in Game 3 of the ALCS.

"It started against Texas the first day of the series. It started to bother me but I kept pitching on it, and at the end of the series it really hurt," Osuna said. "The side of the nail got swollen and I started bleeding, and I have been having problems ever since."

John Gibbons said he's not too concerned about Osuna's situation and that the closer used his other pitches very well previously this season.

The Kansas City Royals will send Chris Young to the mound for the Game 4 of the ALCS against the Toronto Blue Jays.

Young has put together an impressive run with two strong outings to end the regular season and a dominant relief performance in the playoffs.

Ned Yost admitted that he was deciding between Young and Kris Medlen for the start.

Manager John Gibbons says Edwin Encarnacion is back in Blue Jays' lineup for Game 2 of the ALCS, determined to ''deal with the pain.''

Batting fourth as the DH, Encarnacion was removed in the eighth inning of Kansas City's win on Friday night when his left middle finger swelled up again. Gibbons said Encarnacion underwent an MRI before deciding to play on Saturday.