TORONTO — The 2009 season hasn't even begun and already there's a strong sense of 'Wait till next year' around the Toronto Blue Jays.

For once, it might actually mean something.

General manager J.P. Ricciardi, who has yet to deliver a playoff team in seven seasons with Toronto, calls this year "a means to an end." As in, expect plenty of on-the-job training for a promising group of young pitchers who'll learn some hard lessons about life in a rugged division.

"We've got some talented kids, we're very excited about that, but they're going to get tested," Ricciardi said. "It's a tough division to test young people, the American League East. We're optimistic but we're realistic, too. We know these kids are going to have some good moments and they're going to have some tough moments."

The Blue Jays won 86 games last year, thanks mostly to a major league-best 3.49 ERA. But the starting rotation that anchored that team has been decimated.

A.J. Burnett won a career-high 18 games, then opted out of the final two years of his contract to sign a five-year, $80 million contract with the division-rival New York Yankees. Fellow righties Shaun Marcum and Dustin McGowan will start the season on the disabled list after elbow and shoulder surgeries, respectively. Neither is expected back before midseason, if at all.

"We did take a big blow on the mound," Ricciardi said. "We're basically starting from scratch, outside of the first two guys."

Fortunately for Toronto, one of those returnees is Roy Halladay, who is coming off his second 20-win season, leading the AL with 246 innings and nine complete games. But behind Halladay and right-hander Jesse Litsch (13-9 with a 3.58 ERA in 2008) is a quartet long on potential but short on experience.

The Blue Jays will open the season with left-handers David Purcey, 26 and a first-round pick in 2004, and Ricky Romero, 24 and a first-round pick in 2005, joining Scott Richmond in the starting five.

Waiting in the wings at Triple-A are two more young lefties: Brad Mills, 24, and Brett Cecil, 22 and a first-round pick in 2007. Expect both to get a shot in the big leagues before the summer is out.

"We're breaking in April with what we think gives us the best chance to compete in April," Ricciardi added. "In June it might be different, in July it might be different, in August it might be different. We're just going to keep adding the arms as they get experience and tell us they're ready to pitch up here."

Another candidate for the rotation is right-hander Casey Janssen, who missed the 2008 season after shoulder surgery last March. His return has been slowed by a strained muscle this spring but he should be on the mound by May.

Toronto's bullpen is unchanged, but can expect more work this season as the young starters take their lumps. Left-handed closer B.J. Ryan returned from elbow surgery in 2007 to save 32 games last year, then struggled with an unexplained drop in velocity in spring training. In case Ryan can't go, manager Cito Gaston will use left-hander Scott Downs in the ninth inning.

If their young starters pan out, Toronto's future looks rosy. The present may be more gloomy, but interim president Paul Beeston isn't giving up hope.

"You listen to what Cito has to say and there's a genuine enthusiasm, maybe not for this year, but he's not writing off this year and neither are we," Beeston said.

Toronto won't succeed unless its pitchers get the help they'll need from the lineup, which returns largely intact after staggering through a dismal 2008. Among AL teams, the Blue Jays ranked in the bottom third of major offensive categories including batting average (.264), home runs (126), runs (714) and slugging percentage (.399).

"We've got to be better than we've been," Ricciardi said. "Obviously, we've been an underachieving offense the last two years. I think if we hit at all last year, we're a playoff team."

The patient Gaston and his batting coach, Gene Tenace, engineered a turnaround after they were hired last June, replacing John Gibbons and Gary Denbo. Rather than trying to work pitchers into deep counts, Gaston and Tenace encouraged Toronto sluggers Vernon Wells, Alex Rios and Lyle Overbay to let it rip instead and the results were positive.

Second baseman Aaron Hill is back after missing the final four months of 2008 with a concussion, while third baseman Scott Rolen will hope to avoid a repeat of the shoulder issues that plagued him last year.

Expectations are high for young outfielders Adam Lind and Travis Snider, both of whom flourished under Gaston and will share time in left and at designated hitter.

Toronto has finished above .500 in each of the past three seasons, averaging more than 85 wins, but has continued to lag behind the free-spending Yankees and the consistent Red Sox. With its own group of young stars, the Rays jumped past the Blue Jays last year and deepened the field of front-runners.

"Listen, 85 wins or 90 wins is not going to make playoffs in our division," Ricciardi said. "It's been 95 wins for the last eight years so, even if you won 93 games, you weren't making the playoffs. Our goal remains to be competitive and be a club that continues to build, to have a chance to be a playoff team and that's what we're doing."

Still, by choosing youth over trades or activity on this winter's depressed free agent market, the Blue Jays are signaling that success may be out of reach in 2009. Toronto's only newcomers are utilityman Kevin Millar and backup catcher Michael Barrett, both of whom signed minor league contracts.

"I just didn't believe that one or two new players were going to put this team where we want it to be," Beeston said. "And if we believe in our farm system, why would we want all these long-term contracts?"

That leaves the Blue Jays selling an uncertain future to fans who've waited since 1993 for another taste of the playoffs. Toronto even offered a season ticket in the upper deck for less than $1 per game.

"We have good seats, regrettably, available," Beeston said. "We're down. We're not down significantly but we're down marginally and we've got to earn the fans back. We're in a tough economy and we haven't got a history, in the last few years, of playing in October. We have to show the fans there's a reason to come out."

It'll take much more than a planned August reunion of the 1992 and 1993 World Series team to make that happen.