The Arizona Fall League helped quell the craving for a little while, but now the search has to expand to new borders. Baseball's being played in an array of Carribean Winter Leagues, and there are several busy players with ties to the Blue Jays.

The most prominent pair will battle for a spot behind the plate next season. Kevin Cash and Guillermo Quiroz are both playing Winter Ball, with varying degrees of success. The pair was once labeled as Toronto's catching tandem of the future, but only half of that prediction remains intact.

Quiroz is still a highly regarded prospect, even if he's not 100 percent ready for the big leagues. A broken hand robbed him of development last season, and Winter League is a way for him to make up for lost time. He's playing for Zulia -- his hometown team -- in the Venezuelan League, batting .250 with four homers and 15 RBIs.

The best-case scenario for Quiroz is to make the parent club straight out of Spring Training. He's more likely to get a month or two of seasoning at Triple-A Syracuse, but Toronto's catching situation is completely unsettled at this point.

Don't count on Cash as the answer: He's coming off a tough offensive season and is hitting just .120 for Azucareros in the Dominican Republic. His defense isn't a question, but the Jays want to see him hit before they guarantee him a roster spot.

Cash is a longshot for a backup role next season, but right now, he's no worse than third on the depth chart. Besides this pair, the Jays only have Greg Myers under contract -- and injuries held him to just nine games last season.

Those are the only cases with clear credentials for the big leagues. At the moment, only one other winter warrior has played for the Blue Jays in the Majors. That's Aquilino Lopez, who is 2-2 with a 3.89 ERA for Gigantes in the Dominican League. Lopez has 28 strikeouts and just eight walks, a great sign for a pitcher who wavered in command last season.

Mike Nannini, who recently signed with the Jays, is also pitching well in the Dominican. He's throwing for Aguilas, posting a 2-0 record with a 3.86 ERA. The former first-round pick has allowed 30 hits in 28 innings of work.

Another recent signee, Matt Whiteside, is pitching in the Mexican League. The 37-year-old veteran is Mazatlan's closer, and he has a 1-3 record with six saves and a 5.19 ERA. He has 26 strikeouts against just five walks in 19 1/3 innings.

All three of those players will compete for a Major League relief job, but chances are they'll slot in as insurance at Syracuse. Ditto for a pair of players with utilityman credentials: Jorge Sequea and Julius Matos, who were teammates at Syracuse last year and will probably repeat that status.

Sequea is playing for Oriente of the Venezuelan League, batting .216 with 11 runs scored. So far, he's struck out 17 times in 51 at-bats -- which projects to 200 K's in a 600 at-bat season. Matos, meanwhile, is batting .294 for Mayaguez in the Puerto Rican League. Seven of his 15 hits have gone for doubles, and he's scored seven runs.

Finally, the Jays have four players who should see Double-A New Hampshire next season. Two of those (Rob Cosby and Miguel Negron) are in Puerto Rico and two (Rodney Medina and Ismael Ramirez) are in Venezuela.

Negon and Crosby both play for Caguas, which might also feature Alex Rios at some point. Cosby's batting .348 with seven extra-base hits and eight RBIs, making up for an injury-marred season.

Negron, a former first-round pick, is batting .277 with five extra-base hits in his homeland. He may just be growing into his substantial tools -- Baseball America rated him as one of the most physically talented players in Toronto's farm system.

Ramirez is one of the team's most interesting prospects, thanks to a 15-6 record with a 2.72 ERA for the Dunedin Blue Jays. This winter, Ramirez is Sequea's teammate at Oriente. Ramirez is pitching extremely well in late relief right now: He's 4-0 with one save and a 1.59 ERA, allowing just 21 hits in 28 1/3 innings of work.

Rodney Medina is playing for the Lara Cardinals, the best-known team in Venezuela. He's batting .320 with 13 runs and eight RBIs so far. He played relatively well for Dunedin last season, but his future in Toronto's prospect-laden system is uncertain.

This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.