Another season has come and gone, and once again the Jays are left out of the postseason. After the Kansas City Royals clinched a berth into the wild card game, the Jays now have the longest active postseason drought. After the abysmal failure of the 2013 season, expectations were low for this club as it remained mostly unchanged this season. This season was full of ups and downs, let's take a look at the positives and negatives from this season.
The Good: The Young Guns
Throughout this season, the Blue Jays took advantage of the closeness of their Triple-A affiliate in Buffalo by calling up some young guys to fill holes in the lineup that were there due to injury (more on the injuries later).After Brandon Morrow was placed on the 60-Day DL, Stroman was called up. Stroman showed he could be a legitimate big league starter, he pitched two 9-inning games, one of which was a complete game shutout. Stroman was also used by Manager John Gibbons as a pinch-runner on multiple occasions.Not to mention, he was pretty damn good defensively too. I fully expect him to be part of the Jays starting rotation next season.
Mississauga, Ontario native Dalton Pompey also made his big league debut this season. After being a bench player for a few games, Pompey finally started games in the outfield, where he made some highlight reel catches. He also got his 1st career home run in a 10-2 drubbing of the Mariners. Pompey is a solid prospect, he'll either be with triple-A Buffalo next year or he could be taking Colby Rasmus' place, Rasmus probably won't be back next year.
The Blue Jays had a multitude of injuries this year, like last year. Jose Reyes, Jose Bautista, Brett Lawrie, Melky Cabrera, Adam Lind, Edwin Encarnacion are all just a few of the players who missed time this season. Some can chalk it up to rotten luck, but I think some of it might have to do with the fact the Blue Jays are one of 2 teams that play on turf (the other being the Tampa Bay Rays). The turf is essentially running on carpet placed on concrete, it really can't be good for your legs. However, there are plans to add grass to the stadium by 2017 (look at the picture in the article, you can see turf is literally carpet on concrete). Injuries happen, that's just the way it is in sports, but it just seems to happen to the Jays more than any other team.
Daniel Norris is another pitching prospect I'm excited about. On September 5th, Norris made his MLB debut. His first batter? David Ortiz. It didn't seem to phase him though. He made his 1st career start on September 25th, going 3.1 innings with 2 earned runs. In total he's only pitched 6.2 innings with the Jays, but I have liked what I've seen so far.
The Bad: Injuries
The Good: Melky Cabrera
Cabrera's first season in Toronto was a disaster. He had back problems that kept him out of the lineup (he only played in 88 games), and was batting a .279 with only 3 home runs. Well it turned out that Cabrera's back problems were the result of a benign tumour on his spine. He underwent surgery to have it removed. The result was a turnaround season for the "Melk Man." He batted a .301 with 16 HR and 73 RBIs, his 2nd best offensive career in both those categories. Melky showed that he is a capable player, even without steroids. Cabrera went from being hated by the fans to the fans demanding AA re-sign him (he is a free agent this offseason). Cabrera was an important part of this team's core this season, hopefully AA can re-sign him.
The Bad: No Moves at the Deadline
July 31st came and went, and the Blue Jays were the same team. No moves were made by Anthopoulos at the non-waiver trade deadline. Fans, and even Jose Bautista were not happy with the team's inactivity. Anthopoulos countered by saying teams were asking for too much. Whatever the reason, it was clear that something needed to be done because there were still some holes in this lineup. Other teams got deals done, how come the Blue Jays couldn't?
The Good: Dioner Navarro
One hole that was filled during the offseason was the role of catcher. After the Jays let J.P. Arencibia go, the Jays signed Navarro to take his place. Fans were excited when Arencibia made his debut, especially since his first career game was nothing short of absolutely amazing. However, after batting .194 and striking out 148 times, it was time for the Blue Jays to move on. Navarro on the other hand batted .274 this past season. Not an amazing batting average, but the timing of his hits is what impressed me the most, he had 69 RBIs this season. He also managed to steal 3 bases this season! Navarro has been a solid catcher for this club and has been a huge upgrade from Arencibia. He was one of my favourite players this season, and I hope to see him stay in Toronto for another few years.
The Bad: Team Was Streaky
The Blue Jays were an extremely streaky team this season. After a sub-.500 April (12-14), the Jays went 21-9 in May and found themselves 1st in the AL East. They remained in 1st until July 3rd, a total of 48 days (or 61 if you count off-days). Things looked really promising for the Blue Jays. In June and July combined they went 27-26, not great, but it kept them in a race for the wild card spot. But then August happened, the Jays went 9-17. In September they still had a chance, but the bad August made it tough for them: they had to jump too many teams and had to depend on a lot of teams to lose. In the end, it just wasn't meant to be, and the Jays finished 5 games shy of the final wild card spot.
I've seen a lot of people write this season off as a failure after not qualifying for the postseason. However at the end of the day, this team had the same core as 2013 and yet played meaningful baseball in September. The ride was fun, the Jays are obviously not there yet, but they're heading in the right direction, it's only a matter of time.
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