Toronto Blue Jays - The Covid-19 Years (2020-2029)

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2020

Decade

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Titles:

Top Blue Jays Players of the Twenty Twenties

2020 -WC Lost to Tampa Bay

2022 - WC Lost to Seattle

Pitchers:

2023 - WC Lost to Minnesota

Jordan Romano (8.45) - 25

Alek Manoah (7.81) - 16

Ballpark:

Hyun-Jin Ryu (4.61) - 15

SkyDome

Kevin Gausman (6.45) - 14

Jose Berrios (3.31) - 13

Team Name:

Chris Bassitt (2.5) - 12

Blue Jays

Robbie Ray (7.1) - 11

Steven Matz (2.21) - 9

Owner:

Yusei Kikuchi (0.78) - 8

Rogers Communications

Ross Stripling (3.8) - 5

Adam Cimber (2.04) - 4

General Managers:

Tim Mayza (3.69) - 3

Mark Shapiro (President), Ben Cherington (VP)

Anthony Bass (1.61) - 3

Ross Atkins (GM)

Erik Swanson (1.4) - 2

Managers:

Catchers:

Charlie Montoyo (2020-2022)

Alejandro Kirk (6.9) - 14

John Schneider (2022-2023)

Danny Jansen (6.44) - 11

Hall of Famers:

First Basemen:

None

Vladimir Guerrero (13.17) - 28

Brandon Belt (2.0) - 7

Rookie of the Year:

Rowdy Tellez (-0.15) - 3

None

Second Basemen:

MVP

Marcus Semien (7.1) - 13

None

Cavan Biggio (3.19) - 4

No Hitters:

ShortStop:

None

Bo Bichette (15.18) - 39

Santiago Espinal (4.9) - 7

Cy Young:

2021 - Robbie Ray

Third Base:

Matt Chapman (7.92) - 14

Notable Events:

Outfield:

2020 - The Blue Jays broke a three year schneid by finishing over .500 at 32-28.

Teoscar Hernandez (7.93) - 23

Toronto made the playoffs, losing in the wild card round. It was a dramatic

George Springer (8.43) - 21

turnaround from a 67-95 mark in '19. It should be noted that by runs totals

Lourdes Gurriel (5.93) - 18

alone, the Jays would have finished below .500 in '20. The pitching gave up a half

Randal Grichuk (1.06) - 12

a run more a game than the league average. The big improvement from '19

Kevin Kiermaier (3.9) - 5

was on the offense. A lot of that improvement was due to the progress being

Whit Merrifield (0.97) - 5

made by their young hitters. Toronto finished a bit better than their run totals

Daulton Varsho (3.9) - 3

would indicate due to a solid bullpen.

Notable Events:

□ Rogers Communications has owned the club sinice 2000. The Jays have

not had a stellar record during that time. '20 tipped the scale to eleven winning

2024 - Offense declined precipitously last year from 91 over the league average

seasons to ten losing seasons during their tenure. Not horrible, but not great.

in '22 to two under the league average in '23. The big culprits were the loss of OF

Also, '20 marked only the third post season appearance for the Jays in the

Teoscar Hernandez and the decline of 3B Matt Chapman. But pretty much everybody

twenty one seasons. No bueno on that score. In general, corporate owned

in the lineup also dropped back a bit. Hard to say if the young ones like 1B Vladimir

teams fare poorly. What works best is a motivated, competent individual owner

Guerrero and SS Bo Bichette will reverse the decline and continue on an upward path.

or lead owner of a consortium. Trying to win by committee don't work so good.

OF George Springer and Kevin Kiermaier are both thirty four and probably in permanent

Toronto had shallow pockets early on in the Rogers regime which hadn't helped.

decline. 2B Whit Merrifield, 3B Matt Chapman and DH Brandon Belt are gone. They are

In Rogers defense, there are a couple of hurdles that they haven't been able

replaced by 2B Cavan Biggio, 3B Isaiah Kiner-Falefa and DH Justin Turner. At best

to overcome. Free Agents don't like to come to Canada because their money

this is a wash. At the end of the day, it looks like the offense's best days are behind it.

is automatically devalued by 20%. An even bigger hurdle is that the Jays have

been plunked into a Division with big spending Boston and New York and with

2024 - The four starting pitchers that led the Jays last year are back.

the miracle working Tampa Bay Rays. It would be difficult for any ownership

Chris Bassitt, Jose Berrios, evin Gausman and Yusei Kikuchi

group to succeed with those three in the same Division.

Closer Jordan Romano and lefty reliever Tim Mayza are also back.

All that being said, Rogers Communications has opened up the purse strings

Barring injuries and unexpected declines in performance this group of pitchers

trying to win over the past decade. While not normally big players in the

should keep the Jays in the playoff hunt.

free agent market, starting from 2012 thru 2017, they were in the top third

in payroll and had brought in high priced talent like Mark Buehrle, RA Dickey,

Josh Donaldson, Edwin Encarnacion, Jose Reyes and Troy Tulowitzki.

It worked somewhat as they won the Division in '15 and made it as a

Wild Card in '16. More recently, in an effort to get back on top,

they signed Hyun Jin-Ryu for a four year 80 million deal after the '19 season

and splurged for centerfielder George Springer for 6 years 150 million after

the '20 season.

□ Mark Shapiro came over from a successful stint as GM in Cleveland to

become team president in Toronto in '15. He hired on Ross Atkins as his GM

at that time. The Jays won 93 games that season, but its been steadily

downhill from there, until '20. Shapiro was extremely successful in Cleveland

helping build an offensive powerhouse there. Preliminary indications are that

he may be doing that again in Toronto.

□ Charlie Montoyo was hired on as manager in '19. Montoyo got replaced

by John Schneider in '22. Something of a lateral move.

2021-2022 - The improvement shown in '20 was for real as the Jays won over

Offense:

ninety games in both '21 and '22 and made it to the Wild Card in '22.

□ C Alejandro Kirk, 25, '17 IFA, 8 43 .250

Since '21, the Jays have been giving up a solid 4 runs per game while the offense

□ C Danny Jansen, 29, '13 draft 16th round pick, 17 53 .228

has been scoring in the 4.5 to 5 runs per game range.

□ 1B Vladimir Guerrero Jr, 25, '15 IFA, 26 94 .264

2020 - The Jays have a nice young core on offense. They have three young

□ 2B Cavan Biggio, 29, '16 draft 5th round pick, 9 40 .235

sons of former major leaguers - the bloodlines are there - in 2B Cavan Biggio (son

□ SS Bo Bichette, 26, '16 draft 2nd round pick, 20 73 .306

of Craig); SS Bo Bichette (son of Dante); and Vladimir Guerrero (son of Vladimir).

□ SS Orelvis Martinez, 21, '19 IFA, minors 28 94 .243

Craig Biggio and Vladimir Guerrero are both Hall of Famers.

□ 3B Isaiah Kiner-Falefa, 29, '24 FA from Yankees,

There are some other quality offensive players on the squad, as well, in

□ OF George Springer, 34, '21 FA from Houston, 21 72 .255

1B Rowdy Tellez; OF Teoscar Hernandez; OF Randal Grichuk and OF

□ CF Kevin Kiermaier, 34, '23 FA from Tampa, 8 36 .265

Lourdes Gurriel. It has the makings of a circular lineup.

□ OF Daulton Varsho, 26, '23 trade from Arizona, 20 61 .220

□ DH Justin Turner, 39, '24 FA from Red Sox, 23 96 .276

2021 - The pitching improves dramatically from five runs per game in '20 to four

moving forward. Hyan Jin-Ryu was a holdover from '20. Added to him in '21

Pitchers:

were lefthanders Steven Matz and Robbie Ray. Also a couple of home grown

□ RHP Alek Manoah, 25, 1st round pick in '19, 3-9 5.87 injured

pitchers emerged, RHP Alek Manoah, 23, and closer Jordan Romano, 28.

□ RHP Kevin Gausman 32, '22 FA from Giants, 12-9 3.16

□ RHP Chris Bassitt, 34, '23 FA from Mets, 16-8 3.60

2022 - Ray and Matz are gone, but they are replaced by RHP Kevin Gausman, 31,

□ RHP Jose Berrios, 29, '21 trade deadline from Twins, 11-12 3.65

RHP Jose Berrios, 28, RHP Ross Stripling, 32, and RHP Adam Cimber, 30.

□ LHP Yusei Kikuchi, 32, '22 FA from Japan, 11-6 3.86

Stripling and Cimber came up thru the organization.

□ Closer Jordan Romano, 30, '14 draft 10th round pick, 5-2 2.90 36 saves

□ RHP Nate Pearson, 26, 1st round pick in '17, 5-2 4.85

2023 - Toronto reaches the post season for the third time this decade. Ironically, the

□ RHP Adam Cimber, 32, '21 trade deadline from Miami, 0-2 7.40 injured

only season they didn't make it (2021), was their best as their runs totals predicted a

□ RHP Hyun Jin Ryu, 36, '20 FA from Dodgers, 3-3 3.46

a 99-63 mark that year. Unfortunately for the Jays, they haven't been able to get out

□ RHP Erik Swanson, 29, '23 trade from Seattle, 4-2 2.97

of the wild card round in any of those seasons, losing to the Twiins in '23.

□ LHP Tim Mayza, 31, '13 12th round pick, 3-1 1.52

In the previous three years, the hitters carried the club. In '23, it was the pitching that

□ LHP Ricky Tiedemann, 20, '21 draft 3rd round pick, minors 0-5 3.68

got the Blue Jays into the postseason as the hitters actually scored two runs less than

□ LHP Brandon Barreira, 19, '22 1st round pick, minors 0-2 3.98

the league average.

□ RHP Yosver Zulueta, 25, '19 IFA, minors 4-4 4.08