How About Them Blue Jays

If you follow the Blue Jays like me, you probably have been trying to figure out what the heck has been happening with this team’s remarkable turnaround. It was only a short while ago that fans were lamenting another lost season that was looking a lot like last year. Good starting pitching and defense were being let down by an anemic offense. I normally like to write a column summarizing the season at the half way point. This year I had to wait to understand how the Jays had become the best team in all of baseball. To have a good season some things have to go your way, but to have a season like this - almost everything has to come up roses.

So what happened?

For starters, the injuries to the major offseason acquisitions of Santander and Gimenez who were struggling mightily at the time, forced the Blue Jays manager’s hand to start playing Ernie Clement and Addison Barger on a regular basis. Those two have been a major upgrade. They both strike out a lot less and both can play well at a number of positions which gave Schneider plenty of line up flexibility. This combined with Varsho being hurt to start the season gave another depth player in Nathan Lukes, more at bats and time to get ready to be called into more regular service when Varsho would get hurt again later in the season. Lukes and Shaw have proven that as a platoon they can play good defense and offer some offensive upside. This gave Schneider the luxury to put Springer at DH. At George’s age, getting off the field and concentrating his energy at the plate and running the bases has rejuvenated the former All-Star. It also has kept a fragile Springer healthy and able to be a regular contributor.

Another key development to the turn around was the signing of Vladdy to a mega long term deal. While Vlad really hasn’t lived up to the power expectations of his contract, he still has been getting on base and making plenty of contact. The other thing that changed coincidently after signing his contract, was his effort in running the bases. It’s no secret that a manager has a much easier job getting buy-in from everyone to play hard and run things out when the $500 million dollar player does it.

On the mound the Jays found gold in Eric Lauer, who has been one of their better starting pitchers - and that is saying something for a rotation that has been pretty steady this season. Lauer has replaced Bowden Francis who was dragging the team down with uncompetitive short starts that were burning out the bullpen. This coupled with Scherzer’s miraculous recovery has made for a very solid and reliable rotation. Scherzer’s thumb seemed to know when meaningful baseball and a brighter spotlight is possible. This mercenary and future hall of famer is a big gamer and should be good to go down the stretch for a playoff bound team.

So all these random occurrences have created a very interesting mix of players who are getting an opportunity to shine. But there is also something different about this team, that may in fact change baseball for the better. This collection of Blue Jays rarely strike out. They foul off a ton of pitches and put more balls in play than anyone else. Their willingness to bunt and run the bases hard are putting a lot of pressure on pitchers and defenses.

This has flipped the analytics script that many teams have been following. Home runs are the more efficient way to score, so teams were chasing them with elevated swing paths and big cuts even with two strikes. It is no wonder that record strikeout rates followed with a boring brand of baseball. Now the Blue Jays have come along and you get a team that puts the ball in play up and down the line up. This style of play is winning a lot because teams stopped valuing defence as less teams did what the Jays are doing - hit inside the park. By reversing course so quickly they are catching the league flat footed. How far this will go in October will depend if they can keep this bat on ball production going once the pitching gets much better. But it is going to make for one heck of a fun regular season and it will show the rest of the league a different pathway to the post season.

I would love to give the often criticized Shatkins management team credit for this being all by design. But as I stated at the start, too many things had to go their way for the players to get their chance and perform the way they are. So I don’t see a movie starring Brad Pitt being made about this team. But Shatkins should be given credit for at least recognizing, acquiring and developing the talent.

They also probably understood what was happening this season long before you or I did.

By Gregory Cawsey - if AI could have written this it certainly would have saved me a lot of time watching baseball this season.