The Toronto Blue Jays capped off their 2021 regular season campaign with an emphatic trouncing at the hands of the Baltimore Orioles. The 12-4 drubbing completed the three-game sweep of the lowly Orioles that the Jays desperately needed to have hopes of postseason play. The team had done their job over the weekend but still needed help from their division rivals to have a chance to play past game 162. The Blue Jays players and fans alike watched anxiously after their respective game was complete in hopes that either the Red Sox or the Yankees would lose their last game to give this young team a shot at a 163rd game. Their dreams were crushed as both Boston and New York would take the lead in the final inning of their respective games and not look back, leaving Toronto on the outside looking in as the regular season came to a close.
Despite winning 91 games on the season, the Toronto Blue Jays will have to watch as their division rivals, the Red Sox and the Yankees, who they were chasing will face off in the American League Wild Card game on Tuesday night. The winner of that game will take on another division foe in the Tampa Bay Rays, proving just how strong the American League East division is. It is the first time in Major League Baseball history that one division has produced four teams with 90+ wins in any given season, while Toronto also becomes the best team to miss the playoffs in two decades based on their record. As Boston and New York gutted out their last inning wins in game 162 to stamp their ticket to postseason play, there must have also been a large sigh of relief knowing they wouldn’t have to face the Blue Jays in a winner-take-all scenario. Toronto’s offence was crushing the ball down the stretch, the pitching was dealing, and the defense was playing well.
After coming up one game shy of the Wild Card game, many are left thinking the 2021 Toronto Blue Jays deserved a better fate. On top of having to face the likes of the Rays, Red Sox, and the Yankees 19 times each during the course of the season, no other team had to deal with the struggles logistically the Jays did due to the on-going COVID-19 cross-border issues. The Blue Jays opened the season at their spring-training home of TD Ballpark, an 8,500-seat field, before moving in June to Sahlen Field in Buffalo, N.Y., the home of their Triple A affiliate Bisons, playing another 23 games there. In was not until July 30 that they played their first true “home” game at the Rogers Centre since September 2019. The team subsequently won 25 of their remaining 36 games on their home turf leaving many to wonder what could’ve been without all the turmoil. “I’m so proud of this team overcoming all the obstacles that were placed in our way to win 91 games,” Blue Jays manager Charlie Montoyo said.
Marcus Semien summed it up well when asked about the team’s return to Toronto and the barriers the team had to overcome. “We started to build a culture here, we became, in my opinion, the best team in baseball but it was just a tick too late”. The pending free agent was asked about his future with the ball club north of the border and there certainly was some optimism in his answer, “We had the best offence in the major leagues, and in my mind, the best starting pitching in the game. Who doesn’t want to be a part of that? There are little pieces to add to get to the next level. I’m one of them and I think our bullpen is another one. We also have young, young guys getting better. We’ll see what happens, but I had a great time here.”
After signing a one-year, $18-million dollar deal this past offseason, the 31-year-old Semien put together an outstanding season that is going to get him some MVP votes behind the likes of fellow teammate Vlad Guerrero Jr and Angels Shohei Ohtani. Even though he was in Guerrero’s shadow all year long, Semien had a huge role in the team’s offence, setting an MLB record for home runs by a second baseman with 45 and finished with 102 runs batted in. That number, along with Guerrero’s league leading 48 big fly’s helped Toronto to finish with 262 home runs as a team, the highest total in the majors this season and most in Blue Jays history.
The offence played a huge role in Toronto finishing with the third-best run differential in the American League with 183 more runs scored than surrendered. With that being said, you still need solid pitching throughout the season to finish with a nicely lopsided number like that and that started with Cy Young hopeful Robbie Ray. Another superb discount signing that paid off for the Blue Jays, Ray had a career year and should win the AL Cy Young award come November. Both Ray and Semien will be free agents this offseason and their price tags will undoubtedly skyrocket after the seasons they both turned in but it’s safe to say that the two stars, along with George Springer, showed why they were worthy investments. The Jays have Springer for five more years and are hoping he will be healthier moving forward as the 2021 campaign saw him only play 79 games for the club.
This upcoming off-season will be very important for the franchise as they look to build upon an impressive year. The young core is still intact and getting better each year, but the re-build is in the past and this team is showing they are made to win and win now! The front office is going to have to put in a conscious effort to make the necessary adjustments to get this team to that next level.
The first step would be to look at re-signing Ray and Semien to keep this group together, but ownership will have to be willing to dig a little deeper into their pockets for that to happen as Robbie Ray in particular will most likely be looking for $20-30 million-a-year, a far stretch from the measly $8 million he took home this year. Ideally, the Jays would love to have them both back but if they can only afford one of them, they should undoubtedly sign Semien. He is a perfect fit on this roster as he hits for average, power, is a good baserunner and Gold Glove defender. The Jays may also look for an everyday third baseman this off-season as Santiago Espinal and Cavan Biggio, as much as I like the pair, are looking more like perfect utilitymen who could sub in whenever needed but don’t get me wrong, those are key pieces to any championship squad.
There is no doubt this team can mash the baseball at the plate and put up enormous run totals but the main concern the Jays have right now is pitching, more specifically their bullpen. If they end up losing Ray to free agency, they will have to look for one or two starters to help solidify the starting staff. That said, the back-end is where the Jays struggled this year, finishing with a 4.08 ERA which was worse than any of the other playoff teams. Injuries certainly played a major role in the late inning collapses but the team showed they didn’t have the depth to overcome the injury bug. I like the look of Jordan Romano but I’d like to see the Jays sign some veteran relievers to help stabilize this bullpen. Mark Melancon, who had the most saves in the MLB in 2021, is one name I’d like to see the Jays target in free agency this year as a proven shut-down closer.
Although the season didn’t end the way the Jays and fans alike would have enjoyed, there are a lot of positives to take from this 2021 campaign and they’ll undoubtedly come back hungrier than ever in 2022. “It hurts,” Guerrero said through a translator. “Knowing that you won 91 games and you didn’t make the playoffs, it really hurts me, it hurts all my teammates. That’s just going to make me stronger to come back next year even better than this year.” A “better” Vlad Guerrero Jr. is a scary thought after the season he just put together, but it just further shows the motivation this young team has moving forward.
The other 31 teams certainly got a glimpse of what this team is capable of and I for one would not want to face this team in a 7-game series. The team gained invaluable experience over the last month of the season and these young studs finally got to play again in front of the home fans in Toronto. The atmosphere at the Rogers Centre was electric and I can only imagine what it will be like when there are no limitations on attendance. The rest of the league got a reprieve this year but don’t expect that to continue in 2022 and beyond.