It is tough to fathom but the truth is that the Toronto Blue Jays haven’t been to the playoffs since 1993. Joe Carter’s towering series ending walk-off home run off Mitch Williams was the last hit by a Blue Jay in the postseason. After those back to back titles in 1992 and 1993, the closest Canada’s only remaining team has come to October glory was finishing ten games out of the division and eight games behind the Wild Card in 2006. They’ve gone through eight different managers in 22 years, including recycling their current manager, John Gibbons, and World Series winner Cito Gaston. Heck, both of those two split the 2008 season when they won 86 games and finished FOURTH in the AL East. Nevertheless, the 2015 of the Toronto Blue Jays looks poised to put the woes of the past two decades plus behind them. After a few failed attempts to construct a contender overnight, it seems the Jays are finally ready to end their postseason drought.
It makes one feel just a bit older to see that Joe Carter’s series clinching round tripper happened 22 years ago. It also shines a light on how good the AL East has been since that time. It wasn’t as if the Blue Jays were mired in a Pittsburgh Pirates-esque slump in which they were under .500 for their entire time away from the postseason. The Blue Jays were victims of circumstance many a time as they fruitlessly had to attempt to leap frog some of the more dominant teams of our generation in order to prolong their season. First it was the late 90’s Yankees that won four titles in five seasons. The Red Sox and Orioles would take turns with the Wild Card from 1996 to 1999.
As the millennium turned, the Yankees still dominated but the Red Sox edged towards the forefront in the middle of the decade. In either scenario there was no room for the Blue Jays as they watched their divisional brethren accumulate three more rings (2 for Boston in ’04 & ’07, 1 for New York in ’09). The emergence of Tampa Bay in 2008 saw Toronto get pushed further down the pecking order. The institution of the second Wild Card team in 2012 hasn’t provided an avenue to October…yet. The 2015 Blue Jays have pushed all their chips into the pot and are in full “Postseason or Bust” mode.
This isn’t the first time in recent memory though that Toronto has taken drastic measures to become overnight world beaters. In the winter of 2012, Toronto made offseason waves with the signing of reigning NL Cy Young winner in the Mets’ R.A. Dickey and outfielder Melky Cabrera who was fresh off an All-Star Game MVP and World Series victory with the Giants. They also pulled off a titanic trade with the Marlins in bringing pitchers Josh Johnson and Mark Buehrle as well as infielders Jose Reyes and Emilio Bonifacio into the fold. Titanic is a fitting adjective to describe that trade as all these moves couldn’t keep the Blue Jays from sinking to last place in the division in 2013 under the re-hired John Gibbons. Bonifacio was gone at the trading deadline to Kansas City. Johnson hasn’t pitched since his 2-8, 6.20 ERA effort that forgetful summer.
The second year in Gibbons’ second reign saw a drastic uptick from his club. They started to garner a reputation for being able to slug their way out of a bad pitching performance as illustrated by their 723 runs scored to 686 runs allowed figures (+37). Their pitching still left a lot to be desired and were still without a solid leader in the lineup as both Edwin Encarnacion (2014) and Jose Bautista (2013) missed long stretches of time with freak injuries. GM Alex Anthopoulos knew he would have to take the same drastic measures of two winters prior, but needed to be careful to learn from his mistakes.
The signing of Russell Martin from Pittsburgh solidified the bottom of the batting order whilst giving the pitching staff somebody who is renown for calling a good game and framing pitches masterfully. The starting staff, even without breakout right hander Marcus Stroman, has responded in kind and Martin has been an All-Star with 15 home runs and 50 RBI to give the lineup much needed length. The bigger move was the seemingly out of nowhere trade for Oakland’s Josh Donaldson. Toronto gave up a pu-pu platter of players to acquire the dynamic third baseman, whose impending pay raise (he is only making $4.3M this season) most definitely scared off the cash conscious A’s. Donaldson has been a revelation by vastly improving the infield defense and absolutely raking at the plate every day. He leads the AL in runs scored (82) and produced (83) and his 494 plate appearances is also tops on the circuit. His 31 home runs also leads the club and his power presence has softened the load on Bautista and Encarnacion, allowing them to have more scheduled days off to keep them in tip top shape. Even with these two studs in tow, Toronto knew from the past they still had to do more to get out of the AL East alive. They did just that and then some at the trade deadline.
The Blue Jays made the two biggest splashes at the end of July in their quest for the playoffs. They started off on the 28th with the trade for Colorado’s Troy Tulowitzki. Tulo had been a Colorado mainstay though the team had tried to trade him fervidly for the past two seasons. Nobody was willing to take on his monster salary though until the Blue Jays came calling. It cost them Jose Reyes and one-time closer Miguel Castro, but the procurement of Tulowitzki showed that Toronto brass wasn’t going to settle for bridesmaid status in 2015. Tulowitzki makes an already power-laden lineup that much more potent and with Donaldson makes the left side of the infield a black hole for ground balls. They also got the ageless LaTroy Hawkins in the deal, who has helped settle the gaggle of young arms in the bullpen as well as pitch well in the late innings himself.
The other deal came two days later in the form of Tigers’ southpaw David Price. Though the cost of Price was a bit steeper than any of their previous additions (top pitching prospects Daniel Norris and Matt Boyd), he provides the team something they would desperately need to survive in October: a bonafide ace. Through two starts, Price is 2-0 allowing just 1 run in 15 innings while striking out 18. That latest win came against the team Toronto is chasing for the division, the Yankees.
Like Hansel was in Mugatu’s eyes in Zoolander, Toronto is so hot right now. They’ve won 12 of their last 13 with that one loss coming to the AL leading Royals in 11 innings. They are firing on all cylinders and all the parts are moving as one, something that was far from the case the last time they tried to quickly assemble a contender. They lead the Wild Card standings as of press time, but they are inching closer day by day to avoiding that glorified play-in game altogether. The Jays are just half a game back of the Yankees and still have 10 games left with the Bronx Bombers, 6 of those at the friendly confines of the Rogers Centre.
Nobody wants to play the Blue Jays right now and even fewer of the American League’s elite will be happy to see them on their docket come October. One thing’s for sure though, the Blue Jays will be on somebody’s playoff dance card for the first time since Joe touched ’em all in 1993.