Heading into the winter meetings, you could forgive Toronto Blue Jays fans if they seem weary and confused. There’s been a lot to process lately.
Trying to sum up the feeling of being a Jays fan over the past two months, the word that kept coming to mind was a French one: “bouleversant.”
It feels like bolting quickly upwards towards some of the most spectacular heights in the franchise’s history, then being jostled and toppled about as we crested over the other side of the hill and rambled through the rockiest first month of an off-season in recent memory.
With that much commotion, it’s hard not find yourself grasping for your bearings and feeling rattled and bruised, a little elated, and a little sad that the ride is over.
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The translation of the aforementioned French word is “upsetting.” The immediate connotation of this word might make it feel too overwrought to be apt, but if you consider the full scope of its meaning, it seems apropos.
It’s not to say that people should have been made angry by the many changes in recent weeks and months, though there’s been plenty of that in your social media feeds. But more to the point, there’s a sense that our expectations have been continuously turned on their head, such that a fan might have a hard time even knowing what to hope for in the coming weeks.
It’s certainly not a continuation of the Summer of ’15, that much seems clear. Maybe that should have been apparent from the outset, as the acquisitions that transformed the roster in midstream last season was an extraordinary series of events. It’s hard to imagine any rational franchise remaining that aggressive in roster reconstruction for more than a moment.
Still, it’s hard to wind down the party. The trades that brought Troy Tulowitzki and David Price and others to Toronto opened the doors in the fans’ collective imaginations, and once they gazed into those trippy vistas, it’s hard to gaze upon the cold grey light of dawn and not feel a bit bummed out.
Every party has its hangover, and it’s probably time for us to start nursing ours.
Aggravating the headache is the frustration and confusion over what the new reality is for the franchise. So much of the beloved 2015 squad will return, but with the fundamental changes in leadership, it’s hard to even guess where one should direct their aspirations for here on.
This isn’t to say that the combination of Paul Beeston and Alex Anthopoulos were especially forthright with the fan base, but in the circles of bafflegab and verbose non-answers, it was possible to parse through the baloney and find some comfort in your interpretations thereof. Or maybe it was just that they managed expectations just well enough, knowing when to blow smoke and when to clear the air.
As the Blue Jays head to the Nashville confab with the new team of Mark Shapiro and Ross Atkins now in place, the lack of a clear sense of their thought process makes it difficult to anticipate what comes next. Certainly, there have already been indications about their preferred path, and if you can rationalize the choice of J.A. Happ over David Price – which wasn’t the true equation, but let’s toss it out there for the sake of poetry – you might begin to understand where we’re headed.
For that matter, the Happ deal, the re-signing of Marco Estrada and the acquisition of Jesse Chavez likely answer a significant number of the roster questions we had coming into the off-season. Aside from a backup catcher and some bullpen depth, most of the opening day roster should seem evident to us by now.
Or should it? For all we know about the perspective of the new leadership on the current construction of the roster, they could turn it over quickly in the coming days.
Beyond that, though, there remain many pertinent questions for the fans that stretch beyond the 2016 season, including the fates of Jose Bautista and Edwin Encarnacion, and the potential for a long-term deal for Josh Donaldson. Are they the franchise cornerstones for just one more season? How many of them can we expect to see in the long term? And if not them, then who?
And in an off-season that seems poised to push the inflation rate on player salaries significantly upwards, will the Blue Jays stagnate or retrench? Will a leadership team brought up on sparse resources by a parsimonious franchise have the wherewithal to push ownership to keep pace with not only their rivals, but the league in general?
Are the good times all gone? Or does the new management team have enough of an ability to pleasantly surprise us, and inspire enthusiasm?
Are we back to selling hope? After a summer in which the fans and the city bought results in mass quantities?
For a team that was on the cusp of a championship just a few short weeks ago, the number of questions and the fogginess between us and the answers is maddening.
