TORONTO – One of the key pieces of the Toronto Blue Jays’ amazing final two months of the season, taking them from a fourth-place team with a losing record in the last week of July to American League East champions, has been their now-incredible defence up the middle.
In catcher Russell Martin, second baseman Ryan Goins, shortstop Troy Tulowitzki and centre fielder Kevin Pillar, the Jays may very well have the best foursome in all of baseball.
Martin might have the best view of anyone, staring out at the other three on a regular basis, and he likes what he sees.
“We have one of the best shortstops in the game, whether it’s Tulowitzki or Goins,” says the Blue Jays’ backstop. “And then you put Goins at second base and it feels like he’s one of the best defenders in the game [over there]. Kevin Pillar is Superman out there in centre field and I feel like I can hold my own behind the plate too, so as far as up-the-middle defence I think we’re pretty tough to beat. I don’t think it gets much better than what we have.”
According to Goins, that’s a huge piece of the puzzle.
“That’s where the ball’s hit most of the time,” explains the man who played 66 games at shortstop and 58 at second this season. “You have to have the guys who are going to go out there and make plays and catch the ball and I think that‘s what we’ve been doing.
“We all take pride in our [defence] and it’s something we all work hard on. I would like to say we are the best in the league, and it’s time for us to go out and prove that.”
They may have already proven that, though the post-season should give them the opportunity to show the rest of the baseball world.
Defensive metrics are still very much a work in progress and quite flawed, but they exist, and Defensive Runs Saved is one that’s easy to tally up.
The Blue Jays’ trio of Goins (12), Tulowitzki (six with Toronto) and Pillar (14) recorded 32 DRS this season, the second-highest total in the American League and one of only two above 20.
The Tampa Bay Rays are at the top of the list, with Logan Forsythe, Asdrubal Cabrera and Kevin Kiermaier combining for 43 DRS, though that total is skewed mightily by Kiermaier’s extraordinary total of 42.
As for Martin, he led the league in caught-stealing percentage, throwing out 43.7 per cent of runners who tried to nab a bag off of him. His 31 caught-stealings led the league as well.
That was the number that blew away Blue Jays general manager Alex Anthopoulos.
“We knew [Martin] was a good defender, we knew he had a good arm, but there have been so many times this year where … I’m like, ‘That guy got way too good a jump, we don’t have a shot.’ Boom, he’s out.”
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By FanGraphs’ Defensive Runs Above Average, in which catchers’ ratings can be more easily compared to players in other positions, the Blue Jays’ trio also ranks second in the league, this time behind the Kansas City Royals.
Martin (12.5), Goins (6.7), Tulowitzki (10.8 as a Blue Jay) and Pillar (16.1) tallied 46.1 DRAA, behind only the Royals’ quartet of Salvador Perez (12.2), Omar Infante (6.5), Alcides Escobar (13.9) and Lorenzo Cain (16.3), who had 48.9.
The Rays, with 43.9 DRAA – driven mostly by Kiermaier’s 32, were the only other team to have four middle-of-the-diamond players record more than 30.
That Pillar was the Blue Jays’ top glove-man may well have been a surprise to many, but not to Anthopoulos.
“He’s always been a very good defensive player,” he said. “There was a catch he made last year in Pawtucket [with the Buffalo Bisons] ranging to left-centre. He was on a full sprint, basically climbed the wall and robbed a home run. That doesn’t get played enough.”
Cliff Pennington, an eight-year veteran who has played all over the infield in both leagues and even made some starts in left field, calls all four of them “elite-level, gold glove-calibre” defenders and says that their extraordinary defence does more than just turn balls in play into outs.
“For your pitching staff [their defence is] a huge part of confidence even more than necessarily a play on a given day,” Pennington said. “It’s the confidence that they’ve got those guys behind them. I don’t know how you can measure that feeling, but when they’re on the mound and they know those guys are behind them it’s going to make them throw even better.”
Pennington was pressed into starting duty at second base when Tulowitzki got hurt, and he’ll move back to a back-up role for the post-season. The utility man marvels at Goins’ ability to excel playing on either side of the second base bag.
“It’s not as easy as people think,” Pennington insists. “Typically, as a shortstop most guys can play second, but it’s not like this ‘hey, flip a switch just stand over there’ kind of thing. There’s a different visual. Balls come off the bat a little different.
“At second base, there’s more technique involved. At shortstop, you’re playing through everything, everything’s more athleticism-based, you have momentum, whereas at second base you’re going away from first base a lot of times, turning a double play there’s footwork and pivot stuff that at short you don’t have to deal with because at short you’re just coming through.
“To see a guy like [Goins], natural athleticism just took over and he made it look easy.”
The Blue Jays led the major leagues in runs scored, home runs, on-base percentage, slugging percentage, extra-base hits, total bases and walks. The offence is frighteningly good, but when it’s all said and done, if the Jays wind up winning it all it’ll have a whole lot to do with those four gloves up the middle – maybe even more than the big bats.