Even before the last week’s presidential drama – farce? – you could sense a growing apprehension on the part of Toronto Blue Jays fans about the state of the club.
It’s not to say that there is full-blown angst or anger. Much as the front office promised at the end of last season, the Blue Jays moved quickly into the off-season player market, landing an intriguing infield prospect in Devon Travis, a premium catcher in Russell Martin, one of the ten best players in the game in Josh Donaldson, and, um, Michael Saunders.
(It’s not everyone who gets the hyperbolic treatment.)
In the prolonged silence since those early moves, there’s an unsettling feeling of ennui about the team as we shiver through dark and cold. I’m sure that as pitchers and catchers report in the coming weeks, some of the frost will melt away from the weary spirits of Blue Jays fans. But for the moment, there’s a sense that the team has to prove itself this year, maybe more than it has at any time since the World Series years.
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The disappointments of the past three seasons are certainly a huge factor feeding into Blue Jays fans’ profound winter blahs. Given how the big splash of the Marlins/Dickey/Melky winter of 2012 played out, you can certainly forgive the doubters if they’re not yet willing to give themselves over to the assumed excitement of the season.
Given that it’s almost scripture at this point that the Blue Jays’ front office is on its final notice – “Playoffs or bust”, as Jeff Blair puts it – there’s something unsettling about the degree to which the team seems willing to leave elements of its projectable performance to chance. One would think that at the point where you’ve been handed a blindfold and a cigarette, you might start to bargain with a little more gusto.
Realistically, fans have probably come to accept that the player budget is likely not far from being tapped out. The ugly disappointment of Ervin Santana’s non-signing last year provided ample clarity on the team’s salary ceiling, even as the official line remains cheerfully murky. This is concurrent with the growing pain of swallowing the back-loaded end of Jose Reyes and Mark Buehrle’s contracts, not to mention carrying a $5 million backup catcher in Dioner Navarro and a $7 million write-off in Ricky Romero.
Add on top of that a Canadian dollar that’s plunging like Kate Hudson’s neckline at the Golden Globes, and the hope that there is a ballplayer in shining armour ready to swoop in to help the team and lift our mid-winter spirits seems remote at best.
Add it together, and this is the Winter of Don’t Get Your Hopes Up.
That’s not to say that there should be mounting pessimism, as the Blue Jays were realistically closer to the playoff picture than it felt in the waning months of 2014. Had they sidestepped an injury to Edwin Encarnacion or Adam Lind, they might have pieced together a passable month in the final three of the baseball calendar last season and found themselves in the race in the final weeks. It was a disappointment, but not necessarily an all-out failure.
But these optimistic notions increasingly ring hollow, even for the fans who generally view their $12 cups of beer as half-full.
Certainly, the aggrieved fans are always going to be aggrieved, and since many of them will emigrate to the Blue Jays after the omnishambles of this year’s Maple Leafs season, I’m sure that any fan attempting to maintain a level of good cheer and anticipation will face their share of jaded opposition.
But more than that, the true believers who might otherwise open their spirits wide to the hope and promise of a new season might justifiably be timid about letting their emotions lead them into the coming season.
The decline in attendance last year certainly spoke to some element of the fan base backing off their support. Maybe those were casual fans who were brought in by the promise of the big trades and acquisitions, and left disappointed.
But the larger issue for the Blue Jays’ organization will be building and maintaining interest amongst their most loyal customers. There’s almost no margin for error this season, and if the Blue Jays stumble out of the gate, the effect on the club could be profound.