The season starts in the spring, and by the time the summer solstice rolls around, you’ve declared that “it’s a long season” more times than you can remember. The whole summer passes, and then, when the autumn equinox arrives in September, that declaration can definitively be said to be true.
Some seasons feel longer than others. The 2018 season certainly ranked as one of the most soul-crushing, hope-stifling, spirit-squashing campaigns in the history of the franchise, in which little if anything positive came from the on-field action, and the off-field movements were frustrating and hard to dream on.
So perhaps it requires that recent perspective on what a terrible season can be in order to look at a team that just missed losing 100 games and feeling like this year wasn’t so bad.
To be clear, it wasn’t good. The Toronto Blue Jays sent 39 different pitchers to the mound this season, and there was precious little reason for enthusiasm through the vast majority of those appearances. If you sort that mess of limbs by ERA, you find at the top of the list the high-profile guy who was traded away, the closer who was too injured to be traded, the sage veteran who was pitching well until he got a fluke injury, and the backup catcher.
Beyond that, it gets grim and grimmer. Few will cast warm thoughts towards Edwin Jackson’s brief stint and 11.12 ERA. The notion of a left-handed knuckleballer seemed eternally more compelling than the actuality of watching Ryan Feierabend’s two outings.
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Last season was so acutely disheartening because it slammed the door on the end of one window of contention. Players who had been central to the winning moments of 2015 and 2016 were either underperforming, dispatched, or perpetually injured. And at the same time, there was very little transition from the end of that window towards the opening of the next one.
It says something about 2018 that the fondest moments some folks will be able to conjure up are the farewells fans were afforded to offer John Gibbons, by virtue of the fact that he was fired before the end of the season.
In 2019, though, there were enough reasons for at least the die-hard fans to show up, and to find a touch of salvation, or at least some promise of better times to come. Whereas last season saw the Jays frustratingly keep their good young players down in the minors and away from Toronto, this year finally offered a glimpse of some and a good look at others.
Obviously, Vladimir Guerrero Jr.’s delayed ascendance would be the story of the season, although it didn’t play out as hoped, or even as expected. There were some high points, like his Home Run Derby night for the ages, but on the whole, the extended look at the 20-year-old who entered the season as the best prospect in baseball allowed us to see perhaps more flaws in his game than strengths.
Vlad has had a rough start, and there are aspects of his game that could stand some work. Even his purportedly 80-grade hit tool showed need for refinement, as Vladdy’s average launch angle this season toiled in the single digits, and roughly half the major-league average. But there is still enough talent, and there have been a sufficient number of moments to not completely dissuade one from believing in Vlad’s future.
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Bo Bichette, on the other hand, blew into town like a gloriously coiffed storm. His first weeks in the big leagues – immediately following the trade deadline and the unpopular deals to send Marcus Stroman, Aaron Sanchez and others away – was an immediate salve to an ailing fanbase. We tuned in daily to see whose historic place he was chasing or replacing on lists of most consecutive games with extra-base hits, and to watch a young man who plays the game with joy and energy, and simultaneously seems preternaturally self-aware.
Prorate Bichette’s numbers across 162 games, and he would have hit 63 doubles and 39 homers, and while those numbers seem unlikely, they hint that Vlad’s running partner through the minors may be ready for his own spotlight.
And out of all the rookies on the roster, Cavan Biggio may have had the best season of the bunch, which offers a little extra hope that a solid core for a future winner is already here.
There remain some profound concerns in the immediate future. The 2019 Blue Jays will end the season with the second-most home runs in franchise history, while having the fewest hits of any non-strike season team. Their .304 team OBP ranks second-worst in team history, and many of the prospective hitters on a 2020 team – Teoscar Hernandez, Rowdy Tellez, Randal Grichuk, Danny Jansen, Derek Fisher, Billy McKinney – don’t even rise to meet that low bar on such an important metric.
Meanwhile, the pitching staff will end up as one of the worst in runs allowed, having given up the most home runs in history. That might be in part attributable to the slick baseball that’s contributed to long-ball records falling across the league, but praying for a better pitching staff feels like a better use of one’s pleas for divine intervention than does begging for a better baseball.
Heading into the off-season, one can’t blame fans if they don’t feel overly optimistic about the immediate future, and a bit disheartened at the idea of another season spent looking for small mercies and moral victories.
On his recent appearance with Tim and Sid, team president Mark Shapiro spent some time parsing the distinction between the concepts of “competitive” and “contending”, making the argument that, given how hard they play, the 2019 Blue Jays are already “competitive.” If the front office may feel as though they have checked the box of fielding a competitive team, there’s a nation full of fans who would likely quibble.
This season wasn’t a good one, even if it wasn’t the worst. As much as we will all miss them through the cold of winter, it will be a relief to put the 2019 campaign to rest. But at least there are a few small embers of optimism to keep the fires burning until they all reconvene in Dunedin next February.
