TORONTO, Ont. – The curtain is coming down on the losingest Toronto Blue Jays season in decades, but there are always rays of sunshine among the clouds.
I went through the Jays’ clubhouse over the season’s final week and change, asking all the players, the coaching staff and some of the behind-the-scenes folks to cast their anonymous ballots for the annual end-of-season awards. Each voter was asked to name their Blue Jays MVP, Pitcher of the Year, Rookie of the Year and Most Pleasant Surprise of the Season.
As always, I was struck by their thoughtfulness, the time they took to answer and by the fact that most wanted to share their reasoning with me. I continue to think it’s great that even with no actual piece of hardware to give out, the players and coaches want to make sure they’re picking the right guy. Except for one voter (who shall remain nameless) who didn’t take it seriously at all, and whose votes I didn’t count.
This was the most difficult of all the years that I have been taking this poll, and not necessarily for the same reason.
There’s always a great diversity of response to the Most Pleasant Surprise question, because it’s more subjective than any of the other ones. But Rookie of the Year was tough because there were so many rookies on the team this year and the ones who stood out the most weren’t in the big leagues all that long. As for Pitcher of the Year, well, the Blue Jays’ club leader in pitching WAR plays for the New York Mets right now. And MVP? Was there really a standout player over the entirety of the season?
One player had actually abstained from voting for club MVP, but after making his other picks he decided on someone for whom to cast a ballot.
Here are the results of the balloting. For the first time in a long time, all four categories went to people who have never won one of these awards before.
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Most Valuable Player
This was by far the most difficult category for the voters, as nine different players got votes, the most in the history of this particular award, including Freddy Galvis and Eric Sogard, who have been gone for two months but who most assuredly left their mark on the team.
In the final analysis, for most people it was the fact that Lourdes Gurriel Jr. only played half the season (84 games) and Bo Bichette, the club leader in OPS by 60 points, was only in the big leagues for two months that tipped the scales and determined the eventual winner.
He is the only player in Blue Jays history to lead the team in hits, doubles, triples, home runs, runs scored and runs batted in in the same season. Granted, some of that has to do with the fact that he also led the team in games played by 26 over his nearest competitor, but Randal Grichuk is the Blue Jays 2019 Most Valuable Player in the closest vote ever.
Pitcher of the Year
This didn’t turn out to be as difficult as I thought it would be. With Marcus Stroman clearly the team’s best pitcher for the first four months of the season, I thought people would lean towards him, even though he was dealt to Flushing in late July.
He was considered, but ultimately the overwhelming winner was the most dependable arm on the club, the closer. Ken Giles went into the season’s final game having been nearly perfect at the end of ballgames, with only one blown save, back on April 11th in Boston. Giles was sick that day, but took the ball anyway, and his pinpoint control eluded him as he walked two Boston Red Sox hitter unintentionally (and one more intentionally), then gave up the winning run on a chopped single that bounced over the head of Gurriel at second base.
Outside of that one performance, Giles posted an ERA of 1.54, a WHIP of 0.91 and 23 saves in 24 opportunities. That chilly April afternoon remains the only time Giles has blown a save since becoming a Blue Jay 14 months ago.
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Rookie of the Year
This was no contest. Despite the fact that he didn’t make his major-league debut until July 29th, Bichette simply blew the doors off. In just 46 games played before suffering a concussion in Baltimore last week, Bichette hit .311/.358/.571 with an astonishing 29 extra-base hits – a pace for 102 over a full season. He played in every game right up until taking that blow to the head and, over that short span of time, rewrote the record book.
Bichette started his career with an 11-game hitting streak, a new Blue Jays rookie record. During that streak, he also had a double in each of nine straight games, which no one had ever done before in major-league history, rookie or otherwise.
He reached base safely in his first 17 games, which is the second-longest streak to start a career of all-time (Rocco Baldelli reached in 24 straight with the 2003 Tampa Bay Devil Rays).
Bichette was the first player in history to record 10 extra-base hits in his first nine big-league games, and the first ever with 15 extra-base hits in his first 15 games.
His name was mentioned alongside Ted Williams and Joe DiMaggio, as his nine-game extra-base hit streak was the longest for a rookie since the Splendid Splinter in 1939. Twenty-nine extra-base hits in his first 43 games put him second all-time to the Yankee Clipper, who had 31 back in 1939.
And along the way, Bichette became the first rookie to homer twice against Hall-of-Famer-to-be Clayton Kershaw, walked off the New York Yankees with a called-shot 12th-inning home run and entrenched himself as the Blue Jays’ leadoff hitter, batting .381 to start a game.
This was supposed to be Vladimir Guerrero, Jr.’s year, but Bichette was an unstoppable force in his first look at the bigs.
Most Pleasant Surprise
There might be a little recency bias attached to this award more than the others, but when the guy who was the back-up to the back-up catcher and a career .239 hitter in triple-A comes up to the big leagues and rakes, well, that’s a pretty pleasant surprise.
Reese McGuire went into the season’s final day hitting .299/.346/.526, his OPS second only to Bichette’s on the team, and that is something that maybe only McGuire himself might have expected.
With his performance over the last month and a half, since coming up for the injured Luke Maile, McGuire has thrust himself squarely into the Blue Jays’ plans as not just a future back-up to Danny Jansen, but as a potential timesharing equal behind the plate, with a chance to snatch away the starting job for himself.
There were plenty of other great surprises for the Blue Jays, including Gurriel Jr.’s transformation to slugging outfielder with a great arm (he posted an .868 OPS, his numbers pro-rate to 38 homers and 96 RBIs over a full season and led the majors in outfield assists before he got hurt in August). Sam Gaviglio went from middling starter to a long reliever who posted four dominant months, carrying the load for the Blue Jays’ bullpen on the way to nearly 100 innings of relief.
Trent Thornton wasn’t supposed to make the team and wound up leading the club in starts, innings pitched and wins (only six, but no one won more). Jacob Waguespack had an ERA over five in triple-A and came to the majors to throw 78 innings with above-average results. Eric Sogard was a minor-league signing coming off a year in which he hit .134 and was released mid-season, and not only became the sparkplug of the Blue Jays’ offence from mid-April to late July, he got them back two young pitching prospects in a deadline deal. Clearly, nobody saw that coming.
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MVP:
Randal Grichuk – 15
Lourdes Gurriel, Jr. – 8
Bo Bichette – 7
Vladimir Guerrero, Jr. – 7
Freddy Galvis – 5
Eric Sogard – 2
Sam Gaviglio – 1
Ken Giles – 1
Justin Smoak – 1
Pitcher of the Year:
Ken Giles – 31
Sam Gaviglio – 8
Marcus Stroman – 3
Trent Thornton – 2
Derek Law – 1
Rookie of the Year:
Bo Bichette – 27
Vladimir Guerrero, Jr. – 12
Cavan Biggio – 2
Trent Thornton – 2
Danny Jansen – 1
Reese McGuire – 1
Most Pleasant Surprise:
Reese McGuire – 14
Sam Gaviglio – 5 ½
Lourdes Gurriel, Jr. – 4 ½
Bo Bichette – 4
Cavan Biggio – 4
Trent Thornton – 3 ½
Jacob Waguespack – 3 ½
Wilmer Font – 3
Eric Sogard – 2
Derek Law – 1
Justin Smoak – 1
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