The Toronto Blue Jays are the best fourth-place team in baseball
By Pedro Moura
FOX Sports MLB Writer
The Blue Jays paired the two best players available on the free-agent market last offseason — center fielder George Springer and second baseman Marcus Semien — with two of the sport’s most talented young players in first baseman Vladimir Guerrero Jr. and shortstop Bo Bichette.
As such, it should not be a surprise that this team is good. Perhaps it should be a surprise that the Blue Jays are not better. And for that, there are easy explanations: One of those two best players has missed most of this season due to injury, and, oh yeah, the Blue Jays didn't have a home for much of the season.
They have one now, back in Toronto after stints in Florida and New York while they were not permitted to play in Canada due to COVID-19 protocols. And they had their star, Springer, back for a while, though he succumbed to another injury (they hope relatively minor) over the weekend.
But behind Semien, Guerrero, Bichette and 50 games of Springer, the Blue Jays own the second-best run differential in the vaunted American League East. Now they just have to get out of fourth place, a tall task with barely more than six weeks left in the regular season.
But if there is a team that could complete that rise, it is Toronto.
"It’s a really resilient group," Springer told FOX Sports last week. "It’s hard to play in three different places and have to move all the time and not have a set home. But now that we’re back home, I think you’re starting to see the team settle in a little bit, see guys breathe because you know where we’re gonna be. You know what to expect out of your home ballpark and home fans."
Indeed, the Blue Jays have received two recent boosts: Springer’s return and their return home. He missed almost all of the season’s first three months because of a quad injury that he and the team tried to speed up his return from and aggravated. But since it healed, he had been at his best — as has the team.
His insertion created a fearsome first five in Toronto's lineup that rivals any other club’s, between Springer, Semien, Guerrero, Bichette and unheralded outfielder Teoscar Hernández, the team’s energetic lifeblood.
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Four of those five are also under contract for years to come; Semien, the lone exception, will be a free agent at year’s end. He settled for a one-year deal with Toronto last offseason but will be in line to earn a significantly longer guarantee in a few months.
Whether it’s with the Blue Jays or not, the rest of his teammates have demonstrated this season that they should be an offensive force going forward. Semien has been the tone-setter. When healthy, Springer has been the same.
"I think we’ve already made an impact," Springer said. "People who play us understand that we’re a good ballclub, that we don’t quit, that we scratch and claw all game. Our offense has a really good ability to score. But I think there’s a lot more room for this team to grow. This is a very, very young team, and I think they will."
One potential area of growth is the starting rotation. Rookie right-hander Alek Manoah, a 6-foot-6, 260-pound mammoth of a man, has looked like a future force through his first dozen starts. Top prospect Nate Pearson’s anticipated arrival this season has not gone nearly as well because of shoulder and groin injuries, but he could still join the Toronto bullpen over the coming weeks.
Thanks in part to Manoah, the Blue Jays began last week on the West Coast as winners of 10 of their past 12 games, and, perhaps more importantly, as one tired bunch. For weeks, their schedule had been replete with doubleheaders and lacking in days off. Then they met the Angels and Mariners and sustained more injuries, to Springer (sprained left knee) and veteran starter Ross Stripling (oblique strain).
This week represents a respite. Two days off bookend two games in Washington against the sinking Nationals. During a stretch that began Tuesday, 11 of Toronto's 15 games will be against teams that are under .500.
This is the Blue Jays' chance to make a run at the AL East. Some with the team still predict that the roster’s best chance at contention is a year away. That is consistent with the front office’s deadline decision to trade for Twins right-hander José Berríos, who is under club control for the 2022 season. But to add him, the Blue Jays slashed from their future, ceding prospects Simeon Woods-Richardson and Austin Martin.
That places additional importance on the present, and that places additional importance on Springer’s latest injury. The leadoff hitter is out again. The Jays don’t have the sort of depth to replace him that their divisional peers, particularly the Rays, possess in droves. The Blue Jays will rely rather on journeyman Corey Dickerson or maybe slap-hitting utilityman Otto Lopez or maybe Mallex Smith, whom they just bought from the Reds.
Springer’s absence has already hurt Toronto this season, and it distressed him to miss so much time immediately after signing a $150 million contract to become a face of the franchise. He wanted to make a great first impression.
His body didn’t let him.
"You don’t ever want to get hurt, especially in a new place, where not a lot of guys really know you," Springer said. "I want to make an impact as much as I can, whether it’s on the field or off the field. Obviously, the on-the-field stuff I wasn’t able to do until a month ago, which was extremely frustrating."
The frustration continues with his latest injury. The Blue Jays don’t yet know how long he will be out. Perhaps it will depend on if they are still in the race when he is healthy. Even without him, they might have the offense to do it, so long as veteran starters Hyun-jin Ryu and Robbie Ray continue their run of competence and Manoah continues to emerge. A fade from one or more of the Red Sox, Yankees or Rays would help, too.
"It’s not over," Springer said, "until it’s over."
Pedro Moura is the national baseball writer for FOX Sports. He most recently covered the Dodgers for three seasons for The Athletic. Previously, he spent five years covering the Angels and Dodgers for the Orange County Register and Los Angeles Times. More previously, he covered his alma mater, USC, for ESPNLosAngeles.com. The son of Brazilian immigrants, he grew up in the Southern California suburbs. Follow him on Twitter @pedromoura.
