The Toronto Blue Jays really know how to pick the wrong times to lose and win don’t they? I mean they are winning now when it’s all over and counts for almost nothing! The Jays in the past 10 games are 7-3 and have officially won the past 3 series; one of them was actually against the New York Yankees.
The season might be over for the Blue Jays, sorry it is over playoff-wise, but now that the rosters have expanded and all the injuries that the team has suffered there is a lot of young talent to keep an eye out for.
With the injuries that have already happened we have seen players like Kevin Pillar, Moises Sierra, Anthony Gose in the outfield and the surprising Ryan Goins at second. The Jays have also called up Canadian Mike Nickeas, Kyle Drabek, Jeremy Jeffress and Ricky Romero.
I was very surprised to see the team call up Ricky Romero over pitchers such as Drew Hutchison and Sean Nolin. I think Ricky didn’t play well enough in triple-A to earn a spot in the line-up for the rest of the year. He went 5-8 in Buffalo with 81 strikeouts, but had a horrible ERA of 5.78 and a WHIP of 1.751. This is a guy who the Jays will have to pay $15 million next year. It’s disgusting, contracts like that, that make me feel that the MLB should adopt the same style as the NFL guaranteed money. Ricky is broken right now and I’m pretty sure he can’t be fixed in Toronto. Trading him might not be an option because of his stupid contract.
Aside from the confusing move the Jays did by bringing up Ricky Romero, players that you should watch for are Goins, Sierra and Gose. These are players who have been very interesting to watch while they take over for injured players. Goins has slowed down at the plate, but he has a tremendous upside and if he can play consistently, then the Blue Jays might not have to spend too much money on second base and they can focus on something else like pitching. Sierra and Gose are known to many of the Jays now and one of them could be on the team next year.
To say its been a disappointing season is almost an understatement, but the Jays do have some good prospects still in their organization, hopefully people like Goins and Pillar will develop into good players and help the Jays even more down the road.
There’s one more topic I will divulge into right now and that’s Jose Bautista, who has been shut down for the rest of the season. Unfortunately I think its time the Jays look into the future with Jose and see where they see themselves with him.
Let’s face it, the 32-year-old Bautista is not getting younger and this is the second straight season where he finishes on the DL. He still has power and had pretty good numbers, he was on pace to almost hit 40 homeruns, 90 RBIs and 100 runs, but obviously that won’t happen this time around. He is now a few years removed from those great seasons in 2010 and 2011.
I do realize the window for the Jays to win, or make the playoffs was this season and the next two years, but maybe trading Jose now could benefit the team for years to come. Maybe AA could find the right team and package Jose Bautista for a few power pitchers and a fielder, or two the team could be sitting very pretty. The other option is trade him for a few good players that could help this team now, and there are options out there to make this team better.
I understand trading him is risky and he is one of the biggest names on the team and for the longest time one of the only reasons why you would want to go see the Jays, but the Blue Jays do have Edwin Encarnacion. There would also be the issue of filling in his position in right field, but if the Jays got the right pieces for Jose, I don’t think filling in a outfield position would be that hard.
This is just food for thought more than anything, but the Jays might have to make a move sooner than later if they want to get anything out of Bautista before his value becomes almost worthless. Stay tuned Jays fans, we might be looking towards a unique off-season this year.
Feel Free to leave comments below. You can follow me on twitter @NVincelli, and follow the baseball department on twitter @LastWordMatt, and @lastwordmark. While you are at it you can follow the site @lastwordonsport.
Interested in writing for LastWordOnSports? Find more info at our “Join Our Team” page.
Main photo credit: lakelandlocal via photopin cc
