We all know about the Toronto Blue Jays big bats; Josh Donaldson, Jose Bautista, Edwin Encarnacion and Troy Tulowitzki make up arguably the best heart of an order in baseball. You put guys around them like Chris Colabello, Russell Martin, Kevin Pillar and Ryan Goins and either Michael Saunders or Dalton Pompey and you have arguably the most dangerous line-up of hitters in Major League Baseball. But that doesn’t mean they will walk through everyone on their way to a championship. If the past few years have taught us anything, it’s that pitching is vital to a team’s success. Pitching can often hide a teams lack of run support if it is good enough. The Blue Jays pitching has constantly come under fire and rightfully so, at the end of the day it just was not good enough to win. In this article we will look at the big questions that face the Blue Jays heading to opening day.
The State of the Blue Jays
The starting pitching is the first big question mark coming into this season, with the loss of David Price to Boston a lot of people feel as though this year’s group will not be able to support this powerhouse team. Let’s take a look at what a rotation with Price would have looked like this year. Price would have been your opening day starter with Marcus Stroman taking the hill for day 2. After that is when things begin to look grim. There would not have been the money for J.A. Happ, more than likely management would have had to choose between Marco Estrada and R.A. Dickey, assuming you had the chance to keep either. All of a sudden Aaron Sanchez has to be their fourth starter, and you’re looking at either Drew Hutchison or Jesse Chavez to fill out the bottom of the rotation. That looks like the same rotation or worse from last year, baring no injuries or poor performances from guys in the rotation. That’s why as much as it hurts seeing Price in a Red Sox jersey; it provides financial flexibility for the rotation and other parts of the team.
The second piece of the pitching puzzle is the rotation. They were able to bolster their rotation by adding Storen to the mix; him and Roberto Osuna can both close out games and compete for that ninth inning work. On top of that having Brett Cecil and Aaron Loup create a very strong bullpen. With the potential of having Sanchez in there if he is unable to win a starting job. After that the bullpen begins to thin out, but none the less you have those core guys. With the financial flexibility you save by not resigning Price there is a possibility of adding a guy to the pen later in the year, much like last year where they added Mark Lowe and Chris Hawkins. Overall the Blue Jays have a solid start to their bullpen that can be added to later in the year.
The last question the Blue Jays are facing as spring training continues is who will start in left field. Going into the spring I had my money on the young Canadian, Pompey, but the recent play of Saunders has made it his job to lose. Saunders brings another powerful bat to the already most powerful line up in baseball; he also brings a decent glove out in left field. Pompey on the other hand is a speedster, he could hit in the leadoff spot if he is able to get his OBP up. Having only walked 7 times last year out of his 94 at bats is not a good enough number to justify him as a leadoff man. On the other hand though, hitting 8 doubles in the same amount of at bats is a very good number and being in scoring position when Donaldson comes to the plate is exactly what you want. At this point I give the left field role to Saunders, he is showing a more consistent bat in spring training and is earning that spot ahead of Pompey. Pompey also makes sense as your fourth outfielder, given he is able to play any position in the outfield and can add speed off the bench as he did in the playoffs last year.
The Blue Jays, while having lost one of the best players in all of baseball, have managed to keep the core of their team together and look poised to make another deep post-season run. Providing their young pitching core continues to develop and their heavy hitters maintain their consistency, this could be the year that the Blue Jays finally bring a World Series title North of the boarder.
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