Jays BLACK AND BLUE
Opening day served as an omen of the disappointing season to come
“One down, 161 to blow,” joked a veteran beat guy hoofing it to a tavern in Baltimore’s Inner Harbor after the Toronto Blue Jays dropped their season opener in painful fashion.
“This team won’t reach .500 all season,” quipped another. Yuks all around, none of it serious.
It was just gallows humour walking out of Camden Yards not long after the Orioles’ Mark Trumbo clobbered an offering from then Jays reliever Jason Grilli in the 11th for a walk off 3-2 Baltimore win. Little did we know ... Manager John Gibbons and his team had barely brushed off the dirt from spring training and already they had plunged to a 1-9 start — worst in franchise history — and never were they to recover.
Injuries. Slumps. Poor fundamentals. More injuries. And ultimately a roster that had lost some of its swagger from backto-back trips to the post-season stumbled to a 76-86 record, well below even the most pessimistic of projections.
Much of it was played out in front of a home dome audience that bought into the hype. More than 3.2 million watched the games at the Rogers Communications Cashbox, the best home attendance in the American League.
Still the low points, like the losses, piled up. From injuries to key players to some spectacular blown saves from all-star closer Roberto Osuna (he had an MLBleading 10) to an offence that had regressed significantly form the previous year, it was a long, listless season.
The deeper the struggles went, the more players pressed for answers.
“The fact of it is that frustration, in my opinion, comes from not knowing the answer or not knowing the direction you’re trying to push to,” star third baseman Josh Donaldson told us in a late-season interview. “It’s very easy to go out there in anything you’re doing if you’re having success.
“The time when you really have to check yourself is when things aren’t going your way.”
And now, with pitchers and catchers due to report to Florida in two months, Jays general manager Ross Atkins hasn’t made any significant additions this off season, perpetuating a general sense of unease among the team’s followers, especially given how others in the AL East are loading up.
But while fans and players wait to see what unfolds in 2018, let’s rewind on an eventful yet dramatically underachieving season.
INJURY WARD
Yes, excuses are for you know who, but the Jays were hit particularly hard with devastating injuries from the sidelight.
Donaldson and second baseman/would-be leadoff hitter Devon Travis were hampered in spring training, an ominous sign that was to be followed by a total of 25 players spending time on the disabled list. And the injuries were notable. Donaldson played just 113 games, the fewest in his career. Brilliant young starter Aaron Sanchez managed just 36 innings after a persistent blister on his throwing hand never healed.
Catcher Russell Martin had a couple of stints on the DL and shortstop Troy Tulowitzki missed the final two months of the season with an ankle ailment.
Back to the rotation, starters J.A. Happ and Francisco Liriano were sidelined early in the season. And on it went.
The season-long struggles to remain healthy called into question the team’s self-hyped high-performance department, including Donaldson’s declaring that he’ll take care of his own off-season workout regimen.
STRO SHOW (PART 1)
With his former buddy Sanchez injured and mostly unavailable, it was clear sailing for Marcus Stroman and the Jays resident spokesman for the Chip on the Shoulder Society responded sensationally. He was easily the most reliable of Gibbons’ staff, topping 200 innings for a second consecutive season, finishing with an ERA of 3.09, fourth best in the AL.
“It was a goal of mine when I got into the league,” Stroman said of the 200-inning mark.
“The fact that everyone when I got into the big leagues said I was too short to be a starting pitcher ... it shifted from that to ‘He’s not a durable pitcher.’
“I’m strong. I can throw another 100 innings if I want to.”
Yes, Stroman doesn’t lack in confidence, from the strut, to the shimmy to his on-mound histrionics, he puts on a show.
Add an off-season Gold Glove Award — just the second Jays pitcher to capture one — and the diminutive one is walking even taller heading into 2018.
SMOAK SHOW
To think that at this time last year a good percentage of Jays fans across Canada were fuming at having the previously underachieving switch-hitter as the team’s everyday first baseman.
Instead, Smoak had the type of year that was predicted of him since he was a college star at South Carolina.
His 38 homers eclipsed his previous best of 20 and he also had career years in RBI (90), plate appearances (637) and games played (158).
So what clicked for the 31-year-old, who also went to Miami after earning his first trip to the MLB all-star game?
“I feel like at times I chased the numbers earlier in my career,” said Smoak.
“I wanted to be the power guy. I wanted to hit 30 homers a year and drive in a hundred runs.
“I wasn’t a baseball player anymore. I was searching and trying to be somebody I wasn’t.”
The potential question going forward, of course, is whether Smoak can back up the sensational 2017 numbers. He struggled at the end of the season as he wore down physically (from the workload and a bum leg) and had just one homer in his last 23 games, zip in his last 14.
LET IT RAIN
Despite the injuries and despite a season limited to just 113 games — hampered mostly by that 38-day stint on the DL in April and May — Donaldson flashed his MVP form through a sensational August and September.
In doing so, it only highlighted one of the big decisions awaiting the team and it’s most valuable asset. Donaldson still was able to bang out 33 home runs, making it three consecutive seasons he’s topped 30.
The massive question, of course, is what’s next for the would-be free agent in 2018. Atkins is keeping details of any talks close to the vest while Donaldson has left all doors open, including hit it big in free agency.
“I believe in this organization and I enjoyed my time here,” Donaldson said on the final day of the season.
“But on the other side of it, I understand it. I feel like if you’re to ask all 29 other teams, they’d probably say, yeah they’d want to be pretty interested in me as well. That’s my take on it.”
STRO SHOW (PART 2)
As outstanding as Stroman has been on the mound and thus a crucial piece to the team’s immediate future, he has at times exhausted Jays management who would quietly like to see him play nicer.
When Stroman’s pal Ryan Goins was released, the pitcher took to Twitter to admonish the team for not telling him first, complete with a hashtag #communication.
When Atkins hinted at the GM meetings that Stroman would be well-served to have a veteran mentor, he lashed out again saying on Twitter that his mother and father did just fine in that department.
Easy prediction for 2018: We haven’t seen the last of the show.
ROAD SHOW
For a first-year scribe on the Jays beat, the campaign may have been short on wins but loaded with memorable road trips.
The itinerary included stops at Boston’s Fenway Park, Chicago’s Wrigley Field and, in the World Series, Dodger Stadium. Each were incredible in their own way, iconic stops among North American stadiums.
There wasn’t a livelier atmosphere than what we felt at Seattle’s Safeco Field in June where western Canadian Jays fans took over the gem of a Pacific Northwest city.
And say this about Jays fans, they “travel” as well as just about any team in MLB.
HIGHLIGHT REEL
Over 162 games there are going to be a number of plays worthy of the end-of-season compilations. Our top four:
We take you back to St. Louis at the end of April where Jays utility man Chris Coghlan was immortalized among play-of-the-night types. In the seventh inning of a wild one against the Cardinals, Coghlan was dead at home until out of nowhere he decided to leap over the head of Cardinals catcher Yadier Molina and swipe the plate safe. Even better, the Jays went on to win 3-2 in 11 innings.
Stroman prides himself on his athleticism and shows it in many ways (see Gold Glove), and the dude’s got a point. For an interleague game in Atlanta, however, the Jays right-hander delivered a jaw-dropper, helping his own cause by hitting a homer in the fourth inning, an opposite-field job at that. The human highlight machine, centre-fielder Kevin Pillar, who had too many big snags to mention.
A four-game, late-season power show put on by Donaldson at Minnesota’s Target Field. The Bringer of Rain hit five homers in the four games including a 481-foot monster that was the third longest in stadium history.
We end with a Bronx cheer. When the Jays won Game 162 at Yankee Stadium, it allowed them to climb out of the AL East basement for the only time all season.