Starting five highlights Jays as season begins
The Blue Jays headed into last season unsure how their rotation would stack up in the tough American League East.
Pretty well, it turned out, as Toronto rode its strong starting pitching all the way to the American League Championship Series.
With most of that core returning for 2017, right-hander Marcus Stroman believes the Blue Jays will enter this season with the most fearsome starting five in the majors.
“I think we have the best rotation in baseball, hands down. I’ll argue that day-in, dayout,” Stroman said recently at the Blue Jays spring training facility in Dunedin, Fla.
“We weren’t valued at all coming into spring training (last year) ... but we knew what we were capable of. One through five, we were extremely strong, each and every guy I consider pretty much an ace and can get us a win every day. That’s the mentality we have.”
After a successful 2015 season, Blue Jays president and CEO Mark Shapiro opted not to go after big-name freeagent pitchers, signing lefthander J.A. Happ and re-signing righty Marco Estrada instead. Both moves paid off in 2016.
Happ had a career year, earning 20 wins for the first time and Estrada, though hampered with a back injury for much of the season, was named to his first all-star game while helping lead Toronto to a second straight ALCS appearance.
Stroman, the MVP of this year’s World Baseball Classic, is poised for a strong season while sturdy veteran Francisco Liriano is back after coming over in an August trade with Pittsburgh.
Aaron Sanchez, who effectively shrugged off any talk of an innings limit to finish 15-2 with 3.00 earned-run average in 2016, rounds out the starting five.
But manager John Gibbons knows that success won’t be a given in 2017 as Toronto hopes to advance to the World Series for the first time since 1993.
“It’s a new year, you have to go out there and do it again,” Gibbons said. “I think (the starters) were all better than we thought they were going to be. Honestly, yeah, they rank up there (with the top rotations in MLB).”
Toronto feels good about its offence, too.
The return of free-agent slugger Jose Bautista will provide a familiar boost alongside 2015 AL MVP Josh Donaldson and all-star shortstop Troy Tulowitzki.
Toronto will miss Edwin Encarnacion’s power, but former Kansas City switch hitter Kendrys Morales will fill in at the designated hitter spot. Coming over from the AL Central, a largely pitcherfriendly division, Morales could enjoy a swell of production in the hitter-friendly AL East stadiums.