Adversity nothing new for Jays
This may not be a battle-tested club with countless playoff runs under its belt, but the season has already been unmistakably challenging
TORONTO — Troy Tulowitzki’s scapula ended up being the talk of what should have been an ebullient weekend for fans of the Toronto Blue Jays, and understandably so.
Even though their new star shortstop has yet to show off his potential at the plate for the Jays, his loss is still a blow.
His defensive work had been an immediate upgrade, and while the beauty of a deep lineup like the Jays’ is that someone can always be slumping and there’s enough talent elsewhere to maintain a ridiculously high level of offensive output, they were surely still counting on him to at some point to be one of their big bats.
This is real adversity the Jays are finally facing, the easy thinking goes, but don’t kid yourself about that.
While this may not be a battletested Blue Jays team with countless playoff runs on its resume, the season so far has been unmistakably trying, and it’s a credit to the players and the staff of the club that they’ve made it here in spite of that.
Sure, GM Alex Anthopoulos provided elite level reinforcements when he traded for the now-injured Tulowitzki, as well as rotation anchor David Price, and deftly filled out the rest of his roster with the acquisition relievers LaTroy Hawkins and Mark Lowe, and left fielder Ben Revere, but the Blue Jays needed to be in a strong enough position in the first place for their GM to do that, and to have got there meant overcoming obstacles at least as big as the Tulowitzki-sized hole they now face at shortstop.
The obvious example comes in the form of Marcus Stroman, who remarkably started on Saturday, having been ruled out for the season in early March after blowing out his knee.
Some felt that was an early death knell for the club, and it very well could have been. So, too, could Aaron Sanchez’s early season injury, just when it seemed like he was taking a real grip on a spot in the rotation. So could have Daniel Norris’s demotion early on, after the young starter — eventually moved in the Price deal — struggled with command and the weight of being a reliedupon piece of the club’s rotation so soon into his career.
So could have Miguel Castro’s implosion at the back of the bullpen, as it became apparent early that the darling of spring training — the untouchable, flame-throwing kid who was going to lock down leads with pinpoint command of a blazing fastball, an otherworldly changeup, and a sickening slider — was in over his head and never as good as fans and front office alike so badly wanted him to be.
There was Michael Saunders’ knee injury, which threw the projected outfield into disarray, and Dalton Pompey’s struggles, which only made things worse and forced responsibility on an untested Kevin Pillar — who responded with an incredible defensive season in centre field.
Steve Delabar and Aaron Loup struggled out of the bullpen. R.A. Dickey was a worry until June. Phil Coke and Joba Chamberlain might have helped, but they came and disappeared. The Johan Santana experiment failed. Randy Wolf, too.
All while the club flailed around trying to find an answer to pitching troubles that somehow, maddeningly, kept hanging the best offence in the game out to dry.
Jose Bautista injured his shoulder in a fit of piqué against the Orioles in April, but played through the pain — though not always up to his own high standards. Edwin Encarnacion battled through shoulder problems as well. Russell Martin nearly hit the disabled list because of a hamstring problem in late August. And Devon Travis won the club’s starting second base job in the spring, then had a tremendous April before injury set him back, and an outstanding June before succumbing again.
Such is the grind of a baseball season. I bring all of these things up not suggest that other teams haven’t also had to deal with the same, but to remind anybody who might have needed reminding that Tulowitzki’s injury, illtimed as it might be, is hardly the only bad break these Blue Jays have had to endure.
That’s also not to say they’ll negotiate it with the same sort of aplomb they did these other concerns, though examining the entirety of what they’ve been through this year suggests a capacity for resilience that may not be altogether obvious.
This is a resilient group! Whether it’s surviving the loss of their would-be ace or needing to beat other teams’ brains in every night just to stay afloat, there just doesn’t seem to be any quit in them.
That, of course, is exactly what you’d expect — they’re professionals — unless you’ve been hearing all kinds of noise about what sort of trauma the loss of Tulowitzki is to the cause. It’s not good by any stretch. You can try to pretend that Ryan Goins — whose glove is similarly terrific and whose limp bat has suddenly become a legitimate threat at the plate — is a preferable option, and based on the last month you might not be entirely crazy (so only mostly crazy!). But it’s survivable. These Jays have at least shown that.
And that’s totally bonkers, too! Jays fans maybe haven’t seen it yet, but Tulowitzki is probably one of the 10 best all-around position players in baseball. Yet this team is so good that losing him, as much as it’s a big deal, isn’t even such a big deal. As much as they’ll miss his bat, they really won’t.
Or even if they do, it’s not like it will be the first time they’ve faced adversity this year.
And after how these last six weeks have gone, it’s not like it’ll be surprising if they overcome it either.