Some key off-season storylines for the Blue Jays
Longtime power sources Joey Bats, Double E poised to test free agency
TORONTO — The Toronto Blue Jays lost to the Cleveland Indians 3-0 on Wednesday in Game 5 of the American League championship series.
It’s the second straight year Toronto has made it to the ALCS and come up short. Blue Jays general manager Ross Atkins and team president Mark Shapiro have several issues to address to take Toronto back to the World Series for the first time since 1993.
Here are five key storylines heading into the off-season:
JOSE AND EDWIN Veteran sluggers Jose Bautista and Edwin Encarnacion are up for free agency this offseason and it’s not clear whether they’ll re-sign or test the open market.
Encarnacion, 33, led the Blue Jays with 42 homers, 127 RBIs and also had a .263 batting average. Bautista, 36, battled some injuries this year and finished with 22 homers, 69 RBIs and a .234 average.
Neither Bautista nor Encarnacion wanted to address their future plans after the game.
OTHER FREE AGENTS Bautista and Encarnacion may be the biggest Blue Jays headed to free agency, but they won’t be alone. A total of 12 players from Toronto’s 2016 roster have expiring contracts.
Veteran knuckleballer R.A. Dickey and his preferred catcher Josh Thole, utility infielder Darwin Barney, outfielder Michael Saunders, relief pitchers Gavin Floyd, Jason Grilli, Joaquin Benoit, Scott Feldman, Brett Cecil, and catcher Dioner Navarro also have expiring deals.
Of those contracts, it’s most likely the Blue Jays will pursue Cecil, one of the few left-handed pitchers in Toronto’s bullpen. The 30-year-old Cecil struggled at the start of the season but finished with a 3.93 earned-run average and 45 strikeouts over 36 2/3 innings pitched.
WILL AARON BE ACE? One of the biggest surprises in Toronto’s season was pitcher Aaron Sanchez, who successfully transition from a reliever to a starter. He, along with good friend Marcus Stroman, were two workhorses in the Blue Jays’ rotation.
Sanchez finished his first full season as a starter with over 200 innings pitched and avoided being sent back to the bullpen even though Toronto’s management team started the season believing he should have a cap on his innings. The 24-year-old Sanchez earned all-star honours and finished with a 15-2 record with a leaguebest 3.00 ERA.
How Sanchez trains in the off-season could turn him into the Blue Jays’ ace for the foreseeable future.
MANAGEMENT TEAM After Wednesday’s loss, Shapiro and Atkins confirmed that manager John Gibbons would be back in the dugout in 2017, with his contract expiring at the end of that season.
This comes despite the widely held belief that Gibbons was on the hot seat until Toronto’s post-season run.
Still, just because Gibbons is back doesn’t mean his coaching staff won’t change. Some tweaks may be coming to Gibbons’s coaches.
HEALING UP The regular season took its toll on Toronto, with several players missing time with injuries.
Second baseman Devon Travis aggravated a bone bruise in his right knee in Game 1 of the ALCS and missed the rest of the series. Relief pitcher Joaquin Benoit tore a calf muscle in the final week of the regular season and missed the playoffs. Although he still pitched well throughout the post-season, Marco Estrada reportedly played through a herniated disk in his back.
TORONTO — The Toronto Blue Jays’ season is over after a fivegame loss to Cleveland in Major League Baseball’s American League championship series. The era of Jose Bautista and Edwin Encarnacion anchoring the team’s offence may have come to an end along with it.
The veteran sluggers have been mainstays in the heart of the Blue Jays’ lineup for years. However, both are slated to become free agents in the offseason and it’s unclear whether they will re-sign or test the open market.
Neither Bautista nor Encarnacion wanted to address their future plans after the game.
“I don’t want to make this about myself,” Bautista said. “I don’t really feel that I’m in the proper state of mind to be talking about that. Obviously I know it’s a possibility but we’ll see what happens.”
Encarnacion, 33, is coming off another big season with 42 homers, 127 RBIs and a .263 batting average. Bautista, 36, battled some injuries this year and finished with 22 homers, 69 RBIs and a .234 average.
Bautista doubled in the ninth inning of Toronto’s 3-0 loss to the Indians on Wednesday while Encarnacion struck out later in the frame. Fans were on their feet chanting their names during the at-bats. Both players were big parts of the franchise’s return to prominence last year.
“I think they really helped put this team back on the map again, what they’ve accomplished,” said Blue Jays manager John Gibbons. “And really both of them made their name here in Toronto. But baseball is still a business.
“It’s a game we play, but it’s still a big business and guys earn the right to try free agency, what have you. They both love it here, but it’s still a business.”
The Blue Jays won the East Division title in 2015 for the first time in 22 years and Bautista delivered a critical homer — complete with an epic bat flip — to power Toronto past Texas in the first round.
The Blue Jays went on to lose to the Kansas City Royals in the ALCS.
Toronto returned to the final four again this year, dispatching Baltimore in the wild-card game — thanks to an Encarnacion walkoff homer — and then a threegame sweep of the Rangers.
But a well-balanced Cleveland team proved to be too much for the 2016 squad.
The upcoming free-agent crop is considered weaker than normal so chances are good that both players will receive lucrative multi-year deals.
Whether team president Mark Shapiro and general manager Ross Atkins are interested in bringing them back at the price they will command is unclear.
“If I’m not around them again, I have great memories, regardless of what they did on the field — two good guys,” Gibbons said. “And we spent a lot of time together, me and of course the coaching staff and everybody else.
“I’m proud of those guys and you hope they’re back.”
Bautista signed a $65-million, five-year deal in 2011 and the team picked up a $14-million option for this season.
Encarnacion, who signed a three-year extension in 2012 worth $29 million, is coming off a team option at $10 million.
Encarnacion, in particular, will be in line for a big raise.
“To be honest, I’m really sad because I don’t know what’s going to happen next,” Encarnacion said through a translator. “But overall I feel really proud for what the fans and what this organization have done for me.”
Other notable Blue Jays set to enter free agency include Canadian Michael Saunders, knuckleballer R.A. Dickey and southpaw reliever Brett Cecil.
Bautista entered the major leagues in 2004 with Baltimore. He joined the Blue Jays in 2008 and broke out in the 2010 season, hitting 54 homers and driving in 124 runs. He has been one of the sport’s top sluggers ever since.
“This is a great team with a great core,” Bautista said.
“A lot of potential and I think a great future.”
Encarnacion, meanwhile, made his big-league debut in 2005 with the Cincinnati Reds and joined the Blue Jays in ’09. He has at least 30 homers in each of the last five seasons.
“We would love to have everybody back,” said Blue Jays third baseman Josh Donaldson.
“We would love to have Bats back. We would love to have Eddie back,” he added.
“These guys have been the faces of this franchise for many years now.”