Jays regain mojo in Seattle, primed for ‘run at this thing’
Toronto drops series finale, but heads home in a good position, writes Ed Willes.
His feelings didn’t represent a consensus among Blue Jays fans, but when his team landed in Seattle for their biggest series of the season, John Gibbons looked at his lineup and concluded, “We’ll be all right.”
This, after all, wasn’t the first rodeo for his group and Gibbons wasn’t going to let a little thing like a 5-11 record in September shake his confidence in the Imperial Guard. This is a team that has been tested in the crucible. This is a team with an established track record.
“You weren’t going to hold everyone in that room down forever,” Gibbons said. “Your big players become big players because they tend to step up when you need them. That’s how they get their identity.” And so it was in Seattle. OK, the Jays (83-69) didn’t complete the sweep of the Mariners (80-72) on Wednesday afternoon but, as things transpired, their three days in the Emerald City were a welcome tonic for an ailing club. In the final game of a three-game set, the M’s eked out a 2-1 win in a 12-inning, 16-pitcher, four-hour-20-minute miniseries that featured more plot twists than Season 2 of Game of Thrones.
Still, with 10 games left on their schedule, the Jays are positioned for another run to the post-season. They won’t get to last year’s 93-win mark, but they can secure a wild-card spot if they take care of business in an orderly fashion over their final three series.
In short, it’s been another successful season for the Jays. But, there are also realities setting in for this group and, given their age and the business of baseball, it can reasonably be asked if this is the final ride for Gibby’s guys.
“It’s obvious that could happen,” Gibbons said. “There’s going to be some of them gone. If a couple of key ones leave, it will be a totally different team.”
The Blue Jays, in fact, have nine pending free agents on their roster, including foundation players Jose Bautista and Edwin Encarnacion and while management is saying all the right things, it would be naive to think this team will return intact. Encarnacion, who’s averaged 39 homers and 109 RBI over the last five years and turns 34 in January, will be one of the prizes of the free-agent market. He could command US$20 million per year in a new deal.
Bautista, who turns 36 in October, is a different animal. The back of his baseball card suggests he should be in line for a big payday but he’s had a down year and it’s doubtful Rogers will scratch a big cheque for the aging star.
“We’ve started our planning what our team will look like next year,” Jays general manager Ross Atkins said Wednesday in Seattle. “When we get to the end of that, which will be about a month from now, we’ll have a much clearer picture of where to prioritize the free agents who are here and free agents who are elsewhere.”
When asked about Encarnacion and Bautista specifically, Atkins said: “We don’t have control of that. Edwin and Jose have a lot of say, so it’s hard to tell you the likelihood (they’ll re-sign with the Jays). The desire and intent are there.”
But what about the money? The Jays sit 11th among MLB teams in payroll. Last year they were 10th. Despite robust revenue streams, Rogers seems locked in to that level of spending under the Atkins-Mark Shapiro regime, which means the return of Encarnacion and Bautista is a long shot.
As to the larger meaning for the Jays, well, the Mariners’ series revealed much about their current makeup. In the 3-2 win in Game 1, 33-year-old starter Marco Estrada blanked the M’s for seven innings and Encarnacion delivered a two-run homer.
In the 10-2 romp on Tuesday night, Encarnacion was back with three RBIs and another homer, while Russ Martin, Josh Donaldson and Michael Saunders all went deep.
Wednesday, Bautista tied the game in the top of the ninth with a moon shot off M’s closer Edwin Diaz. The Jays then got the leadoff runner to second base with no out in the 10th and 11th, but couldn’t squeeze across the go-ahead run before a Donaldson throwing error in the 12th led to the game-winning run.
Maybe they didn’t get the ending right, but you look over the three games and it was the veterans who stepped up when the Jays needed a lift. It’s also been that way for a couple of years.
As to where they go from here, Gibbons, who’s painfully aware he wasn’t hired by Shapiro, is philosophical. Of the short term, he said: “We’ve got 10 games left. We’ll make a run at this thing and see what happens.”
Of the long-term outlook he said: “I don’t know what my future is here. You just go day-today and try not to get caught up in that BS.”
In the meantime, he still has his guys. And he’ll take his chances with them.