National Post (National Edition)
JAYS TRY TO KEEP FANS ENGAGED
Not ‘relevant’ Sunday, not ‘relevant’ now
For a major league front office, it’s crucial to know all about spin rates and about the art of the spin.
The Blue Jays appear to have both down pat. Particularly the latter.
It was almost beautiful in its delivery. During a post non-waiver trade deadline media availability Monday, Toronto GM Ross Atkins said the three moves the Jays pulled off before the deadline were for controllable young prospects with an eye on contending in 2018 while — and this is the good part — hopefully remaining “relevant” this season. Beautifully scripted. Someone in the Jays’ communications office should take a bow.
But Atkins’ choice of the word “relevant” did raise some eyebrows, as in, what does “relevant” mean? After all, the Jays didn’t do anything to improve their chances of sneaking up and capturing a wild-card spot this season.
Before Tuesday night’s games, the Jays were seven games out of a wild-card spot with seven teams to leap over, so perhaps it didn’t make any sense to acquire rentals for a playoff push. But why not just say that? Why not just say, “Things this year haven’t worked out so we’re re-tooling for next year.”
Instead, to keep fans in a state of comfortable numbness, Atkins said they’re hoping to stay relevant this season — and somehow do that without adding any upgrades like the Yankees (Sonny Gray), Red Sox (Addison Reed) and Dodgers (Yu Darvish) did. They’re staying “relevant” by shipping off a couple useful veteran pitchers — Francisco Liriano and Joe Smith — for prospects and a fifth outfielder (Nori Aoki).
Fans aren’t dumb. Blue Jays fans are incredible loyal, and naive. For more than two decades Rogers fed them all this baloney about having to be careful with money and building for the future, etc. And for the most part, the fans bought it. But they don’t have to be snowed anymore.
Give Atkins and president Mark Shapiro credit. A great many baseball nerds and baseball websites suggest the Jays made good deals for Smith and Liriano. Only time will tell. We’ll give them the benefit of the doubt. But as far as using the word “relevant,” well, it’s almost an insult to the players left on the team, especially the veterans.
Nobody would say anything on the record, but the older players weren’t happy the front office didn’t make any improvements for this season. They don’t want to wait another year for the chance to make the playoffs because the chance may never come again.
The Jays have towed the party line the last few weeks saying they haven’t given up on the season and they still believe a wild-card spot is possible. That being said, they probably wouldn’t have been that optimistic if they knew two key pitchers would be shipped out.
Joking around, I asked a couple of Blue Jays on Tuesday if they’re looking forward to staying “relevant” this season. I got looks of bewilderment.
“Relevant is a relevant term,” Kevin Pillar said. That’s pretty good. Actually, I have figured out what “relevant” means in terms of the Blue Jays. It means: cross your fingers and hope for the best.