Numbers add up for two Jays sluggers
Before we look at some numbers from the first half of the Toronto Blue Jays season and consider what they mean for the second, let’s get this one out of the way first: 10. And also: 5.
That is, Jose Bautista and Edwin Encarnacion, two-thirds of the heart of the Toronto batting order for the past halfdecade, are both members of baseball’s 10-and-5 club — 10 years of major-league service, and at least five with the same team — that grants them the ability to scotch any trade involving them.
And so, a scenario that was unlikely at the start of the season — in which one or both was dealt for prospects before they hit unrestricted free agency — but had moved to at least conceivable as the Blue Jays’ offence lay dormant through the spring, is now a huge long-shot. With just 14 games until the trade deadline, Toronto will be somewhere around the playoff race on July 31, if not at the front of it, meaning neither player would have reason to accept a trade to some other team that might also make the playoffs.
Unless GM Ross Atkins wants to turn himself into a WWE-style villain in this town, he’ll stick with the two sluggers and worry about the off-season in the offseason. Some other key numbers:
3.64
Toronto’s ERA among starting pitchers is the best in the American League, as is the starting-pitcher win total (41) and batting-average-against (.236). This despite expected ace Marcus Stroman having a prolonged slump that only recently appears to have ended. The risky contracts given to Marco Estrada and J.A. Happ, two veterans with mediocre resumes who had career years last season, look like masterstrokes at this point. Anyone who expressed doubts about those deals is presently eating gamey crow.
118
Aaron Sanchez has been so good this year that the 24-year-old has already hit 118 innings pitched, which is what happens when you average almost seven innings per start in the first half. But it also means he is closing in on his previous highest total of 133 innings in any pro season and is headed toward whatever innings limit that Jays’ management has in mind for him in 2016. The desire to protect a young pitcher from the plague of arm injuries in the sport is understandable, but management need to make the call soon, before he throws so much that the bullpen won’t be an option. Or, crazy idea: they could just let him pitch.
65 PER CENT
The Blue Jays bullpen has converted just under two-thirds of its save opportunities, which puts them at 12th in the American League, which is quite something when closer Roberto Osuna has saved 18 games and blown just two. Toronto has a seventh-inning ERA of 5.64, a number that Atkins will no doubt have in mind as he considers what the team needs before the trade deadline. And what he might decide the bullpen needs is Aaron Sanchez.
14
Troy Tulowitzki has struck out just 14 times in the 20 games in June and July that bookended a stint on the disabled list, after fanning 27 times in 24 games in April. The shortstop, who brought a career .515 slugging percentage from Colorado and saw it drop to a pedestrian .380 over his two months in Toronto last year, was off to a similarly cool start this season. But he has slugged .571 for the Blue Jays in July, and, along with the expected return from injury of Jose Bautista, could yet render the Toronto offence the wall-banging force that was unleashed on the league in the latter part of 2015. It would also make all those people who bought Tulowitzki shirts the moment he arrived feel a little less sheepish.
6
Toronto only has a half-dozen games before Chris Colabello is eligible to return to the lineup. He’s been out since April serving a steroid-related suspension, but the veteran who late last year seemed to have seized the everyday first baseman job no longer has an obvious spot to fill. Justin Smoak has been fine, but not great, at first, and Toronto has had major contributions from players like Ezequiel Carrera and Darwin Barney. While Colabello was a great hitter for them last season, how do you work a guy back into the lineup who hasn’t played for 80 games?
39,274
Toronto’s average attendance of just under 40,000 fans is highest in the American League this season, proving last year’s baseball renaissance wasn’t just a one-off. A winning team means more money for the owners? You don’t say.