Jays’ 2017 goal is to stay ‘relevant’
Spin means the recent moves the team made will not help their chances of making the playoffs
FCHICAGO or 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 on Monday, Toronto GM Ross Atkins said that the three moves the Jays pulled off prior to the trade 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” actually mean? After all, the Jays didn’t do anything to improve their chances of capturing a wild-card spot this season.
Before Tuesday night’s games, the Jays were seven games out of a wildcard spot (but beat the White Sox Tuesday 8-4), 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 the 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), the Red Sox (Addison Reed) and the Dodgers (Yu Darvish). They’re staying “relevant” by shipping off a couple of very 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 seem to suggest that the Jays made good deals for Smith and Liriano. Only time will tell. But as far as using the word “relevant,” well, it’s almost an insult to the players left on the team. Veterans don’t want to wait another year for the chance to make the playoffs. The Jays have toed the party line the last few weeks saying that they haven’t given up on the season. That being said, they probably wouldn’t have been that optimistic if they knew that, on trade deadline day, two key pitchers would be shipped out for a veteran outfielder and prospects.
Joking around, I asked a couple of Jays on Tuesday if they’re looking forward to staying “relevant” this season. What I got were looks of bewilderment. “Relevant is a relevant term,” Kevin Pillar said.
That’s pretty good. Actually, I’ve figured out what “relevant” means in terms of the Blue Jays.
It means, cross your fingers and hope for the best.