Going into the All-Star break the Blue Jays we’re looking like they were headed for another early off-season. However, now after the team’s recent spark this team is poised for making the playoffs for the first time in 22 years.
Yes, this is real life. The Toronto Blue Jays are relevant again.
There hasn’t been this much baseball buzz in the city for a long time. The fans are finally getting something to cheer about after many disappointing seasons.
The Jays’ offense has been the best in the league and its starting pitching has the best ERA in the AL since the All-Star break.
It wasn’t too long ago when Alex Anthopoulos was facing a whole lot of pressure from the fans and media to make a deal that would allow the Jays to contend for, at the very least a wild-card spot.
Well AA didn’t just make one move, he made a couple that boosted this roster into baseball’s elite over the span of a week. Not to mention he single-handedly brought in the best SS in the game by swapping Jose Reyes for Troy Tulowitzki and finally made use of his prospects by bringing in a big time catch by the name of David Price, giving the Jays its first real ace since Roy Halladay.
Don’t look now but after taking 3 of 4 games from the best team in the AL, the Kansas City Royals and sweeping the Minnesota Twins in a four-game set for the first time in franchise history, the Jays sit in the second wild-card spot in the AL and sit only 4.5 games back of the Yankees in the AL East. Toronto heads to Yankee Stadium for a crucial three-game set this weekend.
It’s crazy to think how far this team has come up until this point. The lineup was always good, but now the Jays arguably have the best top four in all of baseball and its lineup looks like one complied from a video game. Not to mention the improvement that has been made with the pitching staff. All season long there were major question marks surrounding the club’s starting pitching and bullpen. Now, the Jays’ pitching is hanging in there with the best of them and is limiting teams offensively.
It’s time to give credit to where credit’s due and that’s to the mastermind Alex Anthopoulos. He stuck with his plan and has managed to pull the trigger on some huge deals this year, which are now reaping the benefits. He brought in one of the best catchers in the game in Russell Martin in the off-season, traded Lawrie for an MVP candidate in Josh Donaldson and look at what he was able to do at the trade deadline. Bringing in Tulo, Hawkins, Price, Lowe and Revere deserves major praise.
AA has done his job. He has brought in the talent and now the players under John Gibbons are starting to heat up and show no signs of slowing down. The Jays have been one of the hottest teams in the second-half of the season and have won 8 of its last 10 games.
For years, the Blue Jays have been the laughing stocks of the league. Failing to make any real noise in a tough AL East and continuously fell short of expectations.
There are still 52 games left in the season, but there is now a funny sense of optimism lingering around town. Can this finally be the year that the Blue Jays snap the longest post-season drought in MLB? Or will this season go down as yet another bitter ending?
Eventually good things come to those who wait and for Blue Jays fans, the waiting is over and the winning has finally become inevitable.
