2012 MLB Season Preview: Toronto Blue Jays
Stop me if you think you’ve heard this one before, but the AL East just isn’t fair, man. First, there’s a couple of teams you may have heard of, the New York Yankees and Boston Red Sox. They don’t like each other very much and spend a lot of money in order to beat one another. They’ve been running the division for a while. Now, there’s this little upstart team down in Tampa Bay making noise. They go by the name of Rays and have an embarrassing amount of young talent. Not only that, they somehow keep signing those young and talented players to very team friendly deals, and they may be the best run organization with the best manager in baseball. There’s also the Baltimore Orioles but never mind them.
And so, what to do if you’re the Toronto Blue Jays? Your division just might have the three best teams in the league, and you have to play against those teams a lot. How do you compete when the deck is stacked against you? I guess you commit to a rebuild and hire a really smart General Manger. You then let said General Manager make ninja moves. Alex Anthopoulos came to town and things started looking up. Alex Rios and his terrible contract are now gone. Vernon Wells and his even more laughable and terrible contract are now gone. A lot of very young and exciting Blue Jay talent has been locked up at reasonable rates. Last season for the Blue Jays saw the solidification of Jose Bautista as the best hitter in baseball, gradual growth from the teams core of young talent, a huge trade that brought the enigmatic Colby Rasmus to town, and the emergence of Canada’s own wonder prospect Brett Lawrie. Taken as a whole it was a very positive season for the Blue Jays, and they still finished with an even record, in fourth place, and 16 games behind the division leaders. The AL East, man. Ridiculous.
Toronto Blue Jays Offseason Additions and Subtractions
Additions
RP Sergio Santos
RP Francisco Cordero
RP Ben Francisco
RP Jason Frasor
RP Darren Oliver
C Jeff Mathis
OF Ben Francisco
INF Omar Vizquel
Subtractions
RP Frank Francisco
RP Jon Rauch
RP Shawn Camp
P Brad Mills
C Jose Molina
INF Jayson Nix
INF Mark Teahen
Toronto Blue Jays 2012 Projected Starting Lineup, Rotation, and Bullpen
Lineup
1. SS Yunel Escobar
2. 2B Kelly Johnson
3. RF Jose Bautista
4. 1B Adam Lind
5. DH Edwin Encarnacion
6. 3B Brett Lawrie
7. CF Colby Rasmus
8. LF Eric Thames
9. C J.P. Arencibia
Rotation
1. LHP Ricky Romero
2. RHP Brandon Morrow
3. LHP Brett Cecil
4. RHP Henderson Alvarez
5. RHP Dustin McGowan
Bullpen
CL RHP Sergio Santos
SU RHP Francisco Cordero
SU RHP Jason Frasor
RP LHP Darren Oliver
RP RHP Casey Janssen
RP RHP Jesse Litsch
RP RHP Carlos Villanueva
RP LHP Luis Perez
Toronto Blue Jays 2012 Prospect to Watch For
I could spend a lot of time beating around the bush and mentioning all the interesting and young and talented players the Blue Jays have been stockpiling as of late, but you and I both know the Blue Jays prospect to watch for in 2012 is Brett Lawrie. I mean, come on. Lawrie came home to Canada before last season, the Blue Jays acquiring his services for one starting pitcher Shaun Marcum. The former catcher turned second basemen was then tasked with yet another position change, this time to third base. After some time in the minors working on the finer nuances of the hot corner, the top prospect made his major league debut on August 4th. Lawrie preceded to get Toronto Blue Jays fans very excited. In 171 place appearances, the 21-year-old hit 9 home runs, stole 7 bases, and triple slashed .293/.373/.580. His performance at the plate was good for a .413 wOBA, .287 ISO, and 163 wRC+. He was also above average in the field, flashing a glove and skill level beyond what many prognosticators initially expected. All this resulted in a preposterous 2.7 fWAR in 43 freaking games. An MVP-type pace. Granted, given Lawrie’s age, experience, and the fickle nature of the small sample of contests he participated in, he’s due for a bit of regression and course correction in his age 22 season—but that shouldn’t temper expectations too much. If Lawrie can prove his defense at third is legitimate and continue to grow and adjust to the rigors of a full Major League season, the Blue Jays have a middle of the order stalwart and budding superstar on their hands. Superstars are valuable assets to baseball teams. I feel confident in saying that.
Toronto Blue Jays 2012 Season Outlook
Earlier in the offseason, the Blue Jays would have had a simple, if not mostly boring and underwhelming plan for 2012. Let the young guys play, let the prospects get another year under their belts, look for a few holes in the market to exploit, and gear up for 2013, or 2014, or whenever Anthopoulos decided was the proper time to go all in for the postseason. Now, with the addition of an extra Wild Card team looming large, the Blue Jays 2012 could prove to be a little more… wild! Jose Bautista is locked up and primed for another monster offensive campaign and Brett Lawrie presents a world of upside surrounded by a cast of solid to above average bats ready to take advantage of the Rogers Centre home run friendliness. Colby Rasmus, perhaps finally free of the turmoil and chaos that’s surrounded him the last year or so, is still a good bet to cash in on some of his elite pedigree and flourish into an above average regular, and maybe even an All-Star. The rotation presents some reclamation projects and question marks, but is anchored by the generally underlooked and legitimate ace Ricky Romero. Brandon Morrow has continued his maddening trajectory, showing flashes of brilliance followed by complete and total garbage, his peripheral stats and strikeout rate presenting elite potential beyond his mediocre ERA. A step forward from Morrow could go a long way. The bullpen has once again been rebuilt shrewdly on the cheap. If a few things go right, and injuries are avoided, it’s not unreasonable to expect any combination of the Blue Jays, Angels, Rangers, Red Sox, Rays and Yankees to be battling for the final two playoff spots well into the summer, and if given the opportunity, Gerneral Manager Anthopoulos could very well be given the go ahead to make a monster splash, either financially or via trade, or both. Life is not easy in the AL East, and the Blue Jays have stayed true to a long term plan in order to prepare for contention. Given a new opportunity to land in the postseason for the first time since the glory years of ’92 and ’93, the plan might just accelerate a year or two earlier than expected.
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Find your team’s 2012 season preview or when it will be published here.
Kyle writes baseball nonsense at The Trance of Waiting. You can follow him on Twitter @AgainstKyle.