Is a third consecutive playoff appearance part of the Toronto Blue Jays future in 2017? A winter of discontent from Blue Jay fans hoping for a splashy move did not materialize and as it stands, more talent was lost than gained ahead of Spring Training. Let’s see how Toronto stacks up heading into the 2017 season.
After twenty-two seasons of playoff drought, the Toronto Blue Jays have advanced to the ALCS the last two seasons ultimately falling to better teams once they got there. The playoff appearance in 2015 was sparked by two monster trades made by former GM Alex Anthopolous to bring in David Price and Troy Tulowitzki before the late July trade deadline, not to mention the deal to bring in that season’s MVP Josh Donaldson to Toronto before the season started. In the offseason preceding the 2016 season, Anthopolous left and Toronto’s baseball operations were led by team president Mark Shapiro and his new general manager Ross Atkins, a Shapiro protégé brought over from Cleveland.
Last year’s playoff team had the finger prints of Anthopolous all over it but also faced daily questions about the impending free agency of two pillars of the team in Jose Bautista and Edwin Encarnacion, who were both considered to be on “team-friendly” deals. As we know, Bautista was resigned by Toronto late in this free agency period after not drawing much interest from other teams. Even other teams that needed a right-fielder, including a comment from Baltimore Orioles GM Dan Duquette, explaining that he couldn’t possibly sign Bautista who was a “villain in Baltimore”.
Edwin Encarnacion was offered a 4 year, $80 million dollar by Toronto at the beginning of free agency but declined it and the Jays moved in another direction and Encarnacion did as well signing a shorter deal with the team from Cleveland that knocked Toronto out of the playoffs. His addition to Cleveland’s lineup won’t do Toronto any favors trying to make the playoffs in the tightly packed second tier of teams fighting for a playoff spot in the American League.