Blue Jays: Troy Tulowitzki out for the season, but so what?

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Photo by Tom Szczerbowski/Getty Images /

Currently, the Blue Jays are seventh in the American League in hitting home runs as a team. In 2016, they were third. In 2015, they led the league with 232 home runs. However, while the Blue also led the league in runs scored that year, they have fallen to 14th out of 15 teams in runs scored this season. They are dead last in the A.L. East division this year because of the run drought, as well as from injuries and poor pitching.

Even in 2015, when they won the division by six games, the Blue Jays still did not finish as the best team in the league. The Kansas City Royals won two more games in the regular season and seemingly cruised over the Jays in the A.L. Championship Series, even though the Royals only hit 139 home runs, good enough for 14th place that year.

Tulowitzki’s .190 batting average with runners in scoring position this season says it all: Home runs can win games, but they are not consistent enough to win championships.

The Blue Jays have Ryan Goins, an amazing infielder at both shortstop and second base, who is hitting .221 with five homers and 41 RBI this year. Tulo may have the experience and the All-Star Games and the multiple awards under his belt, but Goins has a .323 batting average with runners in scoring position staring everyone in Toronto in the face. However, while Tulowitzki’s presence at shortstop seemed never in question, unless due to injury, Goins has been kicked around the diamond, the bench and even frequently back to the minors in 2016.

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Is Goins the future? Likely no, especially the way the Blue Jays have utilized him, but Tulowitzki’s injury raises more questions. The Blue Jays lineup is getting much older, which calls into question their philosophy on hitting.

Whether they are trying to kill the ball and go yard in every at-bat, nobody will know the answer except the Blue Jays themselves; however, catcher Russell Martin and Jose Bautista are sinking into the abyss in age and batting average. Tulowitzki seems to be joining them. Third baseman Josh Donaldson is only hitting .253, a far cry from his A.L. MVP award-winning performance, and could be gone through arbitration issues in 2018 or as a free agent in 2019.

With the lay of the land in the lineup, the only big bat from those playoff runs still hitting decently is Edwin Encarnacion, smacking 22 homers and 64 RBI this season. The problem is that he’s doing it for the Cleveland Indians, as he already left the Blue Jays through free agency.

Where does that leave the Blue Jays? Right where they already were before the news of Tulo’s injury: 11.5 games out of the A.L. East division lead and five games out of a Wild Card spot, with seven teams in front of them. It wasn’t like Tulowitzki’s bat was helping the Blue Jays win many games; if anything, it was hindering them. An explosive bat in the lineup only works if it actually explodes, not implodes. Tulowitzki’s injury takes away the potential for a home run to help tie or win a ball game but it also takes away a possible, and more likely, ground out to lose a game.

The issue now becomes seeing what else the Blue Jays have in store for the infield. Will a bat come through the minors or the bench? Or will it come from free agency after the season concludes, likely without a playoff berth? In any case, the idea that Tulowitzki will find a way to resurrect his Rockies days in Toronto is as far-fetched as him finding the Fountain of Youth. If the Blue Jays want to score more runs, they will either have to buy or trade for another big bat or raise one from the minors.

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They may also need to think that their shortstop position doesn’t have to be a big bat in the first place. After all, does anyone remember Tony Fernandez being a home run machine for the Blue Jays?

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