Toronto Blue Jays: The 2010s All-Decade team

All-Decade Blue Jays Infield

Yunel Escobar & Jose Reyes, Shortstop

             Yunel Escobar                                         Jose Reyes

• 2010-2012 (3 seasons)                         2013-2015 (2.5 seasons)
• 24 Home Runs; 115 RBI’s                     23 Home Runs; 122 RBI’s
• 93 OPS+; 8.6 bWAR                                105 OPS+; 6.2 bWAR

This is another close area to award All-Decade honors, as both Yunel Escobar and Jose Reyes could both earn the honors as they are similar in quite a few categories.

Troy Tulowitzki was also acquired during this decade, but he could not replicate his success in Toronto like he previously accomplished with the Colorado Rockies, as well as dealing with a multitude of injuries.

For Yunel Escobar, he had a Blue Jays career slash line of .272/.335/.373 and was considered an average fielder at the position. He was able to make consistent plays that a shortstop would need to make, but he did also have 35 errors in the three seasons he played in Toronto.

Jose Reyes had a similar but slightly better slash line of .289/.334/.404, but was terrible on defense. He committed 41 errors in the 2.5 seasons he suited up for the Blue Jays, and routinely had balls go through his legs into the outfield on numerous occasions.

When comparing the two players, Reyes does have a better batting average and slugging percentage, as well as a higher OPS+. On the flip side, Escobar does squeak ahead of Reyes in terms of on-base percentage and does have 2.4 more points in bWAR. While Reyes does have half a season less than Escobar (he was traded midway through the 2015 season), he would post a -0.2 bWAR with the Rockies for the rest of the season.

These two players tie in the long run because no matter what argument you stand on in terms of WAR versus OPS versus defense, each player has some points in the win column and some in the losing column.