Toronto Blue Jays: Team preview and prediction for 2020 season
The Toronto Blue Jays remade their starting rotation in a quest to contend. Will that be enough in 2020?
The Toronto Blue Jays are an offensive powerhouse in the making and we’re going to see that come to fruition in 2020. Much did not happen for the Jays last season until they called up the likes of Vladimir Guerrero Jr., Bo Bichette, and Cavan Biggio, but once they did, it became abundantly evident that this Blue Jays team has quite a bright future ahead of it.
Will the Jays contend for a playoff spot in 2020? Why yes I believe they will to a certain extent. This team has all the makings of a squad that will hang around with some of the bigger teams and over-perform. Offensively, this is a gifted Toronto Blue Jays team with the power of youth on their side.
Their lineup 1-9 can go toe-to-toe with just about any other lineup in the big leagues. The question will be how their pitching performs this season. They made great strides this past offseason by landing Hyun-Jin Ryu in free agency. Ryu had a Cy Young caliber 2019 and has quietly established himself as one of the more consistent starting pitchers in all of baseball.
Is Ryu a bona fide number one? Maybe not. But at the very least, he’s a high two. So, the Toronto Blue Jays are in good shape now that they have a guy at the top of their rotation to build the rest of the starters around who will also be in the Cy Young conversation this season.
They’ve done well this offseason at shoring up their rotation in retaining Matt Shoemaker coming off injury after a hot start in 2019, as well as acquiring Chase Anderson, Tanner Roark, and even Shun Yamaguchi from the Japanese league. In addition to these newly-acquired and retained veteran starters, the Jays have a pretty good crop of younger guys underneath them to (I’m assuming) take over the rotation if and when these vets go on the trade market this year.
Nate Pearson is one of the best pitching prospects in all of baseball and he’s having himself a very good spring. Last year across three different farm teams in the Blue Jays organization, Pearson went 5-4 with a 2.30 ERA and struck out 119 batters in 102.1 innings after making a big jump from Advanced A-Ball to Triple-A over the course of one season. Pearson is on the fast track to the Majors and I think we’re going to be seeing him sooner than projected.
Alongside young starters like Pearson are guys like Ryan Borucki, Trent Thornton, TJ Zeuch, and Jacob Waguespack who have all broken through to the big leagues already, as well as Anthony Kay who came over in the Marcus Stroman deal last year after a terrific season for the Mets’ Triple-A affiliate. The Blue Jays clearly have depth at the starting pitcher position, and if they were to get bitten by the injury bug as they were last year, I believe we will be seeing a ton of these pitchers in various starting and bullpen roles for a god portion of 2020.
Will the Toronto Blue Jays be a “phenomenal” pitching team? Maybe they aren’t quite there yet. But they’ll definitely be a couple steps up from last year when they were 21st in team ERA (4.79) because of the additions they made this offseason and because of the young studs they have lurking in Triple-A.
The Toronto Blue Jays’ bullpen is a little shaky as it sits now. Ken Giles had a huge 2019 and got himself back on track, but is he the answer at the closer role, or is he just going to bring in heavy trade offers? If the Jays over-perform and are still in the playoff hunt, Giles stays, but if they start to tail off at the right time, I think we’ll see him be dealt away; and that’ll be the case with the rest of the trade-able pieces of this team.
They have some nice arms in this bullpen, but what I think is going to happen is they will use a ton of starters in those bullpen roles. They’ve used a bunch of these guys in bullpen spots already this spring, so I would say with the rotation as full as it is, don’t be surprised if they call up these young kids and stick them into reliever roles.
TJ Zeuch and Sean Reid-Foley have already had time coming out of the bullpen in the Majors, and guys like Shun Yamaguchi, Anthony Kay, Ryan Borucki, and Jacob Waguespack all fit the mold to slide into those roles as well.
As for the Toronto Blue Jays on offense, it’s exciting to think about the core of this team and what it can do moving forward. There’s a core four on this squad that includes Vlad Jr., Bo Bichette, Lourdes Gurriel Jr., and Cavan Biggio as the brightest stars of the Blue Jays’ future.
More Blue Jays. Delay could create strong rotation battle. light
We all know how much of a superstar Vlad Jr. can be after all the hype and backed-up hype we’ve seen. Bichette has a little ways to improve on defense, but offensively he’s an extra-base-hitting machine. Biggio has one of the best eyes at the plate in the Majors even right now as he drew 71 walks in 430 plate appearances a year ago. And Gurriel Jr. is still making his way up, but he’s a guy you can stick in a bunch of different positions as well as the three hole, and he has proven he has 20+ home run potential, so his bat is going to be huge moving forward for the Jays.
In addition to that core four, Randal Grichuk and Teoscar Hernandez are big outfield bats with a ton of home run upside. In Grichuk’s case, he’s found his groove since coming over from St. Louis and is now locked into the middle of the Jays lineup for the foreseeable future. And Travis Shaw, after a horrendous 2019 in Milwaukee, will have his chance to get himself back on track supposedly being the everyday first baseman and sometimes DH.
This Blue Jays team is young and it’s extremely deep on both sides of the ball. I think this year they over-perform and keep themselves in the playoff hunt into the second half of the season. Does that mean they hold on to all their trade pieces? Possibly. But overall, I have the Jays finishing in third place in the AL East. Before the Coronavirus suspension, I had the Jays finishing at 78-84, but now who knows how many games will actually be played.
Next. Remembering Danny Ainge with the Blue Jays. dark
They’ll impress, and their young players will put on a showcase, but are they ready to break through? I would say next year looks better for them once they get their young guys more reps. But nevertheless, the Toronto Blue Jays are going to be a fun team to watch in 2020.