Can Blue Jays Repeat As Offseason Champions

Jul 13, 2012; Toronto, ON, Canada; Toronto Blue Jays general manager Alex Anthopoulos during batting practice before their game against the Cleveland Indians at the Rogers Centre. The Indians beat the Blue Jays 1-0. Mandatory Credit: Tom Szczerbowski-USA TODAY SportsAfter reading the title of this post I know you’re thinking is this some sort of joke.

Well yes its half mocking the Jays and half sincere, just wanted to get that out of the way.

It’s officially the offseason so sooner rather than later we’re going to see players join new teams by way of trade or free agency or posting fee.

The team that does the best job of this is usually declared the offseason champions by the media and fans.

Last offseason the Blue Jays had one heck of an offseason adding the last 2 NL batting champions, 2 ace pitchers, a mid rotation starter that’s good for 200 innings a year and a couple of quality utility players.

So they were declared the offseason champions but so were the 2012 Marlins, 2012 Angels and the 2011 Red Sox and they also all missed the playoffs.

So winning the offseason really doesn’t guarantee anything.

Although I’m sure no Jays fans going to complain if the Jays can add some star players.

But unlike last year the Jays don’t have as much payroll flexibility or prospect capital to trade.

If there’s something that’s preventing the Jays from repeating as offseason champs is that they don’t use free agency. And unlike last year there’s a lot of big name free agents this offseason. So there’s a much better chance that a team that has no problem spending big on free agency is going to win this offseason.

But just like last offseason the Jays head into it after almost losing 90 games with the fan base wondering what in the world there going to do.

Only this time if they try to fix it with big splashes it won’t be as surprising.

If the Jays can get better without big splashes that’ll be great. It’s better to win in the regular season than the offseason anyways.