Blue Jays: Trying to tactfully sum up the first half of the 2018 season

Now that we’ve officially reached the All-Star break, how do we tactfully sum up the Blue Jays’ first half of the 2018 season? It’s been frustrating to say the least.

The 2018 season was supposed to be about proving that last year was a fluke, and that the talented, veteran roster still had enough gas to make another playoff run. Instead of selling off  veteran pieces over the winter the front office elected to try to compete in 2018, rewarding the fan base for their loyalty over the last few years as the team has been competitive.

My how things can change in short order.

The Blue Jays officially wrapped up their first half with another loss to the Red Sox, dropping their record to 43-52. Their own record is bad enough, but the fact that the Yankees (62-33) are 4.5 back of the first place Red Sox (68-30) makes things that much worse. Over in the Wild Card race, the Mariners currently sit in the second spot with a 58-42 record, good for 14 games ahead of the Blue Jays.

I’m not one to call a season this early, but for the Blue Jays the writing isn’t just on the wall in Toronto, it’s been carved into the bathroom stalls. This season didn’t go how it was supposed to, and there are a lot of reasons for that. They’ve had a ton of games missed by key players, underperformance nearly across the board, and even legal issues getting in the way of their best roster being available and contributing. At times it feels like almost anything that can go wrong, has or still will.

There is a lot of baseball left to play this year and a lot of reason to remain interested in what’s going on with the Blue Jays in the coming months. For now though, how can we sum up what’s happened thus far in 2018? I figured I’d break it down into a few categories.