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.

The Positive

Because I don’t like being negative all the time, I figured I’d start with taking a look at a few of the things have gone right for the Blue Jays so far this year. While there is a lot to be frustrated about, there are a few things the organization can celebrate ever so quietly.

Minor League system

While it doesn’t help the big league Blue Jays right now, the future is definitely bright for the team when it comes to their minor league depth. We’ve seen a few pieces start to emerge at the highest level this year, including guys like Teoscar Hernandez finally sticking, others like Lourdes Gurriel Jr. and fine performances from starting pitchers Ryan Borucki, and Sam Gaviglio. While neither is projected to be an ace, both arms have been nice contributors and could be a part of the future rotation.

Of course, there are also big names waiting in the wings like the one man wrecking crew that has been Vladimir Guerrero Jr. He’s got plenty of company as well, as guys like Bo Bichette, Kevin Smith, Cavan Biggio, Danny Jansen, and many more have been making big developments on both sides of the ball, and impressing scouts everywhere. Several pitchers have taken big steps forward this year too, including upper level arms like Sean Reid-Foley, Jordan Romano, T.J. Zeuch, and more.

Health

I know, it sounds ridiculous that I’m suggesting that there has been anything good to celebrate about the health of this team. It’s been a busy season on the disabled list for the Blue Jays, with many of the top players on the team missing significant time. However, there is one player who has been noticeably absent from the list: Devon Travis.

I realize he was demoted to Buffalo in order to get his bat going, but he’s been much better since returning to John Gibbons‘ disposal in the lineup. He recovered from another horrific start to push his average to .242/.295/.392, and has been heating up more recently as well, hitting .333 over the last two weeks before the All-Star break, and .400 over the most recent week.

The Rest

Other than those two things, you’re looking at more minor celebrations, which doesn’t say a lot for how this season has gone. J.A. Happ has been quietly excellent for a struggling rotation, and represents the best trade piece at Mark Shapiro and Ross Atkins’ disposal. There are others like Devon Travis who have recovered from slow starts such as Randal Grichuk, and even Kendrys Morales, both of whom could have been close to being DFA’d earlier in the year because of their struggles.

The bullpen has also had some minor successes like Seunghwan Oh and Tyler Clippard, which could be flipped into a few extra trade pieces this month for the front office as well. The team has also received decent value from the likes of Curtis Granderson, and Yangervis Solarte as well, both of whom were brought in last winter.

Beyond that, it’s hard to find a lot to celebrate. That’s how she goes when you’re sitting 14 games out of a playoff spot at the All-Star break.

The Negative

This section will be understandably longer, and I’ll break it up into a few more specific parts. I could likely write a novel here, but I’ll try to do a neat little summary of what’s gone wrong for the Blue Jays in the first half of 2018.

Injuries

Let’s start with the biggest blow the team has dealt with this year, missing their best player for all but 36 games thus far. Josh Donaldson has been the undisputed best hitter in Toronto for a few seasons now, as long as he’s been healthy. Unfortunately I don’t think we’ve seen a healthy version of the “Bringer of Rain” yet this season, which has not only hurt the team’s ability to win games, but has also devastated his value on the trade market.

There are many, many others to include on the list, and I’m not going to cover everything that’s happened throughout the organization. However, if we’re talking about the rotation, Happ is the only member to have been healthy this year. Marcus Stroman missed significant time after badly struggling, and Aaron Sanchez is still on the DL with a confusing “finger contusion” injury. Those two were expected to anchor the rotation along with Happ, but haven’t been healthy, or consistently effective. We’ve also watched both Marco Estrada and Jaime Garcia land on the DL as well, leading to the opportunities for guys like Borucki and Gaviglio.

Back to the offensive side, they have been without Troy Tulowitzki for the entire season, and fellow shorstop Aledmys Diaz suffered an ankle injury and missed a good chunk of time. Lourdes Gurriel Jr.also finds himself on the DL at the moment with potential concussion issues, so shortstops haven’t fared terribly well this year in the health department.

In the outfield, Kevin Pillar landed on the DL for 4-6 weeks when he got injured diving for a ball a few days ago. He’s been the healthy one this year, as we watched Steve Pearce spend quite a bit of time on the sidelines before he was traded, and also missed quite a bit of time without Randal Grichuk, who was also injured while diving for a ball.

That’s not an exhaustive list, but it’s already a pretty good list of reasons why the team hasn’t operated at the top of their game. That can never be used as an excuse, but the reality is they’ve missed a lot of games from their best players, and that’s difficult to overcome.

Other

I didn’t know what else to call this, but it’s largely centred around one player, and the incident that has lead to multiple issues for the Blue Jays.

As I’m sure you’re aware, Roberto Osuna was arrested back on May 8th, and has since been suspended for 75 games by Major League Baseball. He’s back on a rehab assignment already, and is eligible to return to the team on August the 4th.

However, just because he’s eligible to return (at the moment), doesn’t mean it’s that simple. The situation is far more complex than that.

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The Mexican born pitcher is still in the middle of dealing the alleged charges, and things don’t look all that great from most reports. That doesn’t mean anything as far as a legal resolution, but there is potential that he could face some serious repercussions, and maybe even work visa issues. That’s in a worse case scenario legally, but it’s entirely possible things could go that way.

The Blue Jays may or may not want to keep him around, despite the positive statements in his favour made by the organization so far. There’s every possibility that they’ll look to shop him later this summer (unfortunately after the non-waiver deadline), or more likely this offseason. They’ll likely need him to return to the team in order to regain more of his trade value, but that return isn’t a simple thing either.

If and when he returns to the mound in a Blue Jays uniform, both Osuna and the organization are going to have a tremendous amount of work to do to win back the fan base, at least when it comes to the young closer. There will be plenty of fans that will be upset with the organization as well, and it’ll definitely be something the front office has to be acutely aware of, while trying to figure out what’s best for the player, and the franchise.

Next: Pillar injures his shoulder, out 4-6 weeks

Beyond the Osuna situation, this is a pretty simplistic review of the long story that has been the disappointing 2018 for the Blue Jays. Hopefully the club will be able to change the narrative in the second half, and also make a few high value trades prior to the end of the month. Remember that the front office managed to get Teoscar Hernandez last year in a trade that only cost them the rest of the season of Francisco Liriano, so the next few weeks could be crucial.