Blue Jays: The biggest disappointments of the 2019 season (so far)

The front office

If I’m going to spend time talking about which players and sections of the team that have let me/us down, then I had better address the front office as well.

I’m willing to give them a bigger break than that average fan (I think?) because of the early stage of the rebuild, but there have been decisions made this season that don’t make a lot of sense to me. Two of the players I mentioned above, Socrates Brito and Alen Hanson, represent a situation that baffled many Blue Jays fans, as each player got an extended look earlier in the season despite very clear struggles.

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It’s been the failure to address the starting rotation, who I’ll concede have been ravaged by injuries, but the organizational depth just hasn’t been there to help this team navigate the 2019 season. We’ve literally got a situation where the manager is saying “We don’t have anybody else”, and that’s not a good place to be. Blame injuries if you want, but the rest of the fault belongs to the front office with that issue.

If I’m going to criticize them in one more direct way, I’ll say that the idea of trading Marcus Stroman this summer confuses me, especially when there is such a clear need in rotation both now and in the future. That said, I can’t fault them for gauging interest and seeing what kind of return they can get, but at this point, Stroman can’t be feeling too valued by the General Manager and his staff and that’s not going to help if and when it comes time to start a real extension negotiation.

On a day after the Toronto Raptors have won the NBA championship, it’s very clear that the Blue Jays have a lot of work to do before they’ll be in a similar position. That comes with deciding to rebuild and take a patient approach, but the disappointments in the 2019 season have been plentiful so far, and hopefully they’ll make steps in the right direction over the remainder of the campaign.