Blue Jays All-Star team over the last decade (2010-2019)

The Bullpen

I’ll admit right off of the bat that I didn’t do the deep dive into their stats that I could have, but that’s because of the sheer volume of relievers that have come and gone over the last ten years. You may leave a comment below with a name that I missed, and I could end up totally agreeing with you.

To round out my fictional roster, the only stipulation I added was that I wanted to include at least two left-handers, which wasn’t hard to do in the end at all. The rest, well, have a look for yourself and get ready to tell me I’m wrong.

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RP- Roberto Osuna (2016- 2.1 bWAR)
RP- Ken Giles (2019- 2.4 bWAR)
RP- Brett Cecil (2013- 1.3 bWAR)
RP- Scott Downs (2010- 1.8 bWAR)
RP- Casey Janssen (2011- 1.9 bWAR)
RP- Jason Frasor (2011- 1.1 bWAR)
RP- Ryan Tepera (2018- 1.3 bWAR)

I could have gone a whole pile of different ways, and guys like Darren Oliver, Liam Hendriks, Joaquin Benoit, Dominic Leone, Aaron Loup, and many others could have made the seven-man bullpen. I suppose it would depend on how much you weighed one successful season against a bulk contribution, but I sort of did both here.

I went with the two-headed closing monster of Osuna and Giles, even though they were traded for each other. For southpaws I went with Brett Cecil and Scott Downs, both for their body of work more than an individual season. If I had used that metric exclusively in my nonsense guidelines, Oliver would have made this team.

Janssen was a valuable contributor in a number of different roles and is a lock for a spot to help out in the mid to late innings. As for the last two jobs, I gave them to Frasor and Tepera. Neither of the righties had particularly impressive single seasons to point out, but they were both effective for more than just one campaign, and that means something to a long-time fan like yours truly.

And that brings me to the end of my 25-man roster. Since Cito Gaston coached this team over the last decade then he gets the automatic nod as the skipper. I’m sure he’d be willing to hire John Gibbons and Charlie Montoyo as bench coach and first base coach or something. You could bring Steve Delabar back to teach the weighted ball program, and maybe Omar Vizquel would come work as an infield instructor?

Who did I miss? Did anyone surprise you? Let us know in the comments below, and thanks for coming along for my trip down memory lane with the Blue Jays over the last ten years. There were highs and lows, and some memories we’ll hold on to for the rest of our lives, but here’s hoping the next decade brings a World Series championship. It’s pretty fun to think about the names that will fill out this list for 2020-2029 too.