Blue Jays: Even without a ring, it’s been a good decade

They may not have won a championship or even made a World Series appearance, but there’s been a lot to celebrate over the last decade of Blue Jays baseball.

It’s hard not to be at least a little bit reflective when a year comes to an end, and we have the added bonus of the closing of a decade to think about in 2019. Life has been mostly great to me over the last ten years, and I look forward to what’s ahead, and hope you feel the same way.

Because a huge part of my life is my passion for the Toronto Blue Jays, I can’t help but think about the way the last ten years have gone for my favourite team. It’s hard to believe that the last decade closed with Roy Halladay being traded to the Phillies on December 15th, 2009, signalling the end of an era back then.

With the rebuild that was put into motion a year ago, the Blue Jays got started a little early on turning the page this decade, but the future appears to be much brighter as a result. That said, we’ve had a lot of great memories over the last 10 years of Blue Jays baseball, and I’d like to take you for a trip down memory lane highlighting a few of the best parts, at least how I remember them anyway.

The Jays may not have won a World Series over the last decade, or even made an appearance in the Fall Classic, but that doesn’t mean there weren’t some franchise defining moments, and a few players that will likely end up on the “Level of Excellence” someday.

With that, let’s have a look at some of the best of the last decade.

Playoff Appearances

The obvious place to start would be with the successful teams of the 2015 and 2016 seasons. With star studded lineups over those two seasons, the Blue Jays managed to make back to back postseason appearances, snapping a more than two decade long streak of missing out.

Then-GM Alex Anthopoulos made some bold trades in the summer of 2015 that ignited the fan base, and sending the 2015 squad on a hot streak that would land them in the playoffs. First they acquired Troy Tulowitzki from the Colorado Rockies, fortifying their infield and adding another potentially lethal bat to the lineup. Then came the even bigger fish, getting David Price from the Detroit Tigers to give the Jays a bonafide ace.

Winning the AL East in 2015, the Blue Jays got to skip the Wild Card game and were squared off against the Texas Rangers in the Division series. We’ll get to more of this later, but that series led to one of the most iconic moments in franchise history when Jose Bautista blew the roof of the Rogers Centre. That landed the Blue Jays in the ALCS against the Royals, and while there are some moments we’d love to have back, they put up a valiant effort in a 4-2 series loss.

In 2016 the Blue Jays returned to the playoffs, but this time they had to go through the Wild Card route. This of course provided the opportunity for another franchise defining moment from Edwin Encarnacion, and the Blue Jays ousted the Baltimore Orioles thanks in part to some questionable decision making from Buck Showalter.

This time the Blue Jays had the pleasure of sweeping the Rangers in the division series, before going on to lose in the ALCS for the second consecutive season, this time at the hands of the Cleveland Indians.

While they didn’t end up with a championship, the Blue jays reignited the fan base in Toronto and all across the country. Even ending in disappointment, it was a lot more fun than a 67-win season like the one we had in 2019.

Jose Bautista/Edwin Encarnacion

One of the biggest reasons the Blue Jays were able to build the last decade’s teams into a contender was a pair of big boppers in their lineup. And when you consider the acquisition cost to have Jose Bautista and Edwin Encarnacion on the roster, it’s not hard to see that there was a little bit of luck at play for the Blue Jays’ front office.

Bautista was acquired in 2008 from the Pirates for Robinzon Diaz, and you’ll be forgiven if this is the only context you’ve ever heard Diaz’s name. Bautista didn’t become a superstar right away after landing in Toronto, but when the new decade began, he announced that he had arrived. He lead all of baseball with 54 home runs in 2010, smashing his career high of 16, and followed it up by doing the same in 2011 with another 43 long bombs.

He was also responsible for this, what I consider to be the third-biggest moment in franchise history, behind only Joe Carter‘s walkoff World Series home run in 1993, and when Carter caught Mike Timlin‘s throw for the final out at first base in 1992.

As for Encarnacion, he had a similar path by becoming a late bloomer. He was originally acquired from the Cincinnati Reds in the Scott Rolen trade, and was even DFA’d in 2010, briefly being picked up by the Oakland A’s. Thankfully the A’s didn’t hang on to him either, and he returned to Toronto to become one of the more feared sluggers in the American League, starting with his 42 home runs in 2012.

Encarnacion had a franchise-changing moment of his own, walking off the Orioles in the AL Wild Card in 2016.

The pair made up one of the scarier duos in baseball for several years, and even if they didn’t win a title, they sure brought a lot of great memories.

Josh Donaldson

If we’re going to talk about the impact that Bautista and Encarnacion made on the lineup, then we’d better have a chat about the accomplishments of Josh Donaldson in a Blue Jays uniform.

Donaldson arrived in 2015 via the Oakland A’s, and that trade will go down as arguably the finest move that Alex Anthopoulos made while working for the Blue Jays. AA sent Brett Lawrie, Kendall Graveman, Sean Nolin, and Franklin Barreto to the A’s for Donaldson, and it couldn’t have worked out a lot better for the Blue Jays.

Donaldson would go on to win his first AL MVP award in 2015, proving to be what the Blue Jays needed to take their lineup from scary to elite, hitting .297/.371/.568 with 41 home runs and 123 RBI. He followed that up with another All-Star season in 2016, finishing 4th in MVP voting and continuing his dominance of the AL East.

Donaldson continued his elite-level play into 2017, but unfortunately battled injuries throughout most of his last year in Toronto, and was traded in July of 2018 to Cleveland. That trade has been the source of a lot of frustration for Blue Jays fans, especially because Donaldson had a big bounce-back year with the Braves last season, and Julian Merryweather, the pitcher the Jays acquired in return, has thrown just four innings in High-A so far while battling injuries.

Things may not have ended the way that Donaldson or the Blue Jays had hoped, but the partnership was a successful one to be sure. The “Bringer of Rain” was the second MVP in franchise history, a 3x All-Star, and a 2x Silver Slugger Award winner. His impact in Toronto won’t soon be forgotten.

The Hall of Fame

Since the Blue Jays didn’t become a MLB franchise until 1977, they don’t have the same type of team history that a club like the Yankees or Red Sox have. That said, they took an important step over the last ten years, getting the first Blue Jay cap in the Baseball Hall of Fame.

That first hat is on the head of Roberto Alomar, who was inducted in 2011. It was Alomar’s second appearance on the ballot, and while it was surprising he didn’t enter on his first try, the voters got it right by giving him 90% of the vote in 2011. Although he was in Toronto from just 1991-1995, Alomar has been considered by many to be the greatest player in franchise history. A Hall of Fame nod will help your argument, no doubt.

And while he isn’t wearing a Blue Jays hat on his Cooperstown plaque, Roy Halladay became the second Blue Jay inducted in 2019. The tragedy of the story is that Halladay isn’t around to enjoy it, as he was lost in a plane crash on November 7, 2017, but thankfully baseball decided to honour him on his first Hall of Fame ballot, and the Blue Jays had the opportunity to have his family to the Rogers Centre to celebrate.

Because the “Doc” had significant accomplishments with both the Blue Jays and the Philadelphia Phillies, his family decided that he would wear a blank cap on his HOF plaque, which is a decision we have no choice but to respect. That said, he’ll always be a Blue Jay in the hearts of Canada’s fan base, and it’s a tremendous shame that he was lost at such a young age.

Will the Blue Jays have more Hall of Famers over the next decade? It’s hard to say for sure, but my guess is that Donaldson will be the next person to have a serious chance at getting enshrined, and his career is likely at least 4-5 years from being over. It could be a while before we see it again, which is why this decade was so special in that regard.