Blue Jays: The potential benefits of making the playoffs in 2020

Important experience for the young core

Just as it usually takes a while for a young player to get adjusted to life in the big leagues, it often takes time for youthful teams to learn how to win.

We’ve seen that sort of thing in spades with the Blue Jays this year, as they’ve made plenty of careless mistakes on defence, forgotten how many outs there were, or fell asleep on the base paths. By no means am I making any excuses for them, as I’ve been just as frustrated as many of you have been, but it’s all part of having a young roster.

It’s important to learn how to eliminate those types of mistakes, which can be the difference between winning and losing at the highest level, and that’s something the Blue Jays still need to work on. Equally as important though is learning how to lose, and taking away important lessons from it.

That’s even more amplified on a playoff stage, and even if Charlie Montoyo‘s squad were to make the post-season as the eighth seed and get knocked out without winning a game, there would be significant benefits from the experience. The best in the world ramp things up to a whole other level in October (or whenever it ends up happening this year), and it often makes great players look pretty human. It also requires a preparation that many players have said you can’t understand until you get there and experience it for yourself.

With that in mind, here’s hoping the Blue Jays can get a taste of the playoffs this year, even (or especially?) if it results in some hard lessons.