Blue Jays: Why passing the Yankees could be possible

The Blue Jay are just 1.0 game back of the Yankees for the second spot in the AL East standings, and they’re going to get a chance to control their own destiny.

Thankfully the Blue Jays were able to bounce back after Tuesday’s loss to split their two-game set with the Marlins, picking up a narrow 2-1 victory on Wednesday. 

It was a big win for the young team that’s looking to return to the post-season for the first time since 2016, and it pushed their record to 19-16 on the year. With just 25 games remaining in the short 60-game schedule, the Jays currently sit in the eighth and final playoff spot, and it may come down to a battle for them with the Detroit Tigers and Baltimore Orioles. That said, with the way things have been going for the Yankees lately, the Blue Jays may want to set their sights a little higher.

After yet another Yankee loss on Wednesday night, the Bronx Bombers have fallen to 20-15, and now they’re just 1.0 game ahead of the Blue Jays for the second spot in the division. That’s hard to believe after they started the season going 8-1, but this isn’t the same team that was dominating in the early going. Right now the Yankees are hoping to get Gleybor Torres back from the IL later this week, but there’s not much of a timetable for stars like Aaron Judge, Giancarlo Stanton, and James Paxton. When you add that to the recent struggles of guys like Gerrit Cole, suddenly the Yankees are pretty vulnerable.

More from Jays Journal

• Matt Chapman has been exactly what the Blue Jays needed
• Blue Jays: The goalposts are moving in the right direction
• Single-A Dunedin Blue Jays advance to the Championship Series
• Blue Jays: Comparisons for Alek Manoah’s Second Season
• Blue Jays: Adam Cimber, the unlikely decision King

What could and probably should make the situation more interesting is the fact that Blue Jays and Yankees have yet to play each other this year. That means they still have all of their head-to-head matchups yet to play, which represents 40% of the Blue Jays’ remaining schedule. Earlier in the campaign the thinking was if they could win enough early games, hopefully they could take enough wins off of the Yankees to still qualify for the post-season. Now, the unbalanced schedule could potentially work in their favour.

As previously mentioned, the Yankees aren’t the same team they were for the first few weeks of the season, and had the Blue Jays lined up against them at that point, it likely wouldn’t have gone so well. However, with the Yankees missing key weapons like Judge, Stanton, and more, it evens the playing field quite a bit. The two clubs will play the first three games from Sept 7-9, and it’s pretty safe to say that the two hulking sluggers will still be on the sidelines.

There’s a chance the Yankees could be closer to full strength from Sept 15-17 when they play again, and they’ll really hope to have their best lineup going by Sept 21-24 in their second to last series of the season. They have had a few key players return from the IL recently as well, including DJ LeMahieu, and Zach Britton, but they could be a ways from sporting their best lineup, and many of the healthy regulars they do have are struggling, such as Gary Sanchez and his .130 batting average, or Brett Gardner who isn’t much better at .173.

Having said all of that, I haven’t even talked about how good the Blue Jays have been lately, or the fact that their roster was improved at the trade deadline while the Yankees stood pat. Add it all up, and gap between the two clubs has significantly shrunk for the 2020 season, and there’s a lot working in the Blue Jays’ favour right now.

Does that mean they can pass New York in the standings? I’m not ready to say that the Blue Jays are the better team when everyone is healthy on both sides, but given all of the variables at play right now, there could be a real opportunity to knock the mighty Yankees down to a Wild Card spot. How 2020 would that be? It’s not out of the realm of possibility.