Blue Jays: Foolish mistakes show there’s another step to take

The Blue Jays have made a far too regular habit of making costly, foolish mistakes, and it’s proof that this talented young club isn’t a finished product.

It really depends on what kind of mood I’m in when it comes to how I feel about the Blue Jays season so far.

On one hand, they’ve been a pleasant surprise at 21-18, currently tied for second in the AL East/the 2nd Wild Card spot in the AL playoff race, and Fangraphs now likes them for an 88.1% chance to make the post-season. On the other, it’s maddening how many borderline amateur mistakes we’re seeing from this team this year, especially on the base paths.

If you’ve been watching the Blue Jays with any regularity this season, there’s no denying the raw talent throughout the organization. The lineup is coming together and looks like they could have potential to be among baseball’s more dangerous groups over the next few years, and there are a ton of talented arms on the pitching staff as well these days. You really have to hand it to Ross Atkins and the front office, as they’ve quickly transformed this roster into what looks like a sustainably competitive team.

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In the here and now though, the young Blue Jays are proving that they’ve got some experience yet to gain, and that may be the most important part of the 2020 campaign. Championship teams don’t run into outs on the bases on a near-nightly basis, and they don’t make foolish defensive decisions like the one Reese McGuire made on Friday night, which likely served as the last straw for his MLB opportunity for now. You can win a lot of baseball games on raw talent alone, but sooner or later these costly errors are really going to come back and bite the Blue Jays, and it most definitely won’t fly in the playoffs.

As they lost another close one with the Red Sox on Saturday, yet again one of the topics of discussion was poor base-running, with Jonathan Villar and Rowdy Tellez the latest culprits. They’re far from the only guilty offenders lately, and while I understand that it’s difficult to find much time for practice during a jam-packed schedule like they’ve had, something has to be done about it. Whether that means Montoyo has to make an example out of somebody and bench a player for that kind of mistake, or sending a message in some other way, it’s simply not acceptable at the big league level, and it’s directly hurt their record.

The folly of the baserunners has been the most glaring area lately, but there are other things that need to be tightened up as well. Whether it’s Lourdes Gurriel Jr’s decision making while throwing the ball in from the outfield, Vladimir Guerrero Jr’s development as a first baseman, or Teoscar Hernandez’s continued development with the glove, most of the players on the roster are what I would consider an “unfinished” product, with a few obvious exceptions like a Hyun-Jin Ryu, for example.

As this talented young team navigates the remainder of their 2020 schedule, and hopefully qualify for the post-season, the focus of this year needs to be on gaining valuable experience. Even more important is the cliche idea of learning what it takes to win at the highest level, which requires not just talent, but a greater mental focus than has ever been asked of them before. I have almost no doubt that it will come in time, but as we’ve watched the Blue Jays outperform most people’s expectations this year, we’ve also been consistently reminded of their youth and inexperience, and that there’s at least one more step to take before they’ll truly ascend to contender status.