It’s okay that the Toronto Blue Jays lost in the playoffs

Despite the disappointing end to their playoff appearance, the Blue Jays were more successful than most of us expected they’d be in 2020.

As well all know, the Toronto Blue Jays got swept by the Tampa Bay Rays in two games in the Wild Card series. This abruptly put the Jays successful, shortened 2020 season to an end.

While we all wanted to see the Jays pull off an upset, which very well could have happened, it ultimately didn’t, which now has the players heading into the offseason to prepare for the 2021 campaign that hopefully can see games hosted at the Rogers Centre in Toronto.

As the players and some fans are upset that they couldn’t get past the Rays, they should understand that it was okay for the Jays to lose in the playoffs this year. The Jays are a relatively young team that didn’t have too many expectations in the baseball world heading into the season. I didn’t even have them making the playoffs with the expanded format. Yet, they did.

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Having a young team comes with a lack of playoff experience. This was the first time that Vladimir Guerrero Jr, Cavan Biggio, Bo Bichette, Lourdes Gurriel Jr, Nate Pearson, Teoscar Hernandez and many others experienced postseason baseball.

When it comes to playoff baseball, it’s a whole different mentality and mindset, as that is when games truly matter and it only becomes more nerve-wracking when you’re at home and the seats are crowded with fans cheering on you.

Prior to this year, the last time the Jays made the playoffs was in 2016. Not one member of the Jays postseason 2016 roster is currently on the team. The last player they had left over was Justin Smoak, who left for Milwaukee this offseason.

In order to be successful as a team later down the road, the players as a group will need to learn from mistakes and experience growing pains which will only make them better. This wild card series loss is a perfect example.

Also, let’s say they did beat the Rays and somehow ended up all the way to the World Series and won it all. There’s no doubt that questions would arise in regards to how legit it is due to the shortened campaign. While a World Series would have been nice, it’s also just fine to avoid the questions surrounding the legitimacy of it it.

As David Corcoran, another writer apart of Jays Journal put it in a tweet earlier today shown above, the future for the Jays is really bright and they’ll only get better from here.