Blue Jays: Top Five Moments Of The 2020 Season

It was a different kind of season, but it turned out to be a successful one for a young Blue Jays roster. What were the highlights of the 2020 campaign?

Although 2020 was a year that raised significant negativity in pretty much all facets of life, the Blue Jays managed to turn this year into a positive. After an offseason that surrounded the Jays in a band of uncertainty, they managed to shock most of the baseball world, finishing with a 32-28 record and a postseason berth for the first time since 2016.

Prior to the start of the season, it was a commonplace thought among the Blue Jays faithful that 2020 was supposed to be the final year of the rebuild. In that particular regard, their success in this past season could be seen as a year ahead of schedule. Even the Blue Jays own beat writers weren’t so bullish on the club before the season began.

Back in July before opening day, Blue Jays beat writer, Ben Nicholson-Smith predicted on his At The Letters podcast that the Jays would finish a couple games below .500 and that Hyun Jin Ryu would have an ERA over 3.70. He wasn’t completely unjustified to make those predictions. Most of the Blue Jays young core had only one season under their belt and Hyun Jin Ryu was coming to a much tougher hitting division.

When all was said and done, BNS was wildly wrong as the Jays would finish above .500, while Ryu would finish with an ERA well under 3.00. Needless to say, there was great uncertainty surrounding this club going into 2020 and the Jays still managed to find a way to outperform the expectations of the public. In the end, the Blue Jays success was short lived as they were eliminated in the first round of the playoffs by the Rays before October even started.

As we look ahead to greener pastures in 2021, let’s take a look back at some of the brightest moments in the 2020 season for the young Blue Jays.

Another long awaited debut

(5) Nate Pearson makes his MLB debut (7/29/20)

After key minor league graduations from Bo Bichette, Vladimir Guerrero Jr. and Cavan Biggio in 2019, the Jays put the cherry on top in 2020, calling up the best power pitching prospect in baseball, Nate Pearson. In his debut, Pearson tossed five scoreless innings against the great Max Scherzer and the Nationals.

Nate Pearson’s repertoire includes a flaming fastball that sits in the upper 90s, a hard change-up in the upper 80s, and a wipeout slider in the mid to upper 80s. When coupling his repertoire with his athletic 6 ft 6, 250 lb frame, it’s hard not to envision Pearson as a dominant starter in the big leagues at some point in the near future. He has shredded minor league hitters and it’s only a matter of time before Pearson comes into his own and starts mowing down major league hitters on a consistent basis.

Despite a pretty solid debut, Nate Pearson’s velocity and overall command was underwhelming in his first season. This is likely attributable to the elbow injury that would land him on the IL after his first four starts. He was throwing an easy 101mph in summer camp so his underlying injury when he was called up would be the only reasonable justification for his underwhelming velocity to start the season. By the time the playoffs came around, his average was back up in the upper 90s. In his lone playoff appearance, he was in complete control with his fastball, striking out five in 2.0 innings and not allowing a single baserunner.

Fans shouldn’t be overly concerned with the lack of an attractive stat line from Pearson this season. In his lone four starts, it was clear that he was battling through injury and one could hardly gauge the long term success of a player based on such a small sample size. Nate Pearson is here to stay and Blue Jays fans should be excited.

It ain’t over ’til it’s over

(3) Blue Jays overcome 1st inning 7-0 deficit against Phillies (8/20/20)

This offensive burst from the Blue Jays was different from the Yankees one above, in that the Jays were down by seven runs in the 1st inning this time. The fact that this was a 7-inning game as part of a doubleheader made this climb even steeper.

Furthermore, this win came during a turning point in the Blue Jays’ season. After teetering around .500 for the first few weeks of 2020, the Jays went on an explosive win streak, winning six in a row for the first time since 2016. The aforementioned comeback was the 5th game of this win streak, making the ride even more of a high for Jays fans at the time.

On that hot summer day in late August, Trent Thornton and Jacob Waguespack combined for seven runs in the first inning and it looked like one of those games that you’d turn off right away. Again… in came the circling wagons. For the remaining 6.0 innings, the Jays bullpen would allow just one run while the Blue Jays would score nine, resulting in a 9-8 victory. It began with a (i) Teoscar Hernandez 2-run shot in the bottom half of the first, followed by a (ii) 7-run, 6th inning that featured a Gurriel Jr. 3-run homer and a Tellez solo blast.

This was probably the most exciting week of Blue Jays baseball (up to that point) since their 2016 playoff run and it gave Blue Jays fans an idea of just how good this young core could be on a consistent basis.

Riding a hot streak

(2) First 6 game win streak since 2016 (8/21/20)

Since I went over this one above, I will keep it short and sweet. The Blue Jays were not expected to be an above .500 team and their 7-11 start only added to that sentiment early on in the season. Moreover, it felt like even in a 60 game sprint with an expanded postseason bracket, Jays fans were about to be treated to yet another losing season.

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The baseball gods had something different to say. Between the 17th and 21st of August, the Jays would ride out a 6-game winning streak to move their record to 13-11. Given the brevity of the 2020 season, this was just about as quick of a turnaround as a team could possibly go through. After 18 games the Jays looked like a losing club and after 24 games, they looked like one of the better ball clubs in the AL. That kind of turn around inside of one week was sheer excitement for the Toronto faithful after a disappointing start to the schedule.

(1) Hyun Jin Ryu leads Blue Jays back to the playoffs (9/24/20)

Going into the latter half of September, the Jays began to slump badly. In the 10 games leading up to their eventual postseason clinching game, the Blue Jays were 3-7 with a 6-game losing streak sandwiched in there. The Mariners, Angels, Orioles and even Tigers were within a few games of passing the Blue Jays for the final playoff spot. It was looking like the Jays postseason hopes were too good to be true for such a young and undeveloped core.

In comes ace Hyun Jin Ryu. After a very rough couple of weeks of Blue Jays starting pitching, Ryu turned in the best start of the season in their most important game since October of 2016. Ryu tossed a scoreless 7.0 innings with only seven men reaching base. For most teams, this pitching line may seem rather mundane, but with manager Charlie Montoyo’s conservative managing style, it had been a long time since a Blue Jays starter got into the 7th inning. In fact, it had been more than a full calendar year since a Jays pitcher had done so.

With all the doubts and head shakers going into 2020, it was even more special for Jays fans to see this club clinch a postseason berth. It all came full circle with new Blue Jay, Hyun Jin Ryu’s dominant performance.