Blue Jays: Potential for players to take home some personal hardware

With the regular season coming to a close over the next two weeks, all eyes are on the Blue Jays and their standings in the Wild Card, as the club is currently on the outside looking in after losing their last two games to the Minnesota Twins and dropping two of three against Tampa earlier in the week.

While the drama against the Rays may have dominated the headlines, the Blue Jays are still putting together a strong month, currently riding a 16-7 record in the month of September that put everyone around the league on notice.

The Blue Jays and their fans may have their sights set on postseason glory but on an individual front, there are a few members on the roster who are putting together pretty strong seasons and could be in line for some individual awards when all is said and done.

Vladimir Guerrero Jr.

After the monster season Vladimir Guerrero Jr. is having this year, everybody is talking about the MVP award.

He has no doubt been one of the key factors in the Blue Jays lineup and one of the main reasons the club is sitting in a playoff spot right now, slashing .319/.409/.609 and leading the American League in terms of average, slugging, and OPS (1.018) while being tied for first with Salvador Perez in the home run category (46). He currently has 105 RBI on the year and sits tied for fifth in the AL, ten behind Perez and five behind teammate Teoscar Hernandez.

While Jays fans may feel like he is the outright MVP candidate, two-way athlete Shohei Ohtani is his biggest competition, as the Los Angeles Angels star sits one home run behind Guerrero and is second in the AL terms of OPS (.952). Follow that with a 3.28 ERA through 22 starts with 146 strikeouts and you can see why this race is pretty much down to both individuals.

Guerrero should be a shoo-in to win the Silver Slugger award at first base and while his defensive play has improved on the right side, I don’t see a Gold Glove award this season.

He was also garnering some attention earlier this year by flirting with a potential Triple Crown, however, unless he can make up some serious ground in the RBI category, he may finish just one stat short of the coveted award.