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.

The Silver Slugger Award

The Silver Slugger Award is an individual accolade that is awarded to a player at each position as voted on by managers and coaches across the Major Leagues based on the slash line statistics as well as the offensive output from the player.

The Blue Jays have a few players who could find themselves taking home this award this season.

Marcus Semien

Another off-season signing, second baseman Marcus Semien is having a great campaign at the plate, slashing .269/.341/.544 on the year and leading all second baseman in terms of OPS (.884), home runs (42), and RBI (98).

Semien has been dominant this season but if the voters stick with slash line stats in regards to winning the award, he may be in for a bit of a competition.

The Jays second baseman sits in the top five in terms of batting average and OBS and leads the slugging category amongst the AL. Jose Altuve is also sitting around the top of the leaderboards so it may be a bit closer than expected, however, I don’t see how he doesn’t bring home this trophy at the end of the season considering he is currently one of the top offensive players this season.

Semien may also get some attention for the MVP award but considering the campaign’s Ohtani and Guerrero Jr. are putting together, he may receive some votes but will most likely fall in the 3-5 area on the award depth charts.

The Blue Jays are currently fighting for a postseason spot but have some players who could potentially earn their own hardware this season.

Teoscar Hernandez

After winning the award during last year’s shortened campaign, Teoscar Hernandez has his sights set on a second Silver Slugger this season.

Amongst right fielders, Hernandez currently leads multiple categories such as average (.301) and RBI (110). He missed a few weeks earlier this season on the COVID-IL and that had a bit of an impact on his home run (30) stats but both Aaron Judge (Yankees) and Kyle Tucker (Astros) are having great seasons, with Judge leading AL right fielders in OBP and Tucker leading slugging. Tucker and Judge also have an upper hand on Hernandez in terms of OPS (.878) and Judge also leads the Jays outfielder by six home runs.

To make matters even more difficult is that the Silver Slugger award goes to the top three outfielders and is not based on position. That means Hernandez not only has to compete with other right fielders but also with every other outfielder across the American League. Rankings-wise, Hernandez currently sits second in average, fourth in slugging, and tied for ninth in OBP while also ranking first in RBI, fourth in OPS, and fourth in home runs.

This next week will most likely be a deciding factor on who takes home the hardware in the outfield with many of the players being so close amongst the categories. A strong finish to the campaign could see Hernandez bring home a consecutive Silver Slugger award North of the border but it will be a very close contest.

Bo Bichette

While he is currently tied for the lead in errors and will not be in the Gold Glove conversation this season, Bo Bichette has had a pretty solid season at the plate and should garner some attention for a Silver Slugger award this season.

He currently sits fourth amongst AL shortstops in terms of average (.290), fourth in OBP (.337), and fourth in slugging (.463) but does hold a narrow lead over Carlos Correa in home runs (26) and ten RBI over the Astros shortstop with 98.

He may not be leading the AL in terms of his slash line but his raw power and ability to drive in runs may sway voters to look away from those stats. He does have tough competition from Red Sox shortstop Xander Bogaerts, who sits within the top two of all three offensive categories.

Bichette is also the Blue Jays nominee for the Roberto Clemente Award, an accolade that is given to a player who shows character both on and off the field whether it be through charity involvement, philanthropic contributions, or extraordinary character. Each team across the league nominates one player and no Blue Jays representative has ever won the award before since it’s debut back in the early 1970’s.

Honourable Mentions

I would be probably yelled at by the readers for not bringing up the solid season Alek Manoah is having in the Blue Jays rotation.

The former first-round pick back in 2019 has been excellent this year, starting 18 games and pitching to a 3.36 ERA with 109 strikeouts through 99.0 innings of work while pitching very well against tough teams like the New York Yankees during his rookie campaign.

He has certainly charged up the rankings list to find himself in contention for the Rookie of the Year award but he is in tough against a very good crop of AL rookies such as Adolis Garcia, Luis Garcia, Randy Arozarena, and Ryan Mountcastle.

The odds may be against him for the ROY award but rest assured, his season is one both he and the Blue Jays fanbase should be very proud of.