Blue Jays: Top 5 Reasons to be Excited for Spring Training (eventually)

Right around this time every year, baseball fans are theorizing and envisioning what their team is going to do to complete their roster before the end of the offseason. Unfortunately, the ongoing lockout between the MLBPA and the league’s owners has halted the start of Spring Training. The general consensus among baseball fans, including myself, it that this is a major buzzkill. What is supposed to be an exciting and optimistic time for baseball fans, and especially fans of the Toronto Blue Jays, is instead full of anxiety and uncertainty.

The two sides plan to meet daily throughout this week, and an end to this lockout could be on the horizon. If the season is to start on time, the reported deadline to reach an agreement is February 28th. I tend to take an optimistic approach, and doing this allows me to think about watching the Jays in Dunedin in the coming weeks. We could see all of our favourite players report to camp and see our first game on March 5th in Lakeland against the Tigers, on the possibility of things going well this week.

Spring Training 2022 is set to be the most eventful and talent-filled camp we’ve seen in a while, and there are plenty of reasons to get excited. For the first time in a long time, the Blue Jays enter Spring Training as true contenders in the American League East. This spring camp will mark the beginning of what looks to be as fun and competitive season as any.  Today, through a hopeful lens, we will be ranking what exactly those reasons are.

#5: Kevin Gausman

This spring will be our first look at the 2021 All-Star, Kevin Gausman, in a Blue Jays jersey. To date he is the biggest acquisition of the offseason for the Jays, and was a much needed addition after the departure of Robbie Ray. I’m elated at the thought of watching Kevin Gausman go out and throw a clean two innings with a nasty splitter in a spring start in Dunedin, let alone what he’ll do in the regular season.

Gausman comes to the Blue Jays off of the best season of his career. Leading the league with 33 games started, he threw 192 innings and posted a 3.00 FIP. This performance was good enough for sixth in the NL Cy Young vote, while being a first-time All-Star and earning some down ballot MVP votes. He catapulted off of this past season and secured a five-year contract with the Jays worth $110 million.

He joins the team at a great time, as the Blue Jays now appear to have the best rotation in the AL East. An argument could be made that he is a member of a pitching corps that has three separate aces. Jose Berrios, Gausman, and Hyun Jin Ryu all fit the bill of the leader of a pitching staff. The Blue Jays were towards the top of the AL in team ERA last season, so bolstering the rotation with another top level arm will help them repeat that performance.

Since becoming a regular big league starter, he’s pitched anywhere between 5.0 to 13.0 innings each Spring Training. Expect some two and three inning outings early on, with more pitches thrown each time out. Watching Kevin Gausman will be quite the attraction in the coming weeks, as the newest member of the team looks to gear up for a pennant run.

#4: Position Battles

Like every Spring Training before, certain spots on the team still need to be decided. This is done by trying the players out in a particular role and seeing who performs better. A variety of these situations exist for the Blue Jays at this point in time, with more sure to come as more acquisitions are made after the lockout ends.

These battles begin with the starting rotation. The top four out of five arms will no doubt include Berrios, Gausman, Ryu, and Alek Manoah. The fifth spot remains up for grabs, and as it stands on the roster there are five men available for the job. This includes Ross Stripling, Anthony Kay, Thomas Hatch, Nate Pearson, and Trent Thornton. Stripling enters camp as the most likely, as his 101.1 innings was the most by far amongst these five pitchers, with the next closest being 49 innings from Thornton. Stripling is also the most experienced, with more total major league innings than the others combined. Despite that experience, a competition will no doubt still be held, as pitchers like Nate Pearson and Thomas Hatch have a future ahead of them with Toronto.

The bullpen is always in a state of flux with big league rosters and the Blue Jays are no exception. Guys like Jordan Romano, Tim Mayza, Trevor Richards, Adam Cimber, and newcomer Yimi Garcia are all essentially locks to make the bullpen out of camp. However, minor league options and minor league contracts also have a hand in forming a bullpen. Arms such as Julian Merryweather and Ryan Borucki are out of options and cannot be sent to AAA, while veterans like David Phelps are on minor league deals trying to crack the roster. A lot still must be decided for the bullpen before Spring Training concludes.

Lastly, there are numerous players on the bubble when it comes to position players. Kevin Smith, Josh Palacios, Reese McGuire, and Otto Lopez among others could help the big league team at some point this season, but don’t have any guarantees of making it out of camp.

Position battles offer incentive to players getting a chance in Spring Training, and always add value to the experience of watching these games.

#2: George Springer

Remember when the Jays signed Springer? The hype was unmatched. They secured a bonafide star with a winning pedigree. Springer is a five-tool talent who can make an impact on both sides of the ball, and is a key cog in the success of this team. Unfortunately, his 2021 season didn’t go as planned. Injuries that arose in Spring Training halted his preparation and he struggled to be a consistent contributor to the lineup. His absence had a ripple effect on the team that led to the Jays being exposed. In a perfect world Springer would’ve been playing centre field at Yankee Stadium last April. Instead, we endured Randal Grichuk for a considerable amount of time.

Come 2022, and Springer is by all accounts healthy and ready to go. He’s set to be a part of a formidable outfield quartet, and will most likely mainly play centre field while receiving his occasional starts at DH. This spring will be a fun time to watch Springer, as we didn’t get to see him ramp up much for the impending season at this time last year.

Looking at 2021 when Springer did play, he was more than productive. A 143 OPS+ split between being an outfielder and DH while playing at less than 100% is an encouraging sign. This was only over 78 games. The 32 year-old Connecticut native is one of four Blue Jays entering this season after posting a 120 OPS+ or better the year prior. If the Blue Jays start the 2022 campaign with all of these players healthy and ready to go, it could go a long way towards giving them early success.

He got into only 10 Spring Training games last year, so seeing a healthy Springer hit leadoff and play centre field this spring is liable to entice any fan.

#1: The Offseason Isn’t Complete

The lockout began on November 29th of last year. This means that there are approximately three months of offseason transactions to make up. If you look at when the season is slated to start, you’ll notice that there are about four weeks until Opening Day (pending CBA agreement). This means that the four weeks leading up to the onset of the 2022 MLB season are going to be electric.

There are a variety of premier free agents remaining, teams willing to part with their best players on the trade market, and clubs still looking to improve. The Toronto Blue Jays are looking to fit into all three of these storylines. They’re still looking to improve, and there are many free agents and players on the trade block who fit like a glove with their current roster.

As it stands, the Jays are set to be competitive, with some subtle weak spots among their current group. They would tremendously benefit from adding an impact infielder, their rotation would be a power house with another veteran arm, and more relief depth never hurt. There are a variety of potential matches just waiting to be made, and the resumption of the baseball season will hopefully see the Jays add a few new players.

Whether it’s one of the Cincinnati Reds starting pitchers, a package from the Oakland Athletics, one of Freddie Freeman or Jose Ramirez, or a free agent like Kris Bryant or Carlos Correa, the options are plentiful. The thought of adding impact players to this already talented core is enough to get any Jays fan excited. These storylines, paired with the starting of Spring Training, makes for one of the most exciting months in recent Blue Jays memory.