A pair of former Blue Jays just showed how little remains from Toronto’s 2022 promising core

As the franchise celebrates it's 50th season, it's worth noting that some versions of the Toronto Blue Jays are remembered less for what they accomplished and more for what they let slip away.

For an older generation, that definition still brings about mixed feelings about the 1985 team. They won the first division title in franchise history before blowing a 3-1 ALCS lead to the Kansas City Royals. Or the 1987 team that carried a three-game lead over the Detroit Tigers into the final week, only to lose seven straight and miss the postseason altogether.

For a newer generation of Blue Jays fans, the 2022 team has started to occupy similar territory.

That group was talented, exciting and supposed to represent the beginning of the next competitive wave. Instead, its season ended with one of the most painful collapses in franchise history, as Toronto blew an 8-1 lead in Game 2 of the Wild Card Series against the Seattle Mariners and was eliminated in a 10-9 loss at Rogers Centre.

But the sting of that team is not only tied to one disastrous game. It is also tied to how quickly the roster changed, and how many important pieces from that group never quite reached the same heights again. Two recognizable members of that 2022 team, Santiago Espinal and Alek Manoah, exemplified this when they were released by their respective organizations earlier this week.

Both guys were playing in Triple-A, Manoah with the LA Angels farm team, and Espinal with the Texas Rangers. The fact that both of these guys were All-Stars that year (along with Vladimir Guerrero Jr. (1B), Alejandro Kirk (C), Jordan Romano (RP) and George Springer (OF)) speaks volumes about how much momentum that team was building, and how it all completely collapsed in on itself.

This was a young team, full of potential, but by the time the 2023 season ended, it looked like a completely different group.

Blue Jays make over of 2022 team came swiftly and the results weren't always great

After the Blue Jays were eliminated from the postseason, the front office felt the team had to get more left-handed, better defensively and more stable in the bullpen. Gone were Teoscar Hernandez and Lourdes Gurriel Jr. in exchange for Erik Swanson (and Adam Macko) and Daulton Varsho (with prospect Gabriel Moreno thrown in) in deals with Seattle and Arizona respectively.

Espinal went from being a 2.4 bWAR player in 135 games in '22 to being a 0.3 bWAR player in 93 games in '23. Manoah was demoted all the way down to rookie ball in the middle of the season and ended the year in Triple-A. He opened the series against the Mariners, getting the ball in Game One the year before.

Other players from that 2022 team have moved on as well to varying degrees of successes and lack thereof. Cavan Biggio haven't been able to maintain a big lead role consistently since leaving Toronto. Danny Jansen has settled into a backup catcher role with four different teams. Bo Bichette and Matt Chapman left the team at the end of their contracts to sign massive deals with new teams. Closer Jordan Romano flamed out, Mitch White never panned out, and Anthony Bass talked his way off the team.

This group of Blue Jays were right there, on the cusp of something great, but it ended before it truly got going. The fact that so many players from this group, including Espinal and Manoah, didn't continue to have major success shows the Blue Jays how quickly a competitive window can close.

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