Is this Blue Jays pitching staff the best in franchise history?

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Are you sitting down? You might want to be for this one.

The Toronto Blue Jays pitching staff currently has the lowest ERA in all of Major League Baseball – better than the Mariners and their endless flamethrowers, better than the Rays with their dark magic, better even than the unstoppable Braves.

In fact, they have been so good, the question is now unavoidable – is this the best pitching staff in Blue Jays franchise history?

Look closer.

Jays starters currently sit second in the league in ERA (3.76), despite last year’s Cy Young finalist Alek Manoah putting up a 5.87 ERA over 87.1 innings before being sent to the minors. Take Manoah out of the equation and look only at the five starters who make up the Jays’ rotation today – Gausman, Berrios, Bassitt, Kikuchi, Ryu – and the number drops to 3.53, which would be first in the league by a wide margin.

Meanwhile, the Jays bullpen sits fourth in the league in reliever ERA (3.59), and has surely gotten stronger with the recent additions of Jordan Hicks and Chad Green, meaning they are probably better at this moment than their overall ranking reflects.

In other words, the Blue Jays might have the best starting rotation and the best bullpen in baseball right now.

So, does this make the 2023 edition the best pitching staff the Jays have ever had?

The bar for Blue Jays pitching

Despite having five Cy Young awards in their trophy case, the Toronto Blue Jays are not exactly a franchise known for its pitching.

In 45 years of existence prior to 2023, the Jays finished in the bottom ten of the league in ERA 24 times, and in the top ten only ten times. That is to say, in 45 seasons, their pitching has been somewhere between mediocre and poor over three-quarters of the time.

More than that, when the Jays have enjoyed team success, they’ve rarely gotten there thanks to their pitching. Consider, when they won the World Series in 1992, the Jays were 20th in ERA, and when they repeated in ’93, they were 15th. The next time they made the playoffs, in 2015, they were 12th. In fact, of the nine times the Jays have made the playoffs, only three times have they done so riding a top ten staff ERA. Conversely, each time the Jays have made the playoffs, save for the shortened 2020 COVID season, their hitters have finished in the top ten in OPS.

Frankly, to be among the best pitching staffs in Blue Jays franchise history is not totally a high bar to clear. The question is though, is the 2023 staff the best?

Sifting back through 45 years of history, there are four clear contenders prior to 2023.

The contenders

2008

Simply, the 2008 Blue Jays pitching staff blew away the competition. Led by peak Roy Halladay, they finished first in baseball in ERA by a mile – not only was their 3.49 ERA nearly twenty points ahead of the second place Dodgers (3.68), but the distance between the Jays in first and the Rays in third (3.82) was the same as the distance between third and 13th.

The starting rotation was dominant, riding Halladay, AJ Burnett, and the surprising duo of Shaun Marcum and Jesse Litsch to the best rotation ERA in the league. Meanwhile, the bullpen comfortably led the league in reliever ERA, despite featuring post-Tommy-John BJ Ryan and a ragtag bunch of castoffs like Scott Downs, Jesse Carlson, and Brian ‘Wolverine’ Tallet.

While the 2008 Blue Jays were never really in playoff contention, for how far they outpaced the field, their pitching staff was without a doubt one of the best in franchise history.

Note: the Jays’ 2007 pitching staff finished with the third lowest ERA in baseball, and could certainly be included in this list of contenders. However, the 2007 staff was almost identical to 2008 … just not as good. Consequently, it has been cut from consideration.

1985

1985 was the first time the Blue Jays were a great team, and the first time they rolled out a truly top-quality pitching staff, finishing fourth in the league in ERA (3.29) on their way to a (still) franchise record 99 wins.

While the staff was filled with quality journeymen having solid years, their elite success was largely down to three names which are synonymous with the franchise – ace Dave Stieb, who led the American League in ERA, 24-year-old Jimmy Key, who was an All Star in his first full season, and a formerly erratic reliever whom the Jays stole before the season as a free agent compensation pick and turned into a dominant late-game arm known as “The Terminator,” Tom Henke.

When you have three franchise icons in absolutely peak form, you’ve probably got one of the best pitching staffs in franchise history.

1991

Forever known as the team before the team(s), the 1991 Blue Jays laid the foundation for titles in ’92 and ’93, particularly with the pitching staff, which finished fourth in the league in ERA (3.50).

The rotation was led by a Jimmy Key in one of his best years, and a Jheri-curled rookie phenom by the name of Juan Guzmán, alongside future championship pieces Todd Stottlemyre and David Wells.

Even better, 1991 was the first time the Jays would unleash the Henke-Ward-Timlin death star at the back end of their bullpen, who together put up a 2.84 ERA and 58 saves in an astonishing 266 innings pitched.

While the Jays would lose to the Twins in the ALCS, their 1991 pitching staff was easily one of the best, and most important, in franchise history.

1987

Despite finishing third in the league in ERA (3.74), the 1987 Jays pitching staff almost didn’t make this list of contenders, because, well, we all remember what happened that year.

Heading into the final week of the season, the Jays held a 3.5 game lead over the Tigers in the AL East, before they promptly lost seven in a row, including a three-game sweep at Tiger Stadium on the last weekend of the season, to finish behind Detroit and out of the playoffs.

Some would say that anyone with a hand in a meltdown like that should not be on a list of the ‘best’ anything.

However, if you can get past the collapse, there is no denying that the Jays’ 1987 pitching staff was stacked, with a rotation featuring AL ERA leader Jimmy Key, Dave Stieb, and former Cy Young winner Mike Flanagan, and a back end locked down by Henke and the nothing-ball throwing Mark Eichhorn.

Let’s just not talk about how the season ended …

How does the 2023 pitching staff stack up?

In 45 years, Blue Jays pitching has only finished first in the league in ERA once, so if the 2023 staff holds that spot through the end of the season, there will be no denying them a place amongst the greatest in franchise history.

But do they top the list?

The counterargument comes in the realm of top end.

Some would argue that a fundamental piece of a truly great pitching staff is an ace, the guy you want on the mound when everything is on the line. Certainly, each of the four contenders above had one.

Who is that guy for the 2023 Jays? Perhaps a case can be made for Kevin Gausman, despite his ERA rising by more than a run after the All Star break for the second year in a row. But does he really hold up next to prime Halladay, prime Stieb, or even prime Key?

Further, while the 2023 version of the Jays bullpen might actually be the deepest they’ve ever had, is there really anyone out there who would not swap it tomorrow for Henke, Ward, and Timlin?

So, is this year’s pitching staff the best in Blue Jays franchise history?

Probably not … yet.

And that’s just it. The conclusion of the 2023 staff’s story is yet to be written. To climb to the top of the list is simple – get to the playoffs, then pitch the team deep into October and become legends.

So what do you think? Is this the best pitching staff the Blue Jays have ever had? And are there any other contenders I’ve missed? Let me know on the platform formerly known as Twitter – @WriteFieldDeep.

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