Alex Black

After what always seems like an eternity, the baseball season is back. 2023 is a year of change within the sport of baseball, and for the Toronto Blue Jays, it is also a year of necessity.

For the past 4 or 5 seasons, the Blue Jays have been a will they, won't they, baseball team. With emerging homegrown talents like 1st baseman Vlad Guerrerro Jr. (son of HOFer Vlad Guerrero, signed at 16 in 2015 with 3.9mil signing bonus) and shortstop Bo Bichette (son of 4-time all-star Dante Bichette, drafted in 2016) quickly becoming franchise players and household names, to additions like starting pitcher Jose Berrios (signed through 2028) and outfielder George Springer (signed through 2026), as well as starting pitchers Kevin Gausman and Japanese league veteran Yusei Kikuchi, the Blue Jays have been in the right position for the last few seasons, but to no success, having won 0 games in their two playoff appearances in 2020 and 2022. Despite the Blue Jays winning over 90 games the last two seasons in the AL East, a notoriously hard division with the Yankees, Rays, and Red Sox all being historic powerhouses within the sport, they have yet to have success in the postseason.

Major Additions: *(RP) Erik Swanson (from Seattle) *(OF) Daulton Varsho (from Arizona) *(1B) Brandon Belt (free agent, 12 year veteran with San-Francisco, 2 championships) *(OF) Kevin Kiermaier (free agent, 10 year veteran with Tampa Bay) *(SP) Chris Bassitt (played 2022 with New York Mets) *(RP) Chad Green (missed most of 2022 and will miss the first months of 2023) *(SP) Hyun Jin Ryu (returning from injury)

Major Subtractions: *(OF) Teoscar Hernandez *(OF) Lourdes Gurriel Jr. *(C.) Gabriel Moreno *(P) Ross Stripling (free agency)

Last winter, they addressed their flaws and made changes that could give them that push they needed. Having a very right-handed dominant batting lineup, they traded away star outfielder Teoscar Hernandez for relief pitcher Erik Swanson, and traded Lourdes Gurriel Jr. and prospect Gabriel Moreno for left-handed outfielder Daulton Varsho. In addition to these major trades, they also signed left-handed free agents Brandon Belt and Kevin Kiermaier. They also signed starting pitcher Chris Bassitt and relief pitcher Chad Green, who underwent Tommy John surgery last year. (an elbow surgery most common among pitchers and leaves players out of action for the better part of a year). The Blue Jays organization has also used this offseason to adjust the dimensions of the Rogers Centre, reducing stadium capacity by 7% but with a batter-friendly adjustment to the outfield wall. They have also added new food and bar locations to steal your money, and wider seats for the American crowds.

If we want to get down to the adjusts glasses statistics and break the numbers down, we can use the 2023 FanGraphs projection to see that the Blue Jays are projected to go 89-73, placing them 2nd in the division. Now, these upcoming statistics are pretty unnecessary for the casual fan, so feel free to stop reading here if you desire.

Since the 2020 season, the Blue Jays have a 113 wRC+ (weighted runs created+, is used to compare players performance despite ballpark dimensions) which is tied with the Los Angeles Dodgers, notorious for being “the best team in baseball” year after year. They are projected to score 4.66 runs/game, which puts them in 3rd place among all teams. Scoring runs was also their biggest issue in the postseason, having scored only 12 runs in the 4 games played, 9 of which coming from a 10-9 loss. With emerging stars like starting pitcher Alek Manoah, catcher Alejandro Kirk, closing pitcher Jordan Romano, and returning veteran starting pitcher Hyun Jin Ryu, Toronto is in good shape to chase a championship.

by Your friend and comrade