This writer has predicted good things from the Toronto Blue Jays each of the past three seasons with not a whole lot to show for it, but yours truly is about to predict good things one more time for Toronto. Not only do they have a great core of a team, which has been underperforming in recent years, they also brought on Josh Donaldson this season and he should be a massive boost. With the AL East defending champion Orioles doing next to nothing this off-season and the rest of the division (except Boston) looking less than competitive, this could be the year of the Jay.
Notable Additions and Subtractions this off-season:
Additions
- Josh Donaldson
- Russell Martin
- Michael Saunders
- Marco Estrada
- Devon Travis
- Justin Smoak
- Preston Guilmet
- Chris Colabello
- Daric Barton
- Andy Dirks
- Jake Fox
- Ramon Santiago
- Ezequiel Carrera
- Andy Dirks
- Caleb Gindl
- Liam Hendriks
- Juan Oramas
- Bo Schultz
- Jayson Aquino
- Jeff Francis
- Andrew Albers
- Scott Barnes
- Matt West
- Wilton Lopez
- Greg Burke
Subtractions
- Melky Cabrera
- Brett Lawrie
- Colby Rasmus
- Casey Janssen
- Adam Lind
- Anthony Gose
- Sean Nolin
- Kendall Graveman
- Brandon Morrow
- Sergio Santos
- Franklin Barreto
- Juan Francisco
- JA Happ
- Dustin McGowan
- George Kottaras
- Dan Johnson
- Munenori Kawasaki
- Santiago Nessy
Biggest Weakness – Front of the Pitching Rotation
Let’s face it, RA Dickey is not the pitcher he was in 2012 when he won the NL Cy Young. It’s funny that it seems that everyone has just accepted that and still allowed him to just pitch out of the number one spot in the rotation anyway. He ended up having a respectable year last year, but FIP says he got lucky by a pretty good margin. With that said, there isn’t a whole lot of depth in the minors to fall back on if the now 40 year old Dickey doesn’t pan out. Mark Buehrle is a straight up workhorse, but this writer feels that he has to start falling off sooner or later.
He has literally pitcher 200+ innings at the major league level in every season since 2001 and has somehow maintained being a quality pitcher. He might make me eat my words here, but I don’t feel like I can continue to put trust into him that much longer. He has always been just a little above average anyway. The rest of the rotation is young, but still going through growing pains. This writer does think Hutchison will end up being a legitimate #3 pitcher, but he’s not ready for that role yet and that’s where he will be to start the year most likely. Don’t get me wrong, don’t think this is the worst pitching staff in the league by any means, but it does have the potential of keeping this team from being elite.
Biggest Strength – Heart of the Lineup
As if the combo between Jose Bautista and Edwin Encarnacion wasn’t enough already, now the Jays have brought in another elite middle of the lineup hitter in Josh Donaldson into the mix. This offense now has the potential to be the best in all of baseball. Fact of the matter is that they are in a hitters park and in a division where there aren’t any pitchers that are particularly intimidating this year. If Toronto makes a run at the AL East title this year like I think they will, it will be because they are amongst the best in the league in runs scored.
Something To Keep An Eye On – 2nd Base Position
Since the Blue Jays have made the wise decision to go with Dalton Pompey as their center fielder of the current and of the future, they were able to part ways with Anthony Gose. In exchange for Gose, the Detroit Tigers traded a somewhat highly touted second base prospect in Devon Travis. Travis looks to be a solid, well rounded prospect. He is an above average offensive player with regards to contact, power and speed, and especially stands out with his ability to get on base. As of right now, the two major league options Toronto has are veterans Macier Izturis and Steve Tolleson. Seems like they will either compete for a starting role in spring training or platoon the position. Neither of these guys are very appealing in a starting role, but they are capable of the holding the Jays over until they are ready to bring Travis up. I bet he comes us sometime in June or July and improves the teams offense immensely.
Potential Lineup - * = Lefty, ^ = Switch
- Jose Reyes – SS^
- Josh Donaldson – 3B
- Jose Bautista – RF
- Edwin Encarnacion – 1B
- Justin Smoak – DH^
- Russell Martin – C
- Kevin Pillar – LF
- Macier Izturis – 2B^
- Dalton Pompey – CF^
Potential Bench
Josh Thole*
Dioner Navarro^
Steve Tolleson
Danny Valencia
Potential Rotation - * = Lefty
RA Dickey
Mark Buehrle*
Drew Hutchison
Marcus Stroman
Aaron Sanchez
Potential Bullpen
Brett Cecil – Closer*
Aaron Loup*
Steve Delabar
Marco Estrada
Chad Jenkins
Kyle Drabek
Todd Redmond
Starting Season on DL
Michael Saunders*
Fantasy Bargain – Dalton Pompey
Pompey might get overlooked in drafts this year because he didn’t have a great cup of tea last year in the majors when it comes to offensive production. The truth is though that he has the potential to be highly valuable. It looks like the organization is ready to hand him the reigns on the centerfield position for good starting this year so he should get a large amount of at bats this year. In the minors, Dalton regularly had an OBP in the high 300’s and has the ability to steal large gobs of bases (53 steals in 2014). Even though his MLB numbers didn’t look awesome this past season, this writer has no problem taking a risk on a guy who will get the at bats and has this minor league track record.
Overvalued Fantasy Player – Russell Martin
We all know Russell Martin is awesome, but this does not mean he should be taken highly in fantasy drafts. This happens all the time where people get emotionally attached to players and draft them higher than their production says they should be drafted. It actually happens to catchers more than other positions as well. We’re talking about a position that more so than any other position in the game is defense first. It is also the most taxing position on the field, and starters at the catcher position play less games on average than starters at any other position. Is Russell Martin a top 10 catcher in fantasy? Probably. Should he be taken in the first 10 rounds? Probably not. He is slightly above league average when it comes to hitting production, but he’s less valuable that that even since you should only expect to get about 450 plate appearances from him.
Conclusion/Prediction
This writer loves the way this team is set up. They could really go far and this writer has said this for 2 or 3 years now, but they are far and away better now than they have been in recent years. The acquisitions of Josh Donaldson and Russell Martin will be huge upgrades on each of their positions as of last year and their young pitching should really have a chance to come into their own this year. There are some weaknesses in the pitching rotation and in the bullpen, but there is hope the team is strong enough elsewhere to overcome. This writer thinks the Blue Jays will compete with the Red Sox for the AL East title and land around 91 wins in 2015.
I spoke with Elyse Smith @ElyseS87 on the radio about the Blue Jays. See what she had to say HERE.
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