With Raptors done, focus shifts to Jays — and that's a bad thing
Toronto’s season is trending toward historic futility
For sports fans putting away their Toronto Raptors' championship paraphernalia and turning their attention toward Canada's other team — the Toronto Blue Jays — you may want to look away.
To this point, the 2019 Jays season has been downright ugly. Heading toward Canada Day weekend, the team sits 21 games below .500 and more than 20 games behind the first place New York Yankees.
This Blue Jays team is on pace to lose well over 100 games. In fact, Canadian baseball fans haven't seen a Blue Jays team this bad since the late 70s, when the team was in its infancy.
Nobody — experts or fans — had illusions that this team would compete this season. Management preached patience as the team entered a full rebuild mode.
But nobody said it would be this bad.
Historically substandard
The uninspired, bleak on-field product has made fans restless and is driving curious fans away.
Consider the numbers, some of which are historically anemic. Since a 14-14 start, the Jays have gone 13-34. And many games aren't even close. More than a third of the team's losses are by more than five runs. Games are easy to turn off.
At the plate, the Jays simply don't hit or get on base. The team's current .290 on-base percentage ranks last in the American League. If it holds, the mark would be one of worst in baseball history. The Jays also have the league's worst batting average.
The pitching has been equally bleak with Jays hurlers surrendering nearly five runs per game.
During the franchise's tenure there have been many bad teams. After winning back-to-back World Series titles in the early 90's, the team wandered in the baseball wilderness for more than a quarter century before briefly returning to relevancy. But at least most of those bad teams had compelling stars and stories.
On this Jays team, there have been few exciting storylines to rally around. Young players who have been given ample opportunity to perform like Danny Jansen and Rowdy Tellez have struggled mightily to this point. So too have spare parts like Teoscar Hernandez and Billy McKinney, who have been employed to fill in the gaps.
Rookie phenom Vladimir Guerrero Jr.'s early season arrival has been something for fans to rally around. His performance thus far should have fans excited, but to expect him to elevate this team by himself is foolish. Fans can only hope a long, bleak summer of losing doesn't wear on the psyche of the franchise's future.
WATCH | Guerrero hit first 2 home runs of his career:
Fans can expect the team's few useful parts — namely pitcher Marcus Stroman and veteran first baseman Justin Smoak — to be dealt away soon to a contending team. And if you are in full rebuild mode, hopefully this happens sooner than later.
Looking forward may only contribute to fan's anxiety about how this grand rebuild may play out. Going into next season, Lourdes Gurriel Jr. and Randal Grichuk are the only players under contract. In an unexpected and confounding move, the Jays inked Grichuk to a five year, $52-million US contract just as the season got underway. Like many of his teammates, Grichuk is in the midst of a disappointing season.
There is always hope. Fans can look to other teams like the Houston Astros and Chicago Cubs, both of whom tore their franchises down to nothing before emerging as champions. The Jays can already point to their emerging core of young stars including Guerrero Jr., Cavan Biggio and Bo Bichette. The team can hope that young players like Jansen and Tellez blossom with continued playing time.
Lack of pitching talent
But there are deeper questions. There aren't a lot of young arms in the team's minor-league system ready for big-league action. And not a lot of guys that are close either. For example, the Jays seem content to start journeyman Edwin Jackson instead of reaching into the minors for a young arm like a Sean Reid-Foley. Jackson, now pitching for his MLB record 14th team, has been torched every time he takes the mound. Each time he pitches, it is another reminder to fans that this team has no interest in winning.
It all makes the back-to-back playoff berths in 2015 and 2016 seem even further away.
Let's hope the Blue Jays' tour back into the baseball desert doesn't take another two decades. But rebuilds are difficult in baseball, full of uncertainty. Creating a roster to compete again in baseball's most difficult division will take a combination of organizational deftness, luck and yes, time.
But for now, it is painful.
Don't worry — the basketball season will be back before you know it.