By Joe Browne

As I sit here and begin to write this article, the Jays get set for a Sunday afternoon rubber game at home against the Twins. The Jays are off to an underwhelming 18-21 record to start the year. This team has some serious issues. Bo Bichette, who has been one of the most consistent hitters in baseball since he got called up has been absolutely abysmal this year. Bo’s defense has always been a net negative at short but now he has seemingly forgotten how to hit. On top of that, his peripherals do not offer much hope that Bichette will turn it around this season. We may also be seeing the end of George Springer. He had a down year last season and has continued on that downward spiral this season. Springer is the highest paid player on the team and still has two years left on his contract. At least, Vladimir Guerrero Jr. has been solid and his peripherals back him up. However, at this point I think it is evident that this is who Guerrero is and he will never play like he did in 2021 ever again. Daulton Varsho and Davis Schnider have been great despite the more relied upon Jays failing to perform. Schnider has continued to just rake like he did last year and Varsho has swung a solid bat with elite defense in left. This team also cannot rely on a 39 year old Justin Turner to jumpstart their offense. I will however give this offense some credit as they have been elite at limiting the  strikeouts. A ten run performance yesterday will also give the numbers a nice boost. Overall, this group of hitters is talented but are going to have to put up some serious results before they get me to start believing in them again. 

On the pitching front, the results have also been disappointing. Berrios and Kikuchi have both been phenomenal but the rest of the staff has lagged behind them. The numbers for the staff as a whole are just not good. They have given up 51 homers which is the second most in baseball only behind the miserable White Sox. The Jays staff is bottom five in baseball in all of these stats: BAA, ERA, WHIP and strikeouts. Turn the calendar back a year and the staff was top five in a lot of categories as a team and now they are somehow bottom five. Chris Bassitt needs to be better and get back to his old self. Alex Manoah very well might be the biggest joke in baseball and has completely forgotten how to get hitters out without them hitting baseballs 400 feet into the seats. Kevin Gausman deemed the ace of the staff also should be doing more to help his team win. He got shelled by the Twins yesterday and if Troonto is going to turn this ship around they need Gausman to start performing. The bullpen has talent but the arms are just not producing at all. Tim Mayza and Erik Swanson have been straight up batting practice all season long and the only guy who has been consistently good is Yimi Garcia. Just like the hitters this group has talent and they have had success in the past. The entire staff is virtually the same from last season when they were amazing. There is still time for the Jays to turn this around and get back on track. 

The reason why I deem this team is stuck is because of the situation they find themselves in. Sure they have made the playoffs the last two seasons but they were swept in the Wild Card both times by Seattle and Minnesota respectively. Take a look at the division they find themselves competing against. Baltimore is going absolutely nowhere anytime soon. The Yankees will always be in the hunt no matter what. Tampa definitely does not have as much talent right now as they have in the past, but are still solid and have a loaded farm that will fill out their roster soon. Boston has had the best pitching staff in the league this year and any team with that kind of performance from their arms is no joke. There is no sign of any of these teams in the Jays division suddenly becoming perennial losers anytime soon. So, what should Toronto do ? Should they just blow it up and trade away all the guys who are set to hit free agency soon. Or, should they stick it out with the core they have and find a way to put the right pieces around them. There is a very slim margin for error in Toronto and they have already made bad transactions in the last few years. The Jays are certainly stuck, the question is where do they go from here ?