The Toronto Blue Jays’ quest for the playoffs ended in Boston this past weekend in the most anticlimactic fashion. The Jays dropped three of four games to the Red Sox with a blowout and a couple of close games on paper. During the series, the Jays were outmatched and beaten badly in all of the finer parts of the game. They were unable to hold late leads and add insurance runs, setting Toronto apart from the superior contending teams.
Even before the Boston series, the Jays had a slim chance of making the playoffs. They needed to sweep the Red Sox and pull within 2.5 games of the wild card lead. To cement their playoff spot, they would have had to sweep the Sox all over again during their three game series this coming weekend at the Rogers Centre.
Despite the disappointment following the Red Sox series, there are things to note about the Jays’ past and future. To even get to a point where the Boston series held any meaning, Toronto had to pull off a 10-game winning streak over the preceding 11. While a 1.000 winning percentage over ten games cannot be translated to an entire season, the quality of the team’s performance is close to what many analysts predicted. If the Jays achieved that level of play during the entire season, they easily could’ve clinched a spot in the playoffs.
The Jays’ record over the past few weeks is troubling. Why does the team seem to flop whenever they need a strong series? To a lesser extent, why does the team excel when the pressure is off (and playoff hopes are crushed) late in the season?
Critics of Jays’ general manager J.P. Ricciardi offer an answer. They explain that the team, while balanced on paper, lacks the intangibles and killer instinct of the playoff contenders. On the flipside, the Jays’ blistering pace of 10 wins in 11 games couldn’t have continued much longer. The Boston letdown was more a product of circumstance and impossible expectations than overall weakness.
Heading into next year, the fate of Ricciardi is the team’s biggest concern. It’s worth noting that since ex-manager John Gibbons and nearly all of his coaching staff were replaced by Cito Gaston and his handpicked coaches this June, the team has had a winning record. If the Jays performed all season at the level they did under Gaston, they would finish the year with 95 to 100 wins—certainly playoff territory.
Arguably, the change in staff has allowed Ricciardi’s team to reach its full potential. Given the public criticism of former hitting coach Gary Denbo by some players and the remarkable change in play since the coaching switch, it’s impossible to pretend that the previous coaching staff was close to ideal under Gibbons. While Ricciardi was criticized for waiting so long to fire Gibbons, the Jays’ recent winning streak will give the struggling GM a much-needed lifeline.
Remarkably, Ricciardi has already publicly guaranteed the jobs of Gaston and his staff despite being unsure of his own fate. Perhaps the biggest impediment to Ricciardi’s return is the fact that president and CEO Paul Godfrey—Ricciardi’s biggest supporter in the organization—has indicated that he is considering quitting his post after this season and pursuing other avenues (perhaps even bringing an NFL team to Toronto.) Should Godfrey leave, his successor may have trouble dealing with an eighth-year general manager who has yet to make the playoffs.
The past two off seasons in Toronto have been exciting, and the subsequent results unequivocally disappointing. Yet the near-universal belief that the Jays have a talented roster can’t be far off-base. With Cito Gaston at the helm, who delivered the Jays’ only two World Series in franchise history, Toronto baseball fans can look forward to 2009.
