Have we reached the point where we're grumpy and dissatisfied with a team that made it to the American League Championship Series?
I don't think so. I hope not, anyway.
The grades, as always, are extracted from my nether regions, by a process that can in no way whatsoever be described as scientific. And what the grades mean, more or less, is this:
A - Outstanding (in the MVP discussion)
B - Good (maybe an All-Star, who knows)
C - Average (generic regular)
D - Below Average (Replacement Level, more or less. A bench part)
E - Fail (Belongs in the minors)
F - Epic Fail (Needs to look for another line of work)
MANAGEMENT
John Gibbons C+
Like pretty well every manager who ever lived, there are things he does well and things he doesn't do so well. Gibbons doesn't panic. He keeps the team running on an even keel, he appears to have his players respect and he has them all pulling in the same direction. These abilities should never be underestimated. But Gibbons isn't a problem solver. When something goes sideways he doesn't really bring anything to the table that might fix it. Once again - shades of 2008 - John Gibbons found himself running a somewhat dysfunctional offense. You'll recall that when the offense was scuffling early in the year, it was the players who went to him with an idea. And when they were scuffling again at the end of the year, it seems there was nothing anyone can do. So - what was weird about this year's offense? Well, they struck out a ton, but they also led the majors in GIDPs. It's an odd combination. The Angels hit into almost as many DPs as Toronto, but that makes sense - the Angels put the ball in play. They struck out less often than any other major league team. And on the other hand, there's Tampa Bay. The Rays' hitters struck out even more often than the Jays. And that's probably one of the reasons why Tampa hit into the fewest DPs of any major league team, with barely half as many GIDPS as Toronto. Somehow, the Blue Jays managed the worst of both worlds. And John Gibbons isn't a mechanic. He's a pilot. You always need a pilot, but sometimes you need to get under the hood and fix things as well.
Ross Atkins B-
I think you have to regard much of this year as a learning experience. This was a whole new group of players to get acquainted with - and by group of players, I mean the 150 or so guys under team control, not just the ones we saw with the major league team. Not to mention all the other people working for him throughout the organization. I did like that when the winter's bullpen moves (Storen, Chavez, Floyd) didn't work, he was able to make effective upgrades in mid-stream.
Rogers Media C
We weren't talking about ownership nearly as much as in past years. This is a good thing, and earns the corporation a gentleman's C. But let's serve notice - the Blue Jays just finished leading the league in attendance. I think there's now an obligation to do something to help the ball club with all that new money .
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John Donaldson A
He was basically repeating his 2015 MVP season until injuries ground him down in September (.222/.391/.389). It may not have looked quite as impressive as the previous year, but that's mostly because we'd grown accustomed to it (although I suppose it really wasn't quite as awesome.) A helluva ballplayer. He's obviously the best hitter at his position in franchise history, and I think only Scott Rolen was a better defender.
Edwin Encarnacion A
Edwin established new career highs in just about every counting category there is - runs, hits, HRs, RBIs, BB - which is exactly what you'd want to do in your walk year. He wasn't quite as effective per at bat as he had been in previous years, but he was in the lineup for 160 games and came to the plate 702 times. (Those were career highs as well.) And like lots of guys on this team, he struck out far more often than he ever had before (another career high! Along with GIDPs.) He's improved considerably as a first baseman, especially at scooping the low throw. He's actually competent now.
J.A. Happ A
After the 2014 season, I wrote this about Happ: Something doesn't quite add up. It's as if all the pieces are there, but they don't fit together... he ought to be a little better than this. Puzzles me. Well, if I knew what it was, I'd be a pitching coach, wouldn't I? And wouldn't you know it - in 2015, Happ hooked up with a pitching coach who found a way to help him put those pieces together. His consistency this season was a thing to behold. He started 32 times and just one of them was a stinker (vs Tampa on 16 May) - just five times did he have a Game Score below 50. He went 20-4 and there was nothing cheap about it - only one of those victories counts as a Cheap Win (Game Score below 50.) and Happ actually took a Tough Loss this season (when Gavin Floyd came out of the pen in a 2-2 tie in the eighth inning, hit a batter and then gave up a three-run HR to Eduardo Nunez.)
Aaron Sanchez A
Should emerge as the team's unquestioned ace next season. I would assume that there will no limitations on him anymore. His first full season as a starter was a learning experience of course, and Sanchez surely learned an awful lot about himself and the job, what he can do, what he can't. You sure have to like that he was able to lead the league in ERA in the course of this learning experience. Colour me impressed. If anyone on this staff is going to come close to filling Roy Halladay's big spikes, he's the one. Sanchez had 1 Cheap Win this season, and no Tough Losses.
Joaquin Benoit B+
He's a free agent, and the team already has one ancient reliever on the roster. As well as Benoit pitched after arriving in Toronto I don't know if they'd want a second one. Sure enjoyed having him around, though. He pitched just great, and seems like a good fellow.
Troy Tulowitzki B
This is pretty much who Tulowitzki has always been, once you got him out of Coors Field and took the air out of his offensive numbers. He's a productive complementary bat and still a very good shortstop. I could watch him sling those bullets to first base all day long. Only Tony Fernandez came up with more interesting arm angles for throwing the ball, and while Tony had a strong arm when he was young, it still wasn't as strong as Tulo's. He's one of those guys, like Brooks Robinson and John Olerud, with no foot speed at all but exceptional first step quickness - that's what makes them such fine defensive players. He's a Blue Jay now, and accordingly he struck out more frequently this past year than at any time since his rookie year.
Marco Estrada B
Estrada picked up where he left off after his breakout season in 2015, and even got himself named to the All-Star Team. But about a month after the All-Star Break, pitching through his back injury caught up with Estrada and he stunk the joint out for about a month (1-4, 7.53 in six starts from mid-August through mid-September.) But he came out of it, finished the season strong and went to provide some very good post-season starts. The lesson, as always - if you can mess with the batter's timing, you will get the better of major league hitters. It's a fundamental truth of the game. Estrada took 3 Tough Losses this year, and no Cheap WIns.
Roberto Osuna B
He's good. He's not one of the league's great relievers, but he's a solid, quality reliever. I'm happy to have him continue doing what he's doing right now. I don't know if he could become a starter - he's got secondary pitches, but they don't strike me as all that exciting - certainly nowhere near as exciting as his fastball. Plus he's run out of gas in September two years in a row. I'm a little skeptical about his arm holding up under a starter's workload.
Russell Martin B
Surrounded by a multitude of RH sluggers, he got into the act as well and blew way past his previous career high for strikeouts. Well, he's always been an unpredictable hitter - he's had years as a line drive hitter with a decent BAVG and medium power - in his old age, he seems to have decided to become a minor slugger. His defensive tools are slipping, but he pretty clearly does a tremendous job working with his pitchers. And while he had a tough time throwing out baserunners, this group of starting pitchers was giving him as little help as the legal limit allows.
Jason Grilli B
Did a wonderful job after coming over from the Braves at the end of May, going 4-1, 1.42 with 14 Holds in his first 33 games with the team. He took over the eighth inning, and began to give the bullpen some shape and definition. And then he quite obviously ran out of gas, allowing 12 ER in 10.1 IP over his final 13 outings. He ain't getting any younger - none of us are - but age 39 does seem a strange time to post a career high with 67 game appearances. He'll be back, and he should still be effective, but he needs to be used just a little more judiciously. Grilli's fastball sits in the low 90s, which isn't all that impressive by the standard of modern relievers - nevertheless Grilli was the Blue Jay pitcher whose game most resembled that of Nolan Ryan. Grilli was the hardest pitcher on the team to get a hit against (just 6.0 per 9 IP), he was the guy with the highest K rate (12.4 per 9) and he was also the guy who issued the most BB (4.1 per 9). That's exactly how the Express used to roll. Grilli's Achilles heel this year was the long ball, as he allowed 8 of them in his 42 IP - but half of them, as you might expect, came in the final month when he was pretty clearly running on fumes.
Devon Travis B
Yet another RH hitter who swings and misses an awful lot - if he'd played a full season, he'd have fanned about 130 times. It would be nice to see him actually play a full season at some point. His entire game seems a little streaky - he goes into slumps in the field as well as at the dish. Still young and growing, still in the process of becoming what he's going to be. Still looking quite promising indeed, but needs a little more durability, a little more consistency.
Joe Biagini B
Gave up more than 1 hit per inning, which is unusual if you're going to succeed as a major league relief pitcher. He got away with it because he doesn't walk very many batters, and he simply doesn't allow home runs. So you have to string hits together to score against him, which is never an easy task. Because of the type of pitcher he is, one would expect that Biagini would not be the man you'd want coming into a game when there are already people on base, as he's more likely to give up a base hit than most of his bullpen mates. But Biagini actually did a superb job at stranding the baserunners he inherited, allowing just 5 of 26 to cross the plate. He was good enough at this role that he's unlikely to find another - they're not going to send him to Buffalo and have him work on becoming a starter. The team needs him right where he is.
Michael Saunders B
Kind of a weird season. This team has a crying, desperate need for LH hitting - and while Saunders hit quite a bit better than I think anyone had a right to expect, he hit better against LH pitching (.275/.358/.569). Go figure. That was probably a one-year fluke, but there ya go. As everyone noticed, he went right off the cliff after the All-Star Break (.178/.282/.357). There was no real reason for it that I know of - but he was coming off missing a year with knee surgery while playing the outfield full time on artifical turf. He may have just run down. He didn't play nearly as much in the second half - as his performance warranted - and his bat started coming back to life in the post-season. And on a team awash with hitters who struck out and struck out and struck out - no one struck out as often as Saunders. Finally, he was almost as bad in the outfield as Bautista, and with less excuse. It was an adventure, and the good times did outweigh the bad. I can't see him getting a qualifying offer - $17 million for Michael Saunders? Really? - so we'll have to see how this plays out.
Francisco Liriano B
His brief tenure with the team last year breaks very nicely into two halves. He began by making 4 starts and then a relief appearance, and he was pretty ordinary, going 1-1, 4.76 and allowing 16 runs in 22.1 IP. And then something clicked. Maybe he and Martin completed the Renewal of their Acquaintance because in his second half as a Jay (a relief appearance and then another 4 starts) he was simply sensational - he went 1-1, 1.35, and allowed just 6 runs in 26.1 IP. He's still got that power arm and that vicious slider. I expect that over a full season, Liriano will be better next year than Stroman and Dickey were this year.
Kevin Pillar C+
I often find myself thinking - look, the AL is teeming with excellent defensive players in CF (Jones, Bradley, Kiermaier, Cain, Martin, Trout). These players provide a lot with the glove themselves and some of them give you much more with the bat. I think we're now past the point where we can expect Pillar's bat to improve. He's simply not a good hitter, and he's not getting any better. The team can do better than this, surely. And then you watch Pillar play defense and you fall for him all over again. So he's Andrelton Simmons, in centre field. I know some will think the grade is a touch too low. But he's an outfielder with a .679 OPS - it's normally impossible for me to give such a player a grade higher than D+. It just goes against the grain, folks. But for Pillar, one has to make an exception. So one does.
Jose Bautista C
His skills are narrowing, but he's still Jose Bautista. He can still turn on a 99 mph fastball and he still has tremendous plate discipline. His work this year was most definitely not what you want to do in your walk year. Through April, Bautista was picking up more or less right where he left off after his outstanding 2015 season (.250/.393/.536). Then he hurt himself playing the outfield. He got back into the lineup, started shaking off the rust, and hurt himself again. All of this cost him about a third of his season. Like everyone else on the team, he struck out more frequently than he ever has before. It's also pretty clear that he's not a major league right fielder any more. He might be up to playing LF in a park with a small outfield, but how many of those are left anyway besides Fenway and Wrigley? I think he's probably through in Toronto - I get the sense that everyone's just tired of him, the same way they were tired of George Bell by 1990. Well, I never got tired of George Bell and I'll never get tired of Jose Bautista either. I expect he and Encarnacion will both receive qualifying offers, and Bautista will be Plan B if they can't bring Encarnacion back. And if not - we'll always have the warm and fuzzy memory of one of the greatest trades in the history of the game, his rampage through the 2015 post-season, and a bat flip for the ages. We'll always have Game Five.
Marcus Stroman C
One doesn't really want to talk in terms of "what went wrong" about a team that had a post-season run, so let's talk about "what didn't go right" - and what didn't go right for the 2016 Blue Jays were disappointing performances by three players being counted on for much more than they delivered. One, obviously, was Bautista. The second was Stroman, who was expected to be an ace and instead turned into a league average innings-eater. Which was considerably less than was expected. Stroman ended up taking over R.A. Dickey's role on the team, as Dickey himself began to fade out of the picture. What happened? I think Stroman just fell in love with the sinker, and threw so many that he lost a bit of his feel for his other pitches. No pitcher in baseball got as many groundballs, and groundballs will find holes between the fielders. I expect he's learned something from the experience. As we know, and as we all appreciate about him, he's not the type of competitor who would be satisfied with this year's work. Like Estrada, Stroman took 3 Tough Losses this season, and had no Cheap Wins.
R.A. Dickey C-
I think he's almost done, folks. Superficially, his season doesn't look all that different from Stroman's. Dickey allows more HRs and more walks - not a lot more, but enough that he should give up quite a few more runs. (Dickey does catch a break on ERA compared to Stroman - Dickey's baserunners advance on passed balls, whereas Stroman's advance on stolen bases and wild pitches.) But the main reason their numbers were as close to each other as they were this year was almost entirely because of how they pitched with men on base. With the bases empty, Stroman (.235/.301/.394) was much better than Dickey (.279/.333/.489). But once they were working out of the stretch, Dickey toughened up considerably (.224/.318/.416) and Stroman went the other way (.280/.331/.425) - and with runners already on, it's the gap in BAVG that makes the difference here, that brought those runners across the plate. But here's the thing - I don't think what Dickey did there is sustainable. It saved his season from becoming a complete disaster but I don't think it's an ability. I think it's just something that happened. On the other hand, if he can just find himself a home field with a big outfield (and speedy outfielders), he could be effective for a while yet. Dickey took 5 Tough Losses this year, to lead the team, but he also got 3 Cheap Wins, again leading the team.
Ryan Tepera C-
Quite obviously has not earned the manager's trust. If the game hadn't already gone to extra innings, the Jays had to be either ahead by seven or down by four before Tepera would get a chance. Still, he generally did a good job when asked. His year must have been a strange experience. I don't know how many separate stints he had with the team - I lost count after five. Tepera was able to deal with the issue that hurt him so much in his taste of the majors in 2015 - namely the utterly absurd number of HRs hit against him. He gave up just one long ball this past year. There should be an opportunity for him next year - Benoit certainly and quite likely Cecil as well could both be gone. Tepera needs a good spring to make the team in the first place, and then he'll need to pitch well in his April opportunities to gain his manager's trust.
Darwin Barney D+
Hit unexpectedly well for a couple of months, but it turned out that he's still Darwin Barney and regression to the mean is still a cruel mistress. But he's a fine utility infielder - he's a good defensive player at three infield spots, and he's not a complete black hole at the plate. He didn't even look out of place in some emergency outfield appearances.
Ezequiel Carrera D+
You sure do see this a lot. A guy comes off the bench, full of energy and focus, and plays so well for a couple of weeks that you actually start to wonder if he can fill a larger role. They almost never can - the grind, the sheer drudgery of playing everyday always gets to them, and sends them back to the bench in due course. I think Carrera and Upton are both fourth outfielders, but I like Carrera better. This team has no shortage of RH batters swinging from their heels. Carrera's a different kind of player than the other guys on this team - he hits left-handed, he can run, he can handle the bat - and if you gave him 600 ABs, he'd strike out 150 times. That, surely, makes him a True Blue Jay. Gibbons seems to love him, more than is probably good for the team, but managers often fall in love with guys like this.
Gavin Floyd D+
He can still pitch a little - he allowed just 23 H and 8 BB in 31 IP, which is certainly good enough to fill a role in a major league bullpen. But Floyd hasn't made it through a season unscathed since 2012, and if he can't do that it really doesn't matter how well he can pitch.
Justin Smoak D
Justin Smoak was one of six first basemen taken in the first 18 picks of the 2008 draft. Eric Hosmer (3rd overall) has clearly been the most successful, having now put in six years as a regular, providing pretty good offensive production in three of them while also picking up a couple of (undeserved) Gold Gloves. As for the rest - while Hosmer's career OPS is .763 is the best of the bunch, the second best was turned in by the unfortunate David Cooper (.750). But the doctors called off Cooper's career before it really got going and none of Brett Wallace, Ike Davis, or Yonder Alonso ever amounted to much of anything (Davis did hit 32 HRs one year, but it was pretty clearly a fluke.) So Justin Smoak has had the second best career of the bunch. And that's not saying much. He's not really as bad as he looks - no one is that bad - but he's not very good. He draws walks and he hits home runs - that's all he does and he just doesn't do it often enough.
Brett Cecil D
The year's third major disappointment, along with Bautista and Stroman. After his brilliant work in 2015, Cecil moved into a crucial bullpen role and just crapped the bed completely. He had himself just a dreadful, awful, horrible year and it could very well be the last we see of him around these parts as he heads for free agency. Cecil's disastrous April - pitching in key game situations, and pitching very, very badly - put the team in a big hole from the start. Gibbons eventually lost all faith in him, and more or less refused to use him in any kind of game situation until Benoit's late season injury forced his hand. He did pitch well in the post-season, so he salvaged some self-respect.
Melvin Upton D
Meh. Wonderfully fluid athlete, not much of a baseball player. He's now 32 years old, and when the athleticism begins to go, he will have nothing - nothing whatsoever - to sustain him. His job will be to serve as the fourth outfielder, filling in at all the spots, pinch-hitting and pinch-running - you know, Reed Johnson's old job. Which is kind of neat because Upton is, in almost every way possible, the exact opposite of Reed Johnson.
Jesse Chavez D
He's a pretty good pitcher in Oakland. We're not in Oakland.
Bo Schultz D
Schultz is a finesse pitcher. He doesn't have anything he can rely on to get swings and misses. So every time he comes into a game, he has to discover what's working for him that day. Starters have that luxury. Relievers generally don't.
Ryan Goins D-
Did a credible imitation of a major league hitter in 2015, but it all went by the wayside this past season. He reverted totally to his previous form, swinging the bat like an NL's pitcher - one of the better hitting ones, sure, but you'd still ask Strasburg or Wainwright or Bumgarner to pinch hit for him. In all likelihood, he's neither as awful as he looked this season nor as almost-useful as he looked in 2015. He's probably not good enough to play regularly for anyone, and Barney has clearly passed him by as the backup infielder here - and Goins is only two and a half years younger than Barney. A change of scene would be good for him. He might be of more use to some other team, one where he can play some shortstop, than he is to this one. Not that he has any real trade value.
Dioner Navarro D-
He's a free agent, the team needs someone to catch 40 or 50 games. You can do worse. The Jays have generally done worse, but we've seen the last of Josh Thole. I promise.
Drew Hutchison D-
Now with Pittsburgh. Maybe Ray Searage can teach him how to pitch. He doesn't need fixes or adjustments. He needs to learn his trade.
Aaron Loup E
I don't know what happened to this guy - after three useful seasons, he turned in his second bad year in a row. But he's still just 28 years old and, more importantly, he's still left-handed. It should keep getting him chances for the next five years at least. And in Toronto, there's obviously a very good chance that Brett Cecil won't be back.
Chad Girodo E
Did you see anything you liked? Besides being left-handed? I didn't.
Scott Feldman E
He was having himself a nice season, and then he came to Toronto. I don't know what he did to offend the goddess of BABiP, but that must have been some crime. I hope it was worth it, because that was ugly.
Junior Lake E
He looks like a baseball player. He's not.
Josh Thole E
Where the Dickey goes, there go I. Thole spent four years in Toronto, playing in 170 games and getting 473 plate appearances. He hit .200/.275/.248, which doesn't really require further explanation. He does do a legitimately good job of dealing with the knuckleball, so he may still be able to find a pitcher somewhere to whom he can hitch his wagon.
Drew Storen E
Seemed like a really good idea at the time.
Chris Colabello F
Busted.
I don't think so. I hope not, anyway.
The grades, as always, are extracted from my nether regions, by a process that can in no way whatsoever be described as scientific. And what the grades mean, more or less, is this:
A - Outstanding (in the MVP discussion)
B - Good (maybe an All-Star, who knows)
C - Average (generic regular)
D - Below Average (Replacement Level, more or less. A bench part)
E - Fail (Belongs in the minors)
F - Epic Fail (Needs to look for another line of work)
MANAGEMENT
John Gibbons C+
Like pretty well every manager who ever lived, there are things he does well and things he doesn't do so well. Gibbons doesn't panic. He keeps the team running on an even keel, he appears to have his players respect and he has them all pulling in the same direction. These abilities should never be underestimated. But Gibbons isn't a problem solver. When something goes sideways he doesn't really bring anything to the table that might fix it. Once again - shades of 2008 - John Gibbons found himself running a somewhat dysfunctional offense. You'll recall that when the offense was scuffling early in the year, it was the players who went to him with an idea. And when they were scuffling again at the end of the year, it seems there was nothing anyone can do. So - what was weird about this year's offense? Well, they struck out a ton, but they also led the majors in GIDPs. It's an odd combination. The Angels hit into almost as many DPs as Toronto, but that makes sense - the Angels put the ball in play. They struck out less often than any other major league team. And on the other hand, there's Tampa Bay. The Rays' hitters struck out even more often than the Jays. And that's probably one of the reasons why Tampa hit into the fewest DPs of any major league team, with barely half as many GIDPS as Toronto. Somehow, the Blue Jays managed the worst of both worlds. And John Gibbons isn't a mechanic. He's a pilot. You always need a pilot, but sometimes you need to get under the hood and fix things as well.
Ross Atkins B-
I think you have to regard much of this year as a learning experience. This was a whole new group of players to get acquainted with - and by group of players, I mean the 150 or so guys under team control, not just the ones we saw with the major league team. Not to mention all the other people working for him throughout the organization. I did like that when the winter's bullpen moves (Storen, Chavez, Floyd) didn't work, he was able to make effective upgrades in mid-stream.
Rogers Media C
We weren't talking about ownership nearly as much as in past years. This is a good thing, and earns the corporation a gentleman's C. But let's serve notice - the Blue Jays just finished leading the league in attendance. I think there's now an obligation to do something to help the ball club with all that new money .
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John Donaldson A
He was basically repeating his 2015 MVP season until injuries ground him down in September (.222/.391/.389). It may not have looked quite as impressive as the previous year, but that's mostly because we'd grown accustomed to it (although I suppose it really wasn't quite as awesome.) A helluva ballplayer. He's obviously the best hitter at his position in franchise history, and I think only Scott Rolen was a better defender.
Edwin Encarnacion A
Edwin established new career highs in just about every counting category there is - runs, hits, HRs, RBIs, BB - which is exactly what you'd want to do in your walk year. He wasn't quite as effective per at bat as he had been in previous years, but he was in the lineup for 160 games and came to the plate 702 times. (Those were career highs as well.) And like lots of guys on this team, he struck out far more often than he ever had before (another career high! Along with GIDPs.) He's improved considerably as a first baseman, especially at scooping the low throw. He's actually competent now.
J.A. Happ A
After the 2014 season, I wrote this about Happ: Something doesn't quite add up. It's as if all the pieces are there, but they don't fit together... he ought to be a little better than this. Puzzles me. Well, if I knew what it was, I'd be a pitching coach, wouldn't I? And wouldn't you know it - in 2015, Happ hooked up with a pitching coach who found a way to help him put those pieces together. His consistency this season was a thing to behold. He started 32 times and just one of them was a stinker (vs Tampa on 16 May) - just five times did he have a Game Score below 50. He went 20-4 and there was nothing cheap about it - only one of those victories counts as a Cheap Win (Game Score below 50.) and Happ actually took a Tough Loss this season (when Gavin Floyd came out of the pen in a 2-2 tie in the eighth inning, hit a batter and then gave up a three-run HR to Eduardo Nunez.)
Aaron Sanchez A
Should emerge as the team's unquestioned ace next season. I would assume that there will no limitations on him anymore. His first full season as a starter was a learning experience of course, and Sanchez surely learned an awful lot about himself and the job, what he can do, what he can't. You sure have to like that he was able to lead the league in ERA in the course of this learning experience. Colour me impressed. If anyone on this staff is going to come close to filling Roy Halladay's big spikes, he's the one. Sanchez had 1 Cheap Win this season, and no Tough Losses.
Joaquin Benoit B+
He's a free agent, and the team already has one ancient reliever on the roster. As well as Benoit pitched after arriving in Toronto I don't know if they'd want a second one. Sure enjoyed having him around, though. He pitched just great, and seems like a good fellow.
Troy Tulowitzki B
This is pretty much who Tulowitzki has always been, once you got him out of Coors Field and took the air out of his offensive numbers. He's a productive complementary bat and still a very good shortstop. I could watch him sling those bullets to first base all day long. Only Tony Fernandez came up with more interesting arm angles for throwing the ball, and while Tony had a strong arm when he was young, it still wasn't as strong as Tulo's. He's one of those guys, like Brooks Robinson and John Olerud, with no foot speed at all but exceptional first step quickness - that's what makes them such fine defensive players. He's a Blue Jay now, and accordingly he struck out more frequently this past year than at any time since his rookie year.
Marco Estrada B
Estrada picked up where he left off after his breakout season in 2015, and even got himself named to the All-Star Team. But about a month after the All-Star Break, pitching through his back injury caught up with Estrada and he stunk the joint out for about a month (1-4, 7.53 in six starts from mid-August through mid-September.) But he came out of it, finished the season strong and went to provide some very good post-season starts. The lesson, as always - if you can mess with the batter's timing, you will get the better of major league hitters. It's a fundamental truth of the game. Estrada took 3 Tough Losses this year, and no Cheap WIns.
Roberto Osuna B
He's good. He's not one of the league's great relievers, but he's a solid, quality reliever. I'm happy to have him continue doing what he's doing right now. I don't know if he could become a starter - he's got secondary pitches, but they don't strike me as all that exciting - certainly nowhere near as exciting as his fastball. Plus he's run out of gas in September two years in a row. I'm a little skeptical about his arm holding up under a starter's workload.
Russell Martin B
Surrounded by a multitude of RH sluggers, he got into the act as well and blew way past his previous career high for strikeouts. Well, he's always been an unpredictable hitter - he's had years as a line drive hitter with a decent BAVG and medium power - in his old age, he seems to have decided to become a minor slugger. His defensive tools are slipping, but he pretty clearly does a tremendous job working with his pitchers. And while he had a tough time throwing out baserunners, this group of starting pitchers was giving him as little help as the legal limit allows.
Jason Grilli B
Did a wonderful job after coming over from the Braves at the end of May, going 4-1, 1.42 with 14 Holds in his first 33 games with the team. He took over the eighth inning, and began to give the bullpen some shape and definition. And then he quite obviously ran out of gas, allowing 12 ER in 10.1 IP over his final 13 outings. He ain't getting any younger - none of us are - but age 39 does seem a strange time to post a career high with 67 game appearances. He'll be back, and he should still be effective, but he needs to be used just a little more judiciously. Grilli's fastball sits in the low 90s, which isn't all that impressive by the standard of modern relievers - nevertheless Grilli was the Blue Jay pitcher whose game most resembled that of Nolan Ryan. Grilli was the hardest pitcher on the team to get a hit against (just 6.0 per 9 IP), he was the guy with the highest K rate (12.4 per 9) and he was also the guy who issued the most BB (4.1 per 9). That's exactly how the Express used to roll. Grilli's Achilles heel this year was the long ball, as he allowed 8 of them in his 42 IP - but half of them, as you might expect, came in the final month when he was pretty clearly running on fumes.
Devon Travis B
Yet another RH hitter who swings and misses an awful lot - if he'd played a full season, he'd have fanned about 130 times. It would be nice to see him actually play a full season at some point. His entire game seems a little streaky - he goes into slumps in the field as well as at the dish. Still young and growing, still in the process of becoming what he's going to be. Still looking quite promising indeed, but needs a little more durability, a little more consistency.
Joe Biagini B
Gave up more than 1 hit per inning, which is unusual if you're going to succeed as a major league relief pitcher. He got away with it because he doesn't walk very many batters, and he simply doesn't allow home runs. So you have to string hits together to score against him, which is never an easy task. Because of the type of pitcher he is, one would expect that Biagini would not be the man you'd want coming into a game when there are already people on base, as he's more likely to give up a base hit than most of his bullpen mates. But Biagini actually did a superb job at stranding the baserunners he inherited, allowing just 5 of 26 to cross the plate. He was good enough at this role that he's unlikely to find another - they're not going to send him to Buffalo and have him work on becoming a starter. The team needs him right where he is.
Michael Saunders B
Kind of a weird season. This team has a crying, desperate need for LH hitting - and while Saunders hit quite a bit better than I think anyone had a right to expect, he hit better against LH pitching (.275/.358/.569). Go figure. That was probably a one-year fluke, but there ya go. As everyone noticed, he went right off the cliff after the All-Star Break (.178/.282/.357). There was no real reason for it that I know of - but he was coming off missing a year with knee surgery while playing the outfield full time on artifical turf. He may have just run down. He didn't play nearly as much in the second half - as his performance warranted - and his bat started coming back to life in the post-season. And on a team awash with hitters who struck out and struck out and struck out - no one struck out as often as Saunders. Finally, he was almost as bad in the outfield as Bautista, and with less excuse. It was an adventure, and the good times did outweigh the bad. I can't see him getting a qualifying offer - $17 million for Michael Saunders? Really? - so we'll have to see how this plays out.
Francisco Liriano B
His brief tenure with the team last year breaks very nicely into two halves. He began by making 4 starts and then a relief appearance, and he was pretty ordinary, going 1-1, 4.76 and allowing 16 runs in 22.1 IP. And then something clicked. Maybe he and Martin completed the Renewal of their Acquaintance because in his second half as a Jay (a relief appearance and then another 4 starts) he was simply sensational - he went 1-1, 1.35, and allowed just 6 runs in 26.1 IP. He's still got that power arm and that vicious slider. I expect that over a full season, Liriano will be better next year than Stroman and Dickey were this year.
Kevin Pillar C+
I often find myself thinking - look, the AL is teeming with excellent defensive players in CF (Jones, Bradley, Kiermaier, Cain, Martin, Trout). These players provide a lot with the glove themselves and some of them give you much more with the bat. I think we're now past the point where we can expect Pillar's bat to improve. He's simply not a good hitter, and he's not getting any better. The team can do better than this, surely. And then you watch Pillar play defense and you fall for him all over again. So he's Andrelton Simmons, in centre field. I know some will think the grade is a touch too low. But he's an outfielder with a .679 OPS - it's normally impossible for me to give such a player a grade higher than D+. It just goes against the grain, folks. But for Pillar, one has to make an exception. So one does.
Jose Bautista C
His skills are narrowing, but he's still Jose Bautista. He can still turn on a 99 mph fastball and he still has tremendous plate discipline. His work this year was most definitely not what you want to do in your walk year. Through April, Bautista was picking up more or less right where he left off after his outstanding 2015 season (.250/.393/.536). Then he hurt himself playing the outfield. He got back into the lineup, started shaking off the rust, and hurt himself again. All of this cost him about a third of his season. Like everyone else on the team, he struck out more frequently than he ever has before. It's also pretty clear that he's not a major league right fielder any more. He might be up to playing LF in a park with a small outfield, but how many of those are left anyway besides Fenway and Wrigley? I think he's probably through in Toronto - I get the sense that everyone's just tired of him, the same way they were tired of George Bell by 1990. Well, I never got tired of George Bell and I'll never get tired of Jose Bautista either. I expect he and Encarnacion will both receive qualifying offers, and Bautista will be Plan B if they can't bring Encarnacion back. And if not - we'll always have the warm and fuzzy memory of one of the greatest trades in the history of the game, his rampage through the 2015 post-season, and a bat flip for the ages. We'll always have Game Five.
Marcus Stroman C
One doesn't really want to talk in terms of "what went wrong" about a team that had a post-season run, so let's talk about "what didn't go right" - and what didn't go right for the 2016 Blue Jays were disappointing performances by three players being counted on for much more than they delivered. One, obviously, was Bautista. The second was Stroman, who was expected to be an ace and instead turned into a league average innings-eater. Which was considerably less than was expected. Stroman ended up taking over R.A. Dickey's role on the team, as Dickey himself began to fade out of the picture. What happened? I think Stroman just fell in love with the sinker, and threw so many that he lost a bit of his feel for his other pitches. No pitcher in baseball got as many groundballs, and groundballs will find holes between the fielders. I expect he's learned something from the experience. As we know, and as we all appreciate about him, he's not the type of competitor who would be satisfied with this year's work. Like Estrada, Stroman took 3 Tough Losses this season, and had no Cheap Wins.
R.A. Dickey C-
I think he's almost done, folks. Superficially, his season doesn't look all that different from Stroman's. Dickey allows more HRs and more walks - not a lot more, but enough that he should give up quite a few more runs. (Dickey does catch a break on ERA compared to Stroman - Dickey's baserunners advance on passed balls, whereas Stroman's advance on stolen bases and wild pitches.) But the main reason their numbers were as close to each other as they were this year was almost entirely because of how they pitched with men on base. With the bases empty, Stroman (.235/.301/.394) was much better than Dickey (.279/.333/.489). But once they were working out of the stretch, Dickey toughened up considerably (.224/.318/.416) and Stroman went the other way (.280/.331/.425) - and with runners already on, it's the gap in BAVG that makes the difference here, that brought those runners across the plate. But here's the thing - I don't think what Dickey did there is sustainable. It saved his season from becoming a complete disaster but I don't think it's an ability. I think it's just something that happened. On the other hand, if he can just find himself a home field with a big outfield (and speedy outfielders), he could be effective for a while yet. Dickey took 5 Tough Losses this year, to lead the team, but he also got 3 Cheap Wins, again leading the team.
Ryan Tepera C-
Quite obviously has not earned the manager's trust. If the game hadn't already gone to extra innings, the Jays had to be either ahead by seven or down by four before Tepera would get a chance. Still, he generally did a good job when asked. His year must have been a strange experience. I don't know how many separate stints he had with the team - I lost count after five. Tepera was able to deal with the issue that hurt him so much in his taste of the majors in 2015 - namely the utterly absurd number of HRs hit against him. He gave up just one long ball this past year. There should be an opportunity for him next year - Benoit certainly and quite likely Cecil as well could both be gone. Tepera needs a good spring to make the team in the first place, and then he'll need to pitch well in his April opportunities to gain his manager's trust.
Darwin Barney D+
Hit unexpectedly well for a couple of months, but it turned out that he's still Darwin Barney and regression to the mean is still a cruel mistress. But he's a fine utility infielder - he's a good defensive player at three infield spots, and he's not a complete black hole at the plate. He didn't even look out of place in some emergency outfield appearances.
Ezequiel Carrera D+
You sure do see this a lot. A guy comes off the bench, full of energy and focus, and plays so well for a couple of weeks that you actually start to wonder if he can fill a larger role. They almost never can - the grind, the sheer drudgery of playing everyday always gets to them, and sends them back to the bench in due course. I think Carrera and Upton are both fourth outfielders, but I like Carrera better. This team has no shortage of RH batters swinging from their heels. Carrera's a different kind of player than the other guys on this team - he hits left-handed, he can run, he can handle the bat - and if you gave him 600 ABs, he'd strike out 150 times. That, surely, makes him a True Blue Jay. Gibbons seems to love him, more than is probably good for the team, but managers often fall in love with guys like this.
Gavin Floyd D+
He can still pitch a little - he allowed just 23 H and 8 BB in 31 IP, which is certainly good enough to fill a role in a major league bullpen. But Floyd hasn't made it through a season unscathed since 2012, and if he can't do that it really doesn't matter how well he can pitch.
Justin Smoak D
Justin Smoak was one of six first basemen taken in the first 18 picks of the 2008 draft. Eric Hosmer (3rd overall) has clearly been the most successful, having now put in six years as a regular, providing pretty good offensive production in three of them while also picking up a couple of (undeserved) Gold Gloves. As for the rest - while Hosmer's career OPS is .763 is the best of the bunch, the second best was turned in by the unfortunate David Cooper (.750). But the doctors called off Cooper's career before it really got going and none of Brett Wallace, Ike Davis, or Yonder Alonso ever amounted to much of anything (Davis did hit 32 HRs one year, but it was pretty clearly a fluke.) So Justin Smoak has had the second best career of the bunch. And that's not saying much. He's not really as bad as he looks - no one is that bad - but he's not very good. He draws walks and he hits home runs - that's all he does and he just doesn't do it often enough.
Brett Cecil D
The year's third major disappointment, along with Bautista and Stroman. After his brilliant work in 2015, Cecil moved into a crucial bullpen role and just crapped the bed completely. He had himself just a dreadful, awful, horrible year and it could very well be the last we see of him around these parts as he heads for free agency. Cecil's disastrous April - pitching in key game situations, and pitching very, very badly - put the team in a big hole from the start. Gibbons eventually lost all faith in him, and more or less refused to use him in any kind of game situation until Benoit's late season injury forced his hand. He did pitch well in the post-season, so he salvaged some self-respect.
Melvin Upton D
Meh. Wonderfully fluid athlete, not much of a baseball player. He's now 32 years old, and when the athleticism begins to go, he will have nothing - nothing whatsoever - to sustain him. His job will be to serve as the fourth outfielder, filling in at all the spots, pinch-hitting and pinch-running - you know, Reed Johnson's old job. Which is kind of neat because Upton is, in almost every way possible, the exact opposite of Reed Johnson.
Jesse Chavez D
He's a pretty good pitcher in Oakland. We're not in Oakland.
Bo Schultz D
Schultz is a finesse pitcher. He doesn't have anything he can rely on to get swings and misses. So every time he comes into a game, he has to discover what's working for him that day. Starters have that luxury. Relievers generally don't.
Ryan Goins D-
Did a credible imitation of a major league hitter in 2015, but it all went by the wayside this past season. He reverted totally to his previous form, swinging the bat like an NL's pitcher - one of the better hitting ones, sure, but you'd still ask Strasburg or Wainwright or Bumgarner to pinch hit for him. In all likelihood, he's neither as awful as he looked this season nor as almost-useful as he looked in 2015. He's probably not good enough to play regularly for anyone, and Barney has clearly passed him by as the backup infielder here - and Goins is only two and a half years younger than Barney. A change of scene would be good for him. He might be of more use to some other team, one where he can play some shortstop, than he is to this one. Not that he has any real trade value.
Dioner Navarro D-
He's a free agent, the team needs someone to catch 40 or 50 games. You can do worse. The Jays have generally done worse, but we've seen the last of Josh Thole. I promise.
Drew Hutchison D-
Now with Pittsburgh. Maybe Ray Searage can teach him how to pitch. He doesn't need fixes or adjustments. He needs to learn his trade.
Aaron Loup E
I don't know what happened to this guy - after three useful seasons, he turned in his second bad year in a row. But he's still just 28 years old and, more importantly, he's still left-handed. It should keep getting him chances for the next five years at least. And in Toronto, there's obviously a very good chance that Brett Cecil won't be back.
Chad Girodo E
Did you see anything you liked? Besides being left-handed? I didn't.
Scott Feldman E
He was having himself a nice season, and then he came to Toronto. I don't know what he did to offend the goddess of BABiP, but that must have been some crime. I hope it was worth it, because that was ugly.
Junior Lake E
He looks like a baseball player. He's not.
Josh Thole E
Where the Dickey goes, there go I. Thole spent four years in Toronto, playing in 170 games and getting 473 plate appearances. He hit .200/.275/.248, which doesn't really require further explanation. He does do a legitimately good job of dealing with the knuckleball, so he may still be able to find a pitcher somewhere to whom he can hitch his wagon.
Drew Storen E
Seemed like a really good idea at the time.
Chris Colabello F
Busted.
