It’s mid-afternoon on Oct. 3. After a day of anxiously watching the out-of-town scoreboard, a two-run home run from Rafael Devers, the Boston Red Sox slugger of our nightmares, put the final nail in the coffin of the Toronto Blue Jays’ 2021 campaign. It delivered Boston a win and eliminated the Blue Jays from postseason contention.
The elimination was made especially painful by how close the Blue Jays came to making the playoffs. Toronto had just won 12-4 against the Baltimore Orioles to cap off a series sweep, but it was ultimately futile as the Blue Jays finished exactly one victory behind the Red Sox and New York Yankees.
So much went right this season. There was the historic season from Vladimir Guerrero Jr., the likely Cy Young campaign from Robbie Ray, the surprise emergence of Alex Manoah and a remarkable 18-9 September. In the end, it was all for naught, leaving an entire nation wondering, “If only Marcus Semien had made that game-ending throw.”
Now, as we prepare for another postseason void of the Blue Jays, it’s hard to feel anything but pain. The pain of falling short, the pain of pondering what could have been. It feels, frankly, like failure.
But let’s not get ahead of ourselves.
“Don’t cry because it’s over, smile because it happened” is certainly on the podium with “Live, Laugh, Love” and “On cottage time” as the most frequent mug- and needlepoint-adorning phrases in human history.
I’d like to propose my own needlepoint for the Blue Jays: “Don’t cry because it’s over, smile because it’ll almost certainly happen again.” Maybe it will even come with an embroidered George Springer hitting a three-run home run off a stitched Matt Barnes.
This season was not something to cry about. Not even close. And it was certainly not a failure.
To put it lightly, baseball is unfair. As opposed to other leagues, such as the NHL or NBA, where half or more of the teams make the playoffs, only one-third of MLB teams see a postseason berth. Two of these teams are also eliminated after only one wildcard game. In any other North American sports, regular playoff appearances indicate an above-average team. In baseball, the bar is set much higher.
The Blue Jays may not have made the postseason due to MLB’s cutthroat nature, but make no mistake, they are a playoff team. They are a team capable of making October dreams a reality very, very soon.
As Blue Jays second baseman Marcus Semien said, Toronto became the best team in baseball this season. They just got there a tick too late, when the fate of the season was practically decided.
The first half of the season was plagued by injuries, notably to blockbuster newbie George Springer. There were also persistent bullpen woes created by oft-scrutinized managerial decisions, which resulted in the name Tyler Chatwood sending chills down the spine of Canadian baseball fans.
The Blue Jays also played their home games in Dunedin, FL, then Buffalo, NY, for the first four months of the season. It’s funny how playing home games in front of fans cheering for your failure will hurt your ability to win.
But halfway through the season, the tide began to turn.
Springer returned, and although nagged by setbacks, he became a lynchpin for the team. He racked up 22 home runs in only 78 games, a respectable number for a complete 162-game season, let alone less than half of one. Toronto’s front office made moves, fixing bullpen woes at little cost with trades for Adam Cimber and Trevor Richards.
Semien turned around his slow start and put up one of the best offensive seasons of any second baseman in baseball history. Bo Bichette realized fantastic hair and fantastic fielding were not mutually exclusive and reined in his frequent errors at shortstop.
The Blue Jays also returned to Toronto, going 25-11 in games in front of what was often a sold-out reduced capacity crowd at the Rogers Centre. In the end, the Blue Jays kicked off September, the most important 30 days in baseball’s six-month season, with an eight-game winning streak.
And still, here we sit, one game back from a postseason spot. What can we learn from this?
This is the beginning of one hell of an era for Toronto baseball, with a young core that should dominate for years. Questions still remain around whether Semien and Ray, some of the Blue Jays’ biggest stars, will re-sign with the club but that should not detract from the talent Toronto is sure to have next season.
While Semien and Ray’s future north of the 49th parallel is far from certain, one thing is: This is the most exciting baseball team Toronto has seen in five years. The electricity of the Blue Jays’ young stars will propel this city and this team towards countless unforgettable moments that are still to come in this decade.
Featured graphic by Sara Mizannojehdehi.
