Blue Jays return home with less than perfect 20-20 vision

Sweep of M’s in Seattle is first since 1991

It seems a frustrating commonality for all Blue Jays fans that every blueprint of a dream, custom-built home must include a Panic Room. Consider these two scenarios. If your optometrist checked you out and told you of 20-20 vision, it would be positive, an encouraging thing to hear, but if at spring training through 40 games your fortune-teller saw the Jays in a 20-20 vision, fans would have been disappointed.

But at 20-20 is exactly where the Jays sit in the middle of the American League East, as they open an important homestand — nine games in 10 days vs. the Rays, Tigers and Padres. It’s the way that they arrived at this spot that separates the glass half-full crowd from those Jays fans that prefer to see it as half-empty. At 40-games, this is the floor, after one-quarter of the season. The door now can swing both ways.

Over the next two months, manager John Schneider and his staff will find out what the 2025 ceiling might be or if someone pulls a hatch on the floor.. At that point, in late July, if the Jays are still struggling to keep their heads above water, the trade deadline will come into play and what fans see on this current homestand could become dramatically different in August-September.

Here are some relevant numbers to consider before you take your next sip from the half-full/empty glass. With a mediocre record of 20-20, the Jays have an alarming run differential of minus-22 and have suffered seven blowout losses of 5+ runs. They are 11-14 against teams currently above .500, which, being slightly positive, means they have played 25 of 40 games vs. contenders. But, it doesn’t get any easier as both the Tigers and Padres, on this stand, are well above the break-even mark.

Caveat. The Blue Jays starting pitchers, considered a strength and still very much so, are a combined 2-8 over the last 20 games. But, of course, wins aren’t everything. For a team, yes. For a starter, no. For the season, the bullpen, which carried the Jays for a while and, at its best, is rich in leverage arms, is a combined 9-7, with 13 saves.

An encouraging sign to consider for the glass half-empty crowd following a mediocre first-quarter is that the front office and coaching staff seem to still be learning about what they have, on the pitching side and on the bench.

There are seven Jays pitchers that have been given an opportunity and are no longer on the major-league active roster or the IL. The less-than-magnificent seven have a combined 7.58 ERA, allowing 39 earned-runs in 46.1 innings. The current staff, plus IL, have a respectable 3.73 ERA .

Hidden Numbers. There has been a sizeable percentage of Jays fans over the first two weeks in the month of May that have a) been angst-ing over the perceived on-field woes through Anaheim, or, b) have been not paying attention because the Leafs are threatening to go to the third round. Here are some facts to consider.

Catcher Alejandro Kirk has made 30 of 40 starts thus far and despite taking a standing 8-count from a bat on a follow-through from Julio Rodriguez in Seattle that left him woozy and forced him from Sunday’s game an inning later, Kirk is 19-for-48-.396 since April 25, with a .908 OPS and has thrown out more than 34-percent of base stealers for the season. But the heat of a summer marathon hasn’t kicked in yet.

Right-fielder George Springer, taken out of the leadoff spot on Opening Day, has been freed up and is swinging the bat harder, while being more selective and has come up with key hits while showing consistency and better body language that has seen him with a .294 average or above every day since March 30.

Addison Barger did not make the cut on opening day, but he was called up on April 15. He was initially a bench player, with an aggressive bat, big power potential, a great throwing arm and the ability to play right field and third base. A solid bench player. But his role has increased and decisions on his future playing time will be considered.

When Andres Gimenez injured his right quad hustling to beat out a groundball, Ernie Clement shifted over to second-base allowing Barger to play every day at third. The Jays have won four straight games with Barger at third, going 8-for-18-.444, with three doubles, a homer and six RBIs. His arm makes up for a lot of things. The wise thinking is that over the course of a season, Clement may better serve as a super sub at second, third and whenever Bo Bichette needs a break.

The Jays, including a win on April 30, are 7-4 in the past 11 and, in fact, should be 10-1, if not for a hiccup by their two key leverage guys in the bullpen that people were wrongly suggesting was the result of early-season overuse and hitting a wall. Hiccup? Of course, what Jeff Hoffman and Yimi Garcia did vs. Cleveland and then in Anaheim was a hiccup, only in the same way that Leafs goalie Anthony Stolarz skating over to the bench and leaning over the boards was a hiccup.

Hoffman, who had been almost perfect to that point vs. the Angels, gave up three earned runs on each of May 6-7, each time while recording just one out and each time torching a potential win. Meanwhile, Garcia, also almost perfect, threw gasoline on opposing fires May 3 and May 6, allowing seven runs in a total of one inning. That’s, in hindsight, three of the four losses in the last 11 games.

If the fact had truly been that the bullpen was hitting a wall before Mother’s Day, then this Jays team was toast. But after loading the bases in his next post-debacle outing with nobody out, Yimi rebounded to escape with no runs and a hold as the Jays beat the M’s 6-3 on Friday. Then, Hoffman, in his last two outings after the two meltdowns, struck out all six batter he faced in his two innings, with a pair of saves.

Half-full? Given Sunday’s much-welcomed blowout win vs. the M’s, plus an off-day Monday, those alarming glitches for the two highest leverage guys, with the weird suggestion they had hit a wall, have become just another brick.

One thing is clear with this Blue Jays team. Don’t try and predict any series based on opponent and venue. They are 3-1 at Fenway Park and swept three from the M’s in Sattle for the first time since 1991. They are also 0-3 at Houston and 1-2 at Anaheim.

Meanwhile the Jays’ half full/empty glass sits on the table and people still don’t know.