Yankees 2016-17 history provides Blue Jays a model for selling without a rebuild

Jays race to wild-card relevance has a lot of race left with fatigue a factor

The Blue Jays have been unbelievably competitive since the trade deadline on August 3, posting a 9-5 record and beyond that going 11-6 over the toughest stretch of the season, 17 games in 17 days with 14 of those contests being against opponents currently sitting in playoff position.

In fact, the Jays For one brief moment, late on Saturday afternoon, held sole possession of the third AL wild-card position by the narrowest of margins, a .0002 advantage over three others. But with seven teams within three games of a playoff spot, this race is sure to be day-to-day for the next 42 days. So, hold on tight.

You can’t take anything away from what the Jays have accomplished, when many had written them off on Aug. 4 and then when further injuries kept happening. What the Jays have done in closing what had been a 6.5 game gap, to that razor-thin lead for five hours on Saturday begs several questions that need to be answered. Fact is the Jays are like the marathon runner who has trailed all race, then sprints at Mile 20 to catch the Kenyan favourite. There is a brief celebration then reality sets in with five miles to go.

The MLB reality in this particular horsehide marathon is that the Jays since the deadline, have lost, from the rotation, Kevin Gausman via trade, plus Trey Yesavage and Spencer Arrighetti to injury, being replaced only by one Jose Soriano.

The Jays bullpen, for its part, relies on five trusted pitchers in high leverage, but with internal guidelines of not working three days in a row or, on most nights, more than one inning. One of the key leverage guys, Jeff Hoffman, was dealt to the Twins.

Which brings us to Sunday’s tense, extra-inning 4-3 loss to the damn Yankees. It seems like every day is “must win” for the Jays when there are that many teams in the hunt. That’s unsustainable.

Closing out the Yankees series, after winning the first two games, the Jays battled back from a one-run deficit, twice, to send the game to extras. But one of the team’s trusted relievers, Braydon Fisher, one of four Jays overworked pitchers with 58-plus appearances with still a month to go, was asked to pitch the 10^th inning and promptly gave up a two-run homer to Ben Rice, the first batter he faced. Working on fumes and hitting a wall will affect the entire bullpen. It’s unavoidable.

“I mean it was a tough 17-game grind for everyone,” manager John Schneider said after the game. “But to come out 11-6 is really impressive. The travel and facing the teams we’re facing. Just continue to play as hard as we’re playing and pitch the way we’re pitching. We have to find a way to get some more runs so we can get (the bullpen) a little bit of a break.

“It’s a tough part of the schedule and they’ve responded. Adverse times and saying goodbye to some teammates (at the trade deadline) and that kind of stuff. They’re going to enjoy (Monday’s off day in Florida) for sure. They deserve it. But they’ve got to come out ready to play against a really good (Rays) team.”

It was pointed out to the manager the Jays have lost the finale of four straight series they have had a chance to sweep and are 6-13 overall in finales of the last 19 series. Maybe a need for change in preparation for those final games, but more likely the biggest factor is that Schneider has been using those series finales to rest some regular position players and to take the opportunity for bullpen guys that need work and to rest others that are overworked. But these are desperate times.

If the Jays do not make it onto the October dance floor, but do manage to end the year at or above .500, it would have to be considered a post-deadline success.

So how can the Jays looking towards ‘27 sell a .500 finish to fans, after having, a year ago, come within one pitch of capturing the World Series? The answer is by never promising their fans a full rebuild, one that will take, even, one full year.

The Jays are one of the Big Boys in major-league baseball now in terms of payroll, stadium and broadcast revenues. The Jays, with Canada as their TV market, regularly draw more viewers than the Yankees. The Jays front office long ago as soon as they renovated the pleasure palace at the Rogers Centre, realized the “reload don’t rebuild” philosophy. Thus, after trading Gausman to the Cubs, a full-on sellers move, the next Jays deal was to bring in Soriano looking ahead to the next two seasons of control.

Looking back through history for models to show Mark Shapiro and Ross Atkins, one only need go back to the 2016-17 Yankees and see how what seemed like the end of their 23-year streak of seasons with a winning record, turned into an important transition between Alex Rodriguez (released Aug. 12) and Aaron Judge (first game Aug. 13). With rookie catcher Gary Sanchez taking over behind the plate, the Yankees won 84 games and the fans have not looked back. They won 91 the next year. The Yankee brand dictates any year-to-year strategy.

In Jay-Z’s classic, Empire State of Mind, the hip-hop legend brags, “I made the Yankee cap more famous than a Yankee can.” Perhaps he did, at one time, but the difference between Shawn Carter and the iconic MLB team from the Bronx is that while Jay-Z can afford to release a clunker of an album every now and then, the Yankees must keep putting competitive baseball teams on the field, or suffer a ripple effect of lost revenues. Thus the quick rebuild in 2016-17. The Jays have become like that since they put themselves in the MLB Top half dozen of payrolls and revenues.

Fans can trust that the Blue Jays will have no long-term, multi-year rebuilds in the foreseeable future. Of course, all bets are off if the Collective Bargaining process rears its ugly head on Dec. 1 and changes the MLB landscape of what has become a win-win for all involved, both owners and players. But for now, the Jays are building a future for 2027 encouraged by ownership and not burdened by what might happen.