The Risk and Reward in the American League East
Chronicling the years of futility since the Toronto Blue Jays’ last post-season appearance that has lead them to the 2013 season and the possibility of contending for the World Series.
By Spencer Emmerson, Junior Staff Writer
On April 2, the Toronto Blue Jays kicked off their 37th season at home in a game against the Cleveland Indians. Opening Day has always been a popular event for fans, with varying degrees of participation by Blue Jay diehards. For the past two decades the home opener has felt like a one-night stand, with fans coming out for the party instead of the team. However, after an offseason spent retooling an underachieving 2012 roster, the inaugural game of the 2013 season brought a long forgotten sense of possibility, as well as mandatory 500-Level fights, to the cavernous Rogers Centre.
Unfortunately for the dedicated Toronto sports fan, the last two decades have been marred with false promises and underachieving basement dwellers. Here is the truth about Toronto’s major sports teams: the Blue Jays play in the toughest division in baseball, the Raptors playoff chances tend to be as extinct as their name, and until this season the Leafs haven’t made the playoffs since the last NHL lockout. What Toronto sports fans need and deserve is a team that is built to be a perennial contender. The Blue Jays were the last Toronto team to achieve that status and it appears they are set to reclaim the glory of the late ’80s and early ’90s.
I was born in the late ’80s when the Blue Jays were the talk of Toronto, winning back-to-back World Series Championships in ’92 and ’93. As a result, my childhood veered away from your prototypical Canadian one. Instead of dreaming about scoring the game-winning goal for the Leafs, my dreams ended with the iconic words, “Touch ’em all, Spence. You’ll never hit a bigger home run in your life.” I was young and naïve in believing that the Blue Jays winning ways would continue on forever. Soon I would realize that the world is a cruel place. Or to be more specific, the American League East is a cruel place.
It may be hard to believe, but the Blue Jays were the first team to go out and spend money in the American League East. For as long as I can remember, the go-to excuse for Jays fans have been that they can’t compete with teams that have literally learned how to grow money on trees. Both the Yankees and Red Sox have looted competing teams of their homegrown talent by offering lucrative contracts that are simply out of the price range of most small market teams.
Back in ’92, the Jays were fresh off three straight division titles, but failed to get over the final hump and into the World Series. Something was missing and the Jays couldn’t miss this opportunity. So the Jays took a page out of the Yankees playbook, which hadn’t even been written yet, and signed top-tier talent that would help win the World Series. Maybe it was the playoff experience that veteran players brought in. Maybe it was the legendary moustaches of Jack Morris and Dave Winfield that pushed them over the top. One thing that is certain is that the risky moves made before the ’92 playoff run were both shrewd and necessary for the Jays’ chances of winning back-to-back titles. But after the Jays’ second consecutive World Series win in 1993, the victory champagne quickly stopped flowing and the team would experience a decade of disappointment.
The glow of Toronto’s back-to-back championship seasons quickly faded due to the ’94 strike, as well as a majority of the team’s premier players losing their battles with father time. As these players became a glimpse of their former selves, the young up-and-comers weren’t ready to take over the reins. But perhaps the toughest aspect of the Blue Jays plight was their division.
In ’92, as mentioned, the Jays trotted out the first $50 million starting nine in baseball history, but they would not be the last. The Yankees and Red Sox took this idea and ran with it, turning the American League East into the predominant division in baseball, and earning it the moniker “the Beast.” Essentially every team in Major League Baseball were grooming talent for New York and Boston to pick up in free agency. It was an arms race in the East, but the Jays wanted nothing to do with it.
Instead they opted to do the exact opposite and try to shop at the MLB dollar store to build a championship team. They hired general manager J.P. Ricciardi to bring this vision to light. The style of baseball Ricciardi was hoping to perfect was called Moneyball, which was successfully put to use by the Oakland Athletics several years prior. A couple years into the Blue Jays’ Moneyball era, Ricciardi had handicapped the team by acquiring mid-level talent, as well as low-ceiling prospects. This meant that even if the Jays prospects and free agents played well, it would still place them behind the rest of the pack. After several attempts to emulate the A’s Moneyball success, Ricciardi abandoned the effort when his owner gave him the option of spending money.
It quickly became apparent that Ricciardi’s bargain baseball background left him unable to hang with the big boys. Almost every move he made while carrying a loaded wallet backfired. He gave Vernon Wells, who was a capable centerfielder coming off his best season, the sixth largest contract in baseball at the time, and followed that with another lucrative contract to Alex Rios, who was later allowed to walk to Chicago for nothing. Ricciardi became a gunslinger in his final years as the Blue Jays decision maker, making moves because he could. When he was finally sent packing in Oct. 2009, which resulted in the only standing ovation at the Rogers Centre during his tenure, the Blue Jays were stuck in the basement of baseball with the likes of the Royals and Pirates.
Ricciardi’s successor, Alex Anthopoulos, quickly became a fan favourite for making carefully calculated blockbuster trades. Blue Jays radio broadcaster, Jerry Howarth, clearly characterizes the difference between the two general managers, “Ricciardi was impulsive; Alex is not.”
Anthopoulos began rebuilding the team from the ground up, which included trading away the team’s best player, Roy Halladay, for top-tier prospects. Prospects were a big part of the plan, as the Jays began stockpiling talent in their farm system, and then patiently waiting for them to evolve into major league ball players. Through drafting and calculated trades, the Blue Jays had constructed a strong and youthful core that was expected to compete in 2012.
Injuries would derail the dream of meaningful baseball in September, turning the season into a circus. Despite such a dreadful season, the Jays crafty general manager began to notice that the sun was setting on the Yankees and Red Sox, and he would make every attempt to make sure it would rise on the Jays.
Looking back at Anthopoulos’ tenure up till now, any fan can see how he put the team together like a puzzle. He started by locking up young, potential, core players (Ricky Romero, Brandon Morrow, Jose Bautista) as his frame, then built towards the center by piling up on prospects through drafts and trades. Finally, with the completion of his puzzle near, he spent money this offseason. Sending a clear message that the Blue Jays’ time was now, he went out and acquired shortstop Jose Reyes, and pitchers Josh Johnson and Mark Buerhrle from the Miami Marlins. And if that wasn’t enough, he acquired National League Cy Young winner R.A. Dickey from the New York Mets to solidify a formidable starting pitching rotation.
“This should be a playoff contending team, where the fans will come back to the tune of three million fans,” says Howarth. “Baring injury they should be playing everyday meaningful games, because they have one of the best five man starting rotations in baseball.”
From a pure business perspective, the moves are necessary in order to bring the fans back to the park. Toronto is, and always will be, a hockey town, which will continuously force the Blue Jays to earn their keep within the city. The Rogers Centre tends to only see an influx of fans when big name teams came through town, such as the Yankees and Red Sox. However this new roster has the names and potential to change that.
“Now it will be the Blue Jays. The fans will come out. They have nine new faces, including the pitchers, and that’s what the fans want to see now,” says Howarth.
A famous quote from the film Field of Dreams goes, “If you build it, he will come.” Anthopoulos has certainly built it. With the American League East at its most vulnerable, coupled with the Leafs and Raptors wrapping up their seasons shortly, the Blue Jays can truly become Toronto’s team.
Spencer Emmerson is a freelance writer based in Toronto, Ontario. In October of 2012, he obtained his Honours degree in English from the University of Guelph. To learn more, please view his twitter account @TheSpinner24.
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