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Even if Rogers Communications - which owns the franchise - agrees to those terms, it’d still likely be worth exploring salary retention as part of the deal. Chicago believes it’s time to move on from Hendriks after just two seasons, opting to spend its resources elsewhere. But their loss will be someone else’s gain - possibly Toronto’s - especially since Hendriks is coming off another dominating performance. So, with that in mind, it wouldn’t be unrealistic for management to pursue another reunion with Hendriks, one of the game’s elite high-leverage arms since undergoing his transformation with the Oakland Athletics.
In the regular season, three Blue Jays—John Olerud, Paul Molitor and Roberto Alomar—finished for the AL batting crown. The name "Blue Jays" came about in 1976, when the team held a "name the team" contest, which involved more than 4,000 suggestions. 154 people suggested the name "Blue Jays" and Dr. William Mills, a periodontist from Etobicoke, was selected from a draw as the grand winner.
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Despite a 75-win season, the Jays saw the strong return of Aaron Hill, who won the American League Comeback Player of the Year Award and the Silver Slugger for second base. Adam Lind, who also had a strong season, earned the Silver Slugger for designated hitter. Shortstop Marco Scutaro also broke out for career highs in batting average (.282), slugging percentage (.379), at bats , and total bases . Toronto was one of 7 teams to not make the playoffs in the 2000s decade, joining the Baltimore Orioles, Cincinnati Reds, Pittsburgh Pirates, Kansas City Royals, Washington Nationals , and Texas Rangers.
“Our pro scouting department was high on him and he dove right in and was a solid baseball player all around,” Sclafani said. He puts together good at-bats, doesn’t give anything away and has great instincts defensively. He earned everything he did this year and we were excited to add him to the 40-man." The most likely method for the Jays to find that extra pop in the lineup is through a left-handed hitting outfielder. The club has already been connected to players like Brandon Nimmo, Cody Bellinger, Michael Brantley and Masataka Yoshida, though all four of those players have now agreed to terms elsewhere. The White Sox did the same thing with Craig Kimbrel last offseason, dumping the final year of his lucrative deal on the Los Angeles Dodgers in exchange for outfielder A.J.
present: The Ross Atkins era
Despite fans and analysts high expectations, the 2013 team did not live up to the preseason predictions. Most of the regulars battled injury (Reyes broke his ankle during a steal attempt 10 games into the season and a benign tumor was removed from Cabrera's spine after the season ended) and generally underperformed. One of the few bright spots was the promotion of fan favorite Munenori Kawasaki to replace Reyes. The Blue Jays also tied a franchise record with an 11-game winning streak from June 11–23. Edwin Encarnación finished the season on the DL with a wrist injury but had great numbers (.272 AVG, 36 HR and 104 RBI) to follow up his break-out 2012 season.
Liam Hendriks, who spent half a season with Toronto in 2014 before returning for the full 2015 campaign, has reportedly been made available by Chicago’s front office as the team looks to shed salary this winter. And this isn’t the first time they’ve attempted to part ways with a high-profile reliever. A reunion may be in the cards between the Toronto Blue Jays and relief pitcher Liam Hendriks, who last appeared for the team in 2015. Atkins said that run prevention was one of his targets in the off-season and that signing Bassitt and centre-fielder Kevin Kiermaier — who was inked by Toronto on Wednesday — would go a long way to addressing that need.
AL East
As one of baseball’s leaders in inducing ground ball outs, having a human vacuum at third base in Chapman holds significant appeal to the newest big-number Jays free-agent acquisition. Amit Mann and Louis Zatzman discuss why the Raptors have been unable to find a rhythm on defence and whether they will find their form this season. Full episode gauging their confidence on Fred' shooting, team defence, front office tweaking roster, Malachi Flynn staying in the rotation and more is on the "Raptors Over Everything" podcast feed. So if the Blue Jays are determined to make another splash, Hendriks could be the ideal gift for their fanbase this holiday season.
The Blue Jays played their first 21 home games of the 2021 season at TD Ballpark in Dunedin, Florida due to COVID-19 restrictions. The Blue Jays played their next 23 home games at Sahlen Field before returning to Rogers Centre on July 30. They finished the 2021 season with a 91–71 record, one game behind the New York Yankees and the Boston Red Sox in the AL wild card race. Starting pitcher Robbie Ray became the fourth Blue Jays pitcher to win the Cy Young Award. Buck Martinez, a former catcher and broadcast announcer for the Blue Jays, took over as manager before the 2001 season.
The club has yet to pull the trigger, with Danny Jansen, Alejandro Kirk and Gabriel Moreno all still on the roster. Recent reporting suggested that the club would be comfortable holding onto all three and Atkins backed that up Monday. The club has since added Kiermaier to their outfield mix, who is a much better defender than Hernandez but inferior on offense. Most of the club’s lineup projects to be back for 2023, with the most notable departure being Teoscar Hernández, who went to the Mariners in the Swanson trade.
After the season, Gillick became general manager of the team, a position he held until 1994. They led the AL East from early to mid-April and held their record around .500 until late August. The Jays were hit with the injury bug when third baseman Corey Koskie broke his finger, taking him out of the lineup, but the club was pleasantly surprised with the performance of rookie call-up Aaron Hill in his stead. On July 8, just prior to the All-Star break, Blue Jays ace Roy Halladay was struck on the shin by a line drive, resulting in a fractured leg.
Despite their hitting successes, poor pitching continued to plague the team. Halladay was an exception, winning his first Cy Young Award, going 22–7, with a 3.25 ERA. In July, Shannon Stewart was traded to the Minnesota Twins for Bobby Kielty, another outfielder with a much lower batting average than Stewart's. Although the Jays finished in third place in their division, Delgado was second in the voting for the American League MVP Award. In the off-season, Kielty was traded to the Oakland Athletics for starter Ted Lilly.
The Blue Jays also acquired Curtis Granderson and Seung-hwan Oh as free agents. The City of Toronto had renovated Exhibition Stadium to accommodate Major League Baseball , in anticipation of the Giants' relocation there, and continued to push for an MLB franchise. MLB awarded Toronto an expansion franchise in 1976, along with Seattle, Washington. A consortium composed of Labatt Breweries (45%), Webster (45%) and CIBC (10%), purchased the rights for the franchise from MLB for $7 million. "I don't think they knocked the cover off the ball but they certainly did a good job of putting balls in play, putting pressure on us, and found holes." The Blue Jays just wrapped their first official “homestand” in Toronto since September 2019, and the jacket got quite the workout over the first 11 games at Rogers Centre.
He enlisted one of his friends to design a custom jacket representing the countries of origin for the players, coaches, and staff. The Blue Jays wore special red-and-white uniforms at select games during the 2017 season to celebrate the 150th anniversary of Canada. On April 2, one day before the start of the regular season, Melvin Upton Jr. was released. On May 31, 2016, the Blue Jays traded for Jason Grilli from the Atlanta Braves. Before the non-waiver trade deadline at 4 pm EDT on August 1, 2016, the Blue Jays traded for Joaquín Benoit, Melvin Upton Jr., Scott Feldman, and Francisco Liriano. On August 25, 2016, the Blue Jays re-acquired popular backup catcher Dioner Navarro in a trade with the Chicago White Sox.
While attendance suffered throughout the majors in the years immediately after the strike, the dropoff was especially pronounced for the Canadian teams, the Montreal Expos and Blue Jays. In 1987, the Blue Jays lost a division race to the Detroit Tigers by two games, after being swept on the last weekend of the season by the Tigers, ending the season with seven straight losses. The Blue Jays finished with a 96–66 record, second best in the major leagues.
In 1980, Bobby Mattick became manager, succeeding Roy Hartsfield, the Blue Jays' original manager. Mattick began the 1980 season with the goal of losing fewer than 100 games for the first time in the team's brief history. For a brief time during the early part of the season, the Jays battled with the New York Yankees for first place in the AL East, before they tumbled during the summer back to the bottom of the standings. Still, the Jays almost reached the 70-win mark, finishing with a record of 67–95, a 14-win improvement on 1979, and achieving Mattick's goal of fewer than 100 losses. Jim Clancy led with 13 wins and John Mayberry became the first Jay to hit 30 home runs in a season.
Attempting to string hits together against that group would be extremely difficult, especially in the playoffs. And even if that occurred, elite defenders like Matt Chapman and Kevin Kiermaier would be there to support them. The Perth, Australia, native will earn $14.3 million next season, with his CBT calculation valued at $18 million. His contract also includes a $15 million option for 2024, which vests if traded.
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