Blue Jays management has done everything it can do to make this team competitive this season, but it will not be good enough to get them into the playoffs. In order for the Jays to make reach the second wild card position in the American League they will have to reach the 90-95 win plateau and in order to do so that would require a record in the neighborhood of 20 games above the .500 mark the rest of this season which is not likely given the current status of the team.
Acquiring a front line starter in Berrios and bullpen help in Cimber, Richards and Brad Hand make the pitching a whole lot better, but there are still pieces that are not good enough to compete in a very competitive American League. This is unfortunate because the offence is tearing up the league and is near the top in most significant categories. I am not upset at the price for Berrios either. Austin Martin has shown limited power so far in the minors and Woods Richardson is just another guy since Manoah and Pearson were ahead of him on the pitching depth chart.
Vladdy has also slowed down a little bit recently, but he has shown signs of getting out of his mini funk and I have zero concern about his performance. Springer's ankle could have been a lot worse and his health and continued all star performance is paramount to success of the team. No way! My take is that this team will have to have its offence play absolutely ridiculous the rest of the way for it to have any chance at all to make the playoffs. I believe this is possible as long as everyone stays healthy and Montoya does not screw things up somehow.
Romano has been a bright spot in the bullpen, but he has no experience as a closer and he has already shown that he can not pitch more than a couple of days in a row. So who can the Jays rely on to close games if Romano can not? I thought Hand could fill in in that role, but he has been terrible in his few appearances. Dolis should not be on this roster either. For every appearance that he does not give up a run, he seems to give up a few and his outings are always high stress and unimpressive. The other pieces are just are border line major leaguers. Saucedo, Snead, Overton et al may show flashes from time to time, but a playoff team needs more consistency than these types of players can provide.
The starting pitching has actually been pretty good even with Ryu struggling a little bit since the all star break. Robby Ray has been one of the best pitchers in the majors and adding Berrios gives the Jays one of the best rotations in all of baseball. Stripling and Matz are questions marks, but both have shown that they are adequate bottom of the rotation type guys and Manoah has been a revelation and has been very good in his first stint in the bigs.
Any rotation led by three all stars should be good enough to make a serious run for the playoffs, but my concerns with the bullpen make this a very difficult task. Too many late inning blown leads and the game against the Mariners over the weekend is a good an example as any. Ryu was cruising through seven innings and Richards and Hand absolutely blew it. That brings upon another question on this team, Charlie Montoya. I would have kept Ryu in who prior to his blip in the seventh had retired 14 in a row. Why Charlie why?
This team led by its electrifying offence will continue to be exciting to watch for fans for the foreseeable future, and even though the bullpen is lacking there is still a chance the Jays make a push for the playoffs this season. That being said only the elite teams in the majors have a complete team filled with depth in all areas of the game. Even last years champs the Dodgers have a somewhat suspect bullpen, but they managed to figure things out and win it all.
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