Today, Danny Jansen will become the first player in MLB history to play for both teams in the same game when the Blue Jays and Red Sox resume their suspended clash. 🤯
— Sportsnet (@Sportsnet) August 26, 2024
The game was suspended during his at-bat, meaning he will catch against his own pinch-hitter. pic.twitter.com/omuRfq4YQD
Last year around this time, we were contemplating whether this current Toronto Blue Jays core would win a playoff series or even a game in Minnesota. They didn't. The 2024 squad got off to a terrible start and managed to be slightly better after the trade deadline.
The 2024 Toronto Blue Jays finished last in the American League East with a 74-88 record, 20 games behind the division winner New York Yankees. The team finished 39-42 at Rogers Centre and 35-46 on the road.
2023 Toronto Blue Jays go down in 2 straight to Minnesota
Bowden Francis was the hero in the second half of the season for the Toronto Blue Jays. I happened to see Francis throw a shutout at Wrigley Field, Toronto's only win against the Cubs (the Blue Jays went 5-1 against the White Sox, the only loss coming in Toronto).
The future is here for the Blue Jays with such players as Davis Schneider, Spencer Horwitz, Addison Barger, Leo Jimenez, Nathan Lukes, Ernie Clement, Joey Loperfido and Will Wagner (via Houston), Jonatan Clase, Luis De Los Santos, and Steward Berroa. Orelvis Martínez will be part of the mix in 2025 after serving an 80-game suspension for performance-enhancing drugs.
The veteran core of George Springer, Vladimir Guerrero Jr., Alejandro Kirk, and Daulton Varsho helped out the rookies. Where would the Blue Jays be without the tremendous second half by Guerrero. Imagine if they had a Teoscar Hernandez type hitter hitting behind Guerrero?
It’s a bummer the Blue Jays have struggled this year because this Vladdy season feels like it’s flying under the radar and it absolutely shouldn’t be pic.twitter.com/A4Vd3gc3Ve
— MLB Deadline News (@MLBDeadlineNews) September 25, 2024
Bo Bichette was injured for most of the second half. This gave more at bats to the youngsters. Bichette and Guerrero are free agents at the end of the 2025 season.
Joey Votto, who only got to play for the Blue Jays in spring training, retired in a parking lot in Buffalo. Kevin Kiermaier, only 34, is choosing to retire at the end of the 2024 season. Kiermaier was put on waivers and then went to the Los Angeles Dodgers.
Cavan Biggio bounced around from Los Angeles, San Francisco, and then Atlanta.
The bullpen suffered a lot of injuries. A healthier and more productive bullpen is one of the many needs of this team.
Varsho will have a rough off-season after rotator cuff surgery. Wagner had left knee surgery.
With their loss on Saturday, the #BlueJays are now 500-500 over their last 1,000 regular season games. pic.twitter.com/CvF3lNwhOF
— Sportsnet Stats (@SNstats) September 28, 2024
The 2023 off-season was seen as lackluster by fans who aren't happy with the Mark Shapiro/Ross Atkins team. Shohei Ohtani was an unlikely Plan A and there was a quarter-hearted Plan B involving veterans such as Isiah Kiner-Falefa and Daniel Vogelbach.
Where does manager John Schneider fit in (or out) with this?
The 2024 off-season requires asking what kind of team are the Toronto Blue Jays? Near contenders who need a few more steps to make the playoffs? A team with some star players, who may or may not stay, destined to finish last for the next 2 seasons? The tough AL East Division isn't going away.
Alejandro Kirk threw out three baserunners tonight & has now prevented as many stolen base attempts (27) as he did in 2022 & 2023 combined.
— Ben Nicholson-Smith (@bnicholsonsmith) September 24, 2024
“He's been unbelievable."https://t.co/P2JBdbM3H8
The Toronto Blue Jays had a good dilemma: too many good catchers. They had Kirk, Danny Jansen, and catcher prospect Gabriel Moreno. Well, Moreno went to Arizona with Lourdes Gurriel Jr. in the Daulton Varsho trade on December 22, 2022. Jansen went to Boston in a minor trade. Kirk did improve with a more significant workload.
The Blue Jays in recent days flipped backup catchers, reacquiring Tyler Heineman and demoting Brian Serven.
Guerrero has talked about playing more third base in 2025. That can open up the diamond, perhaps to acquire a 1B/DH type of hitter.
Rogers Centre has been redesigned for more home runs yet the opposition is taking more advantage than the Blue Jays hitters.
2024 Toronto Blue Jays second half preview
Rogers Centre renovations help but Canada still needs a really good baseball stadium
RECORD-BREAKING 🌭 #BlueJays fans ate a WHOPPING 727,819 Loonie Dogs this season 🤯 pic.twitter.com/qLL0GibFZ1
— Toronto Blue Jays (@BlueJays) September 25, 2024
2024 Toronto Blue Jays preview
2024 Toronto Blue Jays spring training schedule
Joey Votto saw just a single pitch as a member of the Blue Jays - he hit it out of the park, rounded the bases, then injured his ankle after tripping in the dugout. Never made it back to the bigs, but what a way to go.
— SportsLogos.Net (@sportslogosnet) August 21, 2024
(He also ended his Reds career by getting ejected) pic.twitter.com/61g4gazLDw
Joey Votto should be the third Canadian to make the Baseball Hall of Fame, behind Ferguson Jenkins and Larry Walker. We don't anticipate Votto going in on the first ballot yet he was a top player of his time.
The 2010 National League MVP winner had a career .409 OBP. Votto never played in a World Series with Cincinnati and that may hurt his chances.
Happy retirement to one of the best Canadians to ever play MLB.
Canadian MLB players to watch for in 2024 (TSN)
Oakland ❤️ pic.twitter.com/O6UCtpOrp1
— Montreal Expos (@Montreal_Expos) September 26, 2024
There is a bit of Les Expos de Montréal in the Oakland A's saga. The A's moved from Kansas City to Oakland before the 1968 season. The Montréal Expos started in 1969 instead of 1971 thanks to U.S. Senator Stuart Symington (D-Missouri). Sen. Symington pressured Major League Baseball to move up the timeline to bring baseball back to Kansas City after the loss of the A's.
This fed into Milwaukee's MLB journey after losing its National League team after the 1965 season (moved to Atlanta). Bud Selig brought the Seattle Pilots to Milwaukee. Selig's leadership is part of why the Montréal Expos ceased to be a MLB team.
The Oskland A's had 20 more years than the Expos in Montréal almost to the day. The final Montréal Expos home game at Olympic Stadium was September 29, 2004; the final Oakland A's home game was September 26, 2024. Both teams ended their season on the road: Oakland in Seattle and the Expos at Shea Stadium in New York City.
Both teams had terrible ownership: Jeffrey Loria for Montréal and John Fisher for Oakland. Both had great plans for a future stadium: Labatt's Park in downtown Montréal and the Howard Terminal Project in downtown Oakland.
Both teams have struggled with radio deals: We unfortunately remember when Loria was too cheap to get an English language radio deals in 2000, resorting to putting the English radio coverage on Expos.com in 2000.
Both cities are major league cities that will be without baseball. Both teams' fan bases deserved so much better from ownership during and after the disastrous decisions.
Fisher's move to Sacramento is about keeping the TV money from NBC Sports California. So Oakland area cable subscribers can still watch the team if they choose to do so. That is an unique kind of pain.
MLB should have had a spine in both cases. Dealing with rich men requires spines yet none were found in either case.
We do note with irony that the other Bay Area team — the San Francisco Giants — almost moved to Toronto before the start of the 1976 season. The Toronto Giants felt like a real possibility but the National League owners showed some spines and didn't approve the deal. Toronto got an expansion franchise to start the 1977 season.
The move would have put the Montréal Expos and Toronto Giants in the National League, which would have changed the dynamic of baseball in Canada. The Expos and Blue Jays had exhibitions from 1978-1986 (not 1981 due to the MLB strike) and played regular season games in 2003-2004. The games went under the banner of the Pearson Cup. after former Prime Minister Lester B. Pearson.
CanadianCrossing.com MLB coverage
We hope for a positive, inspirational off-season for the Toronto Blue Jays. We also have a request to the Blue Jays and MLB: we know it's not realistic for the Toronto Blue Jays to play in Montréal, given the construction of a new roof at Stade Olympique, home of Les Expos. We want to see MLB in Montréal as soon as that can happen. Merci.
Twitter captures: @Sportsnet; @MLBDeadlineNews; @SNstats; @bnicholsonsmith; @BlueJays; @sportslogosnet; @Montreal_Expos
photo credit: @Sportsnet
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