SWING AND A MISS: The Blue Jays’ poor season in 2023 and what lies ahead
What is next for the Blue Jays after a disappointing 2023 season
Blue Jays beat writer Rob Longley discusses what lies next for the Blue Jays following a poor 2023 season.
A season that ends in obvious underachievement will always be marked by disappointment, disillusionment, and frustration.
It’s the nature of professional sports, the unavoidable cost of fans, and the difficulty that every championship-minded front office faces.
To paraphrase the team’s own high marketing tagline, the ambitious 2023 Toronto Blue Jays pushed these emotions to the next level during a turbulent season that ended in dramatic postseason defeat.
Despite expectations and betting odds portraying them as World Series candidates, the Jays have been done for three weeks as the Fall Classic begins this weekend.
The squad’s early and humble exit left plenty to consider from a team that won three fewer games than in 2022 and two fewer than in 2021, was less dynamic offensively, and punctuated its failings with a series of self-inflicted public-relations crises.
And it set the groundwork for a critical off-season for an embattled front staff, a process that will accelerate swiftly after the World Series.
The reaction after being swept by the Minnesota Twins in a best-of-three AL wild-card series was as explosive as we’ve seen around this organisation in president Mark Shapiro and general manager Ross Atkins’ eight-year tenure.
The agony of losing devolved into a blame game, with manager John Schneider claiming after the game that his hands were tied, Atkins throwing him under the bus three days later, and Shapiro suggesting that it might be time to hug it all out.
That may take some time for a club that has become less likeable as the season has progressed, with frustration at an all-time high.
In no particular order, the Jays’ hyper-engaged fan base became tired of the team’s offensive difficulties, the frustrating inability to hit a hot streak, and a front office that seemed evasive with the truth, avoiding openness at all costs.
So team turmoil it has been — and not just externally.
Players were openly critical of the Berrios boondoggle in the Twin Cities, both on and off the record. Many, in fact, were incensed at how it played out.
“There was definitely some confusion from the players as to what was going on,” Whit Merrifield explained on the Foul Territory podcast. “I have no idea what goes on behind those doors, behind the coach’s doors.” I only know what has been communicated to us. I understand the analytics section is really interested.”
I don’t know what happens behind those doors, behind the coach’s doors. I just know what was communicated to us. I know the analytics department is pretty involved.
To be fair, the Blue Jays are far from alone in this technique, as we’ve witnessed at various occasions this postseason. The communications breakdown that cloaked the events in Minny, on the other hand, did not sit well.
And now, with a handful of free agents potentially on their way out, the baseball operations braintrust confronts the daunting task of preventing a further slide from a squad that showed so much promise.
Along the way, they’ll have to re-establish fan trust and repair the schism between the front office and the clubhouse.
Rarely is a situation as horrible as it appears in the aftermath of a defeat, but the way the volatile season unfolded and ultimately ended has left an imprint.
“This season was a grind,” Shapiro remarked at his season-ending news conference, which was part state of the union, part damage control after Atkins’ hostile stab at the same a few days before.
“It was not an easy task. It was really annoying and difficult. We still won 89 games… but in my 32 years in the game, I can’t recall a season that felt more effortful.”
Tell that to the three million fans that flocked to the Rogers Centre in 2023, expecting more than the drunken rush from the new outfield drinking dens.
The old baseball rallying point of playing “meaningful September baseball” rings hollow for a team that has been swept away in wild-card appearances in 2020, 2022 and 2023. Even worse, a team that had vowed improved defence and attention to detail would be the ticket to do damage in the playoffs, was ill-equipped to do so.
Built to sustain the grind of a 162-game season and qualify for the saturated MLB post-season? Sure. Built for championship baseball where power plays and clutch scoring is at a premium? Not yet, it would seem.
“The goal is to play deeper into October,” Shapiro explained. “I think playing meaningful games in September was probably enough at one point.” That is no longer sufficient.”
No, it most clearly is not. And, with all of the essential actors still in place, what happens next could have a big impact on determining how long the Shapiro-Atkins legacy will last.
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