Blue Jays Opening Weekend Thoughts

 Baseball is back and maybe it's just the excitement of spring but I am into it this year! Before I get into the rollercoaster weekend for the Jays, quick shout out to the Raptors rookies who continue to prove that they're too good to tank. There's something to be said when they're going up against other team's second round and undrafted players and showing us they're way better. This front office and coaching staff knows how to find and develop guys. Anyway, Jays! Depending on which day you spoke to a Jays fan the Jays either completely stink or are winning the world series, gotta love the early season overreactions. Today I'm going to do just that!

My Takes are All Wrong

In this tiny 4 game sample size that we get to look at, I have been proven wrong on a ton of my takes! When I first saw the opening day lineup the Jays had Bo Bichette hitting leadoff. My big take all weekend was that Bo isn't a leadoff hitter, he's a great hitter but he rarely takes walks and his on base percentage isn't what you'd want from a guy at the top of the order. Against the Orioles Bo got on base 10 out of 18 plate appearances and showed really good patience especially compared to prior years. As it will be for everything in this entire writeup, small sample sizes are pretty much useless in baseball, but it's encouraging to see Bo work on that aspect of his game because if he can just walk even a little bit more he actually is a dangerous option at the top of the order. 

My other big take was that Andres Gimenez is not a cleanup hitter. Supposedly a defense first second baseman, I was not expecting much from Gimenez on offense and went as far as to laugh at the Jays for having him hit 4th for the entire series against the O's. So far through 4 games Gimenez has 2 HRs, a double and 4 RBIs and was the Jays most clutch hitter in the series. I don't want to get super hyped off 4 games, but Gimenez is the exact type of guy that you could see having a breakout season. 25 years old, has had success at the plate in the past and is in a new ball park with new teammates, could we get the best out of him? 

All of this is to say, surprisingly in the series the offense was not the issue and I came away happy with how the Jays swung the bats. Vlad and Bo came out with swings like we've seen them have before, Santander had a couple clutch hits, Springer saw his role reduced but still had solid production when he did play and the bottom of the lineup has far exceeded expectations so far. We even got a hilarious Tyler Heineman home run, the second of his career and first since 2019. If you haven't seen it already I encourage you to look it up, he flipped his bat and everything it was awesome. 

Richard Lovelady, All Time Name, Terrible Pitcher

The Richard Lovelady era in Toronto is officially over, lets all remember the good times. Ok no really this section is to talk about how the Jays have some serious holes in their bullpen early in the season. This is one of those things that you need to give a couple months before you fully judge, I've never seen a team have the same 8 guys in the pen in June that they did in April, so patience is key here as they work to figure it out. That being said, the mix of guys that broke out of camp did not get the job done in this series. Jacob Barnes, Chad Greene, Yariel Rodriguez and my guy Richard Lovelady all struggled to throw strikes and when they did throw strikes they were hit hard. The problem was exasperated on Thursday and Saturday when Berrios struggled and Scherzer left early with an injury. I will say that the back end of the pen showed up in the series. Yimi Garcia looks as good as ever and Hoffman had a convincing 2 strikeout save on Sunday. Through just 4 games it appears to me that if the Jays can have their starter give them 6 good innings, they've got a shot with the back end of their pen. If the Jays starter has to leave any earlier than that, we're really rolling the dice with who we have left. It's incredibly early though and as I said, I expect a bunch of guys to get a shot this year, someone breaks out in a bullpen every single season why not one of our guys?

Depth to be Tested

If you remember, I was pretty high on the Jays starting rotation coming into the season. It is discouraging to already see Scherzer leave a game with an injury as it now forces the Jays to go into their depth. I can't pretend like I know who the next guy up is, but I do believe the quality drop off is pretty steep from the 5th to 6th starter for the Jays. The bats have been pretty hot early on, hopefully they can help carry the team through this stretch as they try to figure things out. 

All in all, fun weekend of baseball and lots of stuff to overreact to. I'm looking forward to being more into the Jays this season and hopefully learning more about these guys to bring some better depth to my analysis. The Orioles are a really good team and a series split is something to be proud of. If the Jays go .500 against the AL East, they've got a great shot at making the playoffs this season, you heard it here first. Go Jays!