Upsides in Toronto

So yeah. A few months after I got to see this Blue Jays team play at their stadium, just a few years after their playoff runs...we're back to some 4th place Blue Jays teams. Not even '4th place because we're just gonna be in 2nd place by September' 4th place. Like, they're actually bad.

And, to be fair, they didn't do a TON of dismantling at the deadline, but JA Happ, Roberto Osuna, Seunghwan Oh and Steve Pearce all left. No HUGE pieces, but enough to weaken the bullpen and rotation, which...to be fair, were already pretty weak to begin with.

And then a couple hours after I wrote this post, they traded Josh Donaldson. Which...hurts them a smidge, I think. I dunno, in my opinion the big loss they're never gonna rebound from is Curtis Granderson. But that goes for everyone.

The lineup, though...has rearranged, but is still pretty good. Russell Martin's WAR has increased, even if his average is still down (like, Mendoza line down). Randal Grichuk and Aledmys Diaz are playing well, and thankfully it's for a team that isn't St. Louis. Kendrys Morales hit 7 home runs in 7 games, which was definitely a nice little spark of publicity. Even BILLY MCKINNEY, who was let go from New York in exchange for Happ, has been fantastic in his first month in Toronto, proving that the Jays should make him a fixture in 2019. Smoak and Pillar technically the leaders, but they're both not doing GREAT overall.

A lot of this team is scattered,  but the people who are doing well are at least refreshing. This could be a cohesive team in 2019 if a few things are reorganized. There also needs to be cohesion with the youth movement, because I CAN ONLY IMAGINE Vlad Jr. and Bo Bichette will be coming up VERY SOON, and they'll need to gel well with this iteration of the team, or else the team will have to just start from scratch with those two and let all the imports go. They need to make some decisions, because this is clearly not the 2015-2016 Josh Donaldson team anymore, judging by the Bringer of Rain's departure.

Coming Tonight: A Phillies outfielder who's desperately trying to keep them in the Wild Card picture.