Review of the Toronto Blue Jays 2023 | Teen Ink

Review of the Toronto Blue Jays 2023

January 19, 2024
By Anonymous

The Blue Jays going into the 2023 season were favorites for the World Series. In the offseason they made some trades. They traded away their gold glove left fielder Lourdes Gurriel Jr., and their top prospect Gaberiel Moreno. Both were sent off to The Arizona DiamondBacks. In return the Jays received utility player Daulton Varsho. Toronto fans across North America were not happy. They also traded away their right fielder, Teoscar Hernandez, again one of their top players. He was sent to Seattle in return for Erik Swanson, a relief pitcher. The Jays did sign Kevin Kiermaier. One of the best defensive outfielders in the game. They also signed former Mets pitcher Chris Bassit, a good right handed starting pitcher. They also added a veteran DH, Brandon Belt. he signed with them from San Fran.

To start their season they had Alek Manoh on the bump. He was a Cy young finalist in 2022. Manoh got the win for the Jays, but it was an ugly one, giving up 9 runs in the game. They only won because their offense did their job. Throughout the month of April the Jays played relatively well, going 17-10. Their best player and player of the Month in the American league went to Matt Chapman, batting over .400, 5 hr, and a 1.130 ops. Pitchers for the Jays Bassit, Berrios, and Gausman all with a couple of wins. Overall for the Blue Jays it was a good month.

In the month of May, the Blue Jays played, let's say, not great, they went 11-17. It was bad. Matt Chapman cooled off. To start the month of May, they got swept in a 4 game series against the Red Sox. They ended up getting swept again later in the month by the orioles. Brandon Belt played well, hitting a few homers helping the Jays to a few wins. But for the Blue Jays, May was not a productive month.


The next month they were 16-11. Players were feeling better and the weather was heating up. But the team had a problem, their best pitcher in 2022, Alek Manoh, was struggling badly. He has a sub 6 ERA, about 1.1 WHIP, and had a record of 3-9 throughout the season including June. It was also this month that we noticed that Vlad was hitting well but not like himself. He kept hitting the ball hard, and getting hits. But he didn’t elevate the ball, was not hitting a ton of home runs. Bo Bitchette was his usual self getting lots of hits. Both Bo and Luis Arràez of the Miami Marlins were going back and forth between most hits.


In July the Jay went 14-10. To start the month, on Canada day (Celebrates Canada’s independence) they lost to the red sox. The month of July is when they have the all-star break. During the all-star break they have the all-star game, the homerun derby, the MLB draft, and the red carpet. The first part in the draft. The Jays at the 20th pick selected Arjun Nimmala, at only 18 years of age. Arjun is a tall lengthy shortstop with a bright future. The next day was the homerun derby, which took place in seattle. Vladdy was in the homerun derby and was one of the lower seeds, since he didn't hit a ton of homeruns entering the homerun derby. In the first two rounds of the derby Vladdy faced Mookie Betts and Julio Rodrigeuz, and continued to beat them both. Then in the finals Guerrero faced Randy Arozarena, Vladdy beat him and brought something home to Toronto for fans to be happy about.

In August the Jays had a very average. They went 14-13. Since the all star break, lefty starter Yusei Kikuchi broke out and started throwing gem after gem after gem. A couple times throughout the month we lost games when Kikuchi pitched great but we had 0 offense and Kikuchi could do nothing about it. In August Kikuchi was our best pitcher. We also called up rookie Davis Schneider. Was drafted in the 26th round which does not exist anymore. Davis is on the shorter side at 5 foot 9. His first weekend in the famous Fenway Park, Schneider went off, getting nine hits and two homers in only three games, a historic start to a season.  Overall the month was decent.

Throughout the last month of the season, the Jays played well, and played good enough to just sneak into the playoffs. Vlad for almost 20 games went on a drought and did not hit a single home run. Finally he hit one and snapped the streak.Davis Schneider was able to continue to amaze the fans of the sport.  The AL Wild Card was a tight race in the last few weeks between the Rays, Rangers, Twins and Jays. Toronto was able to pull through and make the playoffs.

In October the Jays only played one game, and lost. Not a surprise. But that didn’t matter, they had already clinched to postseason and needed to get ready for the Wildcard series with the Twins In Minnesota. For the first year they have the wild card in a three game series. If you win two games you move on. The Jays had their ace starting game one, Kevin Gausman. The 2 and a half hour game was hard to watch, the lost and again Gausman pitched great but they had zero offense. It was basically a recap of the year for them. In game two, Jose Berrios started. He was one of their stronger arms throughout the year. He started the game strong, and out of nowhere John Schnieder, the manager, took him out of the game. One of the dumbest moves from him all year. It was the reason they ended up losing. Berrios pitch count was low, he had two outs in the fourth inning with 1 man on. The move cost the Jays the season. 

Overall throughout the year, the Toronto Blue Jays were a disappointment. They were supposed to go far in the playoffs, lots of reporters had them winning the world series. Instead they barely made the playoffs and choked when they played.



Similar Articles

JOIN THE DISCUSSION

This article has 0 comments.