Where Do the Blue Jays Go From Here?

No matter what happens this offseason, the Toronto Blue Jays of 2017 will look much different than their predecessor. Old faces will head to free agency and sign elsewhere, new faces will arrive, and overall, the look and feel of the Blue Jays next year will be a stark contrast compared to this year.

Or at the very least, next year’s Blue Jays should be a stark contrast to the roster they rolled out in 2016.

Just by nature of roster turnover, there will be a lot of departures. The following players are set to test free agency: Jose Bautista, Edwin Encarnacion, Michael Saunders, Brett Cecil, R.A. Dickey, Dioner Navarro, Joaquin Benoit and a few others. It’s very likely that none of these players return at all, but at the best, maybe one or two of them are back in 2017.

Overall, the 2016 Toronto Blue Jays enjoyed a successful season; a second consecutive berth in the playoffs and back-to-back years in the ALCS. That in itself is something to be proud of, but the weaknesses on the Blue Jays roster were glaringly apparent in the ALCS.

The Blue Jays are predominately a right-handed lineup, they’re a free-swinging bunch, they love to hit fastballs, and they tend to take a lot of pitches. The Cleveland Indians exploited that to an absolute science and shut down the Blue Jays offense. It’s the very same thing which happened to the Blue Jays through the final four weeks of the schedule.

Mark Shapiro and Ross Atkins have their hands full this offseason in order to remedy this situation. Free agency itself should weed out a few of those issues, but the main focus of the front office this winter should be to help build a much more balanced Blue Jays lineup. You could argue the Jays had about five or six hitters who fit the exact same mold; high power, high strikeout, low-contact hitters.

Having two or three of those kind of hitters in the lineup isn’t all that much of an issue. But when you employ five or six of them, it’s incredibly easy for other teams to pick you apart. It’s the exact same approach the Indians took to the Blue Jays in the playoffs; attacking two-thirds of the Blue Jays lineup in a very similar method.

It’s easier said than done, but this is how the Blue Jays need to fix their lineup: they have to get more left-handed, they need to get younger, they need to get more contact hitters, and the lineup probably needs an infusion of speed.

Augmenting the roster is probably going to take a combination of free agent signings and trades. The free agent crop is vast for corner outfielders, and a new DH could also be had on the free agent market. That elusive slugging first baseman may be more difficult to acquire, but if the Blue Jays do in fact bring back Edwin Encarnacion, that problem would be solved.

Since the Blue Jays fared so well this year, I don’t think the front office believes this is the right time for a rebuild. Tearing it town would be counter-intuitive. With so many talented pieces still in place for next year and beyond, it would be a disservice to attempt a rebuild. What the Blue Jays really need to do is similar to what they have the prior two offseasons; double down and try to make this team better in the short-term.

The Blue Jays can’t just let their free agents walk and simply replace them with internal options and minor league players. The farm system has yet to produce some suitable replacements for their free agents, and role players like Melvin Upton Jr, Ezequiel Carrera and Justin Smoak are bench players at best.

The Blue Jays have a good base of talent to work from. The starting rotation is very promising, the bullpen has some good pieces, and so does the starting lineup. However, there’s still a lot of work to do in order to make the Blue Jays a competitive ball club once again next season. With the right moves this winter, the Blue Jays could be right back in the playoffs for the third straight season.