I didn’t expect the Jays to wow me this season.
Maybe it was last year’s dead last finish in the AL East. Maybe it was inconsistent seasons when the team would claw out a win one night and get blown out the next. Runners were left in scoring position the way shoppers leave grocery carts in the parking lot.
Between the blown saves and gaffes on the base paths, I was grunting like Robbie Ray.
The team seemed under a bad spell. This season? Pure magic.
The playoff schedule remains TBD. And I remain hopeful the Jays can get a bye from any wild card action, mostly because I have PTSD from the 2022 series against Seattle. How did they cough up an 8-1 lead?
I can still hear my wife and daughters crying laughing upstairs as I agonized in disbelief in the living room.
But whatever happens this post-season, this Jays team deserves a standing ovation for making baseball fun again.
This team never surrenders. They just keep going and going. The mascot Ace should be replaced by the Energizer Bunny. The Jays have 47 comeback wins — more comeback wins than Colorado has total wins. Go to the bathroom in the 6th and you may miss a grand slam or immaculate inning. Anything is possible.
After the Jays clinched a playoff berth on Sunday, something else was confirmed: they are having as much as fun as we are. They genuinely like one another. This is rare in pro sports, where just one selfish diva or moody ego can poison a clubhouse.
Sunday’s postgame celebration was endearing, even if it’s only a matter of time until a player goes on the IL after taking a blast of champagne to the cornea. George Springer was bare-chested like a Chippendales dancer when he observed: “Everyone is playing for the name on the front, not the name on the back.”
That sums up this memorable season.
In the spring, before the team’s Conga line of winning streaks, another key variable twisted into focus. Brian Burke, former GM of the Leafs, once told me chemistry was an intangible that can’t be conjured by stats or trades.
This Jays team has undeniable chemistry. When the cameras pan into the dugout, there are no cliques. Everyone talks to everyone. It looks like an all-ages mixer in which veterans and youngsters swap real-time analysis of the unfolding game they fully expect to win. And win they did, 90 times and counting.
The Jays have 1,421 hits going into Wednesday’s game against Boston. That’s No. 1 in the AL. They have struck out only 1,060 times, second best in the AL. The .266 team average is also No. 1, as is the team .334 on-base percentage.
The starting rotation is strong. Rookie phenom Trey Yesavage could be a secret weapon in October. I’ve never seen a six-foot-four pitcher have a release point from an arm-straight-over-head delivery.
For opposition batters, that ball must seem like it’s coming from outer space.
Are there concerns heading into the playoffs? Always. The bats have cooled off recently. Bo Bichette’s injury has disrupted the order flow. Closer Jeff Hoffman has 32 saves, third best in the AL. But I’d be lying if I said Hoffman entering a game doesn’t now make me lunge for the Xanax.
You never want your closer to give up more home runs (15) than any other closer. Hoffman is a Magic 8 Ball on the mound. Fingers crossed!
The Jays are still in the driver’s seat as the regular season ends this week and they try to nail down the division. But those Yankee bums are leaning over the back seat and still breathing down our necks. Is this why Aaron Judge smells like peach mocktails and Aqua Velva?
The Jays haven’t won a playoff game since 2016. I don’t want to jinx anything. But this year feels different. Springer is having a comeback season for the ages. Alejandro Kirk has been Mr. Clutch when a tying or go-ahead run was needed. Vladdy Guerrero is a hit machine, even if his power stroke is in the Witness Protection Program.
The Jays have four players in the AL’s Top 10 for batting average.
Again, no jinxing. But that’s one more than the 1993 Jays.
So thank you, 2025 Toronto Blue Jays. I no longer grunt. I just marvel at players like Addison Barger, who had three outfield assists in one April game, including a ball he threw at 98.8 mph. His arm is a bazooka. I marvel at Kevin Gausman’s intensity. And Daulton Varsho’s electricity, whether he’s launching a moon shot or flying across centre field to make a catch that violates the laws of physics.
I could watch this team just to imagine Davis Schneider’s ’stache starring in a remake of “Magnum, P.I.”
Winning is a dopamine hit. So is having fun. This season had both.
Let’s go Blue Jays!
