The 2010s: Toronto Blue Jays all-decade team and those truly epic individual seasons -

When the 2010s began, the Toronto Blue Jays were, as had usually been the case since their early ’90s World Series year, in a difficult spot. The club had ended 2009 with the firing of GM J.P. Ricciardi, who left town bemoaning the financial reality of competing in a division with the New York Yankees and Boston Red Sox. He was succeeded by the Montreal-born Alex Anthopoulos, whose first order of business was to find a new home for the legendary Roy Halladay.

The 2010 season would be the first since 1992 that didn’t feature either Halladay or Carlos Delgado in a Jays uniform — truly the beginning of a new era. What fans and the front office alike didn’t realize at the time was that they already had the player who would define the next decade of Blue Jays baseball in their midst: José Bautista.

The out-of-nowhere success of their slugging right fielder, along with the blossoming of Edwin Encarnación, pushed up the timeline for the rebuilding club. Anthopoulos tried and failed to make a contender in 2013 with the acquisition of big stars José Reyes, Josh Johnson and Mark Buehrle from the Florida Marlins, NL Cy Young winner R.A. Dickey from the New York Mets, and free agent Melky Cabrera. He tried again in 2015 with Russell Martin, Josh Donaldson, and eventually Troy Tulowitzki and David Price, coming within a hair’s breadth of reaching the World Series and igniting a passion for baseball in Canada unseen since Joe Carter “touched ’em all” in 1993.

A return trip to the ALCS would follow in 2016, but the goodwill Anthopoulos had built would be squandered by a new management team — headed by former Cleveland president Mark Shapiro — who oversaw Anthopoulos’ sudden departure and the eventual dismantling of a roster of aging fan favourites. Three abysmal seasons later, and the Blue Jays close out the decade much the way they started it, aching for the start of another new era, hopefully, more glorious than the last.

But at least this time they can feel confident that they have building blocks like Bo Bichette, Vladimir Guerrero Jr. and Nate Pearson already in place.

There was much losing endured by Blue Jays fans this past decade, though it also produced some of the greatest highs and indelible memories in the history of the franchise. Behind all of it were some franchise-altering individual performances, and with the decade soon to close, today we honour those performances with the Blue Jays all-decade Team.

Catcher — Russell Martin (2015)

The best season this decade by a Blue Jays starting catcher not named Russell Martin came all the way back in 2010 and belonged to John Buck. His 1.6 WAR* posted by Cito Gaston’s favourite veteran is only slightly better than the 1.4 WAR Danny Jansen was worth in 2019. (Yes, the same Danny Jansen who slashed .207/.279/.360). In other words, Martin takes this one in an absolute romp. The beloved Canadian backstop was everything the Jays could have hoped for when, in November 2014, Alex Anthopoulos and Paul Beeston signed him to a five-year, $82 million deal that remains the biggest free-agent contract in club history. No, he didn’t match the 140 wRC+ he put up in his final year with the Pirates, but Martin’s 4.5 WAR in 2015 was one of the best marks among catchers in baseball, and he was a huge part of why the Jays finally returned to the playoffs. Finally, the Blue Jays could say they were playoff-bound and that they actually had a true star behind the plate.

*Note: Unless otherwise stated, “WAR” refers to the Fangraphs version.

If 2015/2016 hadn’t happened:

Russell Martin (2017) — At age 34, with 11 seasons as a full-time big-league catcher starting to wear on his body, Martin was no longer at his best in 2017. But, with due respect to J.P. Arencibia, a visibly declining Martin was still more than twice as valuable as J.P. Arencibia in his best year.

First Base — Justin Smoak (2017)

Edwin Encarnación is going to be our DH, so don’t get on me for this selection just yet. You might, however, be wondering why Adam Lind’s name isn’t the one we’re seeing in this section. Lind played a lot of first base for the Jays in the first half of the decade, and at times he was a force at the plate. His best season, however, came outside our cutoff, in 2009. He was quite good in 2013 (132 wRC+ over 143 games) and 2014 (142 wRC+ over 96 games, plus one extra MRI at his mom’s insistence), but by then he was primarily a platoon hitter. Lind was worth 3.3 WAR across those two seasons combined, whereas the switch-hitting Smoak put up 3.6 WAR in his incredible late-career break-out season of 2017 alone. That year Smoak blasted 38 home runs, slashed .270/.355/.529, posted a 133 wRC+, and shut up the giant portion of the Jays’ fan base that had been aghast when the club signed him to a contract extension the previous summer.

Second Base — Devon Travis (2016)

Ah, what could have been. Devon Travis had been a revelation in 2015, when he jumped straight from Double A to the Jays and hit like an All-Star in his first year. For the season he slashed a sizzling .304/.361/.498 (136 wRC+), and by mid-year, it was easy to dream of him as a stalwart in the Jays’ lineup for years to come. Unfortunately, as has become a depressing theme so far in his career, it was a year cut short by injury. Travis played in just 62 games in 2015, being shut down with a shoulder problem that stemmed from a condition he’d been born with. Surgery to correct the problem that winter forced him to delay the start of 2016 until late May, but he at least stayed mostly healthy from then until October (when a knee injury knocked him out of the playoffs), allowing him to play in 101 games. His wRC+ for the season was 111 — above average, but not nearly as good 2015 — though if you take out his atrocious first two weeks of the year the picture gets brighter. From June 12 on he posted a 128 wRC+. Though 2.7 WAR isn’t exactly an eye-popping number, it was the best season of his career (so far), and the best season from a Blue Jays second baseman this decade.

If 2015/2016 hadn’t happened:

Cavan Biggio (2019) — Travis gets the nod not just because he edged out Biggio by both fWAR and rWAR, but because he was key to getting the Jays to the playoffs for a second straight year. Biggio played only 100 big league games in 2019, owing to the fact that he began the season in the minor leagues. Had he been promoted sooner it might have been a different debate.

Third Base — Josh Donaldson (2015)

Josh Donaldson was the 2015 American League MVP, joining George Bell (1987) as the only Jay to have won the award. If you thought picking Martin would be the easiest decision on this list, you were way off. Donaldson’s 2016 season was nearly as great, but nothing can compete with the swag-filled revelation he was in that first year. Though it took until after the trade deadline to really feel it, adding Donaldson and Martin to a lineup that already included Encarnación and Bautista was transformative. All four would end the season in the top 30 by WAR among position players. Donaldson’s 8.7 WAR stands as the highest total by a Blue Jays position player ever.

If 2015/2016 hadn’t happened:

Brett Lawrie (2012) — Lawrie played 125 games in 2012, and that alone should probably be enough to put that season above his 43-game 2011 cameo, but 2012 Lawrie was a league-average hitter, while 2011 Lawrie was a 157 wRC+ supernova at the plate. I wrote about that incredible debut back in September, when Bo Bichette was in the middle of a similar starburst.

Shortstop — Troy Tulowitzki (2016)

This is my list and I can do with it what I want, so you’ll see no José Reyes here, even though Fangraphs’ version of WAR tabs his 2014 season as eight-tenths of a win better than Tulowitzki’s 2016 (the Baseball-Reference version had Tulo slightly ahead). Reyes seemed like a good idea at the time, and the Tulowitzki trade will not go down as the Anthopoulos era’s finest, but the 2016 Blue Jays made it to the playoffs on the strength of their run prevention, and Tulo was a steady hand at shortstop. He was healthy, too, for the most part, playing in 131 games that season. Even though he was only about a league-average hitter (101 wRC+), he came to that mark by struggling through the first two months of the season, then being quite productive (117 wRC+) from his mid-June return from the injured list through September. He also ranked 11th of 45 shortstops in terms of Fangraphs’ defensive component of WAR. Not MVP-type numbers, but a very important player on a very good team.

If 2015/2016 hadn’t happened:

Yunel Escobar (2011) — Escobar slashed .290/.369/.413 for the 2011 Jays (116 wRC+), walking nearly as much as he struck out and playing solid defence. He was worth 3.6 WAR per Fangraphs that year, and 4.8 WAR according to Baseball-Reference — by far the highest mark of any Blue Jays shortstop this decade. It’s still my list though, so this is as good as it’s going to get for the guy most famous for writing a homophobic slur on his eye black.

Left Field — Melky Cabrera (2014)

If we were only looking at half seasons here, the first half Michael Saunders’ 2016 would win it hands down. The Canadian rebounded from a 2015 season ruined by a Dunedin sprinkler head to make the American League All-Star team after pulling into the break with 16 homers and a 148 wRC+. His performance fell off a cliff in the second half, though, which opens the door for Cabrera’s somewhat forgotten rebound season in 2014. If everything that could go wrong did go wrong for the “offseason champion” 2013 Jays, Cabrera’s second and final year in Toronto proved the decision to sign him was indeed a smart one. A benign tumour on his lower spine caused myriad problems for Cabrera in 2015, particularly with his legs. He made a full recovery and in 2014 returned with an impressive three-win season, slashing .301/.351/.458 (127 wRC+).

Centre field — Kevin Pillar (2015)

Colby Rasmus had his best year as a Blue Jay in 2013, putting up a 130 wRC+ while playing solid enough defence in centre to be worth 3.9 WAR per Fangraphs and 4.9 WAR per Baseball-Reference. That puts him just about even with Pillar’s 2015 (3.7 fWAR, 4.9 rWAR), which means that Pillar takes this by a good margin, given how important he was to the first Blue Jays playoff team in over 20 years. Pillar didn’t do it with the bat, of course, but with the glove. He was a revelation. Never considered a top defensive prospect, and with only a handful of games of big-league experience in centre coming into the 2015 season, Pillar began the year as the Jays’ primary left fielder. But after Dalton Pompey sputtered out of the gate, Pillar was shifted into centre, and suddenly it turned out that the team had an elite defender out there, catching everything in sight — often spectacularly. A huge and unexpected addition.

If 2015/2016 hadn’t happened:

Vernon Wells (2010) — I owe Rasmus a second apology, because I have to overlook him again here, this time for Vernon Wells. In his final season with the Jays, Wells was worth 3.7 WAR (and possibly underrated on the defensive side), slashing .273/.331/.515 with 31 home runs. More important than the numbers, though, was the fact that his performance was good enough to get the Angels to believe in him, and allowed Anthopoulos to offload his pricey contract in January 2011. A month later, the Jays agreed to an extension with Bautista (something Anthopoulos told me on a recent podcast that he didn’t expect would happen going into that winter), and the trajectory of the franchise was changed forever.

Right Field — José Bautista (2011)

It was a risk when the Blue Jays signed Bautista to a five-year, $65 million contract following his 54 home run, 6.5 WAR breakout in 2010 at age 29. Fortunately for Anthopoulos and the Jays front office, he very quickly put any fear that he was a fluke to rest. What did he do for an encore? Only improve his batting average by 42 points, his on-base percentage by 69 points, while hitting for nearly as much power. The result was a career-best 8.1 win season. Of course, Bautista is only competing with himself in this category, as he holds the top six years by WAR of a Blue Jays right fielder this decade, with his seven-season run from 2010 to 2016 being worth 35 wins in total. Next stop: the Level of Excellence.

Designated Hitter — Edwin Encarnación (2012)

Another guy who is all but competing against himself in this category, Encarnación was unquestionably the Blue Jays’ DH of the decade. Edwin owns the five best Blue Jays DH seasons of the decade and averaged better than four wins per year in those. That’s a remarkable feat for a guy who provided little to no defensive value. Choosing a specific season came down to either this one or 2015, and while he can boast a playoff appearance in the latter, he was just a bit better in his 2012 breakout. Though he posted an identical 150 wRC+ in both years, in 2012 he played more games, hit more home runs, was slightly better by WAR (despite getting dinged quite a bit more for his defence, partly because the Jays threw him into three games in left field and one at third base), and somehow managed to steal 13 bases as well.

Backup Catcher — José Molina (2011)

While the Jays’ starting catching this decade has been a real wasteland beyond Martin, they’ve actually had some very impressive years from their backups. The two best of these belong to José Molina, who managed a 108 wRC+ and 2.1 WAR in just 55 games in 2011 but was even better in 2010. Despite having a wRC+ of just 85, Molina that year was worth 2.7 WAR thanks entirely to defence — and thanks especially to the fact that Fangraphs retroactively added catcher framing to its WAR formula earlier this season. It’s fair to say the Jays didn’t know what they had in Molina, who went on to become the Rays’ primary catcher for the next two seasons, (retroactively) putting up 3.6 WAR in 2012 and 2.1 WAR in Tampa Bay’s playoff season of 2013.

Bench — Ryan Goins (2015)

Clearly there are flaws to Ryan Goins’ game, but he was vital to the Jays in 2015, playing great defence while filling in at a variety of positions all year, posting a career-high 1.3 WAR (2.5 WAR according to Baseball-Reference). We’ll just go ahead and overlook that missed pop-up in the bottom of the seventh inning of Game 2 of the ALCS, which led to a five-run Royals rally off of David Price, and turned around a 3-0 Blue Jays lead in the game. Ugh.

If 2015/2016 hadn’t happened:

Munenori Kawasaki (2013) — The year that Kawasaki became a folk hero in Toronto he got into 96 games, and while his numbers were a long way from eye-popping (.229/.326/.308), he at least played decent defence and got on base a little bit. Most importantly, though, he was fun. Boy, did that season ever need a dose of fun. Exhibit A:

Bench — Darwin Barney (2016)

Light hitting but versatile and a strong defender, Barney got into 104 games for the Jays in the 2016 season, despite not having a regular position. His 1.2 fWAR and 1.8 rWAR are quite decent for a player like that, and he was especially important to that playoff-bound Jays team that was so reliant on their pitching.

If 2015/2016 hadn’t happened:

The Prime Minister of Defence saved the 2007 season with his glove, but since that year isn’t eligible for this list, his 2010 season will have to do. That year was John McDonald’s best offensive season as a big leaguer, as he put up a 90 wRC+, largely on the basis of his surprising six home runs in just 63 games. One of those was his most famous, and produced one of the most emotional moments in Blue Jays history. McDonald was activated from the bereavement list following his father’s death on Father’s Day of that year, and in his first at-bat back hit a home run. For that alone he needs to be on this list.

Bench — Chris Colabello (2015)

Colabello was only worth 1.4 WAR in 2015, but that’s largely because he provided negative defensive value, thanks mostly to the Blue Jays throwing him into the outfield for 365 innings. His DRS of -14 and UZR of -8 were atrocious, but at least he was versatile. And his bat, no matter how suspicious some of his numbers might seem given how quickly his big-league carer came to an end after his 2016 PED suspension, was crucial for that great Jays team of 2015. That season he slashed .321/.367/.520, putting up a 143 wRC+ over 101 games. His .411 BABIP might have been absurd, but you can’t take those hits away from him.

If 2015/2016 hadn’t happened:

Colby Rasmus (2013) — No, he wasn’t a bench player, but Colby’s 2013 season really needs to be on this list, and after passing him by twice already I think it’s fair to stick him in here as an extra outfielder.

Bench — Eric Sogard (2019)

Sogard’s 2.2 WAR in just 73 games for the Jays in 2019 put him on par with the other top second basemen of the decade for the club. In fact, between him and Cavan Biggio, Jays fans probably saw the best second base play this season since the days of Aaron Hill. The juiced ball surely helped. Sogard hit 13 home runs this season (10 with the Jays, three more after he was traded to Tampa), despite having hit just 12 total at all levels from 2013 to 2018. He wasn’t all just surprising power, though, as he used his talent at getting on base to great effect, slashing .300/.363/.477, giving him a 122 wRC+ and making him one of the best hitters on the team.

Starting Pitcher — David Price (2015)

Price made only 11 starts for the Blue Jays during the regular season of 2015, and wobbled a bit in the playoffs, but those starts were everything. Price was as dominant as any Toronto pitcher since Roy Halladay, accumulating 2.6 WAR over just 74 1/3 innings thanks to a sparkling 2.30 ERA and 2.22 FIP. He struck out 87 batters over that span, walked just 18 and allowed only four home runs. Best of all, he did it at the perfect time, under an enormous spotlight, with the weight of a country’s hopes on his shoulders, and did so with aplomb. Few stints with a team so short will ever be remembered so fondly, but Price deserves every bit of adulation Blue Jays fans can give him.

If 2015/2016 hadn’t happened:

Marcus Stroman (2017) — Stroman’s underlying numbers in 2016 were better than in 2017, but thanks to a 3.09 ERA (as compared to a 4.37 one) his 2017 season looks much better. An incredibly important pitcher for the Jays this decade, I couldn’t quite squeeze him onto the list elsewhere, so it had to be here.

Starting Pitcher — Ricky Romero (2010)

FIP prefers Ricky Romero’s 2010 season, and his 3.7 WAR that season is tied for the highest by a Blue Jays starting pitcher this decade, according to Fangraphs’ version of the metric. His 2011 season, however, was really the high point of Romero’s career. Though his 4.20 FIP wasn’t great, and he gave up 26 home runs (after having surrendered just 15 the year before), Romero made his first and only All-Star team that season, and finished with a fantastic 2.92 ERA in 225 innings over 32 starts. Baseball Reference’s version of WAR had him at 6.4 wins — easily the best by a Blue Jays pitcher this decade — and according to Fangraphs’ RA9 WAR (which uses runs allowed instead of FIP, and is similar to BR’s version of the metric) he was a top-10 pitcher in baseball that year. If only his knees had held up he might have had an incredible career. Still, Romero can take heart in the fact that few pitchers can say they had a season of the calibre he did in 2011.

Starting Pitcher — Aaron Sanchez (2016)

The American League ERA leader, an All-Star appearance, seventh place in Cy Young voting, leading an incredible pitching staff into the playoffs, and ultimately to the ALCS — Aaron Sanchez accomplished all of those things in 2016, and yet probably the most memorable thing about his season was the controversy that surrounded him in the second half, as the Blue Jays’ new front office tried to figure out a way to limit his innings without sinking their club’s chances to make the postseason. Sanchez had never worked anywhere close to a full starter’s workload before, and in the years since it’s become apparent that the Jays were likely right to be concerned about his health. After the bungled transition of power following the 2015 season, the club’s top executives were generally regarded with suspicion and all kinds of ink was spilled about the issue. It was a testament to just how brilliantly Sanchez pitched. You could say this of a few players that year, I suppose, but without him the Jays would have been nowhere.

If 2015/2016 hadn’t happened:

Shaun Marcum (2010) — After missing all of 2009 with Tommy John surgery, Marcum returned to the Jays in 2010 to make 31 starts, throwing 195 1/3 innings, posting a 3.64 ERA and a 3.74 FIP. By fWAR it was the fourth-best, and by RA9 WAR it was the seventh-best season by a Blue Jays starter this decade. He was so good, in fact, that the Jays managed to flip him to Milwaukee the following winter for Brett Lawrie — and while that factoid is maybe scoff-worthy, let’s not forget that without Lawrie there would never have been a Josh Donaldson era in Toronto. Thanks, Shaun Marcum.

Starting Pitcher — J.A. Happ (2016)

J.A. Happ was not greeted warmly when he returned to the Blue Jays in the winter following 2015, as it seemed to make clear something that should have already been understood by fans: the team was not going to pay the more than $200 million needed to re-sign David Price. Happ quickly made himself a fan favourite, though, making 32 starts in 2016, winning 20 games and pitching to a 3.18 ERA. He didn’t get the ERA title, and he didn’t get the All-Star appearance, but he finished ahead of Aaron Sanchez in the Cy Young balloting, and deservedly so. Pitching was the foundation of the Blue Jays’ success in 2016, and Happ was an absolute rock.

If 2015/2016 hadn’t happened:

Brandon Morrow (2012) — You could make the case for any of Brandon Morrow’s almost three full seasons in the Jays’ rotation here. He had a 3.16 FIP in 2010, striking out nearly 11 batters per nine innings, though he walked too many guys and managed only a 4.49 ERA. Then in 2011 his ERA went up to 4.72 and his strikeout rate went down a tick, but his walk rate went down too, and he managed to actually start 30 games. But the season my heart belongs to is 2012. That was the year Morrow traded some strikeouts for lowering his walk rate to below three free passes per nine innings. He allowed more contact, but that allowed him to pitch deeper into games, and he still had strikeout stuff when he needed it. Though his FIP was 3.65 (just about even with 2011) his ERA was an excellent 2.96. Believe it or not, he was inconsistent that year, allowing six earned runs three times in his first 12 starts, for example, and having another four-run outing in there. But in the month before a mid-season trip to the injured list, he also had three shutouts. It looked like things were finally coming together for a guy who was the most purely talented Jays pitcher of the era (with apologies to Dustin McGowan). Of course, it turned out that they weren’t.

Starting Pitcher — Mark Buehrle (2014)

It’s easy to remember the end of Mark Buehrle’s Blue Jays career, when the wily veteran had lost just enough to go from effective to not. In Buehrle’s final start of 2015, John Gibbons pitched him on short rest, trying to get him beyond the 200 inning mark for an incredible 15th straight season, but he couldn’t get out of the first inning. It was over, and Buehrle would have to watch the 2015 playoffs from the bench, as he didn’t make the Jays’ playoff roster. Amazingly, it was only one year earlier that he had been truly excellent. He made the All-Star team in 2014, and finished the season with a 3.39 ERA and a 3.66 FIP — his best marks in each of those categories since he led the White Sox to the World Series back in 2005. Buehrle was done a bit dirty by the Florida Marlins, who traded him to the Jays just one year after he’d signed a big free agent contract, and it wasn’t difficult to get the sense he wasn’t exactly thrilled to be here (especially since Ontario’s pit bull ban meant his beloved dogs couldn’t join him), but he was always a professional, and an important veteran leader for a team that, ultimately, ended up being pretty great.

Swingman — Marco Estrada (2015)

Am I cheating here by including Estrada as a swingman? Perhaps. He did make 28 starts for the Jays in 2015, so he was really mostly a starter. But he began the season in the bullpen, got a chance in the rotation and didn’t let it go for four wonderful years. (Or, OK, three wonderful years, plus 2018). Estrada had better numbers in 2016 and 2017, because his late-career ability to strike batters out hadn’t quite arrived by 2015 (he struck out 131 in 181 innings, compared to 165 in 176 innings the following year), but this was the only way to get him on the list. It doesn’t hurt that 2015 also marked the beginning of Estrada’s career as the Blue Jays’ playoff ace. He allowed just five runs in three playoff starts, walking only one batter, and allowing just 14 hits in 19 1/3 innings. His changeup was a thing of absolute beauty and the man should never have to pay for dinner in Toronto for the rest of his life.

If 2015/2016 didn’t happen:

Joe Biagini (2017) — Biagini didn’t have a good year in 2017, putting up a 5.73 ERA over 18 starts, and struggling to regain his 2016 form during a couple spells in the bullpen. He tried, though. He did everything the Blue Jays asked of him, even though they were probably tempting fate by moving him out of the bullpen after his successful season in 2016. If I’m being honest, I’m mostly giving him the nod here because his 2016 was so successful, and because he was such a likable character on Jays teams in 2017, 2018 and 2019 that didn’t have many bright spots.

Closer — Ken Giles (2019)

Giles’ 2019 was the best relief season by a Blue Jays pitcher this decade, according to rWAR, and who am I to argue with Baseball-Reference about such things? As I said before, it’s my list. Case closed.

Setup — Brett Cecil (2015)

Brett Cecil was a reliever when the Blue Jays drafted him out of the University of Maryland with the 38th overall pick in the 2007 draft. The team quickly converted him into a starter, and by the end of 2008 he was a top 100 prospect, looking like a key member of the Blue Jays’ future rotation. Between 2008 and 2012 he made 74 starts, but the results were so poor that he and the club eventually accepted a move back to the bullpen. They were right. In 2013, the left-handed Cecil made 60 relief appearances, striking out 70 batters in 60 2/3 innings, and putting up a 2.82 ERA. Cecil only got better from there, raising his strikeout rate to 12.8 per nine innings in 2014, and peaking that glorious year of 2015. That season he made 63 appearances, struck out 70 batters in 54 1/3 innings, walked just 13 batters, and posting a 2.48 ERA. The longtime Blue Jay was so key to the team’s 2015 success that some still believe the moment that doomed the team the most was when he went down with a torn calf muscle during a rundown in game two of the ALDS. (It does, however, seem to me the Jays ended up winning that series.)

If 2015/2016 hadn’t happened:

Scott Downs (2010) — Scott Downs sneaks onto this list because in 2010, his final year with the Blue Jays, he made 67 appearances and pitched to a 2.64 ERA and a 3.03 FIP. His strikeout numbers look pedestrian to what’s expected of a setup man today, but he was extremely effective in his time. A legend for how quickly he dispatched a case of gout in 2007 alone, Downs was once traded straight up for Rondell White, which seems almost impossible for a player who had a great season this decade.

Reliever — Casey Janssen (2013)

It still seems unbelievable to me that Casey Janssen — a pitcher who made 17 starts for the Jays in 2006, and 70 relief appearances in 2007, managing just 83 strikeouts in 166 2/3 innings — ended up becoming a lights-out closer by 2012 and 2013. Janssen never had overpowering stuff, he never made it look easy, but in 2012 he struck out 67 in 63 2/3 innings, walked just 11, and posted an ERA of 2.56. You could argue his 2013 was better (he gave up fewer home runs, but pitched fewer innings, and otherwise put up similar numbers), but you can’t say he wasn’t one of the real unsung heroes of some interesting but imperfect Jays teams at the start of the 2010s.

Reliever — Steve Delabar (2013)

Delabar dominated in the first half of 2013, being named to the All-Star team after posting a 1.71 ERA in 42 innings while striking out 58. More than that, though, he had a great story. Delabar had fractured his elbow in 2009, requiring a steel plate to be inserted to stabilize it. He spent 2010 out of baseball, working as a substitute teacher, but made his way back into the game thanks to a big velocity increase attributed to his work with a weighted ball program. The weighted balls had become something of a sensation by the time he reached Toronto, and though he would never pitch nearly as well as he did in early 2013 again, given how often outside programs are now being used, his ultimate legacy might mostly be as a pioneer in that regard.

Reliever — Darren Oliver (2012)

Apologies to Jason Grilli, who was a key reliever after being acquired from the Pirates in 2016, and to Dominic Leone, who had a tremendous 2017 season that allowed the Jays to flip him to St. Louis for Randal Grichuk. I feel it’s more important to acknowledge Oliver’s incredible 2012 season here, as well as his rather interesting Blue Jays career. The left-handed Oliver signed with the Jays in January of 2012 as a 41-year-old coming off his third stint with the Texas Rangers. The Jays were his eighth big-league team. As a rookie, in 1993, he’d been a teammate of Nolan Ryan’s. Still, even at this point in his career he was incredibly effective. In 2012 he posted 2.06 ERA, a 2.95 FIP, and was worth 1.1 WAR — the fourth straight season he’d surpassed 1.0 WAR (an impressive achievement for a reliever). Even more notable than that, though, was the fact that the following offseason Oliver and his agent — Jeff Frye, who fans knew best as the second-ever Blue Jay to have hit for the cycle — very publicly tried to parlay his success into either an increased salary or a trade back to the Rangers. Believe it or not, there were days that winter when Jays fans were genuinely concerned about whether Oliver would retire or not. It all seems a bit silly in retrospect, especially knowing how dispiriting the 2013 season turned out to be, but it’s a testament to just how good Oliver was. No, really.

Now that you’ve seen my choices, let me know what you think. Submit your own choices for the Blue Jays team of the decade in the comments!

(Top photo: Tom Szczerbowski / Getty Images)

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