A sentence or two about all 45 players who made an appearance for the Blue Jays in 2023
The 2023 Blue Jays won 89 games. That number put them in a five-way tie for the ninth best record in the 47-season history of the franchise, and made them just the 10th Blue Jays team to have played in the postseason.
It sucked!
Baseball is, of course, an individual game disguised as a team game. Rarely can a baseball player raise the level of his teammates with exquisite vision or a perfectly executed pass, as can be done in other sports. Sure, there are great feeds on double play balls, or players who can identify the opportunity to, say, pick off a runner who has strayed too far from second base and communicate it to the dugout so it can be relayed to the pitcher via PitchCom in order to snuff out a potentially season-defining rally.
Ho ho ho, but how often does that actually happen?
Anyway, what I mean to say is that it’s useful to assess how the Toronto Blue Jays played as a team in 2023 by looking at the how the Toronto Blue Jays played as individuals. This, I suppose, is incredibly obvious. But it also seems like the kind of thing you write while trying to pad out the preamble of a post that doesn’t require any explanation beyond the title. So here we are.
We’re now full-on into a time of year that, as Mark Shapiro put it in last week’s press conference, demands “a lot of time and energy spent reflecting,” so… let’s get to some reflecting, shall we?
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Infielders
Brandon Belt: The retirement-contemplating 35-year-old DH who was coming off of knee surgery, a 98 wRC+ season, and had an April so awful that it sent fans scrambling to remember the correct way to spell Saltalamacchia, ended up being the team's best and most consistent hitter overall. A more stinging indictment of the 2023 Blue Jays’ lineup there could not be.
Bo Bichette: Played like a superstar in the first half, but second-half knee troubles set him back and turned it into a more typical-looking year, with one exception: defence. Bo's OAA only improved from -7 to -2, but his DRS went from -16 to +4 and he went from 23 errors to just eight, making him look more like a genuine long-term shortstop than at any point in his career.
Cavan Biggio: An above average hitter in every month but April, Biggio's role especially increased in the second half, when his 124 wRC+ was among the best on the team—all thanks to one big change. Congratulations, Cavan!
Matt Chapman: A top-10 third baseman by both fWAR (3.4, 7th) and rWAR (4.4, 5th) despite being absolute garbage at the plate (.205/.298/.361, 84 wRC+) over the last five full months of the season. Incredible what an unbelievable April and a very good glove can do.
Ernie Clement: Decided to stop striking out this year, slashed .348/.401/.544 in the minors, looked comfortable at shortstop while also going 19-for-50 in a couple brief major league spells, and was thanked for this by a late season demotion back to Buffalo. He's on the 40-man and was a half win better than Santiago Espinal in 200 fewer plate appearances—not to mention a year younger and set to make far less money next season—so there may yet be a future for him here, though I wouldn't bank on it.
Paul DeJong: Hastily acquired after Bo Bichette was injured on the eve of the trade deadline, the thoroughly washed DeJong slashed .184/.180/.286 (20 wRC+) before being released after 18 games by the San Francisco Giants in September, and somehow that was not the worst stint with a team that he had in 2023 *COUGH*. Seems like a nice guy, at least.
Santiago Espinal: A hot September—and October—at the plate reminded us why the Jays tendered him a contract last winter and paid him $2.1 million for the season, but after an 80 wRC+ year in which his glove seemed to take a step backwards, it felt like it might be too little too late. Looking forward to his broadcasting career.
Vladimir Guerrero Jr.: Has far too much talent to give up on, but that I even have to say that speaks volumes about a franchise cornerstone who ended up as the 10th best qualified first baseman by wRC+, 19th by fWAR, dead last by both DRS and OAA, and cost his team more runs on the bases than all but seven of the 632 players to reach 10 plate appearances (and that’s just the regular season). It was not supposed to be like this—and on the road it wasn’t: his 137 wRC+ trailed only Freddie Freeman and Matt Olson among 1Bs in that split.
Spencer Horwitz: A great season in Triple-A, and mostly held his own in the majors, but the home run power is certainly lacking and—like most of the Buffalo Boys—his strikeout rate went way up in the majors. In another organization he might be in line for a lot of big league time in 2024, unfortunately for him the Jays need to aim higher.
Mason McCoy: Put up an awful 39 wRC+ in 27 games for Buffalo after arriving from the Mariners organization in July in a deal for Trent Thornton, then saw some time in the majors when Bo was on the shelf. I'd still take him over DeJong.
Whit Merrifield: A useful, versatile piece in the first half, Merrifield toyed with the idea of not being as awful a hitter as I expected in both April and July, but overall was pretty much exactly that. He really helped carry the team in a couple of his brief bright spots, but a 44 wRC+ in August and September sunk his season and seemed to prove the naysayers right. (He didn't exactly cover himself his glory on the way out the door either.)
Davis Schneider: Everyone's favourite moustachioed little guy, Schneider exploded onto the scene in August, then plummeted back to earth in September... to the tune of a 105 wRC+ that month, taking him down to a 176 mark overall. It's hard to imagine a former 28th-round pick earning something close to a full-time big league role after only 35 games in the majors (and Triple-A numbers inflated to an unknown degree by the International League’s robot umpires), but he just might have done it.
Outfielders
Cam Eden: Stole 53 bases with a 93% success rate in the minors to earn a late-season call-up in the role of speedy bench guy who will absolutely not get used because of this team’s offensive struggles.
Kevin Kiermaier: Baseball Reference calculates him as a 3.9 WAR player in 2023, which seems a bit high (FanGraphs has him at 2.2), but it’s undeniable that he had about as good a season as the Jays could have hoped. Largely healthy, Kiermaier’s surgically repaired hip held up, his defence was superb, and he had his best season at the plate since 2017.
Nathan Lukes: Finally made his big league debut at age 28 and had an outstanding season (.366/.423/.530) in Buffalo. A nice depth outfielder who can be freely optioned to the minors for one more season yet.
Jordan Luplow: Claimed on waivers from Atlanta in April, Luplow looked like a potential fit for the Jays' roster because he'd had success in his career against left-handed pitching. Three singles, three walks, eight strikeouts in 17 plate appearances, and some unimpressive numbers in Buffalo later and he was designated for assignment.
George Springer: The back half of Springer's contract always had the potential to get ugly, and we were given a scary preview of that in 2023, as the healthiest season he's had since 2016—2016!—was also the worst of his career by far. A bounce back is still possible, and maybe even likely, but it was a worrying campaign.
Daulton Varsho: The big fear when he was acquired was that Varsho might be a left-handed-hitting Randal Grichuk—the kind of low average/low OBP/decent power guy that Ross Atkins seems to like more than anyone else in the known universe—and with an 85 wRC+ that was identical to Handsome Randy's final year in Toronto, that was basically borne out. His outstanding glove made a massive difference though, carrying him to a 2.1 fWAR—only three wins behind his 2022 mark!—and a 3.9 rWAR somehow. (Grichuk in 2021 was worth 0.2 and 0.7 respectively).
Catchers
Tyler Heineman: Held his own in a smattering of plate appearances, despite some ugly numbers in Buffalo, after coming over from Pittsburgh in a late April trade for Vinny Capra. A nice depth catcher to have, and apparently a switch hitter—who knew??
Danny Jansen: After taking a step backwards at the plate, and having a typical year in terms of not being able to stay on the field, Jansen heads into his final year before free agency as an incredibly likable and valuable question mark. If for nothing else, I'd like to see Danny Bats extended so he can continue to stand as a living, breathing example of how it's OK to not be an especially well-rounded hitter if you can just do one thing—in this case, pulling the ball over the fence, which the 2023 Jays could have used a whole lot more of—exceptionally well.
Alejandro Kirk: Watching Gabriel Moreno excel in the playoffs certainly hurts, but it's worth noting that Kirk was a better defender—because of his excellent framing and blocking at +8 runs per Statcast, compared to Moreno's +6, despite Kirk having fewer innings behind the plate—and on the bases he was somehow not even that much worse (Kirk’s -10 BsR was last in MLB; Moreno’s -8 was fifth-last). I doubt that's very comforting to anyone right now, but if he goes back to hitting like he can—or even just like his 106 wRC+ 2021!—it will go a long way toward making that whole thing feel less... uh... catastrophic.
Left-handed pitchers
Génesis Cabrera: Traded strikeouts for fewer walks and home runs to great effect after being acquired from the Cardinals in July, and now genuinely looks like a second reliable bullpen lefty—something the Jays really haven't had since Tim Mayza and Aaron Loup way back in 2018. Based on their game plan in Minnesota, though, I guess they don't trust him that much.
Yusei Kikuchi: It’s a shame his season ended the way that it did—i.e. dumbly—but that the Jays felt they needed to unnecessarily force him into a playoff game speaks volumes about how far he has come since his unwatchable 2022.
Tim Mayza: When I wrote a similar post back before spring training, I was very worried about the way that left-handed batters in 2022 had hit Mayza to the tune of .291/.342/.476, but this year he got that slash line back to a more manageable .258/.340/.404. Mayza did a great job keeping the ball in the ballpark overall, and though his strand rate was on the high side—88%, or fifth-highest out of 162 qualified relievers. meaning his 1.52 ERA is probably a little misleading—it was a great year.
Hyun Jin Ryu: It was so heartening to see Ryu return to the mound and legitimately look like the incredible pitcher we saw back in 2020… uh, in August. September was a different story—opponents slashed .293/.346/.509 against him—and quickly made the idea of bringing him back in 2024 seem far more romantic than practical.
Right-handed pitchers
Anthony Bass: Relief pitchers with a 4.95 ERA, who are striking out fewer than a batter per inning and have bloated walk and home run rates, can only coast so long on their previous season's success if they also keep being complete assholes online and then embarrass their boss after he ate a ton of shit while attempting to defend them, huh Anthony?
Chris Bassitt: There were wobbles, including a disastrous nine-run debut in St. Louis that alone added 1/3 of a run to his season ERA, and his first half (4.19 ERA) was just OK. But Bassitt was an absolute boss in the second half, ranking 11th in baseball by ERA (2.89), 19th by fWAR, and sixth by RA9-WAR, making his signing look like a real home run.
José Berríos: Deserved better than being allowed to face just 12 batters in the playoffs after bouncing back from an incredibly worrying 2022—the first year of a seven-year, $131 million contract extension—with a perfectly Berríosian 3.65 ERA, 32-start season. Interestingly, his 94.3 mph average fastball velocity was the highest full-season mark in his career.
Adam Cimber: The submarining middle reliever had been very reliable, and very fun, since coming over from the Marlins in mid-2021, but was nothing short of awful (7.40 ERA) over 22 appearances out of the gate in 2023. He spent most of the season on the IL.
Hagen Danner: The big-armed former catching prospect struck out 35 in 28 1/3 innings for Buffalo, and made it to the big leagues in mid-August, where he lasted just one batter before an oblique injury ended his season.
Bowden Francis: Called up as cannon fodder in 2022, Francis was outrighted off the 40-man, went unclaimed on waivers, returned to Buffalo, found some extra velocity over the winter, came to the Jays' big league camp in spring training as a non-roster invitee, went back to Buffalo, pitched well, and ultimately had a really nice season as a yo-yo reliever for the Jays.
Yimi García: The 4.09 ERA was fine, but doesn't do justice to how well he pitched. Yimi's strikeout and walk rates were beyond respectable, and his home run rate was entirely fine, but an unfortunate strand rate—largely due to his struggles with runners on base (opponents slashed .291/.345/.441 with runners on)—and a .339 BABIP made his season feel worse than it probably was.
Kevin Gausman: His walk and home run rates ticked up from 2022, and his BABIP (.321) didn't improve as much as one would have hoped (his 2022 mark of .363 was the worst for a qualified starter since 1944), but Gausman kept on keeping on, striking out more batters, logging more innings, and posting a better ERA than his first year in Toronto. A genuine frontline starter, even if the stupid Twins seem to have him figured out somehow.
Chad Green: Allowed runs in a few more outings than you'd like, especially for a guy who only pitched in September, but other than a 5.25 ERA and an absurd 41.1% strand rate, which ranked dead last out of 458 pitchers with at least 10 IP, he did exactly what you'd expect: 16 strikeouts in 12 innings, with just 10 hits four walks, and one home run. I'm not sure it was enough to get the Jays to pick up his three-year, $27 million contract option though—or the two-year, $21 million one they'll hold once Green declines his $6.25 million player option (with $2 million in bonuses) for next year.
Thomas Hatch: His 4.40 ERA in Buffalo, a year after posting a 4.67 mark for the Bisons, was enough to get him a handful of big league innings, but not enough to avoid an August DFA and a move to Pittsburgh. We'll always have 2020.
Jordan Hicks: Like Cabrera, his fellow former Cardinal, Hicks traded strikeouts for a better walk rate after moving north from Missouri, and it worked. Currently closing out playoff games for the Blue Jays in some infinitely less dumb parallel universe.
Jay Jackson: One of the stories of the season, Jackson—who was drafted in the same year as the Jays used their first-round pick on David Cooper, who has been retired since 2015 and out of the big leagues since 2012—had a 202 ERA+, a 0.91 WHIP, and likely earned himself a fully guaranteed MLB contract when he hits free agency this winter. It’s a great reward for his perseverance—the Jays are Jackson's ninth MLB organization, and he also spent three seasons with Hiroshima and one with Chiba Lotte in Japan, in addition to playing plenty of winter ball in Mexico and Venezuela through the years—made all the more special because of what it means for his ability to care for his newborn son, who was born 15 weeks premature in July.
Alek Manoah: Rupert Pumpkin.
Wes Parsons: Booed by absolute morons in the final game of the season, which is probably a small price to pay for getting to actually pitch in the big leagues.
Nate Pearson: If I had told you a year ago that Nate Pearson would have a full, healthy season in 2023, you’d have been justifiably excited. Ho ho ho, but what if I also told you he sucks?
Zach Pop: Brampton, Ontario's own guy-who-was-following-the-same-bigot-freak-who-made-the-anti-LGBTQ+-Instagram-post-Anthony-Bass-shared hasn't been seen in the big leagues since that whole mess, even though he was on a rehab assignment and seemed very close to a return at the time. Don't get me wrong, he suffered a setback in his recovery, and then his performance in Buffalo didn't warrant a recall—nor did his performance in the majors before that—but I find this at least a little bit curious.
Trevor Richards: Was so surprisingly, delightfully excellent up until his trip to the IL at the start of August that the Jays kept on running him out there throughout September, even as he utterly imploded before our eyes. His 17 earned runs were the most allowed by any relief pitcher in September, with his 11 walks also being dead last, and his 16 hits allowed 12th-worst out of 210.
Jordan Romano: One of the best relievers in the league, and probably underappreciated in certain corners of Jays fandom. But there's no denying that he wasn't as spectacular this year as he was in 2021 and 2022, or that September was pretty scary.
Erik Swanson: Took an expected step back from his spectacular 2022 in Seattle, but not so much that he wasn't still really, really good. Teoscar who?
Trent Thornton: The "prize" the Jays acquired in 2018 with the free money they had obtained by acquiring Aledmys Díaz for as close to nothing as humanly possible—"prospect" J.B. Woodman would be out of baseball after just 68 games in the Cardinals' system—"Butters" finally caught a DFA after five big league seasons with the Blue Jays in which he logged 260 innings. Gee whiz, it only felt like 10,000.
Mitch White: After desperately clinging to club control over White for a bizarrely long time, considering his consistently awful performances, the Jays finally gave up and designated him for assignment at the end of July, after which the funniest possible thing happened: he cleared waivers, reported to Buffalo, and absolutely shoved. Truthfully, it took a few outings to get there, but in his final five starts of the year, White pitched to a 1.37 ERA with 35 strikeouts and 0.99 WHIP—in a league, I should add, where the average ERA was 5.18—which might be enough to actually reignite some hope in him, amazingly.
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Those are certainly 45 players.
The Bass review is one of the best sports sentences I've ever read