TORONTO – Less than an hour after the Toronto Blue Jays’ season ended, Bo Bichette and Matt Chapman quietly compared notes within the home clubhouse at Rogers Centre. Nearby, Vladimir Guerrero Jr. packed up his locker. In the trainer’s room, David Phelps thanked team staff for helping his 35-year-old arm through yet another season.
None of them had made sense of what had happened on the field earlier that night. An 8-1 lead disappeared in painful fashion, costing the Blue Jays the chance to extend their season and secure something that has so far eluded this team’s young core: their first playoff win.
“A heartbreaking loss,” starter Kevin Gausman said. “Tough to watch.”
“Right now it sucks,” interim manager John Schneider added. “And it’s going to suck for a while.”
“That’s the feeling,” catcher Danny Jansen agreed. “It’s definitely not fulfilled.”
Blame who you want. Schneider, who pulled the strings. Tim Mayza, who allowed a three-run homer to Carlos Santana. Anthony Bass, who couldn’t record an out.
Home plate umpire Todd Tichenor, who cost Alejandro Kirk a walk with a missed call in the eighth inning. Blame them all. Or blame no one. It doesn’t matter now anyways.
“Baseball,” Bichette said. “We laid everything we had out there and we just got beat.”
“We won as a team all year,” one veteran player said. “In the end we lost as a team.”
This much is undeniable: the 2022 Blue Jays were a good baseball team. They had two frontline starters, one of the best lineups in baseball and the potential to accomplish far, far more than what they actually did. And yes, they blew it Saturday by allowing Seattle to complete the second-largest comeback in post-season history (in the 1929 World Series, the Cubs overcame an eight-run deficit against the Philadelphia Athletics, as if that offers much solace).
All of that makes Saturday painful, of course. One moment, you’re thinking about Game 3, the next they’re taking down the outfield walls for the winter. But when you set aside the shock, what’s most important is the result. Because this was supposed to be the Blue Jays’ chance to open a new competitive window. So sure, they made progress this year after missing the playoffs on the final day of the 2021 season. But this was an incremental step and they had a chance — missed a chance — to take two or three steps at once.
Why not, when you have Gausman and Alek Manoah atop your rotation? When your core of young players is among the best in baseball? When Teoscar Hernandez is hitting multiple home runs in a do-or-die game? The potential was there.
Instead, someone else will represent the American League in the World Series. Someone else will win it all. And for the Blue Jays, another year goes by without a win from the most promising young core this franchise has seen in decades. That doesn’t mean they can’t deliver, or won’t. Far from it. Who knows. It just means they didn’t seize this opportunity — the chance to win it all in 2022.
“We’ve been playing this entire season with the expectation of being in the World Series,” Gausman said. “Now we kind of know what to expect when next year those are the same predictions. We’re all excited for that. Unfinished business.”
Here’s the thing, though: Guerrero Jr. and Bichette have now played parts of four seasons at the MLB level. That means they have just three more until they’re eligible for free agency. Put simply, the Blue Jays are now more than halfway through the club-controlled years of their best young duo since Carlos Delgado and Shawn Green.
So, Bo, does three more years feel like a long time or a short time?
“I hadn’t even thought about it honestly,” Bichette said. “But I guess it feels pretty close because I feel like it’s only our second year. But it’s not something I’ve thought about.”
Maybe it’s a glass-half-full or glass-half-empty moment. Of course the Blue Jays are disappointed to see their season end so abruptly. Yet there’s also a chance the lessons learned in 2022 can spur this group to greater heights in 2023 and beyond.
“I think we’ve grown a whole lot as a unit,” Bichette said. “I think everyone should be really proud not only of how we fought today, but how we fought all year.”
“In baseball you spend so much time together,” added Jansen. “It’s a long year. You build this family with each other and what makes this sting even more is it ends with all these good dudes in here. But we look forward to doing it again.”
In 2023, the core of this team can return. Aside from Phelps and Ross Stripling, the Blue Jays’ top players are all under team control for at least one more year. That means the Blue Jays front office can run it back if they so choose.
Maybe they will. It’s a good team, after all. That’s why what happened Saturday still stings so much.
