Top Jays of the 2010's

Tuesday, December 31 2019 @ 09:47 PM EST

Contributed by: John Northey

As 2019 ends and 2020 begins who were the Jays of the 10's?

Lots of ways to look at it, but I'll use WAR and some basic stats here for just the 2010's.  Most are obvious choices.
Some of these are surprises to me.  Didn't think Escobar had that much more WAR than Tulo and Reyes, or even that he had more.  Also didn't notice that LF was rotating that much, almost as much as a Spinal Tap drummer.
Some were all-time Jays, Donaldson, Bautista, Encarnacion all might be the record holders at their positions on the Jays all-time team.  However, LF might have been the weakest ever in Jays history (Otto Velez had 6.9 WAR while alternating between RF/LF in the 70's).  In 2017 for example 12 different players played in LF and none of them had 1 WAR on the season.  9 in 2016 with all sub 2 WAR, etc.  

Pitching....
Completely forgot Cecil and Janssen were both here as recently as 2014 (Cecil through 2016)

Managers...
  • C.Gaston  round 2: 211-201 (85-77 in the 10's) - nearly pulled off a miracle in 2008 but it was too late (Took over on June 20th Jays 10 1/2 back of 1st, 8 1/2 from the playoffs.  If the season restarted the day Gaston started the Jays would've had the wild card, just 2 back of Tampa for the east crown)
  • J.Farrell: ugh.  154-170 over 2 years.  Then goes to Boston where he wanted to be all along and wins a WS.
  • J.Gibbons : Got his round 2 and made 2 playoffs (488-484, 10-10 in post season)
  • C.Montoyo:  67-95 in his one season so far, the 20's are his chance to shine or flop.
GM's...
  • Alex Anthopoulos (2010-2015) - 1 division title, 489-483, started strong (85 wins) dropped (73 in 2012) climbed again (93 in 2015).  Attendance went from 1,495,482 in 2010 (worst since 1982) to 2,794,891 in 2015
  • Ross Atkins (2016-present) - 1 wild card, 305-343, team got worse each year so far Attendance went from 3,392,099 in 2016 to 1,750,144 in 2019 (outside of 2010 the worst since 2002).
So will the Jays rebound under Atkins like they did under AA and reach new heights?  We will see, but for the 10's AA as GM and Gibbons as manger are clearly going to be remembered as the best combo since the Gaston/Gillick days.

Also of note:
  • The hitters average age was 27.8 to 31.0 from 2010-2018 before dropping like a stone last year to 25.9, the last time the team has an offense that young was 1981 (25.8).  Only 1980 and 81 were sub 26 for age of hitters.  Oldest in the AL in 2017, youngest in 2019.  From 2015-17 either the oldest or 2nd oldest, 4th in 2018. 
  • For pitchers nothing crazy for drop.  28.0 in 2010, 28.0 in 2019, always in the top 10 for oldest pitchers, but top 5 from 2013-2018 before dropping to 9th last year in the AL.   1983 was the last time the Jays had a staff younger than 27.
Fun going through the team over the past 10 years, lots of memories.  Be sure to post some favorite moments outside of the obvious (Bat flip which happened when I was at a hockey game for my daughter, EE's WC winning HR)

As a reminder of how things change, here is 2010-2012's Logo

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