Flight Deck

It turns out that the off-season doesn't end when the Winter Meetings are over!

The Blue Jays have had a busy week, as they inked Kevin Kiermaier and Chris Bassitt to improve their outfield defence and starting rotation. 

We talked about how the Blue Jays look now with their new additions and what they still need to do in order to come into the 2023 season with a better team than the one they had down the stretch in 2022. We also looked at some other moves that happened around the league, including Ross Stripling earning a two-year deal with the San Francisco Giants.

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It's been a slow winter for the Blue Jays.

The Winter Meetings have come and gone, many of the big-name free agents are off the open market, and the only notable move that the Blue Jays have made is trading away Teoscar Hernandez. 

We took a look at what went down in San Diego this week and what we can expect next from the Blue Jays. What do they need? Who's left on out there? Might they have to make a trade? 

After that, we also talked about Aaron Judge's new contract with the New York Yankees and the Boston Red Sox opting to let Xander Bogaerts leave in free agency.

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We asked for transactions, and here they are. 

The Blue Jays pulled the trigger on a big deal on Wednesday, sending Teoscar Hernandez to the Seattle Mariners in exchange for reliever Erik Swanson and Adam Macko. 

Teoscar had developed into an All-Star slugger and a beloved player during his career with the Blue Jays so seeing him go is a difficult pill to swallow. But that said, it was inevitable that changes were coming after Toronto's disappointing result during the post-season. 

We talked about what the Blue Jays lost in Teoscar, what they gained in Swanson and Macko, and what we can expect to happen next.

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Things are starting to get rolling. 

The Houston Astros won the World Series and the off-season got started with two high-level relief pitchers, Edwin Diaz and Robert Suarez, inking big contracts to stick with their respective teams. 

We took a look at early free-agent speculation, the Blue Jays' decision to not issue Ross Stripling a qualifying offer, and the report that pretty much everyone around baseball expects Toronto to move one of their three catchers.

After that, we talked about the Bo Bichette for Ronald Acuna speculation that came out of nowhere and whether the general manager of the L.A. Angels is being honest when he says that the team won't be trading Shohei Ohtani this off-season.

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Though the playoff run ended very quicky, there's plenty to talk about in Blue Jays land. 

We took a look back at Toronto's two-game sweep to Seattle in the wild-card series with a different perspective now that the 111-win Los Angeles Dodgers and 101-win Atlanta Braves also got dropped in five-game sets. Does it matter that the higher-seeded teams are losing if it adds more drama and excitement? 

After that, we talked about off-season stuff, including whether Shohei Ohtani wants out of Anaheim, which Blue Jays could ink long-term contracts this winter, who the most realistic trade partners would be, and the arbitration projections MLBTR made for 13 players. 

We also made three bold predictions for the off-season that we'll be sticking to no matter what!

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What a strange movie that was.

After getting dominated in Game 1 of the wild-card series by Luis Castillo, the Blue Jays appeared to be running away with Game 2 as they tagged Robbie Ray and had an 8-1 lead in the sixth inning. But things went totally sideways after that, as the Mariners pulled off an epic rally to win the game 10-9 and take the series in a sweep. 

We took a look back at the meltdown, where things went wrong, and why there's no single person to put the blame on. We then looked ahead to the off-season and whether the front office will be prepared to make a big move over the winter.

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Well, that's not how we wanted to kick things off!

The hype at the Rogers Centre ahead of Game 1 of the wild-card series with the Mariners was incredibly high but Alek Manoah was tagged for three earned runs in the first inning. Luis Castillo, Seattle's big trade deadline addition, was dominant after that as the Mariners cruised to a 4-0 win. 

We talked about Manoah's tough debut, the bats that looked totally lifeless, and how the Blue Jays can come back with Robbie Ray and Logan Gilbert in line to pitch in Game 2 and 3.

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After the long, winding road that was the 2022 season, here we are.

Toronto will host playoff baseball for the first time since 2016 when the Seattle Mariners come to town to play the Blue Jays in a three-game wild-card series. 

We talked about the head-to-head between the Blue Jays and Mariners this season and how the two teams stack up in terms of offence and pitching. After that, we talked about who's primed for a big moment in these playoffs and we made predictions for the entirety of wild-card weekend.

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Another series with the Red Sox, another spanking from the Blue Jays.

Toronto took care of business at home this weekend with a three-game sweep of Boston and things went their way in the out-of-town scoreboard, so home-field advantage in the wild-card round is looking likely.

We looked back at the series against the Red Sox and how absurdly dominant the Blue Jays were against them all season. After that, we took a look at what the Blue Jays' playoff roster should look like and where players like Lourdes Gurriel and Santiago Espinal fit given how well Ramiel Tapia and Whit Merrifield are playing.

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Just like last year, the Yankees rolled into Toronto for a key late-September series and took down the Blue Jays.

But, unlike last year, it didn't really matter all too much, as the Blue Jays wound up clinching a playoff spot during their subsequent off-day when the Orioles lost to the Red Sox. It was a fittingly anticlimactic way for the 2022 Blue Jays to clinch!

We took a look back at the Yankees series and talked about John Schneider's gutsy move to walk Aaron Judge and Vladdy's big walk-off hit shortly after. We also talked about Buck Martinez's rant about how the Blue Jays don't always show up to play and how we felt watching Judge hit home run No. 61. 

After that, we looked at how things are shaping up in the wild-card race with the season coming to a close.

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