Well Justin Turner Is No Shohei Ohtani, But At Least The Blue Jays Did Something?
The Blue Jays are in a strange place. It’s a place I did not expect them to be several years back, but it sort of seems like their window is beginning to close. At the same time, you can argue that it never really opened. Several years back, it felt like they had the talent to be a team that could be a perennial World Series contender for years to come, and it’s not like they’re bad, but they’ve just sort of stalled out. The fact that this core has won zero division championships and zero playoff games is baffling.
In many ways, it feels like this upcoming season is a maker break year for them. We keep hearing their name attached to many free agents, but they’ve whiffed on quite a few. Losing out on Shohei Ohtani was heartbreaking for them, and it seems like Matt Chapman is on the way out. For him, the market is a little bit bizarre at this point. It seems like he’s one of those players. Everyone is afraid to sign to a long-term deal because he was pretty subpar down the stretch last year. The Blue Jays settled on Justin Turner, who they signed to a one-year $13 million deal.
Justin Turner scares me. He’s always scared me. He doesn’t scare me as a human being; he seems pleasant, but he’s one of those guys who always seems to get big hits in big moments. Everywhere he’s gone, except for when he played for the Mets, the guy just hits. He was clutch for the Dodgers, had a solid year for the Red Sox last year, and now he stays in the AL East to play third for the Toronto Blue Jays. He’s getting up there in age, which is why I’m not surprised he hasn’t received any long-term offers, but the guy just keeps getting it done at the plate. He also rakes in the postseason, which is a bonus, assuming that the Blue Jays can get there.
I do like this deal for Toronto, but I will need a lot more out of them before I can comfortably pick them to be a team capable of making a deep run. The Yankees got better, and the Rays are going to continue to do their thing. While the Orioles haven’t had a great offseason, that core is fantastic, and they retain pretty much the entire roster that helped them win over 100 games last year. I know the Blue Jays have also been linked to Cody Bellinger. If they add him to this team, it will move the needle a little bit more for me. They will be one of the more interesting teams to watch this year because if things end in disappointment for them again, I could see them doing something of a semi-rebuild. They don’t have some amazing farm system, and as talented as their core is, it’s hard to act like they’ve lived up to the hype. Justin Turner is good, but good hasn’t really been good enough in Toronto over the last several years.
