The Blue Jays had by far the league’s best offense when most of us went to bed on Monday night. Then they went out and made it much, much better.
Most — myself included — expected Toronto to seek pitching at the deadline to help win more games for an lineup that leads the Majors in OPS and scores far more runs than any other team. But the Blue Jays, an offensive outlier whose 5.28 runs per game make them the only team more than .58 runs away from the 4.10 league average in either direction, instead traded shortstop Jose Reyes and three pitching prospects — including fireballer Miguel Castro — for shortstop Troy Tulowitzki and reliever LaTroy Hawkins from the Colorado Rockies.
Tulowitzki has his warts: He comes with a lengthy injury history that cost him significant time in four of the past five seasons, he is signed to a big contract that owes him at least $98 million through the 2020 season, and he got off to a rough start this season in his first couple of months of play after the hip surgery that ended his 2014 campaign.
But the Blue Jays defray some of Tulowitzki’s cost by moving Reyes, whom the Rockies now owe $48 million through the end of the 2017 season. And though Tulo joins the Blue Jays after going 0-for his last five games with the Rockies, he has hit more like himself since a breakout 4-for-4 game in late May. In his last 44 games, Tulowitzki owns a .331/.400/.533 line with 10 homers and vastly improved rate stats.
(USA TODAY Sports Images)
Some will inevitably fret about Tulowitzki’s home-road splits, pronounced by a career spent playing home games in Coors Field. But the numbers suggest something about playing at altitude actually hurts hitters disproportionately on the road, plus Tulowitzki is moving to another good hitters’ park and joining a lineup that will give him plenty of chances to hit with runners on base.
Tulowitzki will hit somewhere in a lineup that also includes Josh Donaldson, Jose Bautista, Edwin Encarnacion, Russell Martin, and Rookie of the Year candidate Devon Travis. He’ll become the sixth Blue Jays regular with an OPS over .800, which just doesn’t really happen anymore. They’re putting up 1999 numbers.
There are a lot of ways to win ballgames. And though the Blue Jays may still look to add more pitching, Monday’s late-night move seems to indicate which type of win Toronto is banking on. GM Alex Anthopoulos has a team full of sluggers, and they’re going to win slugfests.
And slugfests, need I remind you, are totally awesome. No disrespect to pitchers’ duels, but there’s a reason they’re not called pitchers’ fests. Home runs are a party, and the Blue Jays party hard.
