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This Week in Blue Jays: The Players-Only Meeting

Awful.

There is no other word to describe the past week for the Blue Jays, during which they went 2-4 including an absolutely horrendous game Friday night to give them their fourth loss in a row for the first time since May. It was this embarrassing loss, during which absolutely nothing went right, that prompted a rare but necessary players-only meeting prior to Saturday’s game.

I say necessary because, clearly, whoever called the meeting (likely one of Jose Bautista, Edwin Encarnacion, Russell Martin, Josh Donaldson or Troy Tulowitzki; all of whom voiced their concerns as relayed to us by John Lott) felt the meeting was necessary to get this team back on track. Or, to be more specific, to get all the players, “back on the same page,” according to Russell Martin.

There are those who will sweep this away as simple narrative, and there certainly is an element of that. The notion that professional athletes carry baggage with them onto the field runs counter to the idea that players should be able perform at all times simply because they are highly-paid world-class athletes. It is for this reason that the concept of clubhouse chemistry is often scoffed at, brushed aside as being the result of, not a precursor to, team success. The immeasurable effects of a players-only meeting, particularly within the context of a game so defined by quantifiable elements, seems too absurd to discuss, particularly from the outside.

Undoubtedly, the Jays have scuffled the last three weeks or so for one very obvious reason: a staggering lack of offense. Setting aside the series against the Minnesota Twins, the Jays have average just 3.7 runs per game dating back to their series against Cleveland. This is nothing new. Throughout the season, the Jays’ offense has been sporadic at best, with multiple periods of relative quiet during which several key players have experienced simultaneous slumps.

This past week is no exception – over the last seven games, Devon Travis is 14-for-30 (.467), while the rest of the lineup is 41-for-205 (.200). And, while the bats have gone cold yet again, the starting rotation, whose stellar performances throughout most of the season has won games, has shown signs of struggle to the tune of a 5.51 ERA in September. These are the reasons why the Jays have relinquished their lead atop the AL East. The results on the field are both observable and measureable. And yet, they are also inexplicable.

Throughout the course of a 162-game season, there are sure to be ebbs and flows, none of which, on their own, should be met with undue consternation. Ultimately, the best teams will weather any storms and rise to the top. While going from two games up to one game back over the course of nine days is more than disconcerting, it is certainly not insurmountable, assuming that this lineup can snap out of its collective slump and do what they do best.

Whether or not a team meeting can actually procure on-field results is irrelevant; the Jays could go 21-0 the remainder of the season and it would be impossible to either prove or discount the importance of it. What does matter, however, is that the players come away from such a meeting feeling renewed. One cannot underestimate the toll that grinding it out for 162 games can take on a player – particularly if there are grievances that go unresolved – or how both the physical and mental fatigue of such a grind can manifest itself in terms of performance.

When effort is met with nothing but adversity, even in the short-term, it can be difficult to just shake it off. The collective benefit of players, who spend more time together during the season than they do with their families, reminding one another of their common goal should not be overstated, but should also not be undervalued. Nor can the effects of such a meeting on younger players, who perhaps have never dealt with the pressure of a pennant race, go ignored. For Devon Travis, the meeting gave him “chills” and was something he hopes to pass along once he became a veteran player. Whatever it was that Travis (and likely others) took from it was alone worth having the meeting.

Veterans, too, it seems, can benefit from hitting the reset button. Case in point: despite halting their losing skid with his eighteenth win of the season, J.A. Happ credited the pre-game meeting for the positive vibe in the clubhouse after Saturday’s 3-2 victory:

Whatever it is that goes on behind closed doors, let’s hope that this team can sort things out on the field where it counts. As Edwin Encarnacion stated, “We’ve got to turn things around. It’s now or never.”

He is correct. Narrative or not, the season is riding on it.

Quick Hits:

  • In an interview on Sportsnet, Jays’ president Mark Shapiro said that he was likely the club’s pending free agents would at least listen to offers from other teams, although that didn’t mean they would leave. He added that the conversations he’s had with those players have been casual and substantive. A number of Jays are set to hit free agency, with the two biggest names being Jose Bautista and Edwin Encarnacion. Others include Michael Saunders, Darwin Barney, Brett Cecil, Dioner Navarro, R.A. Dickey and Josh Thole. Shapiro did add the following: “Again, I still believe if they’re guys that want to be here and we still think that they can fit and be part of a championship team…we’ll find a way to keep them here.” It doesn’t sound to me like any of these players are really a part of the plan moving forward.
  • The Blue Jays are on the verge of a franchise first: they are poised to finish the season without a single complete game pitched. In fact, a starter has made it into the ninth inning only four times thus far this season, the first being Marcus Stroman’s start on Opening Day and the most recent being Aaron Sanchez’s June 7th start against the Tigers. The last Jays pitcher to toss a complete game was Mark Buehrle on June 3rd of last season. Although it is an oddity for a team to have no complete games, it does represent a growing trend around the MLB; that is, pitch counts for starters have given way to heavier reliance on bullpens. The MLB is on-pace to have fewer than 100 complete games for the first time in its history. For contract, in 1977 (the year of the Jays’ inception), there were 907 complete games. In an industry where pitchers’ arms are the top commodity, complete games are becoming a thing of the past.

Lead Photo: John E. Sokolowski-USA TODAY Sports

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