The Blue Jays Are a Totally Rejuventated Team

Look at how far the Toronto Blue Jays have come in such a short span of time. As little as two weeks ago, they appeared to be out of it.

Instead of buyers at the deadline, some speculated they may in fact be sellers. Yours truly assumed the Blue Jays would do absolutely nothing ahead of the July 31st trade deadline. I could not have been happier to be so wrong.

Not only were they the undisputed winners at the trade deadline, but those big acquisitions also coincided with big results on the field. Since July 31st, the Blue Jays are 9-1 and they’ve also won 11 of their last 12 games.

The Blue Jays took down the Kansas City Royals, the Minnesota Twins and the New York Yankees. Suffice it to say the Blue Jays are a completely rejuvenated ball club.

At a point in the season in which they’re accustomed to falling apart, the Blue Jays are now playing their best baseball of the season.

Mid-August is typically when the Blue Jays have either fallen out of the playoff picture entirely, or they’ve succumbed to season-ending injuries to their key players and were forced to start a parade of minor league players.

But not this year.

Josh Donaldson is marching his way towards an AL MVP award. David Price has come exactly as advertised. Jose Bautista and Edwin Encarnacion have simultaneously gotten hot at the perfect time. Troy Tulowitzki has put up 1.1 WAR in only 11 games as a Blue Jay.

Not to mention, the Blue Jays’ starting rotation and bullpen have been among the best in all of baseball since the All-Star break.

In the second half, the Blue Jays’ starting rotation has posted an ERA of 2.69, which is tops in the American League. Their bullpen has also been utterly dominant since the All-Star break, owning a 1.70 ERA.

So the Blue Jays already had a prolific starting lineup (which they improved by adding Troy Tulowitzki and Ben Revere), and now their pitching is starting to come around. Add those factors together, and the Blue Jays appear to be destined to end their 22 year playoff drought.

Even Gregor Chisholm, someone who’s covered this team extensively the past few years, has noticed a sizable difference in the very same team from just a few weeks ago.

Difference between this team now compared to 2 weeks ago is staggering. I don’t even feel like I’m covering the same team anymore. #BlueJays

— Gregor Chisholm (@gregorMLB) August 9, 2015

It feels like this has been a long time coming for the 2015 Blue Jays. Some four months into the season and two-thirds of the way home, they’re finally beginning to look like a complete team.

Not only is the offense continuing to deliver, but the starting pitching has been stellar and the bullpen has been completely lights-out since the All-Star break.

The argument has been made that this Blue Jays team has been good all along. Even though there were scoring runs at a torrent pace, their starting rotation and bullpen was bound to right the ship eventually.

In its original incarnation, that very well may have been the case, but Alex Anthopoulos wasn’t willing to take that risk. Instead, he went out at got bona fide superstars at two positions, and then he got to work filling a few other holes in the roster.

What remains is a top-to-bottom fundamentally sound baseball club. The Blue Jays in their current state are not invincible by any means, but right now they are the team which nobody wants to face in a Wild Card elimination game.

This may also be tough to quantify, but just imagine how much of a boost these past few weeks have been to the guys on the roster as well; especially players like Jose Bautista who in years past, were vocal about the lack of in-season moves.

If 2014’s “stand pat” approach sent a negative ripple effect through the clubhouse, the approach this year has done the exact opposite. The guys on the 25-man roster must be elated with the moves that were made at the trade deadline.

When I say the Blue Jays are a “rejuvenated team”, I’m not insinuating that they’re a completely healthy club physically. Edwin Encarnacion and Russell Martin have battled nagging injuries in recent weeks, plus others that we may not even know about.

But these past two weeks have been a veritable shot in the arm for the Toronto Blue Jays. This boost was exactly what they needed to suddenly propel themselves into the conversation as one of MLB’s hottest teams.

[Related: GIF – The Blue Jays Rocket Up the Standings]

Image via Getty Images/Elsa