The Toronto Blue Jays had their best season in more than two decades in 2015, but manager John Gibbons thinks the team can be even better in 2016.
Joining The Jeff Blair Show on Sportsnet 590 The Fan Thursday morning, Gibbons said the team’s remarkable run to the American League East title and beyond was his “most enjoyable year,” but believes there’s plenty more where that came from.
“I’m excited for the fact that I have (Troy) Tulowitzki and (Ben) Revere for a whole year. The talk of our team last year was the offence, how powerful we were. I think we’re going to be even stronger because of those two guys, and (Kevin) Pillar is going to have another year under his belt,” the Jays skipper said. “You’ve got to figure (Josh) Donaldson, (Jose) Bautista and (Edwin Encarnacion), they’re going to do their thing. I think (Chris) Colabello is also going to show he really belongs, that was no fluke last year.
“So I think the team on the field is going to be better.”
While this past season was one most fans will never forget, the off-season has been one many may want to. It started with the surprise departure of general manager Alex Anthopoulos, the architect of the deadline deals that helped vault the Jays to a division crown, and continued last month with the acquisition of pitcher Jesse Chavez via trade and signing of J.A. Happ to a three-year, $36 million contract. But it all came to a head on Dec. 1 when David Price signed a monster deal with the rival Boston Red Sox, and reports surfaced that the Blue Jays hadn’t made an offer to their prized deadline acquisition.
The events have left some Blue Jays faithful questioning the new front office, namely president Mark Shapiro and GM Ross Atkins, and the product the team will field in 2016.
Gibbons admits there are “question marks” surrounding Toronto’s pitching staff and notes the team is actively on the look out for more options.
“I know they’re looking at different ways of acquiring guys right now, and trying to load up a little bit more,” he said. “I’m not sure if that’s possible, to be honest with you, but that’s not my department so I kind of stay out of that but I’ll throw my two cents in when asked, but I know it’s not for lack effort.”
Gibbons is confident the arms the Jays have brought in during the off-season, which include five pitchers signed to minor-league deals just last week, will be just fine, but says the team will once again lean on the offence in 2016.
“We have some new-look faces that I think will be good,” Gibbons said. “But I think really when it gets down to it again, the offence is going to be a key part to our team. It’s going to have to be.”
Two key pieces of Toronto’s MLB-leading offence, Jose Bautista and Edwin Encarnacion, are both entering contract seasons, and the issue of extensions recently came to the forefront during the winter meetings when Encarnacion expressed a desire to get a new deal done before opening day or he’d test the free agent market next fall.
Does Gibbons think it will be a distraction should the pair remain unsigned when the season gets underway next April?
“Knowing those two guys as well as I do now, I think they’re just going to be motivated even more,” he said. “I do know both of them love playing in Toronto. Really Toronto gave them their opportunity and stuck with them and they really came into their own there playing in our city, so there’s that little bit of loyalty there.
“I guarantee they’ll both be motivated and have huge years, and that’s going to help us.”
