Even in early August, when the Toronto Blue Jays were still hovering around the .500 mark, it was possible to envision a Blue Jays-Kansas City Royals American League Championship Series. At the time, the Royals visited Toronto as the AL’s best team and the Blue Jays were just starting to play to their potential after adding Troy Tulowitzki and David Price at the trade deadline. It was imaginable, though admittedly unlikely, that the teams would face off in October for the AL pennant.
Two and a half months later that’s exactly what’s happening. Here’s a look ahead at a series between two teams attempting to represent the AL in the World Series…
The Royals can hit
The Blue Jays have four players with at least 23 home runs: Josh Donaldson (41), Jose Bautista (40), Edwin Encarnacion (39) and Russell Martin (23). The Royals? Zero. Their biggest power threats, Mike Moustakas and Kendrys Morales, topped out at 22.
Don’t let the homer totals deceive you, though. The Royals ranked seventh in MLB in runs scored thanks to a balanced lineup with plenty of doubles power. They aren’t an easy matchup for opposing managers either, with a mix of left-handed hitters (Moustakas, Eric Hosmer, Alex Gordon), right-handed hitters (Sal Perez, Lorenzo Cain, Alex Rios, Alcides Escobar) and switch-hitters (Morales, Ben Zobrist)
1985 revisited
The last time the Blue Jays and Royals faced off in the playoffs, the Blue Jays had just won their first AL East title and the Royals were on the way to their first World Series championship. Three decades the franchises once viewed as exemplary expansion teams have endured and ended long playoff droughts to re-establish themselves as elite AL teams.
Defensive skills
The Royals are a tremendous defensive team with above-average fielders around the diamond. It’s no surprise that they ranked sixth among all MLB teams at converting batted balls into outs considering that they have the likes of Cain, Escobar, Gordon and Perez on defence.
The Blue Jays may be best-known for their MLB-leading offence, but they can field, too. Toronto led baseball in defensive efficiency thanks in large part to up-the-middle-defenders such as Kevin Pillar, Ryan Goins, Troy Tulowitzki and Martin. One reason defence will play a big role in the series: Both teams had rotations that ranked among MLB’s bottom six in strikeout rate. Until the bullpens gets involved, there should be plenty of balls in play.
Busy GMs
If Alex Anthopoulos was the busiest GM in baseball at the trade deadline, Dayton Moore of the Royals wasn’t far behind. Kansas City acquired Johnny Cueto and Ben Zobrist leading up to the deadline, even though the Royals led the AL Central by 8.0 games over the Minnesota Twins on July 31.
The craziness of the July 31 deadline made up for a relatively quiet 2014, when Anthopoulos and Moore actually pulled off a small trade. Last summer the Blue Jays acquired infielder Danny Valencia from Kansas City for catcher Erik Kratz and reliever Liam Hendriks, who would be traded back to Toronto in October of 2014 and earn a spot on the Blue Jays’ 2015 ALDS roster.
Price and Cueto were arguably the two top arms available this summer — both rentals cost packages of three left-handed pitching prospects headlined by Daniel Norris and Brandon Finnegan. But while Price’s strong finish placed him among the leading Cy Young candidates, Cueto struggled down the stretch, allowing 101 hits in 81.1 innings for a 4.76 ERA. To the surprise of many, the trend has reversed itself in the playoffs, with Cueto pitching well and Price allowing eight earned runs in 10 post-season innings.
After the season both are set to hit free agency along with Zobrist and Gordon of the Royals and Blue Jays such as Marco Estrada, Mark Buehrle and Dioner Navarro. Both teams have more than enough controllable pieces to project as contending 2016 teams, but there’s no denying they will likely look considerably different next year. If there’s ever a time for the deadline activity to pay off, this is it.
Running game
The Royals have lots of speed, including Lorenzo Cain (28/34 SB), Jarrod Dyson (26/29) and Terrance Gore (3/3). Meanwhile, Blue Jays catcher Russell Martin led the AL by preventing 44 per cent of stolen base attempts (32 caught stealings against 40 stolen bases). If Martin can deter runners from going or catch them when they do run, Blue Jays pitchers will have a wider margin for error against Kansas City’s bats.
