The Blue Jays Continue A Frustrating Streak
In 2016, the Toronto Blue Jays made it all the way to the American League Championship Series, where they fell to then-Cleveland Indians.
The team has remained competitive almost every year since that season, making the playoffs in 2020, 2022, and 2023 after a brief rebuilding period.
However, 2016 remains, to this day, the last campaign in which the Blue Jays won a playoff game.
The Blue Jays have gone seven seasons without winning a playoff game pic.twitter.com/nxVitwBriQ
— Talkin’ Baseball (@TalkinBaseball_) October 4, 2023
In 2020, they were swept by the Tampa Bay Rays in the Wild Card round.
They suffered the same fate in 2022 (by the Seattle Mariners, at home) and this year, losing both games against the Minnesota Twins.
The Twins, coincidentally, broke their own ugly streak of years without winning a playoff game (19, from 2004).
It appears the baseball gods are now preventing the Blue Jays from advancing to the later stages.
Despite seven years without winning a postseason game, Toronto is a quality team and will, most likely, be back in contention next year.
There is a lot of work to do, though.
The organization has a nice foundation of talent with Bo Bichette, Vladimir Guerrero Jr., George Springer, Kevin Gausman, Jose Berrios, Yusei Kikuchi, Chris Bassitt, Erik Swanson, Jordan Romano, Daulton Varsho, Alejandro Kirk, Danny Jansen and others.
However, they do have lots of pending free agents who are either regulars or have prominent roles: Matt Chapman, Hyun-Jin Ryu, Brandon Belt, Kevin Kiermaier, Jordan Hicks, and others.
Of course, they also have a couple of big-time prospects, most notably left-handed pitcher Ricky Tiedemann.
They will be back next year to try and break their recent postseason funk.
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