Remember that in 2016, the clubs finished with identical records 89-73 before meeting in an epic wild game won by Edwin Incarnation who left Homer in the 11th season. For both clubs it turned out to be the last riot as the fall started immediately after, the rosters with stars were stripped and followed by the wait for the emergence of new nuclei. By 2019, the Blue Jays already had the cornerstones of the next contender, led by the dynamic duo of Vladimir Guerrero Jr. and Bo Bichette. During the 2020 pandemic season, they reached the playoffs in an enlarged stadium, last year they lost the post-season by one game and now they have bigger ambitions. The Orioles, meanwhile, remain at the forefront of the talent pool that has accumulated during their extensive completion, with out Kyle Stowers joining catcher Adley Rutschman and right-back Kyle Bradish as the top 10 candidates for their top-10 debut. in the last month and a half. However, many tunnels remain before they approach any light. To that end, the Blue Jays’ 11-1 win over the Orioles on Monday night was led by players acquired after that clash with the wilds, highlighting why the trend lines for both teams have followed such divergent paths. . Start with Alek Manoah – 11th overall in 2019, 10 places behind Rutschman at No. 1. The pitcher reached 17 wins in his first 20 decisions as a starter, per Stats Perform. Not only did he not get into trouble, but Manoah even saved his teammates when things went awry with a couple of errors in the third, with the help of a clever back-up from Alejandro Kirk to Cedric Mullins in third. a short label by Jorge Mateo. Cavan Biggio opened the fifth seven-in-a-row with a walk and closed the rally with a run-scoring triple, while Bo Bichette had two hits and scored one in a row. Both were selected in 2016, the first year of the Blue Jays under GM Ross Atkins. Kirk broke an RBI single to open the scoring for a sixth in a row, while Lourdes Gurriel Jr., an associate international free agent in 2016, added three hits and scored one in a row. Teoscar Hernandez, who was acquired by Houston for Francisco Liriano in 2017, had three hits and an RBI while Santiago Espinal, who was sacked by Boston for Steve Pearce in 2018, had two hits and three RBIs. Guerrero, who signed as an international free agent in 2015 from former GM Alex Anthopoulos to lead the next wave, handed over RBI singles in the third and fifth against Bradish, acquired by the Orioles as part of the 2019 deal that sent Dylan Bundy to the Angels. and homered in the eighth. It was their successful acclimatization to the major leagues in recent years that led Atkins to start aggressively growing the club through free agency, starting with the signing of Hyun Jin Ryu before the 2020 season and following the additions of free agents George Springer and Kevin . Gausman, among others. The basis for this is 21.6 WAR, as calculated by Baseball-Reference, the Blue Jays have already pulled out of the 2016-2020 draft, compared to 6.1 for the Orioles. Rutzman, Stowers and the much-publicized right-wing Grayson Rodriguez (who could miss the rest of the season due to injury) may eventually eat up this deficit, but this gap is just the beginning of the breakup. The Blue Jays also cleverly created value with their draft capital, using ’16 Kirby Snead and ’17 Kevin Smith and Zach Logue options to help acquire Matt Chapman. Austin Martin, the 2020 champion, was a key part of the package to acquire Jose Berio from the Twins last summer, a deal that led to the long-term extension of the right-hand ace. Ross Stripling was acquired by the Dodgers in the summer of 2020 for the first key player Ryan Noda, a ’17 pick, and the right Kendall Williams, a 2018 pick. package sent to the Mets for Steven Matz. JB Woodman was sent to the Cardinals for Aledmys Diaz who eventually led to Trent Thornton. Jeff Conine, selected in ’18, was sacked for a 2020 Jonathan Villar rental term. Collective gains, big and small, over developed talent have helped push reconstruction into a promising window of opportunity, while the Orioles have stuck to the talent mode and still have a long way to go to say the same thing.
