Tale of the Tape Breakdown: Playoff Contenders, Mariners vs Blue Jays

Why the Blue Jays are a threat

There's a reason why so many pundits thought Toronto was going to win the AL East in 2022. This roster is loaded with talent and potential. Stars like Vladimir Guerrero Jr, George Springer, and Bo Bichette get all the credit, but there's so much more. The offense obviously added in the offseason, but also return Matt Chapman, Alejandro Kirk, and Whit Merrifield Jr.

This is a top 5-6 offense in all of baseball and essentially carried their pitching to 92 wins. It doesn't get talked about a lot, but there were rumors that Toronto was extremely close to a deal to acquire Cleveland's star hitter Jose Ramirez before J-Ram and Cleveland agreed on an extension. I can't even imagine that offense with a hall of fame level player in Ramirez joining them. 

The pitching was not all bad, as Alek Manoah and Kevin Gausman both had excellent years for Toronto. Adding a really good #3 starter in Chris Bassitt should do wonders for the rotation. A pitcher like Jose Berrios is still young and extremely talented. If Toronto can figure out what went wrong and get the guy that has averaged close to a 120 ERA+ the previous three seasons, then we're talking about a top 5-6 rotation in the American League to go with that incredible offense.

As the Mariners and the world saw in the Wild Card Series, the Blue Jays bullpen was horrendous. While Erik Swanson throwing as he did in 2022 won't make their pen great, they just need to be average with the way their offense throws runs up on the board.