Will the Blue Jays ever be competitive?

I’m not sold on the latest Blue Jay regime’s promise to build a winner in the near future. Alex Anthopoulos (AA) has clearly articulated a plan which is more than can be said about his predecessor. AA talks about building through youth and only when ready to compete would he jump into the free agent market to finish off the product. We’ll see. That season is supposed to be 2012 which he has to be picking up expensive talent during this offseason.

But is the core really good enough? The proven core right now is just Jose Bautista, Yunel Escobar, Adam Lind and Ricky Romero – all have been signed to long-term deals. However, all the young talent have been hot and cold – too often cold. Will they all hit their stride soon or at all? Travis Snider has been sent down to the minors 3 straight seasons now. Joining him this season in Las Vegas was Brett Cecil and Kyle Drabek. Brandon Morrow has also regressed this season. J.P. Arencebia is just hitting .222 which isn’t even close to what you need from that position to compete with the Yankees, Red Sox and Rays. Sure Eric Thame shows some promise too and we haven’t seen Brett Lawrie yet but will they be good enough? AA is bought himself a lot of goodwill from fans but will his plan work?

Right now just about the only reason to watch the Jays is to witness the incredible performance of Bautista. He puts on a show every game. The other core players are good but are not stars. Then we have a huge cadre of stiffs who are filling a spot until either a young player can step in or a big name player is signed. Frankly as a fan I feel I’m being cheated. The Jays had an adequate closer last season but let him walk and replaced him with 3 pitchers with closer credentials who have already combined for 7 blown saves but just 18 saves. A number of very good relievers were allowed to walk and replaced with older players who were holding their own until the young starting staff caused them to become overworked. We had to watch a group of players stumble around trying to play third base until manager John Farrell raised a white flag and brought in Bautista from the outfield.

I really am hopeful for the future but not completely sold. There are too many promises here and not enough substance. I guess we will just have to wait and see.