The Blue Jays are living out the darkest timeline

There have been numerous theories about multiple timelines and universes throughout human history. These types of speculations always allowed mankind to question whether they are living in one of the better timelines or worse. Regardless, if the theory proves to be true, the Toronto Blue Jays are living out possibly the darkest timeline at the moment. 

For the past two series against the Tampa Bay Rays and the Chicago White Sox, the Blue Jays couldn’t perform to their potential by scraping out three wins out of six games. Heading into Detroit for a four-game series, Toronto needed to come out victorious even to imagine climbing out of a losing record. Thankfully, the start of the series was promising as the Blue Jays overcame an internet connectivity issue at Comerica Park and scored nine runs while only giving up one run to the Detroit Tigers. 

However, that optimism never carried over to the next two games. To the Blue Jays’ dismay, the Tigers jumped out in front when they capitalized on Toronto’s pitching fairly quickly for both games, while the Blue Jays came up empty and only managed to score three runs on Friday and Saturday. If there’s any message this particular series sent, the Blue Jays are in much deeper trouble than they expected. 

Against the ever-ascendant and confident Tigers, the Blue Jays never stood a chance of defeating them if they didn’t make any adjustments. Sadly, Toronto didn’t adapt enough to save themselves or prove that they could come back against all odds. The Blue Jays demonstrated hasty plate approaches and poor situational hitting, which led to the team’s inevitable two-game skid. Toronto exposed all of its weaknesses while failing to analyze its opponent thoroughly. 

The Blue Jays’ pitching is no longer invincible and that was the most logical development after last season. Demanding pitching from top to bottom to be immaculate is a nonsensical business. Pitching can only hold up so much and it also has to rely on competent offence to bail itself out from time to time. The unfortunate part for the 2024 Blue Jays is that their offence is even worse than before, and are unable to provide any run support if they don’t catch on the elusive fire. This is evident in the team’s series against Detroit as the offence only showed up for one game so far. 

The more sinister development is the confoundingly bad at-bats from first baseman Vladimir Guerrero Jr., shortstop Bo Bichette and right fielder George Springer. This becomes more apparent during the top of the sixth from Saturday’s game. From this particular inning, it’s clear that the trio rushed to swing at a pitch in the zone with less than two strikes. These rash decisions all resulted in three weak groundouts, rather than waiting for better pitches. While all three players are known for their early aggression, their lack of patience has been detrimental to the Blue Jays’ offensive output. 

After the embarrassing and bitter defeat against the Tigers on Saturday afternoon, Blue Jays manager John Schneider said it’s got to turn, and it’s got to turn quickly. This has been on Schneider and Toronto’s script for when the team fails to execute timely hits or score meaningful runs. This iteration of the Blue Jays was supposed to wash away the disappointment and frustration that built up over the years. Unfortunately, the team has instead piled onto mounting concerns through its failure to create any momentum whatsoever. 

In the face of mounting disenchantment, repeating the sense of urgency without results rings hollow. For the past two weeks, the Blue Jays haven’t exhibited any sign of life much to their dismay. If they did show a flash of potential, it only devolved into a fever dream since they quickly succumbed to their rivals’ strategies and tactics all too swiftly. The Blue Jays haven’t even had a solid winning streak that could fuel some hopium around the team, even after 51 games. 

With an underwhelming 23-28 record, Toronto still occupies the very bottom of the American League (AL) East division sitting five games out of the last Wild Card spot in the playoff bracket. Even with the ongoing disillusionment, the Blue Jays still have exactly 111 games to make a stronger case to redeem their contender status. With one game remaining against Detroit and three games against the White Sox in the coming days, their job is to maximize their opportunity to win as many games as possible if they aren’t able to win four games in a row. 

According to multiple timeline, or multi-verse theory, there is a version of the Blue Jays that signed two-way player Shohei Ohtani to top the AL East with a 40-11 record and even a version where the Blue Jays have a robust winning record that places them in one of the top two Wild Card spots even without Ohtani. There are at least a hundred more versions of the Blue Jays either thriving or soul-searching in alternate realities. But without a shadow of a doubt, the current version of the Blue Jays is one of the darker timelines, if not the darkest. 

This was the year for the Toronto Blue Jays to figure things out and let their offence, pitching and defence finally click together all at the same time. They were supposed to be the team to beat and fear. Instead, this version of the Blue Jays we are witnessing can’t seem to break their mediocrity curse or score any runs when they need them the most. ‘Tis the realization of the darkest timelines ever known in the Blue Jays’ history, should they not turn things around soon. We can only wonder what happened to Toronto in those other timelines.