Toronto Blue Jays End of Season 'Awards'
Remembering some moments: the first annual Ohill Media end of season awards post
2024 didn’t turn out to be the year of the Blue Jay like we thought it might at the beginning of the season. Early on there were points of frustration as the team failed to live up to expectations, but the Jays being sellers at the trade deadline nearly two months ago has given us a lot of time to come to terms with watching a mediocre (bad) team, and find some joy in some more individual storylines for a lot of players.
For all of the moments of disappointment that this season brought us, there were so many reminders of why we love baseball and the Blue Jays so much, and that even though there’s a big fat ‘e’ next to our name in the standings, no season ends without at least a couple fond memories made a long the way.
Unless you’re a fan of the Chicago White Sox, in which case:
I’m just as excited as you to get to the off-season and turn the page to 2025, but before we do, let’s remember some moments and pay tribute to a bunch of people who made 2024, without a doubt, one of the Blue Jays seasons of all time.
So let’s hand out some hardware.
Dave Stieb “Memorial” Award
RHP - Bowden Francis
In 5, 10, or 20 years, I think that the lasting image of 2024 will be Bowden Francis taking a no-hitter into the 9th inning twice within 3 weeks, inside of a 7ish game stretch where he was absolutely unconscious on the mound.
After getting off to a slow start that had him lose his rotation spot and earn a trip to Buffalo, before April even ended, Bowden returned to the rotation at the end of July with a revamped repertoire, featuring a brand new splitter that befuddled opposing lineups.
He finished his season rocking a 1.80 ERA and an almost silly .188 on-base percentage against since returning to the starting rotation on July 29th and has just about guaranteed himself a spot in the rotation for 2025.
The twin no-hit bids might be the two most entertaining pitching performances I’ve seen a Blue Jay, and having not been around when Dave Stieb threw the first and only no-no in franchise history, I was pretty amped up to see Bowden get so close.
Shoutout to Bowden Francis for trusting his shit and letting it eat, and for a couple moments of 2024 not being a terrible season.
29% of the Earth Award
CF - Daulton Varsho
71% of the Earth is covered by water. When there’s a fly ball in the air, the remaining 29% is covered by Daulton Varsho.
Varsho had his season end a couple weeks early due to some issues with his throwing shoulder, but solidified himself as one of the best defensive outfielders in baseball with a massive 27 defensive runs saved across between left and centre field.
Far too many times glove-first players go unnoticed or under appreciated, but it was hard not to notice Varsho track down just about every baseball hit his way, and make plays with less than 50% catch probability look routine. And if he didn’t make them look routine, he made them look like this:
He should easily win the gold glove in centre field, and probably has a good shot at the platinum glove, but what is truly astounding to me is this tweet that Blake Murphy sent out in July:
Yeah, that’s a ridiculous stat to hold almost 2/3’s of the way through the season. I’m not sure of the rules on this, but if he had continued to split time between the positions and hadn’t become the every-day centerfielder, Varsho may have had a case to win multiple gold gloves in a single season.
Shoutout to Daulton Varsho for being a sure thing in the outfield every night and playing as hard as he does.
Fire Extinguisher Award
RP - Yimi García
It may seem a little unconventional to give a Blue Jays ‘award’ to a guy who’s not a Blue Jay, but hear me out.
Yimi García was Traded to the Seattle Mariners on July 26 with 30 innings for the Blue Jays in which he worked a 2.70 ERA and racked up 0.8 fWAR. He was literally the only positive thing to come out of the left field bullpen in 2024 and would have been an all-star if it wasn't for a couple of brief stints on the IL.
To put in perspective how much Yimi meant to this bullpen, check out these stats:
Whenever there was a fire brewing late in games, John Schneider handed the ball to Yimi García and he would put it out in the most dominant way possible. As soon as Yimi was removed from the pen, these fires were allowed to run rampant, until essentially the entire season had burnt to the ground.
Shoutout to Yimi García for being the only Blue Jay reliever to actually contribute to winning baseball at some point this year, and for getting Jonatan Clase on the team, who may be something.
Back Pain Award: Brought to you by Hazel Mae’s Voltaren ads (Not Actually)
1B / 3B - Vladimir Guerrero Jr.
Without a doubt, the story of the season for anybody that’s tuned into the Jays this year is Vladimir Guerrero Jr. returning to a similar form that saw him finish as the runner up in 2021 MVP voting.
In fact, as of September 25th before play, Vlad is rocking the exact same wRC+ (166) as he finished 2021 with. He’s going to finish the season hitting well over .300, and has a reasonable shot at getting to 200 hits (he sits at 195 and with 4 games remaining). He’s got 30 homers and 102 RBI.
This has been just an unreal season for Vladdy, and it’s just unfortunate that it didn’t come with some higher stakes and in the middle of a pennant race.
We can debate if lineup protection matters, but I would argue that Vlad putting up this type of season surrounded by the corpse of George Springer in the leadoff spot and revolving doors in the 2 hole and cleanup spot makes it even more impressive that he was able to do as much damage as he did.
As of September 25th, the Jays are 20th in runs scored across Major League Baseball, and I don’t even want to imagine where they would be without Vladdy; hence the back pain award.
Shoutout to Vlad for being a generational talent this season. Please have 6-8 more of these in Toronto (and please no back pain).
Biggest Muscles Award
INF - Orelvis Martinez
Orelvis Martinez has been a top prospect in the Blue Jays farm system for years now, and after a strong start to his minor league season and a few injuries on the big league roster, finally got the chance to make his much anticipated major league debut. He tallied his first big league hit…
… And immediately got suspended for PEDs.
The Jays were already 5 games under .500 in late June, the season was already a tire fire, and the headline of Orelvis’ suspension was honestly just comical.
Shoutout to the guy with arguably the most raw power in the entire organization deciding he needed to tack on just a little bit more.
Fair Weather Award
RHP - Chris Bassitt
After getting shelled for 7 runs on 8 hits across just 4 innings against the Oakland Athletics (RIP), on route to a 8-4 loss in August, Chis Bassitt had this to say for himself:
"Roof being closed, completely different than roof being open, wasn't really ready for it.”
Bad outings happen, and given the overall body of work from Bassitt in his first two seasons with the Jays, I can live with a start like this once or twice a season. Bassitt’s repertoire, that has him relying on literally 8 different pitches, a low 90’s fastball, and pin-point command is bound to get hit hard sometimes and you live with that because he’s going to keep you in almost every game and flirt with 180 innings pitched. But this is just an objectively hilarious excuse from a veteran pitcher at the end of his second season with team that, in fact, sometimes has a roof.
We can try and push this ‘fair weather’ thing a little further and point out his 5.64 ERA in March/April before the weather really warmed up, but Bassitt had a strong season for the Jays and I don’t want to pile on the veteran.
We can probably chalk up the fair weather stuff to coincidence, but I think just to be safe, I say Bassitt only starts when it’s 23 and sunny in 2025.
Shoutout to Chris Bassitt for one of the funnier quotes of the year.
Most Valuable Bison
INF - Spencer Horwitz
The Blue Jays had to ask a lot of players that weren't on the 26-man opening day roster to contribute at the big league level in 2024. It’s a big part of the reason they weren’t very good! But after proving AAA wasn’t a sufficient challenge for him anymore, Spencer Horwitz earned a promotion to the big leagues. And he ran with it.
He got 381 plate appearances across 97 games, working his way to a pretty consistent 127 wRC+ that included a .790 ops and 12 bombs.
If he survives the offseason roster churn and doesn’t see himself traded, he won’t have to worry about finding accommodations in Buffalo in 2025. Horwitz proved that he’s a big leaguer and he’s got a spot on my roster, although maybe not as the cleanup hitter like we saw a lot towards the end of the season.
There’s still a few questions that need answering; I’m interested to see what the long term outlook is for his defensive position. I have my opinions, and it seems like the Blue Jays disagree with me, but Horwitz would be my opening day second basemen in 2025. I think the bat and lack of power play a lot better there rather than 1B/ DH as we saw a lot this year. Horwitz had 59 appearances as 1B or DH, and 39 as a 2B with just 1 after August 18.
So clearly the Jays had seen enough of Horwitz at 2B pretty quickly. So either the Jays liked what they saw, believed in it long term and wanted to get a look at some other guys (Leo Jimenez, Will Wagner, etc.), or the much likelier scenario that they hated what they saw in the small sample and don’t think he’s a viable 2nd baseman.
Either way, Horwitz has value to the Jays in the near-term, either as a trade asset coming off a good year, or as fixture in the 2025 lineup. Just not as a cleanup hitter please.
Shoutout to Horwitz for proving everyone that was convinced he was nothing but a AAAA hitter wrong.
And a final Shoutout to the Toronto Blue Jays for playing baseball almost every day for the last 6 months! Even through a disheartening season, I love this team and was more than entertained following them all summer.
What did I miss? Who from the Jays do you want to shoutout for their contribution to 2024?