This story was excerpted from Keegan Matheson’s Blue Jays Beat newsletter. To read the full newsletter, click here. And subscribe to get it regularly in your inbox.
TORONTO -- The long wait is almost over for the Blue Jays, who have been stuck waiting for the offseason to roll around for over a month now.
On this day last year, the Blue Jays won Game 5 of the World Series in Los Angeles, sending the series back to Toronto with a 3-2 lead over the Dodgers. The 365 days since then haven’t been very kind to Canada’s team.
It’s time to work on turning this back around, though, and that finally gets rolling soon:
Key November dates
First day after World Series: Players become free agents; players may be traded between clubs
Five days after World Series (5 p.m. ET): Deadline for teams to make a qualifying offer to players; players can begin signing with any club
Nov. 10-12: General Managers Meetings in Las Vegas
Nov. 17 (4 p.m. ET): Deadline for players to accept a qualifying offer
Nov. 20: Tender deadline
Major League Baseball’s award season will also feature some Blue Jays content, especially with their five finalists for the AL Gold Glove Awards. Here’s a look at how the awards could break down and which Blue Jays will be involved.
Award watch: Gold Gloves
The Gold Glove Awards will be announced on Sunday on ESPN, with the broadcast beginning at 8:30 p.m. ET.
1B Vladimir Guerrero Jr.
Yes, this one will require you to remember, just for a moment, that the Gold Glove Award is strictly a defensive award. It’s easy to lose this in the mess of a season Guerrero just went through, but his defense was excellent, and if you can look at that in a silo, you’ll see one of his best seasons as a big leaguer. Guerrero’s fielding run value of +6 was the third best among first basemen in the American League, and the eye test backed that up with both fundamental plays and some highlight-reel scoops and dives. He’ll be up against Vinnie Pasquantino of the Royals and Christian Walker of the Astros.
SS Andrés Giménez
It felt like Giménez got better as the year went on, finally settling in as the club’s shortstop after spending most of his big league career at second. Giménez already has three Gold Glove Awards (2022, ‘23, ‘24) from his time with the Guardians, and his +16 fielding run value ranks him second in the AL behind only Bobby Witt Jr. of the Royals. Along with Witt, Taylor Walls of the Rays rounds out the finalists.
RF Nathan Lukes
It’s great to see Lukes get this recognition as a finalist. His defense is criminally underrated, which kept showing up in games when opponents would try to run on Lukes. He’s up against Wilyer Abreu of the Red Sox and Cam Smith of the Astros.
C Brandon Valenzuela
If Valenzuela had started 115 games behind the plate, he might just run away with this award. He and Alejandro Kirk tied for third in the AL at +11 fielding run value, and Valenzuela did that with just 68 starts behind the plate. With his blocking, framing and incredible throwing arm, there might be a couple of these in Valenzuela’s future. He’s up against Dillon Dingler of the Tigers and Austin Wells of the Yankees.
SP José Soriano
Pitchers are always the most difficult race to measure, but Soriano’s reputation as a good fielder and strong athlete have been recognized here. He’ll be up against Tanner Bibee of the Guardians and Jacob deGrom of the Rangers.
Award watch: Everything else
It’s possible that Kazuma Okamoto gets some outside consideration for the AL Rookie of the Year Award after launching 33 home runs in his first MLB season, but his age (30) coming over from Japan adds an interesting wrinkle when compared to players in their early 20s who came up through the Minor Leagues.
Dylan Cease’s case for the Cy Young Award feels like the Blue Jays’ best shot to rank in the top three on a ballot, though. For much of the season, Cease and New York’s Cam Schlittler were in a dead heat, but Schlittler appears to have pulled away down the stretch while Cease’s case faded and he eventually landed on the IL. Regardless, Cease’s season is worth celebrating.
In the first year of his seven-year, $210 million deal, Cease put up a 2.40 ERA with 239 strikeouts over 169 innings, which included some absolutely dominant stretches through the middle of the summer. He’s been everything the Blue Jays could have hoped for and more.