Blue Jays Bullpen Crushing Postseason Hopes

second-bestThe Toronto Blue Jays have the American League MVP favorite on their roster, they have the second best OPS in Major League Baseball at .768, they average the sixth most runs per game at 4.94, but yet they are hardly above .500 and are currently on the outside of the playoffs looking in.

Toronto also ranks 14th in team earned run average at 4.03, which should be good enough to support such a high-powered offense,

So what is causing their issues? It’s their bullpen that has continuously let them down, especially this month. They rank 24th in bullpen ERA in June at 5.03.

The Blue Jays sit in fourth in the American League East, six games behind the Boston Red Sox for the division lead. The Tampa Bay Rays (44-31) and the New York Yankees (39-34) are also ahead of the Jays in the divisional race.

WynnBET has the Blue Jays set at +3000 to win the World Series, and +1500 to win the American League Pennant, which is surprising for a team that has arguably the best offense in baseball next to the Houston Astros.

The active pitchers in the Blue Jays bullpens have the following ERAs:

• Jordan Romano 1.37
• Trent Thornton 3.89
• Tyler Chatwood 4.00
• Tim Mayza 5.24
• Joel Payamps 2.79
• Anthony Kay 6.43
• Anthony Castro 5.06

Outside of their closer Jordan Romano, Toronto only has one reliever with an ERA below 3.89. It’s hard to win games when you don’t have at least 2-3 middle relievers that you can trust to take over for a starting pitcher before the closer can be brought in to win the game.

The Blue Jays are still a very young team, so there’s no reason to push the panic button, but you hate to see such an explosive offense that’s led by Vladimir Guerrero Jr. going to waste due to an underachieving bullpen.

Toronto should be able to get some momentum going, as they begin a four-game home series against the lowly Baltimore Orioles on Thursday night. WynnBET has the Jays set as -215 favorites in the series opening game.