Bannon: Be All-In On These Blue Jays

It's easy to look forward — how many wins until 92? Can the O's steal a few more from the Red Sox? Will the free agents be back next year?

It's also easy to look back — the walk-off walks, bullpen blowups, and bounces that could've nudged the win total higher.

But right now, teetering on the edge of elimination and October, focus on these five games. This Toronto Blue Jays team deserves your attention.

This type of team hasn't come around often. For a franchise that's had just two and a half playoff appearances in the last 25 years, meaningful September baseball is a rarity. It's not enough and not the goal, but it's a ride.

It's too easy to focus on the core and the countless control years of Vlad Guerrero Jr., Bo Bichette, and Alek Manoah. Don't allow yourself to hedge with the potential of next year because this iteration of Blue Jays baseball is objectively and uniquely special. Guerrero's Baseball Reference page is littered with bold, a Babe Ruth reincarnation away from MVP, Marcus Semien is 400 feet away from the best second basemen power season in baseball history, and Robbie Ray is a good outing away from locking up Toronto's first Cy Young since Doc. They have arguably the best offense in baseball, with the deepest rotation since 2015, and a hometown closer throwing 100 out of the pen. The core may be back, but these 28 players and this exact roster have only these five games.

The 2021 Jays have three of the seven highest WAR players in the league and the fifth-best run differential in baseball. Be present but expect wins, expect more after 162 because anything less than October should be a disappointment. It's the greatness that makes a potential playoff miss painful, with five contests left to prevent it.

Who knows if Ray will be back with the Blue Jays next year or if Semien will walk with a nine-figure payday. The two free agents raised the ceiling of this team to title contender, but worry about their future in November. Toronto sits three wins away from the franchise's second-best season this century and a game out of this core's first 162 game playoff berth.

These next five games will determine if this team is a chapter, footnote, or full dedicated book. There'll be continued agony and probably another Giancarlo Stanton homer or two. They may not make it, and playoff odds seem increasingly confident they won't. But it's the growing anxiety and drawn-out uncertainty that allows for the now 30,000 fan cathartic release when a ball clears the fence or finds a hole.

Don't get bogged down by the 'what ifs' or 'now whats'. For these next five games, allow yourself to live and die by every pitch while this special season still has a pulse.

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