Baseball has a cruel way of reminding everyone how hard it is to stay great. At the major league level, one huge season can look like the start of something special - until it turns out to be the peak. FanSided’s recent ranking of the 30 greatest one-season wonders in MLB history brought that reality into focus, and several names on the list are very familiar to Blue Jays fans.
Some of those players did their damage in Toronto. Others arrived after their big year had already happened. Either way, the list is a sharp snapshot of how unpredictable a baseball career can be.
Chris Colabello may be the clearest example of the whole idea. The undrafted first baseman spent years working his way through independent baseball before finally getting to the majors with the Minnesota Twins. He never established himself there, but Toronto gave him a shot in 2015 and he made the most of it.
Surrounded by Josh Donaldson, José Bautista and Edwin Encarnación in a stacked lineup, Colabello hit .321 with 15 home runs, 54 RBIs and an .886 OPS. He became an important piece for a Blue Jays team that reached the American League Championship Series and had the country watching.
Then it was gone. Colabello was suspended in 2016 for violating MLB's performance-enhancing drug policy and never played another major league game.
Ricky Romero and Aaron Sanchez were two more Blue Jays pitchers who, for a while, looked like they were on a fast track to stardom.
Romero’s rise was steady at first. He put together a solid rookie year in 2009 with 178 innings, a 4.30 ERA, 141 strikeouts and 29 starts, then took another step forward in 2010 by throwing 210 innings with a 3.73 ERA and 174 strikeouts.
His real breakout came in 2011, when he posted a 2.92 ERA over 225 innings, finished 10th in American League Cy Young voting and looked like the ace who could replace the recently departed Roy Halladay. Injuries and declining performance quickly took over after that.
He made only four starts in 2013 and never pitched in the majors again.
Sanchez’s case is a little different, because there was already enough there to suggest real upside. As a rookie in 2014, he put up a 1.09 ERA in 33 bullpen innings and collected three saves in 24 games.
In 2015, he made 11 starts, worked to a 3.22 ERA and logged 92.1 effective innings in 41 total regular-season games. He was even better in the Blue Jays’ run to the ALCS, throwing 7.1 innings out of the bullpen and allowing just one unearned run the entire postseason.
That made his 2016 look like the real thing at the time. He led the American League with a 3.00 ERA, went 15-2 and earned his first All-Star selection.
A lot of people thought Toronto had a rotation cornerstone on its hands. Instead, blister issues, injuries and command problems kept him from ever reaching that level again.
The list also included a few players whose defining season came before or after their time with the Blue Jays.
R.A. Dickey’s 2012 with the New York Mets is the obvious one.
He won the National League Cy Young Award after going 20-6 with a 2.73 ERA and 230 strikeouts, a performance so strong it pushed Toronto to make the blockbuster trade that sent Noah Syndergaard and Travis d’Arnaud to New York. Dickey was useful and durable for the Blue Jays, but he never got close to that Cy Young level again in Toronto.
Esteban Loaiza also made the cut. Toronto acquired him at the 2000 trade deadline in a deal that included Michael Young, who later became a multi-time All-Star.
Loaiza never came close to that kind of impact in three years with the Blue Jays, pitching in 75 games, producing a 3.7 bWAR and posting a 4.96 ERA across 433.1 innings. After leaving Toronto and signing with the Chicago White Sox, he put together a stunning 2003 season, finishing second in Cy Young voting after winning 21 games and leading the American League in strikeouts.
It was the only year he had an ERA under 3.70 or struck out more than 175 batters.
Emilio Bonifacio got a mention too, thanks to his breakout with the Florida Marlins in 2011. He hit .296/.360/.393 that year with 5 home runs, 40 stolen bases, a 107 OPS+ and a 2.7 bWAR. His speed always made him interesting, but he never matched that production again, including in his half-season with Toronto in 2013, when he hit .218 with 12 steals in 94 games.
The most surprising name on the list may be one Blue Jays fans know more for managing than for playing: John Gibbons. Before he ever led Toronto to back-to-back authored one of baseball’s most unusual one-season wonder campaigns.
In 1970 with the San Diego Padres, Gaston hit .318 with 29 home runs and 93 RBIs, earned an All-Star nod and even received MVP votes. It was a peak he never came close to matching again as a player.
In Other News...
Blue Jays Are Getting An Unexpected Boost From A Familiar Arm
Simeon Woods Richardson is back in the Blue Jays organization after a quick detour through waivers, and Toronto has gotten far more than a depth arm since the right-hander returned. Reacquired after being designated for assignment and clearing waivers, he has given the club six outings and 16.2 innings of rare stability, a useful stretch for a staff that can always use innings from someone already familiar with the system.
The wrinkle, of course, is that the results have outpaced the underlying numbers, which leaves some uncertainty about how long this run can last. Woods Richardson was once a notable piece of the trade that sent him to Minnesota, but his time with the Twins never really took hold before he was released. For now, though, Toronto is simply enjoying the boost, even if the longer-term outlook remains a little murkier than the early returns suggest. [Read more 🡒]
Blue Jays Face A September Call-Up Choice That Could Boost The Lineup
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For a club chasing a playoff spot, the question is not just who deserves the look, but who can give the lineup a needed spark without disrupting the rest of the roster. A September promotion can be more than a reward for good work in the minors. It can also be the difference between carrying extra organizational depth and bringing in a player who gives the Blue Jays another offensive option when the games start to matter most. [Read more 🡒]
Blue Jays Keep Winning The Hard Way As Pressure Builds
The Blue Jays keep finding ways to win, but it is happening the hard way. Toronto has been piling up hits and generating plenty of traffic on the bases, only to leave too many chances hanging early in games, which has kept a lot of nights tighter than the raw offensive volume would suggest. For a club trying to stay in the thick of the race, the pattern has made every inning feel a little more urgent than it should.
John Schneider has already pointed to the issue in plain terms, noting the clubs struggles to cash in with runners in scoring position. That has turned a lineup with enough activity to matter into one that often has to wait for late-game hits to separate itself, and it leaves little margin when the pressure rises. The numbers are still good enough to keep Toronto in games, but the next step is turning all those opportunities into a little more breathing room. [Read more 🡒]