The Rockies and another team: The Blue Jays, nostalgia, and some pressure this weekend
No pressure on the Rockies, of course. Just on the team that needs to beat them at home.
The first connection that comes to mind for me when I think of the Colorado Rockies and the Toronto Blue Jays is nostalgia. And there’s a specific connection between these two teams that tops the list for baseball nostalgia: Bo Bichette, the very exciting and talented shortstop for the Blue Jays.
Bo, if you didn’t already figure, is the son of Rockies legend Dante Bichette. If you didn’t have the last names in front of you, I think any fan of those 1990s Rockies teams would still figure it out. It’s the same hair. It’s the same swing.
The Blue Jays have a couple more players with famous last names in Vladimir Guerrero, Jr. and Cavan Biggio. There have been some bumps for Biggio as he has settled into a role off the bench, but Bichette and Guerrero are the building block guys for this franchise.
The idea I have been kicking around in my head is that I end up associating these two franchises with baseball nostalgia, but there is a key difference in how they get there: it seems like the Blue Jays just happened to find those connections in the course of finding great players and building a contending franchise, while the Rockies actively seek out nostalgia in a way that prioritizes it over smart decisions.
For the Rockies, there is a blurring that happens with this topic and the ideas of nostalgia and loyalty. But these words often go together, and in the history of the Rockies, you don’t have to look too hard to find cases where they were loyal and/or nostalgic to the detriment of the quality of the team.
Stick with me, because some of these are random and some go back a little bit:
Refusing to trade Jorge De La Rosa at the trade deadline when his value would never be higher and they were clearly out of the race
Keeping Jason Giambi around at the end of his career to take up a spot on the bench
Signing Daniel Bard to an extension instead of trading him at the deadline
Batting Charlie Blackmon at the top of the lineup, no matter what, the last two seasons
I often find myself conflicted when the Rockies make these kinds of decisions. I soaked up every minute of the Giambi era in Colorado. I’m right there with Charlie Blackmon, hanging on and hoping that he’s still got it. But I also know that these moves add up over the years, and they contribute to the feeling that the Rockies are stuck in a mode where their front office employs an approach that is outdated and bizarre.
That brings me to my gut feeling when I look at the Rockies and Blue Jays side by side. It’s a theme that will likely come up a lot in these entries. The Blue Jays have upward momentum. There’s excitement about that team’s direction and what the future holds. Meanwhile, the Rockies are spinning their wheels at best. More likely, they are plummeting downward, heading definitively in the opposite direction of franchises like the Blue Jays and the Arizona Diamondbacks.
Checking in with the Blue Jays
It’s early, so small sample qualifiers apply here. Then again, small samples can also provide some humor.
As of this writing, the top position player on the Blue Jays (according to Baseball Reference WAR) is Isiah Kiner-Falefa with 0.5 WAR so far. Toronto is counting on a lot of guys to level up this year. Kiner-Falefa is almost certainly not one of those guys. His stint with the Yankees made him a familiar name for more people, and it also made him a convenient reference point for players who can’t hit.
He’s batting .250, so this one might point to Toronto’s sluggish start offensively this season as much as anything.
The top pitcher is José Berríos. The Rockies will see him for Sunday’s finale in Toronto, and that match-up might be tough sledding for this lineup now that Berrios seems to have rediscovered his form as a top-of-the-rotation guy.
The start of the season has generally been disappointing in Toronto, with them holding a 5-6 record as I write this on Tuesday night. It’s too early for them to panic, but the American League East also doesn’t leave much room for error or sustained struggles. As it is, Toronto certainly doesn’t want to see the gap between them and the 9-2 New York Yankees grow much wider.
As early season series go, this weekend’s set might pack more meaning for the Blue Jays. If the Rockies somehow stumble into a couple wins, it will just be a random weekend for a bad team. But for the Blue Jays to lose at home to the Rockies, with Kevin Gausman and Berríos scheduled to pitch? That might really escalate the early concerns in Toronto.
One last thing
It hasn’t all come together quite yet for the Blue Jays, but they are still such a fun team. As one example, here’s Vlad Guerrero, Jr. absolutely smashing a baseball.
