Who would you put in the 2019 Blue Jays Calendar?

For Christmas, I received a 2019 Blue Jays calendar, and I would like to talk about it.

Someone, at some point, came up with a list of the 12 players they thought would best represent the Blue Jays in 2019. Here is their list:

January - Jaime García
February - Teoscar Hernández
March - Marcus Stroman
April - Kendrys Morales
May - Lourdes Gurriel Jr
June - Justin Smoak
July - Russell Martin
August - Ryan Tepera
September - Aaron Sanchez
October - Troy Tulowitzki
November - Randal Grichuk
December - Kevin Pillar

Days away from 2019, only two players in the calendar are no longer Blue Jays. For a non-contending team, that doesn’t seem terrible. The release of Troy Tulowitzki very much would have missed the cutoff, so we can forgive that one. However, the list of remaining players chosen begs further discussion:

Jaime García, the player who was signed in the off season, only performed well for a month, was eventually sent to the disabled list twice with “arm soreness” before being demoted to the bullpen and eventually released is a particularly peculiar choice for January. Furthermore, he was the player they chose to use in the larger featured month on the back.

I don’t want to pick on Kendrys Morales, and I can understand including him based off the fact that he has a guaranteed contract for 2019, but he is not one of the 12 most popular players.

Perhaps more notable than the players included is the players omitted. Devon Travis had a down year, but he is one of the more well known players and it is bizarre that he was left off. Ryan Borucki figures to be a key part of the rotation in 2019, and should be worthy of consideration. Danny Jansen seems like a bit of a stretch at this point since he only has a few weeks of major league service time, but he will most certainly be a regular next season. If all goes according to plan, he should be a lock for the 2020 calendar.

The person choosing the players at the point in the season where García was still a must include also had the excellent foresight to leave off both Josh Donaldson and Yangervis Solarte.

If it were up to me, I would try to assemble a list of the players who I think will be the most popular/well known in 2019. With some benefit of hindsight, this is who I would chose:

1. Marcus Stroman
2. Kevin Pillar
3. Randal Grichuk
4. Ryan Borucki
5. Danny Jansen
6. Aaron Sanchez
7. Ryan Tepera
8. Teoscar Hernández
9. Russell Martin
10. Lourdes Gurriel Jr
11. Justin Smoak
12. Devon Travis

In reality, someone deciding whether or not to purchase a Blue Jays calendar either for themselves or as a gift for someone else isn’t likely to base that decision on who the players are inside it. However, today’s technology should grant more than enough time for a better and more accurate list.

Who is on your list of 12 players you would select for the Blue Jays 2019 calendar, and what criteria would you use?