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Poll Time: Most Pleasant Surprise of the Blue Jays Season

By Tom Dakers
Toronto Blue Jays v New York Yankees Photo by Sarah Stier/Getty Images

I figured we might have some polls talking about the past season. Let’s start with “Most pleasant surprise”. We have some good candidates.

  • Teoscar Hernandez: After hitting .230/.306/.472 with 26 home runs, last year, he hit .289/.340/.579 with 16 home runs in 50 games. It was a continuation of his great second half of 2019, when he hit .259/.346/.592 with 18 home runs in 62 games. But I’m not sure any of us expected him to be this good when we came into this season.
  • Rowdy Tellez: After our game on August 9th, he was hitting a big .143/.244/.257. After that, things turned around. He hit .346/.395/.667. We went from thinking he was about to be traded to thinking he was the second coming of Babe Ruth. It is really too bad that he was hurt for the last few games of the season.
  • Alejandro Kirk: That he played in the majors, after never being A ball before, that was a pretty big surprise. And he hit, .259/.364/.444 in 25 PA. He quickly became a fan favorite.

On the pitching side, there wasn’t much in the starting rotation that could be called a pleasant surprise. Hyun Jin Ryu was great, but we were expecting that. I guess Taijuan Walker fits.

  • Anthony Bass: 3.51 ERA in 25 games, with 7 saves, 4 holds and 2 blown saves. We didn’t expect him to pitch in save situations.
  • Rafael Dolis: Had a 1.50 ERA in 24 games, with 5 saves, 7 holds and no blown saves. He also made sure that Sportsnet had plenty of time to run commercials between pitches.
  • Julian Merryweather was a pleasant surprise just because he actually existed. But he also pitched great, at least until his last couple of appearances.
  • Thomas Hatch: We spent most of the season amazed that the Cubs traded him. Seeing 97 MLB was a surprise for me. He had a 2.73 ERA, in 17 games. Ross Atkins listed him among guys who will be looked at as starters next year.

Poll

My choice for most pleasant surprise of the Blue Jays season is

This poll is closed

  • 53%
    Teoscar Hernandez
    (382 votes)
  • 13%
    Rowdy Tellez
    (96 votes)
  • 14%
    Alejandro Kirk
    (100 votes)
  • 1%
    Anthony Bass
    (10 votes)
  • 6%
    Rafael Dolis
    (44 votes)
  • 4%
    Julian Merryweather
    (34 votes)
  • 4%
    Thomas Hatch
    (35 votes)
  • 1%
    Someone else? Tell us in the thread.
    (12 votes)
713 votes total Vote Now

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