Blue Jays motivated by chance to seize AL East crown: 'It's right there'

TORONTO -- This feels like the year to aim a little higher.

This version of the Blue Jays, led by Vladimir Guerrero Jr., Bo Bichette and the veterans this front office continues to stack around them, have been to the postseason three times (2020, ’22, ’23). Those have all been Wild Card tickets, though, and all three trips ended with a quick, uniquely painful two-game sweep.

This time, the division is sitting right in front of the Blue Jays, begging them to make a race out of this. Even after Thursday’s 9-5 loss, the Blue Jays still took this series from the D-backs and sit at 40-34, three games back of the Yankees in the AL East.

The Blue Jays aren’t a great team yet, but the American League doesn’t boast much greatness at the moment. The Tigers look poised to run away with the AL Central and chase 100 wins, but in the East, the Yankees and Rays are both well within reach, the Orioles have been one of baseball’s biggest disappointments and the Red Sox, while playing some better baseball lately, just traded Rafael Devers to the Giants.

The division is wide open for the Blue Jays, who haven’t taken the top spot since 2015, the season that brought baseball back to life in Canada.

“There’s so much season left, but yes, you look up and you want to see yourself where you envisioned yourself,” manager John Schneider said. “There’s a lot of talk about the Wild Card, and it’s great that there’s that, but the goal every year is to try to win the division.”

Timing is everything, too. Besides, this is the Canadian market. The Maple Leafs stumbled out of the NHL playoffs a month ago and the Edmonton Oilers just lost in the Stanley Cup Finals to the Florida Panthers, so the entire attention of a country’s sports fans finally rests on the Blue Jays. This is their chance to grab one of baseball’s biggest, broadest markets by the collar again, to excite people, to demand their attention.

The Blue Jays haven’t just been playing better baseball, they’ve been playing a more entertaining brand of it filled with chaotic comeback wins. June and July can either lull a team to sleep or launch them forward. When the energy comes back to Rogers Centre at the right time, like we saw in 2015-’16, there’s nothing like it.

“I said that we wanted to put our best foot forward before we get into July, the dog days and the Trade Deadline,” Schneider said. “It’s nice that we have done that. It keeps the carrot at the end of the stick. It’s right there.”

If this is going to happen, the push through July and into the stretch run needs to be powered by the Blue Jays’ stars. Guerrero’s season has mirrored the team’s as a whole, good but not yet great. He alone holds the power to catapult the Blue Jays from the Wild Card to the AL East conversation, though. Guerrero can single-handedly steal some games along the way, which is how 89 wins become 90, how 91 become 92. As we learned back in 2021, that painful shortcoming on the final day of the season, every single win matters.

The good news? Guerrero is coming to life. He doubled home a run Thursday, launched a home run on a three-hit day Tuesday and reached base five times in Wednesday’s win. Finally back in his comfort zone, batting third behind longtime friend Bichette and breakout star Addison Barger, it looks like the Blue Jays have a 1-2-3 that’s going to last.

“I always try to do whatever the guys in front of me are doing. If they’re hot, I’ve got to get hot,” Guerrero said through a club interpreter. “If they get base hits, I’m trying to get base hits. If they walk, I’m trying to walk. That is something that I definitely use. It’s motivation.”

Motivation is a contagious thing. A major four-game series against the Yankees is coming June 30, and from there, every conversation we have will be tied to the Trade Deadline. There’s momentum waiting for the Blue Jays to grab this and run, but the AL East crown is the goal here, not just a ticket to the dance.