By Aidan Sinclair
As hard as it is to believe, the most successful Toronto Blue Jays team since the 1993 World Series squad existed a full decade ago. Before the current era of Vladimir Guerrero Jr., Bo Bichette and Jose Berrios, the Jays team with the most excitement, potential and superstar talent gave Toronto fans a refreshing feeling of hope for playoff baseball. Now, after a tumultuous decade of baseball in the Six, let’s take a look back at the squad that brought the city together.
It all started with a handful of impactful offseason transactions made by then general manager Alex Anthopoulos. His biggest free agent signing was made on Nov. 18, 2014 as Canadian catcher Russell Martin joined the squad on a five year, 82-million dollar contract. Ten days later, Anthopoulos pulled the trigger on what is considered one of the most lopsided trades in MLB history, acquiring perennial MVP candidate Josh Donaldson from the Oakland Athletics in exchange for four players, the most notable being third baseman Brett Lawrie.
Anthopoulos pulled off some quiet moves that later turned out to be some of the most impactful to the teams’ postseason success. Marco Estrada, Devon Travis, Justin Smoak, Chris Colabello and Ezequiel Carrera were all acquired either through trade or free agency/waivers and were a part of the success that the summer of 2015 brought.
Going into Spring Training, the new-look Jays versatile and powerful lineup made them one of the most exciting offences in the MLB. The Blue Jays quickly jumped out to a 4-2 start to their season, taking series’ from a pair of division rivals, the New York Yankees and Baltimore Orioles. This solid start may have given false hope—multiple four- and five-game losing streaks counteracted an eleven-game winning streak in bringing the Jays to a 53-51 record at the trade deadline. Despite barely being above .500, Martin, Donaldson and Jose Bautista all made the All-Star team while Edwin Encarnacion, Estrada and a budding star in closer Roberto Osuna were all performing to a high standard.
While one might’ve looked at the Jays season to that point and thought it would be impossible for a team with such an average record to compete for a World Series berth, Anthopoulos saw potential. In a 2024 interview on the Blair and Barker show, Anthopoulos was asked how he evaluates team performance and what prompted him to pull the trigger on some of the biggest deadline deals in Blue Jays history.
“Run differential for me is big, really big…[in 2015] we were destroying everybody in run differential…we weren’t getting the wins, but it would tell you there’s a lot of optimism that things should turn,” he said.
The first big in-season move came on July 28, 2015 when shortstop Jose Reyes was traded alongside three pitching prospects to the Colorado Rockies in exchange for shortstop and perennial All-Star Troy Tulowitzki, providing an extra dose of firepower to the lineup. Two days later, an even bigger deadline move would build on the excitement. On July 30, 2015, the Jays acquired former Cy Young award winner David Price from the Detroit Tigers, once again for three pitching prospects.
Immediately, the addition of Tulowitzki improved the lineup, while Price solidified the starting rotation. Tulowitzki hit a home run in just his second at-bat as a Blue Jay against the Philadelphia Phillies on July 29, while in his debut start against the Minnesota Twins on Aug. 3, Price struck out 11 batters over eight tremendous innings, allowing just one run.
By early August, the team had clicked and all the pieces were coming together. The Jays went 40-18 to close the season, capturing their first American League East division title since the World Series winning team in 1993. Their 93-69 record put them fifth best in MLB, only trailing the Kansas City Royals in the American League.
Hosting a playoff series for the first time in 22 years brought nearly 50,000 fans to Rogers Centre for game one against the Texas Rangers. The Jays went on to lose the first two games of the series, facing elimination as they headed to Texas for a pivotal game three. Stellar pitching and contributions from the entire offence led to two wins in Arlington, bringing them back to Toronto for a win-or-go-home game five.
This is the game every Blue Jays fan of the past decade remembers. In a tie game in the sixth inning, Bautista came up to the plate against Rangers reliever Sam Dyson with two runners on base. In a 1-1 count, “Joey Bats” unleashed arguably the greatest swing in Blue Jays history (only behind Joe Carter’s World Series walk off home run), hitting a three-run home run that would ultimately seal the deal and send the Jays to the ALCS. Little has come close to matching the impact of that bat flip in almost ten years since.
Four wins away from the World Series, the Jays were matched up with the only team with a better record than them in the American League, the Royals. Once again, the Jays fell to an early 2-0 series deficit, but wins in games three and five put Toronto within striking distance. In game six, fortunes appeared to be shifting towards a Toronto victory. Bautista came up clutch again, belting two home runs and tying the game at 3-3 in the eighth inning. However, an RBI single by Royals first baseman Eric Hosmer put the Royals up one in the bottom of the eighth, eventually leading to a Kansas City series win.
The 2015 Blue Jays brought energy and life to Toronto that hadn’t been felt in over two decades. Years of misery and diminished hope came to an end, providing fans with one of best seasons in franchise history and hope for better things to come. The combination of offence, defence and pitching made for an all-around perfect team that had spirit and chemistry, something fans become attached to. With Anthopoulos’ willingness to make splashy moves and the team’s success came one of the highest attendance ratings for the Jays in years.
Donaldson took home the MVP award with Bautista and Encarnacion close behind in the top 12 in the award voting, while Estrada and Price both finished in the top 10 in Cy Young voting. Though most of the players from that team are now retired, fans will never forget the near-perfect season that was 2015. As an entirely new team—built on its own core of stars—enters the 2025 season, they look to attack from the get-go and get started on creating new memories for a city hungry for even more than a playoff series win and a bat flip. .
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