TORONTO -- This Toronto Blue Jays group accomplished a lot. Back-to-back appearances in the American League Championship Series put this great city back on the baseball map. But their Game 5 loss to the Cleveland Indians feels like an end for this franchise.
In 2017, they will still have a starting staff that led the American League in ERA this season. Josh Donaldson and Troy Tulowitzki will return. But it seems a pretty good bet that Jose Bautista and Edwin Encarnacion will not be in Toronto in 2017, which marks an end of a resurgent, but not fully satisfying, era of Blue Jays' baseball.
They are not necessarily finished winning, but, if they do, the team will likely have a different feel and makeup.
"That group's come a long way," said Toronto manager John Gibbons, whose handling of the clubhouse has allowed his team's personality to grow into winners and make the playoffs last season and this one after 22 years without a postseason berth. "We were staring at a playoff drought for a lot of years around here. And they came through for the team last year, the organization. And then they repeated it this year.
"Eddie and Jose, they really helped put this team back on the map again with what they've accomplished. They really made their name in Toronto."
Now, they may not be Blue Jays anymore. There may be a better chance of Encarnacion returning than Bautista. Bautista had an off year this season and his 36th birthday was on Wednesday. While team president Mark Shapiro confirmed that Gibbons will be asked back -- which, amazingly, was in question at one point this year -- Shapiro said more internal discussions need to be had to see what the Jays' future budgets would look like before deciding if and how much they might offer Encarnacion and/or Bautista.
"Of course, it is my first choice [to stay in Toronto], but to be honest, my mind is not going to be into it until the World Series ends," Encarnacion said.
Bautista, who talked a lot in this series, would not delve into his offseason thoughts.
It was Bautista, though, who brought up unspecified "circumstances" that surrounded the umpiring. He also was the one who predicted that Indians rookie starter Ryan Merritt would be "shaking in his boots" to begin Game 5. Instead Merritt retired the first 10 batters and his 4⅓ scoreless inning, no matter what happens the rest of his career, launched him into playoff lore.
The Jays now have lost two straight championship series. Last year, it was in six games. This one was five. For catcher Russell Martin it was particularly bitter as he has now fallen one round short of the World Series for the fifth time in his career.
"It is tough," Martin said. "You battle through a whole season in a tough division. You make it through the wild card. You make it through another round. Then you get your chance to finally get to the World Series door and you just don't quite get there. I haven't played in the World Series yet and it is something I'm hoping I get a chance to do, but it is not going to be this year."
You have to wonder if it will be next year, either. The Jays will have to find some more offense if Bautista and Encarnacion are no longer around. There is some feeling that Shapiro will take his blueprint from Cleveland, where he left after last year. Shapiro denied that was what they would do, saying it would take too long.
In the AL East, the Boston Red Sox figure to be very good again. The Baltimore Orioles somehow find a way year after year to compete, while the New York Yankees are wild cards because they could add a couple of pieces even as they rebuild.
So it won't be easy for the Blue Jays to find a way back to the ALCS. In the end, after the Indians had vanquished them, Gibbons talked to his team for a final time.
"I basically thanked them for effort all year," Gibbons said. "Some ups and downs. One thing you heard me say, it's a special group. They come to play. They had another great year. We got to this point. We weren't able to get over the hump again. But you [know] what, it was a damn good job of getting to this point."