SIMMONS: Is there any real hope for the Blue Jays this season?

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The line is forever fine — turning anger and indifference to hope and belief.

That’s what faces the Toronto Blue Jays as another season is about to begin, the 32nd consecutive year in which they will not play for the World Series.

They are consistent that way and maybe that’s the only way. There was legitimate hope when Josh Donaldson played with Jose Bautista and Edwin Encarnacion and Russell Martin on a Blue Jays team.

There was legitimate hope that didn’t amount to much when Roy Halladay pitched and Carlos Delgado hit home runs in Toronto.

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Now a season begins with doubt and more doubt and with the looming free agency of both Vladimir Guerrero Jr. and Bo Bichette present every day in juxtaposition with the lack of belief in club president Mark Shapiro and general manager Ross Atkins, and with a team the betting websites figure to win fewer than 80 games.

There is a lot to wonder about as the new season begins and normally this is when hope is highest for any team.

Consider this: Guerrero was one of the best hitters in the American League last season while playing for one of the least-productive offensive teams. For all Vladdy did in another special season, the Jays finished last in the American League East.

They won just 74 games.

A new contract and another great Guerrero season may be possible, so might last place in the AL East again. This is the thin line the Blue Jays entertain as their president and general manager act like late-night sales people on television, trying to convince the doubters that this is a team that can win something.

The question is: What is that something?

George Springer, again, is a key player for the Blue Jays despite all the statistical evidence that questions his place in Major League Baseball.

Springer was an excellent big league player. He isn’t anymore.

He turns 36 in September. It isn’t a time when professional athletes recapture what has been lost over the years. In his past three seasons with the Jays, Springer has dropped in batting average from .267 to .220, from an OPS of .814 to .674, from an on-base percentage of .342 to .303, and an OPS+ dropping from 132 to 92. Each season a little worse than the one before it.

Now Jays will tell you that Springer had a sound spring training. That process is working on his behalf. That he looks to bounce back this season. And maybe he will.

But historically, when a player in any sport drops incrementally in every category that matters over a three-year period, the likelihood is those numbers are an indication of a career in decline.

The Jays need something from Springer this season. Whether he has that in him, again, may be more hope than reality.

Andres Gimenez will play second base for the Jays and he will do it so well that he will remind some people of Roberto Alomar or Orlando Hudson. He is an immensely talented defensive player,

But, at an age much younger than Springer, Gimenez’s offensive numbers have been in decline for the past two seasons of his a once-promising career. His OPS went from .837 in 2022 to .638 in 2024. His home runs dropped from 17 to 9. His OPS+ plus dropped from the huge number of 141 to the rather minuscule 82.

His numbers dropped so much that the Cleveland Guardians needed to find a team that would take on his contract — and Toronto has become a home for bad contracts.

Gimenez is young enough to regain his offence, but when an organization as sound as the Guardians does not believe in him, you have to wonder: What do the Jays see in Gimenez that others in baseball do not?

The over-under at most sports book have the Blue Jays winning 79.5 games this season. I’ll take the over, but not enthusiastically.

I wrote them down for 82 wins the other day before I saw the over-under. I’ll stick at 82 for now, which won’t get the Jays near the playoffs, which should get Shapiro and Atkins shown the door and, frankly, that should have happened already.

There are eight new Blue Jays for the new season. There is hope that Jeff Hoffman, the one-time great Blue Jays pitching prospect traded away for Troy Tulowitzki a decade ago, will emerge as a closer for the first time in his career.

Both Atlanta and Baltimore, playoff teams, wanted Hoffman in the off-season. They wanted him until they saw his MRI. Then they said, ‘thanks, but no thanks.’

The Jays’ apparent closer is a health hazard and never mind that he hasn’t been a full-time closer before. He has done his best pitching in pressure situations for the Philadelphia Phillies the past two seasons.

Now he’ll start a season as a closer for the first time. There are those who can close and those who cannot. Until they’re given the ball, they’re like this entire Blue Jays team: You just don’t know.

You just don’t know how many innings Max Scherzer can throw at the age of 40. You just don’t know what kind of pitcher Bowden Francis will be in his first full season starting. You don’t know how aging starters Kevin Gausman and Chris Bassitt will get through the season. You don’t know if Alek Manoah has a second half coming back from Tommy John.

You just don’t know how Anthony Santander will respond in his first season out of Baltimore, his first year with huge expectations. You don’t know which Bichette we’ll see this season.

So many players, so many questions.

The motto for these Blue Jays might be that: ‘You just don’t know.’

This is a dangerous time for this team at this point in history. The public isn’t necessarily enamoured and trusting and may be bordering on indifference. That must be avoided at all costs.

There has to be something to believe in. There has to be hope.

There cannot be apathy in this baseball summer. There just can’t.

ssimmons@postmedia.com

twitter.com/simmonssteve