What are the Toronto Blue Jays through first quarter of the season? It's complicated

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It’s crazy how four days can change the extreme fanatical view on Toronto sports teams.

The Blue Jays, losers of four in a row at the time, appeared to be bottoming out last Wednesday after a second blown-lead loss to the lowly Angels. Then they suddenly win four in a row, score runs with the same ease that Brad Marchand gets under Leafs players’ skin and return to .500.

The Maple Leafs head to Florida leading the Panthers 2-0 and return having flipped from a position of command in the best-of-seven series to a worrisome 2-2.

In both cases, fans are left to wonder which version of both Toronto teams is the real one. The Leafs essentially will let us know by next weekend while the Blue Jays are just getting started on their identity reveal.

After an off-day on Monday, the Jays begin a nine-game home stand with the first of three against the Tampa Bay Rays. It is there that they will begin a pursuit of consistency that has eluded them in a wildly up-and-down season to date.

With a 20-20 record through the opening quarter of the season, it can be argued that the next 40 games will define just what this team is and where it might be headed.

Few would dispute that the wild inconsistencies the Jays have shown on offence make that 4-2 record they somehow escaped the six-game West Coast trip with seem generous given the uneven performance through the first quarter of the season.

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That said, all that rockiness to date has left them in a competitive position, at least, not all of if their own doing. And the optimistic view is there there still is plenty of room for improvement to take advantage of that good fortune.

With that, here are five observations as the Jays move on to the second quadrant of the 162-game marathon.

1. IN GOOD STANDING(S)

The Jays are just two games better than they were through 40 games last year, a debacle that ended in the disastrous 74-win, last-place effort that created so much doubt about the future of the franchise.

The season was borderline out of reach (or felt like it) at the 40-game mark, however, given that they trailed the AL East-leading New York Yankees by 8.5 games and were 6.5 in arrears of a wild-card spot.

Thanks to some mediocre play around the American League this year, however, the Jays are just three out of the division lead (Yankees again) and one out of a wild card.

There’s a ton of baseball to be played, yes, but despite the Jays indifferent efforts to date, they’ve done themselves minimal harm.

2. BYE GEORGE (or BYE-BYE GEORGE?)

Where would the Jays be without veteran George Springer lighting it up at the plate? Nowhere near .500, probably.

Springer leads Toronto hitters in average (.297), has a share of the lead in homers (five) and RBI (18), and with some sneaky 35-year-old speed is second in stolen bases (six).

It’s an impressive renaissance for the former World Series MVP, who was trending towards write-off status in the final two seasons of his six-year, $150-million US contract. Now he’s a confident, productive contributor on an almost nightly basis. The results are like found money, but can the Jays bank on it continuing?

3. OFFENCE (or OFFENSIVE?)

With six runs or more in each of the four games on the current win streak, the Jays have looked nothing like the basement-quality offence it had been in so many of the previous 36.

This team may not bang out 29 runs over four games as it has during the current streak, but is this closer to what the offence can be?

If you consider that the top three — Bo Bichette, Vlad Guerrero Jr. and Anthony Santander — have yet to show their best consistently, there’s room for the offence to grow.

We’ve heard manager John Schneider predict his team’s bats would heat up eventually. Now that it has happened, can the top of the order match the bottom to keep it there?

4. WEAR AND TEAR

We already know about the workload-related concerns of the pitching staff — both starters and relievers — from being in too many tight games through the first quarter.

The rotation is still a revolving door for the fifth spot, an ongoing concern as we continue to chronicle the Max Scherzer thumb saga.

On the position player side, there are no serious injuries (we think), but for Sunday’s Seattle finale, the Jays were without second baseman Andres Gimenez (on the 10-day IL, quad), Santander (left shoulder), Daulton Varsho (right shoulder) and lost woozy catcher Alejandro Kirk after taking a bat to the head with what the team described as a “head contusion” — a diagnosis the Jays can ill afford to have be much more severe.

5. SURPRISE, SURPRISE!

Joining Springer in the pleasant production category is Addison Barger, whose tantalizing tear in the three-game sweep of the Mariners electrified the Jays attack.

Barger, who played solid defence at third base as a bonus, had three doubles on Friday and a homer on Sunday, and showed his manager what he can do with a run of steady playing time.

From being the last cut at spring training, he’s on a path to proving himself in the big leagues, belting the ball with authority and exercising better swing decisions in his at-bats.

This team was always going to need an unheralded player to provide offence if it was to contend. Can Barger feed off this short sample size surge?