SIMMONS: Who's the Blue Jays MVP? Nooo-body!

The breathtaking season of the accidental Blue Jays heads toward September with a most unusual heartbeat.

The Jays may end up with the best record in the American League without a single MVP candidate, a single Cy Young candidate, a single rookie of the year candidate.

“Our MVP?” said manager John Schneider, likely winner of the manager of the year award, “the team.”

That may sound boring and cliched and everything you would expect from this unexpected season of stunning promise. But in this case, it’s absolutely true.

And it’s absolutely unusual.

When the Blue Jays won their first pennant in 1985, they had Dave Stieb pushing for Cy Young, Jesse Barfield and George Bell pushing for an MVP that was won by their current coach, Don Mattingly.

When they won the World Series in 1992, Joe Carter finished third in MVP voting (Dennis Eckersley won that year), with Dave Winfield finishing fifth and the semi-forgotten figure Roberto Alomar sixth in MVP voting.

They won their second World Series – there has only been two wins – with Paul Molitor placing second in voting behind Frank Thomas, with John Olerud and Alomar sixth.

The last time the Jays won the AL East their MVP and the league’s MVP was Josh Donaldson, followed in voting by Jose Bautista and Edwin Encarnacion.

It’s all but certain that either Aaron Judge or Cal Raleigh will take home MVP honours, both playing for teams that are barely playoff bound.

Who will get votes from the Jays? Who is their MVP this season?

“That’s a tough one,” said Ernie Clement, a good part of the glue that connects this team on a daily basis. He’s a key part of this IKEA-like baseball team. There’s a lot of varying parts and they don’t always seem to fit and the instructions that may not necessarily make sense – except when the game ends and there they are in first place.

“We have such a great team identity. It’s not an individual identity.”

Springer was probably the quarter-pole MVP for the Jays. Then Kirk for the next 40 games and a whole lot since then. There was that Addison Barger streak which mirrored his team – surprising and rather unexplained. And lately, it’s been Bichette, who had 57 extra base hits going into Tuesday night’s game against the Minnesota Twins and that’s six more than the soon to be $500 million man, Guerrero Jr.

My friends who specialize in baseball statistics and analytics tell me batting average doesn’t matter much anymore. That’s the belief. The Jays lead the Major Leagues in batting average and have a healthy lead in the American League – so there is that kick at the seamheads.

Run differential is supposed to tell us which ball teams are real and which are not, so go figure why the Yankees and Red Sox, and yeah, the semi-invisible Chicago Cubs are way ahead of the Jays in run differential and way behind in wins.

That’s all part of this Jays season: And what doesn’t make sense big picture is somehow making sense. Bichette is hitting .304. Guerrero and Kirk and Springer aren’t far behind that. Only one batter in the National League is hitting over .300.

Guerrero Jr. is having a good but not great season. Bichette is hitting the ball and if the defensive metrics are to be believed he’s barely adequate at shortstop. They remain the faces of the franchise, just not in a league MVP kind of way.

So who is the Jays MVP?

“It’s tough for me to pinpoint,” said Schneider. 
“I could say Eric Lauer or Vladdy or Bo or George. It’s a team thing.

“Everyday it’s a different guy with a big moment. It’s pretty unique that way … We don’t have this one guy MVP … It’s hard for me to think MVP on this team .“

The manager mentioned Lauer, who is pitching Wednesday against the Twins. And was in Korea last season. And was in Buffalo along with Barger when this season began.

Nothing is more Blue Jays than the emergence of Lauer and the uncertainty of his place in the pitching rotation the rest of the season. This bunch are the baseball version of a dining room jigsaw puzzle, not yet completed, with some pieces having fallen to the floor.

Not everything fits with the Jays. Not everything is supposed to fit. This is your accidental pennant winner – playoffs to begin in early October.

ssimmons@postmedia.com
x.com/simmonssteve