When the Toronto Blue Jays made a decisive organizational shift towards acquiring high-quality character and clubhouse players this past offseason, I struggled with the debate of how that dynamic would show itself on the field. Baseball is the great sport of measurements and statistics, but teams are not rewarded a +4.9 or -1.2 Clubhouse Rating.
The impact of these moves became quickly apparent, as the club remained afloat long enough to welcome reinforcements into the fray and make an incredible late-season push. Gone were the days of Adam Lind, Anthony Gose and Colby Rasmus, who always seemed one poorly-timed Air Supply song away from tears in their post-game media availability.