All season, a gigantic colour poster has been hanging near the main entrance to the Toronto Blue Jays clubhouse.
It featured a number of the more prominent members of the team and was the first thing the players saw when they reported for work.
At least, until now.
As the Blue Jays returned from a 10-game road swing to begin a three-game home series against the mighty Boston Red Sox on Tuesday night, the poster had been taken down.
You could call it a sign of the times for a troubled Blue Jays season – now recently acquired third baseman Brandon Drury is out with a broken left wrist – as the picture was profoundly outdated.
It featured, among others, J.A. Happ and Roberto Osuna, now plying their trade with the New York Yankees and Houston Astros, respectively, following trades.
The picture also featured Troy Tulowitzki, who has not played a single inning this year because of continuing foot problems; Josh Donaldson, whose participation has been restricted to 36 games with shoulder and calf issues; and Aaron Sanchez, who has not pitched since June 21 as he struggles to recover from a bruised right index finger.
A picture of disarray, to be sure.
It was against this backdrop that the Blue Jays took the field against the Red Sox, who are making a mockery of the American League East with a gaudy 79-34 record before Tuesday night’s game.
The Blue Jays began the day in fourth place, 27 games behind the front-runners, who have an outside shot at eclipsing the modern-day single-season record of 116 wins set by the Seattle Mariners in 2001.
And Boston has accomplished this despite the absence of four-time all-star second baseman Dustin Pedroia, who has appeared in just three games after off-season knee surgery.
Fresh off a four-game sweep of the New York Yankees, who are nine games back in second place, the Red Sox are hoping to continue their dominance against the Blue Jays, who they had beaten 10 times in 13 meetings this season.
Alex Cora, Boston’s rookie manager, was asked before the game if his toughest task over the final months of the regular season is to make sure the Red Sox do not become complacent before the playoffs.
Cora would not go near the question, insisting his team had enjoyed a nice off-day on Monday and was not looking past the Blue Jays.
“I know it sounds boring and is cliché, but it’s the truth, it’s how we do things here,” Cora said. “[Monday] was a great day for us; we were able to recharge and disconnect from everything that happened this past week.
“And now we’re here and that’s a good baseball team over there, a lot of capable guys that can hit the ball out of the ballpark.”
The Red Sox did not have to be ready for Drury, who came to Toronto from the Yankees on July 26 as part of the trade that sent Happ out of town.
Drury was kept out of Sunday’s game in Seattle because of lingering left wrist soreness and was sent for an MRI and CT scan that revealed he had suffered a fracture at the base of his pinky finger.
He will be in a cast for two weeks and then re-evaluated.
Drury revealed that he was hit by a pitch a couple of days before the trade when he was playing for the Yankees' Triple-A team.
X-rays, which were provided to the Blue Jays before the trade, did not reveal any break and Drury tried to play through the pain. He wasn’t having much success, batting .154 in just eight games with Toronto.
“My hand was broke, I was just trying to play through it,” Drury said. “I was doing everything I could to play through it, but it was just at the point where I couldn’t swing right, I couldn’t catch the ball right.”
Toronto general manager Ross Atkins said that the Blue Jays were aware that Drury could have been injured when they dealt for him. But he said the Blue Jays liked the player and wanted the deal regardless.
As for an online report that said Toronto manager John Gibbons “could very well be” managing in his final home stand, Atkins said there has been no discussions of that sort.
“Right now Gibby and I are having conversations about our future and about solutions and improvement and getting better every day, but nothing about him moving on,” Atkins said.