Toronto Blue Jays 2006 Season and Off Season

The Toronto Blue Jays 2006 season was fairly productive for them. Toronto continued to improve their record for the third consecutive season. They finished second in their division behind the New York Yankees.

The Blue Jays finished the regular season with an 87 and 75 record. They had many improvements during the season. Center fielder Vernon Wells increased his offensive totals in batting average, home runs, runs batted in, and stolen bases. He finished the season with a .303 average, 32 home runs, 106 runs batted in, and 17 stolen bases. Lyle Overbay, in his first year with Toronto, had his 3 straight good season. He batted .312 with 22 home runs and 92 runs batted in. Troy Glaus, Aaron Hill, Reed Johnson, and Alex Rios also had a good season.

The pitching staff performed very well. In his first season with Toronto, closer B.J. Ryan posted an era of 1.37 with 38 saves and just 4 blown saves. Relief pitchers Brandon League and Justin Speier both pitched well out of the pen. Both had an era of under 3. Roy Halladay had his first injury year since 2003. Halladay started 32 games throwing 220 innings and posted a 3.19 era. He finished the season with a 16 win 5 loss record. Ted Lilly also started 32 games with a record 15 and 13. Lilly had problems with the manager during the season though. Lilly and Halladay were the only bright spots in the Blue Jays starting rotation.

Going into the off season they needed to fix the starting rotation, possible add a reliever or two, and maybe some offense. The big offensive upgrade was DH Frank Thomas. Thomas made a big come back in 2006 with the Oakland A's. Thomas batted .270 with 39 home runs and drove in 114 runs. They also re-signed catcher Gregg Zaun to a two-year contract with an option for a third.

The biggest question the Blue Jays were about to face during the 2007 off season was the upcoming free agency of start player Vernon Wells. Wells had his best season during 2006 and has been a pretty consistent player since his first full season in 2002. On December 18, Toronto and Vernon Wells reached an agreement on a contract. The result of that agreement was a seven-year contract worth $126 million dollars.

Going into the 2007 season the Toronto Blue jays are planning on continuing the success of 2006 and competing with the big boys in the American League East. If everything goes as planned Toronto should give both New York and Boston a run for their money in 2007.