In a tip of the cap to what the Toronto Blue Jays were able to achieve in this past season, two members of the team have been nominated for year end Major League Baseball awards.
Charlie Montoyo has been named a finalist for American League manager of the year, alongside Tampa Bay’s Kevin Cash and Rick Renteria — who was recently relieved as skipper of the Chicago White Sox.
Hyun-Jin Ryu is one of three finalists for the A.L. Cy Young Award, given to the best pitcher, along with Cleveland’s Shane Bieber and Minnesota’s Kenta Maeda.
Montoyo guided Toronto to a 32-28 record during MLB’s 60-game shortened season in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the franchise’s first winning record and playoff appearance since 2016.
Let’s not forget that Montoyo had to point his players in the right direction after the club was forced to move its training camp from Dunedin, Florida, to Rogers Centre.
Montoyo also had to corral the troops when the Blue Jays decided to play their home games in Buffalo because of the Canada-U.S. border ban on non-essential travel and COVID-19 quarantine regulations for out of country travelers.
Ryu went 5-2 this year, his first season in Toronto after signing a four-year, $80 million contract with Toronto last offseason, and sported a 2.69 ERA over 12 starts and struck out 72 batters in 67 innings.
The 33-year-old was also a finalist in 2019 with the L.A. Dodgers and even after making the jump to the American League where Ryu had to face a bunch of new batters he was clearly the ace in Toronto.
Both Montoyo and Ryu are deserving of the recognition, although they will more than likely lose out to Cash and Bieber, respectively, when the award winners are announced.
Still, the nominations are an indication that the Blue Jays elevated their game in 2020 and are poised to take another big leap next year.
Rick Zamperin is the assistant program, news and senior sports director at Global News Radio 900 CHML.