AL East 2017 Positional Rankings: A Terrible Year For AL East DHs
By Nate Wardle
2. Toronto Blue Jays – Kendrys Morales, Jose Bautista
I was fully prepared to put Morales first, as I thought he had a strong season. Maybe that was just against the Orioles. Well, let’s be honest, a lot of hitters do well against the Orioles.
Morales hit .250/.308/.445 with 28 home runs, 25 doubles, 85 runs batted in and 67 runs scored in 150 games with 132 strike outs. Those numbers are not great, as evident by his -0.2 offensive WAR. However, they are better than the three other veterans behind him, and he played 129 games at the position.
Bautista, in what is almost certainly his last year in Toronto, was the main relief for Morales, but his bat was a black hole in 2017.
Morales will make $11M for the Blue Jays in 2018, and the team will have to hope that he can get back closer to his career averages of .270/.328/.462, or even his 2016 season for Kansas City where he hit .263/.327/.468.