2016 Toronto Blue Jays season
[6] On November 20, the Blue Jays signed Humberto Quintero to a minor league contract,[7] and acquired Jesse Chavez from the Oakland Athletics for Liam Hendriks.
[8] 3 days later, the team signed Casey Kotchman, Jiovanni Mier, and David Adams to minor league contracts that included invitations to spring training.
[13] Third baseman Josh Donaldson, outfielders Ben Revere and Michael Saunders, and pitchers Jesse Chavez, Drew Hutchison, Steve Delabar, Brett Cecil, and Aaron Loup were also tendered contracts.
[20] On December 18, Junior Lake was claimed off waivers,[21] and signed Scott Copeland, Roberto Hernández, Pat McCoy, and Brad Penny to minor league contracts with invitations to spring training.
[36] Outfielder Domonic Brown and reliever Rafael Soriano were also added to the organization, each receiving a minor league contract and an invitation to spring training in late February.
[55] Soriano signed a minor league contract with the Blue Jays in late February, but did not appear in any spring training games due to unspecified visa issues.
On March 30, John Gibbons announced that Ezequiel Carrera would be the fourth outfielder, Roberto Osuna would begin the season in the closer's role, and Arnold León, Joe Biagini, and Ryan Tepera would round out the bullpen positions.
In the ninth inning, the Blue Jays loaded the bases with one out for Edwin Encarnación, who hit a ground ball to Evan Longoria, who threw to Forsythe at second to begin a double play.
[81] Nearing the end of 17 consecutive games against AL East opponents to open the season, the Blue Jays travelled to Baltimore to play the first-place Orioles.
[92] Brett Cecil took his fifth loss of the season in the final game of April, 4–3, by allowing the winning run to score in the bottom of the ninth inning without recording an out.
[102] The Blue Jays fell in the rubber match, 4–2, with Drew Storen taking the loss after another poor performance in relief of Marco Estrada's seven strong innings.
In the eighth inning, José Bautista, who had given the Blue Jays a 5–2 lead earlier in the game with a bases-clearing double, was hit by a pitch from Rangers reliever Matt Bush.
[115] An offensive outburst would power the Jays to victory in the second game of the series, 9–3, led by home runs from José Bautista, Josh Donaldson, Michael Saunders, and Darwin Barney.
[117] The Blue Jays ended the four-game series on a high note, winning the finale 3–1 thanks to another strong pitching performance from staff ace Marcus Stroman.
[140] After travelling to Philadelphia for the second half of the series, Marco Estrada lead the Jays to a 7–2 win with his tenth consecutive start allowing five or fewer hits, which extended his franchise record.
The game was not without controversy, as Edwin Encarnación, John Gibbons, and Russell Martin were all ejected by home-plate umpire Vic Carapazza for arguing about the strike zone.
[188] With one minute remaining before the deadline, the Blue Jays traded Drew Hutchison to the Pittsburgh Pirates for Francisco Liriano, Reese McGuire, and Harold Ramírez.
Scott Feldman ended up taking the loss for Toronto, yielding a lead-off single to Jose Altuve before Carlos Correa knocked him in with a walk-off double in the fourteenth inning.
[201] The Jays would take the series with a 9–2 win in the finale, led by a strong pitching performance by Marcus Stroman and home runs from Edwin Encarnación, Troy Tulowitzki, and Russell Martin.
Rookie Chad Green started the first game of the series for New York and dominated the Blue Jays, pitching six shutout innings and striking out eleven in a 1–0 win.
Down 7–6 in the bottom of the eighth inning, Melvin Upton Jr. hit a triple and came in to score on an error by Max Kepler on the play, giving Toronto an 8–7 lead that they would successfully hold.
[216] Bringing August to a close, the Blue Jays embarked upon a crucial nine-game road trip against three AL East teams, beginning with the Baltimore Orioles.
Marco Estrada would yield just a single run to the Baltimore offence, and Josh Donaldson would homer for the fourth time in two games to lead Toronto to a 5–1 win in the series opener.
Parker would end the game, getting Justin Smoak to flyout to the left field warning track and giving the Yankees a 7–6 win, which would be credited to relief pitcher Chasen Shreve.
[241] The second game went tied 0–0 into the eighth inning, before José Bautista launched a three-run home run off Yankees reliever Tyler Clippard to lift Toronto to a 3–0 win.
With Tyler Clippard pitching for the second consecutive day, Ezequiel Carrera would tie the game with a perfectly executed safety squeeze before Edwin Encarnación hit a walk-off single to win 4–3.
[249] In the season finale, Aaron Sanchez carried a no-hitter into the seventh inning, and both Devon Travis and Troy Tulowitzki contributed with two-out hits, helping the Blue Jays win, 2–1.
Pagan, a 41-year-old copy editor for Postmedia Network from Hamilton, Ontario, was later charged with mischief after surrendering himself to Toronto police amid the publication of his face from Rogers Centre security footage.
With one out in the bottom of the eleventh, Orioles manager Buck Showalter elected to use Ubaldo Jiménez in relief, still having Cy Young Award candidate Zach Britton available.
The Blue Jays took an early 5–0 lead in the third inning of the first game, thanks to RBI hits from Josh Donaldson and José Bautista and a three-run triple by Troy Tulowitzki.
