Blue Jays plummeting in The Athletic's 'hope' rankings is music to Yankees' ears

The Toronto Blue Jays are getting more hopeless by the day, which won't affect their fans at all. After all, all they do is watch the Yankees.

According to The Athletic's very helpful annual "Hope-O-Meter" survey, Yankee fans can expect a healthy dose of Daniel Vogelbach-related barbs, even with Gerrit Cole on the shelf. After all, Toronto fans have become a solid 80% troll in recent years, despite appearing to have the young talent necessary to take over the AL East.

Instead, the Orioles have embraced that role slightly ahead of schedule, while Toronto's once-confident rooters are now envisioning a future where both Bo Bichette and Vladimir Guerrero Jr. bounce (neither one is currently under long-term contract).

The Orioles might be the real Baby Birds these days, but Toronto fans could certainly lay claim to the "Baby" label, too. This might shock you, but given the chance to complain about something to The Athletic staffers, these notoriously fragile-winged squeakers certainly did just that, falling 20 spots from 2023's Hopium Rankings.

The Yankees? Sitting surprisingly pretty in 11th place overall. Scrolling all the way down to the Jays took longer than Vogelbach circling the bases in an exhibition game.

Yankees flying high, Blue Jays fan pessimism rising in The Athletic's poll?

Now, to be fair -- and who could ever accuse a Yankee blog of not being fair? -- The Athletic's survey took place before news of the Gerrit Cole injury dropped. It also, therefore, took place before Yankee fans received a pacifier, which noted that Cole's 1-to-2-month timeframe might've been accurate after all, if all goes well. So we're roughly even?

80.7% optimism still sounds high for a fan base that screamed/cried/threw up over paying Blake Snell $60+ million (including tax) this season because of something they manifested called an "all-in year" (spoiler alert: next year and the year after that will be one of those, too). Last season. Yankee fans registered a 71.1% on the same scale. Prior to the 2022 season, when the Yankees played the first half on a 1998 pace? 48%. Don't call us geniuses.

But back to Toronto, whose rankings are far more pertinent. Coming off years of 99.1% and 97.3% (the movie and the trailer), Jays fans are now in the absolute dumps, only 31% excited for the upcoming season. Perhaps they all wish Jays manager John Schneider was in charge of their lives, and could pull them from the campaign way too early under pressure?

According to the Toronto fans who spoke with The Athletic, their optimism peaked when they believed Juan Soto could be a viable backup plan for Shohei Ohtani, whose plane was reportedly en route. Instead, it turned out to be a Shark, and Blue Jays fans got bitten.

Toronto denizens have talked a shockingly big game these past few years despite repeated "same as it ever was" postseason flameouts and historic blown leads at home (Seattle Mariners ... hello). Bottom line, we understand the newfound pessimism, but it certainly has yet to manifest itself in the amount of smack these mounties talk on a regular basis. Maybe a tempering of expectations will curb the boorishness and be good for everybody here.

Yeah, no, probably not.