MLB insider Ken Rosenthal calls Blue Jays frauds after early playoff exit

Is it really better to make the Wild Card series and get swept, one year after making the Wild Card series and getting swept at home, than to not make the postseason altogether? Yankees fans are obviously biased and looking for coping methods at the moment, but after the Blue Jays' horrendous early exit, the answer seems like an emphatic, "Nope."

Add in Toronto's overload of recent bluster, Vlad Jr.'s proclamations about the "movie" being just around the corner, and their incessant chirping, and you'd undoubtedly rather be the modern Yankees than the modern "no playoff wins, seriously, not a single one" Blue Jays.

Even MLB insider Ken Rosenthal, who helped raise expectations for Toronto from 2020-2023, only to be let down by three Wild Card sweeps, a playoff miss, and 0.0 American League East titles, now agrees that there's nothing to be feared up north.

Following the team's latest defeat at the hands of the Minnesota Twins (Minny's first postseason win of any kind since 2004, first series win since 2002), Rosenthal outwardly declared Toronto to be "paper tigers" on Foul Territory with Erik Kratz.

"I don't know if we overrated the AL East," Rosenthal started, before turning his fangs on one specific club. "The Blue Jays, I believe, are overrated. I've been pretty vocal about that."

Toronto Blue Jays (no AL East titles since 2015) harshly ripped by Ken Rosenthal

It would be highly unfortunate if pundits finally swung momentum towards the Nepo Baby Blue Jays by picking against them instead of showing unearned faith in their underwhelming roster, but that's simply a chance we're willing to take. It's just too funny hearing Rosenthal be this harsh, and it should continue.

Rosenthal gave credit, in assessing the AL East's somewhat stunning playoff failures, to the Tampa Bay Rays and Baltimore Orioles. Those teams, he noted, were legitimately great over 162 before stumbling. The O's pitching staff was gassed down the stretch, it wasn't terribly strong to begin with, and the offense slowed down a few weeks before their first taste of the postseason. It happens. The Rays lost a veritable army of starters, and certainly didn't expect to be without their All-World shortstop, probably in perpetuity. Those were great teams that came up short.

The Blue Jays, Rosenthal believes, belong in a different category.

Maybe it's all the boasting. Maybe it's the heightened external expectations finally coming to roost after five years of "Who's Next?!" talk. Maybe it's the powerful collection of FailSons, all under one Rogers Centre roof. Either way, Rosenthal's as sick of Toronto's mess as the rest of us, and he doesn't mind calling out that rent is now due on Vladdy's house.