As a bullpen arm, you might only work an inning every couple of nights. But if that inning goes poorly, you’re sunk. Small sample sizes, high pressure and numbers that stick aren’t the best recipe for a long career or a good reputation.

The Blue Jays bullpen earned the tag of team weak link early in the season, blowing leads and handing away wins like parade candy. In fact, if it weren’t for the awful relief work early, the Jays would be way ahead of the American League East pack.

In all fairness, Toronto’s offence also started the year poorly. Remember that when the Jays acquired pitchers during the off-season, both for the rotation and the pen, the expectation was they had to be good, not great, in order for the club to win. The Jays produced 5.52 runs per game last season, nearly a full run more than the next closest club in all of baseball. With that much firepower, the thought was Toronto’s pitchers just needed to get the ball over the plate for the team to be successful.

But when the 2016 season started the Jays offence was stuck in neutral. Toronto bats stayed cold through most of April and into the beginning of May. Those early games were kept close thanks to the excellent efforts of the rotation. J.A Happ was and has been nothing short of phenomenal this season. Marco Estrada picked up right where he left off at the end of 2015. Aaron Sanchez emerged as a star starting pitcher. While the starters did their job, they were handing off tight margins to a bullpen group who — outside of Roberto Osuna — quite simply weren’t prepared.