TORONTO - When Kendrys Morales shocked his teammates, not to mention the Minnesota Twins, by stealing second last May 1, it was the first base he'd pilfered in 3,133 days.

There was no Toronto Blue Jay less likely to filch a bag.

But this was a club sorely lacking in rabbits on the base paths: 40 stolen bases in 2018, 16th in the majors. Caught stealing 30 times. A really lousy ratio.

Kevin Pillar led the team with 14, Teoscar Hernandez was next at five. Morales actually repeated the feat once more and was caught on three other attempts.

Cleveland was tops with 135 steals followed by Tampa Bay (128) and Boston (125).

It's not a category that Toronto has been particularly interested in, historically and certainly not in recent history. Which makes sense for a lineup that boasted plenty of sluggers. Why bother with the risk when there's a good chance the big boppers at the plate will ribbie you home?

That might change in 2019, with a younger roster and more that a few fleet-footed types.

"I love running so if I have the right guys on, I am going to run," vows manager Charlie Montoyo, who saw a lot of stealing as third base coach and then bench coach with the Tampa Bay Rays.

"We have a couple of guys who can run. Those guys are going to run. The guys who are not fast are not going to run. Teoscar (Hernandez) can do it. (Randall) Grichuk can do it. (Billy) McKinney can do it, with the right guy on the mound. We've got five or six who can steal bases. (Dalton) Pompey, if he makes the club, is for sure a base-stealer.''

Long odds that Pompey will make the '19 Jays. Toronto's most poignant - and maddening - memory of Pompey will doubtless be his entry as a pinch-runner in the ninth inning, Game 6 of the 2015 American League Championship Series. He stole second. He stole third. Pillar worked an eight-pitch walk and stole second. Nobody out with the Jays trailing Kansas City 4-3. But the tying run died 90 feet from home, Pompey stranded: strikeout, strikeout, grounder to third by Josh Donaldson with Jose Bautista on deck and the amazing '15 run was over.

That nail-biting frame, however, reminded how much drama the stolen base can inject into a game.

Major League Baseball has apparently forgotten. Or discarded, via the paradigm of analytics, the merits of thievery.

Was a time, before home runs became all the rage, when base stealing was uber cool, personified by the headlong dazzle of fleeting Jay Rickey Henderson, who set an MLB record of 1,406, almost 500 more than the next closest player. For 12 straight seasons, from 1982 to '93, at least 10 major leaguers stole 40-plus bases. Since '93, there have been only three seasons in which at least 10 players stole 40-plus bases and none since 2006.

What happened?

One swing of the bat jacks is what happened. Despite the fact that stolen base success has actually increased since the '80s, with a majors-wide success rate of 70 per cent or more over the past quarter-century.

Just not the thing anymore. Gone out of style, sadly, as has much of the small-ball game. The statistic doesn't even appear in many baseball spreadsheets. Only one player has stolen 30-plus bags in each of the past seven seasons: 2017 MVP Jose Altuve. Stealing isn't a one-trick pony asset because those who are stellar at it, deft with the footwork - taking a lead off the bag, scrambling back to safety on a pickoff attempt, are expected, like Altuve, to be all-round players.

Whit Merrifield of the Royals led the charge last season with 45 stolen bases, followed by Washington's Trea Turner (43) and Seattle's Mallex Smith (40). In team stolen bases per game, Cleveland was at 0.83, Tampa Bay at 0.79, Milwaukee at 0.76.

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No player in 2018 came close to 75 attempts and only six teams finished with more than 100 stolen bases. Only 13 players have attempted 75 steals in a season since 2000. Last season, teams averaged just 0.51 stolen bases per game, lowest mark since 1972 (0.49), while the homer rate was fourth highest of all time.

Can't say today's players lack speed because they most assuredly don't, if not utilized for this exciting purpose. Average speed on a stolen base, from no less an authority than the Smithsonian Institution, is 3.5 seconds. MLB Statcast pegs Twins centre-fielder Byron Buxton as the fastest afoot - using feet run per second as the metric - as reigning speedster at 30.5. Quickest Jay, No. 87, is Hernandez at 28.6. Grichuk at 28.3 is No. 125.

There's more to it than speed, of course. It's knowing the pitcher's pickoff times, information readily available to all players now, and when to test the throw, more difficult for a right-hander on the mound who has his back to first. (Alternately, a disadvantage for the runner trying to steal third.) Maybe even inducing a balk. It's interpreting the pitcher's body movements and rhythm. It's the hitter at the plate doing his part to distract, knowing when the steal is on.

Even a slug - as opposed to slugger - can contribute tactically by getting hung up on the baselines, drawing a throw or a back-and-forth rundown by infielders, giving a runner on second or third an opportunity to steal third or home. When it doesn't work, it's a laughable mess. Which is what happened to the Jays against the Philadelphia Phillies in Clearwater, Fla., last Friday. On an error by the shortstop, Pillar blew through the stop sign from third base coach Luis Rivera, then halted 10 feet down the line. Meanwhile, Hernandez for reasons unknown, thought it was a good idea to try taking second and got hung up. He couldn't keep the rundown going long enough to score Pillar, who had to reverse and tagup, before Hernandez got nailed on the third out.

Montoyo wants to see hustle on the basepath from these Jays. Going into Monday's game against Detroit, the Jays had stolen 13 bases and were caught stealing eight times. Two of those larcenies came from spring-wowing shortstop Bo Bichette; caught once. (No Jay has stolen more than two.)

General manager Ross Atkins was asked if he can live with Bichette's risk-taking vim.

"Oh, absolutely. Obviously you want that (stolen base) rate to be above 80 per cent for it to be effective, where it starts to get less than efficient. But yeah, I love seeing that aggressiveness."

Truly, there was often more "aggressiveness" shown by the Jays last season in the clubhouse, playing "Fortnite."

Which, by the way, Montoyo has decided to curtail in the clubhouse, imposing a pre-game curfew, as the manager disclosed to reporters prior to Monday's 3-2 win over the Tigers. Though this welcome development appears to have been prompted by players who suggested there was entirely too much "Fortnite"-ing inside the team's sanctum.

"It's just something I've always thought about," said Montoyo. "But it came up with the players. . They raised it. So I didn't have to."

You know, there's a stealing-bases video game called "Stealing Home." Maybe Jays should hunker over that instead.