This season’s Toronto Blue Jays were designed to bludgeon baseballs, and by extension, their opponents. While it would have been unfair to expect the team to replicate 2015 offensively, scoring runs did not look to be a problem when the team left spring training in Dunedin.

Six months later, scoring runs isn’t a problem, it’s the problem. During the most crucial stretch of the season, the Blue Jays have had an extraordinarily difficult time generating offence. In 19 September contests, the club has put up three or fewer runs 12 times.

Even with a series win in Seattle giving the team some breathing room in the wild card standings, the lineup’s recent lack of production remains in the spotlight. Regardless of what happens from here, it may cost the Blue Jays an American League East title.

The question that emerges is how the runs dry up for a unit with stars like Josh Donaldson, Edwin Encarnacion, Jose Bautista, Troy Tulowitzki and a red-hot Russell Martin. The answer, rather surprisingly, has little to do with any of the players listed.

Toronto’s veteran stars are not entirely blameless in the second-half scoring slump, but they aren’t the main culprits. All five have been above-average offensively since the All-Star break, and even if Bautista and Tulowitzki aren’t replicating career norms, Martin and Encarnacion are hitting particularly well. The only major first-half contributor who has fallen off much offensively is Michael Saunders.

Unfortunately for the Blue Jays, lineups are required to be nine players long and this is where the team is running into some trouble. It’s generally unfair to fault 7-9 hitters for a team’s offensive woes because expectations for those players shouldn’t be particularly high. In the Blue Jays’ case, though, the bottom of the order has offered almost nothing in the season’s second half. This runs in stark contrast to the surprising early-season production the team got from its role players.

The table below shows the combined first half/second half splits of the unit that normally comprises the bottom of the Blue Jays lineup: Justin Smoak, Kevin Pillar, Darwin Barney, Ezequiel Carrera, and Melvin Upton Jr.

Half AVG OBP SLG wRC+ 1st Half .268 .328 .400 95 2nd Half .211 .272 .326 58

The biggest dropoff has come from Carrera who has not been the same since returning from an Achilles injury, as evidenced by a dreadful .137/.203/.205 batting line. Pillar is also notable here in that he hasn’t hit a single second-half home run despite playing every day. Although his defence keeps him valuable no matter what, he could certainly stand to chip in more with the bat.

Conversely, the Donaldson-Encarnacion-Bautista-Martin-Tulowitzki group has produced almost exactly equally in both halves of the season.

Half AVG OBP SLG wRC+ 1st Half .258 .358 .490 126 2nd Half .254 .351 .483 123

Martin’s rise has masked weaker efforts from Donaldson and Tulowitzki, but the collective output remains strong even if the shape of those contributions has changed.

The two players left out of these calculations, Devon Travis and Saunders, don’t fit neatly into the “bottom of the order guy” or “veteran star” box. However, for the most part, they cancel each other out with Saunders having the big first half and Travis producing at the plate during the stretch run.

Whenever things go wrong it’s always tempting to point fingers in the direction of the guys with the big names and the big salaries, but it’s not always fair. Teams need contributions up and down the lineup and the Blue Jays have not been getting them.

One of the biggest reasons the Boston Red Sox have soared out to a 5.0 game lead in the AL East is they can pencil talents like Jackie Bradley Jr. and Andrew Benintendi into the eight and nine holes in their lineup. The relentlessness of that offence causes pitchers headaches on a nightly basis.

Depth almost always beats star power in baseball. If it didn’t Mike Trout would have himself a ring or two and a few more MVP trophies.

The Blue Jays’ offensive core has continued to produce. Now the club just needs a little more from its supporting cast.