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But after the season, Lowe and Hawkins were gone, Lowe as a free agent, Hawkins as a retiree. Sanchez was going back to the rotation. New blood was needed.

Nothing much happened until after Christmas when they acquired Jesse Chavez in exchange for Liam Hendriks. Later, yet, they deal Ben Revere for Drew Storen, who had strong credentials as a closer.

Now they find themselves in the same predicament as they were in a year ago. Neither Chavez nor Storen has been adequate, except in short spurts. Gavin Floyd, who was somewhat reliable in making the shift from being a starter to reliever, is now on the disabled list with a shoulder injury.

Management did make a good pickup when they got Jason Grilli from Atlanta and he has given the pen some decent innings.

Some help is on the way. Cecil, who was brilliant from June until the end of the season a year ago, will be back any day now after recovering from a lat strain and if he can be anywhere near as effective as he was in the last half of last year, it will be a big lift.

Sanchez is destined to move back to the pen once he starts to bump up against an innings limit (as yet unstated) to be imposed by the front office.

Still, it would seem imperative that GM Ross Atkins go out into the marketplace and grab at least one, perhaps two veteran relief arms to try to get this bullpen back on the rails. Relievers won’t come cheap but it needs to be done.

There is nothing that can affect a good team’s mojo like bad bullpen performance, as was demonstrated on Monday night in the opener of a three-game set against the Colorado Rockies.

Marco Estrada left the game with a one-run lead after six innings and then both Storen and Chavez struggled as the Rockies scored six times in the seventh inning to win going away.

When the Jays get back to Toronto after this series, they will reach the season’s mid-point on Friday against the red-hot Cleveland Indians. Yes, there is still plenty of time to make the necessary improvements and adjustments on this relief corps but don’t let anybody kid you.

It’s not early. Not any more.