TORONTO – In the power rankings of all-time nice guys in the history of Toronto FC, Drew Moor probably tops the list.

Although a grizzled veteran of 14 MLS seasons, Moor walks around TFC’s training facility with a sunny disposition and a broad smile permanently etched on his face as he jokes around with his teammates and coaches.

Moor, a 34-year-old native of Dallas, has seen and done it all during his MLS career, yet he has very little ego. Instead, Moor has a quiet, gentle and unassuming way about him. He provides evidence of his humanity almost every day after practice when he takes time to chat with security guards, the janitorial staff, and the cooks who work in the cafeteria.

Don’t let his good-guy nature fool you, though. He can be ruthless at times. Take TFC’s failed 2018 MLS campaign, for instance.

Last December, the Reds capped off a historic, treble-winning season by hoisting the MLS Cup at BMO Field after beating the Seattle Sounders. Fast-forward to two weeks ago when a 2-1 home loss to the Vancouver Whitecaps officially eliminated TFC from playoff contention.

Beset by injury issues throughout the campaign, Toronto nevertheless failed to qualify for the post-season despite boasting the biggest payroll and one of the deepest rosters in the league. A porous defensive record (60 goals against) was a major problem for the Reds, but it wasn’t the only issue.

Asked what went wrong this season, Moor doesn’t hold back in his assessment. He was just as blunt in explaining what he thinks the club needs to do to get back on track for 2019.

“I’ve thought about it a lot recently – what went wrong, what could have been better. The club can benefit from a bit of a hard reset; everybody [take] a deep look at themselves, and make sure that they’re coming up [to the team’s training facility] on a daily basis and putting everything they have into helping this team,” Moor said ahead of Wednesday’s road game against D.C. United.

“That’s probably a petty big statement of how I feel. I feel over the past couple of months it hasn’t been good enough. [We need to] reset and refocus because next season we’re going to have huge games, a lot of travel… We learned a lot this season, but in my mind, we have to rededicate ourselves and make sure we don’t have another season like this next year.”

A 2017 campaign like the one TFC had was always going to be difficult to top or equal – the club set the record for most points in an MLS regular season, with 69. A letdown was inevitable. But not making the playoffs? No, that’s unacceptable, and Moor knows it.

“The most important thing is we had a wakeup call this season for many reasons. We can make a lot of excuse but every team that doesn’t qualify for the playoffs makes a lot of excuses. We don’t want to be that team,” Moor stated.

TFC had ridiculously short off-seasons the past two years because they played in back-to-back MLS Cup finals in December. If there’s a silver lining about the Reds’ playoff elimination – and you really have to squint to see it – it’s that they’ll have plenty of time to recuperate and reset ahead of the 2019 MLS campaign.

“The taste of missing the playoffs will never leave our mouth. But a hard rest is sometimes good for a team, especially one that has really not had that much time off the past two seasons. It’s a club that wants it that way. We don’t want to have time off in the off-season. We want to continue to play deep into seasons, and then early into the following season,” Moor said.

“But we do have to take our time, and mentally refocus and physically recover after this season, and be ready to go full steam ahead Day 1 of pre-season.”

Moor could benefit from a reset after suffering through an injury-plagued season. After playing over 2,000 minutes in each of the last two campaigns, Moor has been limited to just seven regular season appearances (totaling 448 minutes) in 2018.

He was sidelined for most of the year with a quad strain. He briefly returned to action, but then missed the last four MLS games with a minor calf strain. The veteran defender is back in full training, and said he is available to play on Wednesday.

“I’ve been fortunate over the course of my career not to have to deal with big stuff like this, stuff that keeps me out for weeks at a time and have it compounded on itself,” Moore said. “I tried to stay positive, I tried to stay as involved as possible as a leader and a veteran, going to video sessions, speaking to guys. As frustrating as it’s been, it’s a part of [sports] and it makes you enjoy the times you are fit and healthy.”