General Blue Jays Discussion Thread (2025)

[Masterbather]

3 hours ago, John_Havok said:

I'm sure there were a ton of people who didn't really care about Little or Sandlin too. Hell, Atkins has literally rebuilt the pen in one offseason from lowest whiff rate to highest. It's hard to be completely upset that the shittiest guy blew a game because the top two guys weren't available, and everyone else did their job well prior to him.coming in, but the offense couldn't push one run across in the 35 chances they had to do it. 

That said, I really don't want to see Barnes again. Like...ever

The bullpen has been better than I anticipated, I'm still not completely sold on certain guys, I don't think anyone's ever been sold on Barnes. I still believe we're probably going to need one or two more arms in the bullpen, but this f***ing offense man...

[jaysblue]

8 hours ago, Brownie19 said:

Hays was the player we needed.  We needed Austin Hays as a 4th OFer and we need another bullpen arm.  Call David Robertson FFS

Hays having a really good season with the Reds so far. 

Robertson would be a perfect add to this pen. 

[spats]

Was at the Dunedin Jays last night specifically to see Lesavage and he was interesting. His fastball was always around 94/95 and slider between 81 and 86. He managed 10 ks through 5 with a lot of swing and misses. He threw a ton of strikes and was rarely behind in the count. Had a no hitter through 4 but got into a little trouble in the 5th. He had the bases loaded with none out but managed to strike out the next 2 but gave up and infield single and a throwing error by the catcher led to 3 runs. Overall a pretty good outing. An added bonus was Dalton Varsho in the game as the dh. Btw, keep an eye on Yeuni Munoz. He may be the only position player on this team to move up the prospect rankings.

Varsho starting in this afternoon's game in CF. He must be getting close.

[John_Havok]

8 hours ago, Masterbather said:

The bullpen has been better than I anticipated, I'm still not completely sold on certain guys, I don't think anyone's ever been sold on Barnes. I still believe we're probably going to need one or two more arms in the bullpen, but this f***ing offense man...

Swanson and Burr being injured really made the difference. Those 2 guys being healthy and there isn't a Barnes and Lovelady to start the season. 

I get people want to stock as much depth as possible and think more signings should have happened...  but nobody worth signing was gonna be taking a minor league deal to be depth. Sandlin has been great, Little has been disgusting, and the guys they did sign in Yimi and Hoffman have both been as good as can be expected. Green is Green. Add in a healthy Burr, Swanson and Yariel and there's not even room to sign another solid mid to upper pen guy

Pen is nearly tops in the big leagues. Yes, some regression may be coming from a couple guys, but even a bit of regression leaves them in a great spot. 

Sandlin's injury sucks though. Those lats always take forever 

 

[max silver]

26 minutes ago, John_Havok said:

Swanson and Burr being injured really made the difference. Those 2 guys being healthy and there isn't a Barnes and Lovelady to start the season. 

I get people want to stock as much depth as possible and think more signings should have happened...  but nobody worth signing was gonna be taking a minor league deal to be depth. Sandlin has been great, Little has been disgusting, and the guys they did sign in Yimi and Hoffman have both been as good as can be expected. Green is Green. Add in a healthy Burr, Swanson and Yariel and there's not even room to sign another solid mid to upper pen guy

Pen is nearly tops in the big leagues. Yes, some regression may be coming from a couple guys, but even a bit of regression leaves them in a great spot. 

Sandlin's injury sucks though. Those lats always take forever 

 

Lat strains are no joke. I've dealt with one of those and it greatly affected the surrounding area of the injury including the shoulder.

[AMS528]

I'm glad to see Vlad has started his Keith Hernandez at the plate impression In April instead of May this year. The power should kick in by May I hope. 

His defense has apparently been a bit better in a small sample as well so I think it's going to line up into a pretty big year. 

[BB17]

20 hours ago, AMS528 said:

I'm glad to see Vlad has started his Keith Hernandez at the plate impression In April instead of May this year. The power should kick in by May I hope. 

His defense has apparently been a bit better in a small sample as well so I think it's going to line up into a pretty big year. 

His defense still seems pretty bad honestly. He seems to be a bit better fielding balls but still some bad decision making. A couple of times Giminez would have made the play but Vladdy has dove/tried to make a heroic play and threw away the ball to the P covering first. And a couple just horrendous drops at crucial points in the game.

I think that's why hes such a frustrating player to watch cuz its clear he has HOF level talent but he makes some bonehead little league level mistakes each year that happen at the worst times. I'll never forget him dropping the ball against the Tigers on the Semien throw that cost them the game and then them missing the postseason by a single game.

[Orgfiller]

Lucas optioned, Josh Walker recalled.

[Brownie19]

1 minute ago, Orgfiller said:

Lucas optioned, Josh Walker recalled.

That makes sense to me.

[Terminator]

23 minutes ago, Orgfiller said:

Lucas optioned, Josh Walker recalled.

Good move.

We've got an offday Thursday and Monday so we can just skip the 5th starter spot and still get all of the starters an extra day of rest so long as we use the 5th spot on Tuesday the 29th against the Red Sox.

This would allow us to use Bassitt in the Yankee series instead of Schultz/bullpen day. And then we get an extra reliever for the week in Walker. 

 

[glory]

Glad they demoted Lucas. He did a good job getting the team 2 wins in unfavorable pitching matchups, but you can't ignore the last 2 starts. Cut bait after the luck wears off. 

Jake Bloss better turn into something, and quick. 

[max silver]

2 hours ago, BB17 said:

His defense still seems pretty bad honestly. He seems to be a bit better fielding balls but still some bad decision making. A couple of times Giminez would have made the play but Vladdy has dove/tried to make a heroic play and threw away the ball to the P covering first. And a couple just horrendous drops at crucial points in the game.

I think that's why hes such a frustrating player to watch cuz its clear he has HOF level talent but he makes some bonehead little league level mistakes each year that happen at the worst times. I'll never forget him dropping the ball against the Tigers on the Semien throw that cost them the game and then them missing the postseason by a single game.

That error was primarily on Semien as he bounced a throw to first base on a super routine play.

[G-Snarls]

 

 

[Terminator]

 

[BB17]

7 hours ago, max silver said:

That error was primarily on Semien as he bounced a throw to first base on a super routine play.

Bad throw but one 99% of first baseman catch. It was like a 60mph soft toss lol.

[jaysblue]

Something is fundamentally wrong with this team when it comes to home runs. 

[Laika]

It's just a personnel thing, probably. It's tempting to blame Mattingly or the coaches but at the end of the day it is more likely a combination of these two things: 

• The team being built around a few hitters who the organization thought were Power + Hit dudes who ended up aging into hitters with much less HR power than anticipated. This applies to Kirk and Bo, but also Vlad to some extent / from time-to-time. 
• The team being filled in with hitters who don't hit for power. Clement, Roden, Wagner, Gimenez, Straw, Lukes... 

Those 2021 to 2023 teams featured guys like Chapman, Jansen, Semien, Teoscar, a younger George Springer. Simply put, the personnel had more pop. 

[G-Snarls]

2 hours ago, jaysblue said:

Something is fundamentally wrong with this team when it comes to home runs. 

Certainly don't like the trend!

[Laika]

2024 - the Toronto Blue Jays almost never hit homers and they suck

2024-2025 offseason - Ross Atkins acquires and promotes multiple hitters who can barely hit the ball out of the infield 

2025 - the Toronto Blue Jays never hit homers 

make it make sense!

[Jonn]

Fun Fact: Andres Gimenes has 3 Homeruns which leads the team. He hasn’t hit a homerun in the month of April. It’s April 22nd.

[glory]

1 hour ago, Laika said:

It's just a personnel thing, probably. It's tempting to blame Mattingly or the coaches but at the end of the day it is more likely a combination of these two things: 

• The team being built around a few hitters who the organization thought were Power + Hit dudes who ended up aging into hitters with much less HR power than anticipated. This applies to Kirk and Bo, but also Vlad to some extent / from time-to-time. 
• The team being filled in with hitters who don't hit for power. Clement, Roden, Wagner, Gimenez, Straw, Lukes... 

Those 2021 to 2023 teams featured guys like Chapman, Jansen, Semien, Teoscar, a younger George Springer. Simply put, the personnel had more pop. 

Yeah it's not limited to Mattingly, it's filtered down to the minors as well, so it's an organizational thing. They don't know how to develop power hitters, or they care too much about contact. Or both. This is an org that gave $15M to IKF. They absorbed $100M of Gimenez's contract. They took 80% or whatever it was of Myles Straw's contract when he had a 74 wRC+ in AAA last season and whose highest ISO in his career of .076 four years ago. The front office was glazing Roden and Wagner prior to the season as if they were Vlad and Bo, and both of their skill sets are contact heavy with limited power. This is what the org, for whatever reason, thinks will win games, either because they truly believe that, or they have no other options given what's available to them in the minors and free agency/trade. There was clearly a shift in 2023. Whether it was Mattingly or someone else, I have no idea, but the org was pretty good at acquiring power bats prior to that. 

Hopefully they do not corrupt Nimmala. 

[Orgfiller]

1 hour ago, glory said:

Yeah it's not limited to Mattingly, it's filtered down to the minors as well, so it's an organizational thing. They don't know how to develop power hitters, or they care too much about contact. Or both. This is an org that gave $15M to IKF. They absorbed $100M of Gimenez's contract. They took 80% or whatever it was of Myles Straw's contract when he had a 74 wRC+ in AAA last season and whose highest ISO in his career of .076 four years ago. The front office was glazing Roden and Wagner prior to the season as if they were Vlad and Bo, and both of their skill sets are contact heavy with limited power. This is what the org, for whatever reason, thinks will win games, either because they truly believe that, or they have no other options given what's available to them in the minors and free agency/trade. There was clearly a shift in 2023. Whether it was Mattingly or someone else, I have no idea, but the org was pretty good at acquiring power bats prior to that. 

Hopefully they do not corrupt Nimmala. 

I mean, the team is 8th in position player fWAR, and still a roughly average offense despite Bo and Vlad displaying no power and significantly underperforming their xStats and Santander being a black hole in the 3 spot. It's not like it hasn't been working thus far, and I don't think it's that they heavily value contact ability necessarily, or rather devalue power, but there's a problem in how they bring it out in some players. Popkins seems to be the type of guy to target damage and it hasn't really paid off obviously, hopefully we see results emerge as the season goes along.

It's easy to say that their target as a team is to be the 2015 Royals and I just think they've been trying to find wins where they can get them. Gimenez and Varsho are guys who they might find undervalued, but it doesn't mean they think these prototypes for a player are the blueprint for a winning team.

[Stangstag]

12 hours ago, BB17 said:

Bad throw but one 99% of first baseman catch. It was like a 60mph soft toss lol.

Same thing happened in that extra inning game on the weekend. Like yeah Kirk gave him a bad throw for the DP, but it was catchable and a play 90% of first baseman likely make.

[Stangstag]

2 hours ago, Jonn said:

Fun Fact: Andres Gimenes has 3 Homeruns which leads the team. He hasn’t hit a homerun in the month of April. It’s April 22nd.

 

Andrés Giménez

Multiple Yankees have 5+ homers.

Jazz Chisolm has 6 homeruns, which is the same as our top 4 hitters combined.

Even Volpe would be HR leader in our lineup with 4.

[Stangstag]

2 hours ago, glory said:

Yeah it's not limited to Mattingly, it's filtered down to the minors as well, so it's an organizational thing. They don't know how to develop power hitters, or they care too much about contact. Or both. This is an org that gave $15M to IKF. They absorbed $100M of Gimenez's contract. They took 80% or whatever it was of Myles Straw's contract when he had a 74 wRC+ in AAA last season and whose highest ISO in his career of .076 four years ago. The front office was glazing Roden and Wagner prior to the season as if they were Vlad and Bo, and both of their skill sets are contact heavy with limited power. This is what the org, for whatever reason, thinks will win games, either because they truly believe that, or they have no other options given what's available to them in the minors and free agency/trade. There was clearly a shift in 2023. Whether it was Mattingly or someone else, I have no idea, but the org was pretty good at acquiring power bats prior to that. 

Hopefully they do not corrupt Nimmala. 

Im tired of certain posters here pretending its not an organizational issue.

[G-Snarls]

3 hours ago, Jonn said:

Fun Fact: Andres Gimenes has 3 Homeruns which leads the team. He hasn’t hit a homerun in the month of April. It’s April 22nd.

Torn between the laughing vs crying reaction buttons

[BB17]

And on the other end of the spectrum Jays pitchers are giving up a ton of longballs. Some of that is bums like Lovelady, Lucas, Barnes etc getting killled when the score was already out of reach but Berrios and Francis are guys who have struggled in that dept in the past.

The walk/K numbers are pretty good on both sides of the ball but yeah its tough to win when you are losing the HR battle by this much.

[Brownie19]

8 hours ago, Stangstag said:

Im tired of certain posters here pretending its not an organizational issue.

Remember the quote from the new hitting coach?  Something about how he was preaching violent aggression or some bullsh*t.

My personal opinion was the team decided to target players with better hit tools, figuring that's the hardest thing to teach.  They can help them with launch angles and help them add power (which typically happens as they reach their prime).  They probably think the hit tool is more effective against the high velo world we now live in.

In theory, it doesn't seem like a terrible approach.  But it is.  It f*cking blows goats and isn't working.

[Stangstag]

8 hours ago, Brownie19 said:

Remember the quote from the new hitting coach?  Something about how he was preaching violent aggression or some bullsh*t.

My personal opinion was the team decided to target players with better hit tools, figuring that's the hardest thing to teach.  They can help them with launch angles and help them add power (which typically happens as they reach their prime).  They probably think the hit tool is more effective against the high velo world we now live in.

In theory, it doesn't seem like a terrible approach.  But it is.  It f*cking blows goats and isn't working.

It really just seems like this front office is behind the curve when it comes to offensive evaluations 

[jaysblue]

10 minutes ago, Stangstag said:

It really just seems like this front office is behind the curve when it comes to offensive evaluations 

Yeah for the last 2-3 seasons they have been. Seems that way since the 2022 season. 

Lineup construction wise, this lineup is only top heavy #1-4 (we're also lucky Springer is off to a great start or it would be #1-3 haha) while the rest of the lineup features #8-9 hitters. Even the bats at the top (Bo, Vladdy and Santander) only have 3 HR's between them combined.