General Blue Jays Discussion Thread (2025)

[Spanky__99]

Jays in sole position of WC1...

[Terminator]

30 minutes ago, Spanky__99 said:

Jays in sole position of WC1...

 

WC1 for now Spank but AL East leaders before the season ends…book it

[Spanky__99]

2 hours ago, Terminator said:

 

WC1 for now Spank but AL East leaders before the season ends…book it

4.5 back, Spankees lost to the Bosox...

[Big_Walleye]

16 hours ago, Terminator said:

 

WC1 for now Spank but AL East leaders before the season ends…book it

I agree.  The Yankees have been doing it with smoke and mirrors so far IMO.  If teams learn to pitch around Judge the Jays will pass them in no time.

[max silver]

Adam Macko is getting closer to being ready as a rotation option for the Blue Jays. He's made his way up to Buffalo and pitched a pretty solid game with 4 IP, 4 K's albeit with 3 walks mixed in as well. The Statcast scoreboard makes it appear as though the stuff was solid as he touched 96 MPH with the heater and he racked up a combined 7 whiffs.

[BB17]

1 hour ago, max silver said:

Adam Macko is getting closer to being ready as a rotation option for the Blue Jays. He's made his way up to Buffalo and pitched a pretty solid game with 4 IP, 4 K's albeit with 3 walks mixed in as well. The Statcast scoreboard makes it appear as though the stuff was solid as he touched 96 MPH with the heater and he racked up a combined 7 whiffs.

I don’t think he can be counted on to be an actual SP but he’s certainly worth a look given how bad the back end of the rotation is right now. Hopefully he’s a guy who could give you 3-4 IP and not get lit up.

[Terminator]

 

[Terminator]

Hmm, seems like they had to bring Turnbull up and since Schultz threw 40 pitches on Friday and 19 today he wasn't going to be available for a while.

But Francis threw 89 pitches today and also could have been optioned. Since they chose to option Schultz it seems like Francis might survive another turn through the rotation. 

[Spanky__99]

10 minutes ago, Terminator said:

Hmm, seems like they had to bring Turnbull up and since Schultz threw 40 pitches on Friday and 19 today he wasn't going to be available for a while.

But Francis threw 89 pitches today and also could have been optioned. Since they chose to option Schultz it seems like Francis might survive another turn through the rotation. 

According to the fellas after the game, they're planning on to continue to give him the game ball.

[max silver]

2 hours ago, BB17 said:

I don’t think he can be counted on to be an actual SP but he’s certainly worth a look given how bad the back end of the rotation is right now. Hopefully he’s a guy who could give you 3-4 IP and not get lit up.

I think he should likely have what it takes to be a suitable depth option at the very least. It's an awfully low bar of entry to be a serviceable depth option out of the rotation.

[glory]

It's amazing how much rope Francis has been given due to essentially 9 starts in 2024. Before those last 9 starts in 2024, he had a 5.64 ERA/5.61 FIP in 44.2 IP (10 HR allowed) that season. Then he went on a fluke run for 2 months, and now they are allowing him to give up 19 home runs and 24 walks in 60 innings apparently without fear of losing his rotation spot. Hopefully it's just a timing thing and he's the next demotion. 

[hanton]

what's the best option for going to away games? 

Packages or book everything separately?  I'm leaning to do things separately but want to hear from others

[Masterbather]

1 hour ago, glory said:

It's amazing how much rope Francis has been given due to essentially 9 starts in 2024. Before those last 9 starts in 2024, he had a 5.64 ERA/5.61 FIP in 44.2 IP (10 HR allowed) that season. Then he went on a fluke run for 2 months, and now they are allowing him to give up 19 home runs and 24 walks in 60 innings apparently without fear of losing his rotation spot. Hopefully it's just a timing thing and he's the next demotion. 

It's unfathomable to me that this guy is going to get another start. I didn't really think he should have gotten this one. This guy is killing our bullpen and losing games and we're just going to keep rolling him out there?

[keggy]

1 hour ago, glory said:

It's amazing how much rope Francis has been given due to essentially 9 starts in 2024. Before those last 9 starts in 2024, he had a 5.64 ERA/5.61 FIP in 44.2 IP (10 HR allowed) that season. Then he went on a fluke run for 2 months, and now they are allowing him to give up 19 home runs and 24 walks in 60 innings apparently without fear of losing his rotation spot. Hopefully it's just a timing thing and he's the next demotion. 

Francis is here less out of loyalty and more out of desperation. The pickings to replace him are incredibly thin and not guaranteed to be any better.

[june.june]

Yarbrough just doing fine with the Yankees.

Atkins will always be a Moron

[Brownie19]

8 hours ago, keggy said:

Francis is here less out of loyalty and more out of desperation. The pickings to replace him are incredibly thin and not guaranteed to be any better.

100% this.

It's time for a trade Ross.  What's Mitch Keller cost us?

[Laika]

Soroka is a nice trade target

Sandy Alcantara would be a neat buy-low 

Those are probably my favourite 2 options from teams who will obviously sell 

That + the idea of plucking a Rockies SP for free and instantly fixing them 

[glory]

9 hours ago, keggy said:

Francis is here less out of loyalty and more out of desperation. The pickings to replace him are incredibly thin and not guaranteed to be any better.

There’s definitely some necessity involved here, but Francis has a -1.0 WAR. Easton Lucas had 2 good starts followed by 2 bad starts and was immediately demoted. He came up and pitched really well as a long man and was demoted again. Lauer actually has a MLB track record as a serviceable back end #5 SP, and they are using him in a bulk role rather than trying to get him to eat up as many innings as possible. I’m not saying Lauer and Lucas would be any good but better than a -1.0 WAR and 19 HR in 60 IP? It would be difficult to be as bad as that, much less worse than that. Either way maybe you get lucky and someone surprises for a few weeks/months. That’s really all they need. They’ll definitely make a trade closer to the deadline so they just need to keep throwing s*** at the wall and hope something sticks until then. You can’t keep throwing Francis out there and expecting different results when nothing indicates that what he’s doing now is a fluke. Would they be giving him this much rope if those 9 starts last year didn’t happen? Maybe but I doubt it.

Either way, as others have said, they really need to make a trade soon rather than closer to the end of July, Margin for error isn’t very big for this team, and they won’t last with 3 SPs and 2 bullpen games a week. I agree Alcantara is a great target as a buy low and the Marlins are beyond cheap. Don’t think the Marlins would sell low like that but who knows. 

 

[Laika]

Funny, Eno Sarris has Bowden Francis ahead of Berrios and Scherzer in his rest of season pitcher rankings 

 

https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/6375745/2025/06/03/sarris-mlb-starting-pitcher-rankings-rest-of-2025-season/

 

[Brownie19]

1 hour ago, Laika said:

Soroka is a nice trade target

Sandy Alcantara would be a neat buy-low 

Those are probably my favourite 2 options from teams who will obviously sell 

That + the idea of plucking a Rockies SP for free and instantly fixing them 

You'd have Sandy through 2027 (if you exercise the club option), you'd have Keller through 2028.  Both seem like good targets, given the uncertainty and # of upcoming free agents we have in the rotation.  What's the cost to land either one?

[jaysthebest]

It's hard to keep the win streak when you throw out Francis every 5 day. He is a momentum killer.

[Laika]

27 minutes ago, Brownie19 said:

You'd have Sandy through 2027 (if you exercise the club option), you'd have Keller through 2028.  Both seem like good targets, given the uncertainty and # of upcoming free agents we have in the rotation.  What's the cost to land either one?

They can have Joey Loperfido and Will Wagner! 

[glory]

4 minutes ago, Laika said:

They can have Joey Loperfido and Will Wagner! 

I remember reading that Cherington was apparently trying to trade for Horwitz for a while. So just demote Roden, let him have a 1.100 OPS in AAA by hitting nothing but 89 mph line drives, and then trade him to Pittsburgh.

[Brownie19]

10 minutes ago, Laika said:

They can have Joey Loperfido and Will Wagner! 

[hanton]

1 hour ago, Laika said:

Funny, Eno Sarris has Bowden Francis ahead of Berrios and Scherzer in his rest of season pitcher rankings 

 

https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/6375745/2025/06/03/sarris-mlb-starting-pitcher-rankings-rest-of-2025-season/

 

which might give us some hints as to why he isn't doing well since stuff+ doesn't take into account sequencing, deception and location.  

[BB17]

12 hours ago, hanton said:

what's the best option for going to away games? 

Packages or book everything separately?  I'm leaning to do things separately but want to hear from others

Packages you almost always pay more, they just pray on people being lazy or dumb. You can almost always find a pretty good deal on flights. hotels tickets etc.. if you spend a little time researching.

[Omar]

 

 

[Brownie19]

Man - the baseball savant metrics certainly suggest that Bo, Vlad, Barger, Springer and Kirk are all legit this year offensively.  Pages are bright red.  Some promising metrics for Varsho too (albeit a SSS).  

A healthy Santander is the cherry we need for this offense.

[Terminator]

16 minutes ago, Brownie19 said:

Man - the baseball savant metrics certainly suggest that Bo, Vlad, Barger, Springer and Kirk are all legit this year offensively.  Pages are bright red.  Some promising metrics for Varsho too (albeit a SSS).  

A healthy Santander is the cherry we need for this offense.

Barger too, obviously.

And then guys like Clement and Lukes have enough bright red to overcome the deep blue they have. Gimenez looks fine too, just unlucky.

This team is stacked. Just wait until we fix the rotation, either through Scherzer coming back or at the trade deadline.

The playoffs will be easy to make.

 

[Laika]

Not to mention the waves of prospects climbing the ladder. 

Shrek and Flamingo are dunking AAA already. 

Ye Savage has his next start in AA - a few weeks of domination there and he can be the SP5 on the big team for the push.