General Blue Jays Discussion Thread (2025)

[Jays24]

Hopefully we can get some good news that Varsho/Garcia/Gimenez are ready to go for Friday and that Santandar will start taking batting practice soon.  

Its been amazing to see our depth guys perform so well but we will need our regulars down the stretch, especially Vlad/Santandar with the bats.  

[Spanky__99]

35 minutes ago, Jays24 said:

Hopefully we can get some good news that Varsho/Garcia/Gimenez are ready to go for Friday and that Santandar will start taking batting practice soon.  

Its been amazing to see our depth guys perform so well but we will need our regulars down the stretch, especially Vlad/Santandar with the bats.  

None of these guys will be back for Friday.

[BatFlip]

1 hour ago, max silver said:

I don't have the same feeling. I think we haven't seen a fully healthy Alek Manoah dating all the way back to the 2022 season. Even if he doesn't ever reach the previous heights as a top of the rotation arm I think he has a very good chance to at least be an effective back of the rotation starter. 

If he ends up being a back of the rotation starter, with two more years of control, that's a perfectly fine outcome given our aged and expensive rotation.

[harvey16]

22 hours ago, Jays24 said:

Hopefully we can get some good news that Varsho/Garcia/Gimenez are ready to go for Friday and that Santandar will start taking batting practice soon.  

Its been amazing to see our depth guys perform so well but we will need our regulars down the stretch, especially Vlad/Santandar with the bats.  

Unfortunately looks like only Garcia might return by the weekend, Varsho/Giminez won't be back till end of July at the earliest and Santander still hasn't even resumed swinging yet. We'll be lucky to have him back for September I think. It's too bad cause we have a real tough stretch of games coming up till the end of the month, with SF/Yanks and then on the road to play the best team in baseball the Tigers. We need to keep our heads above water during this crucial stretch. I'd be happy with .500 ball, before our schedule gets lighter in August.

[Laika]

Yeah. No real soft spots remaining on the schedule to be honest. 

Next 10 are SFG NYY DET

Then at BAL, home vs KCR, and on the road for COL and LAD. Jays have not been great on the road so you can't expect the BAL and COL series to be easy ones. 

They have PIT and MIA for six straight in August but again it's on the road. 

So they need to stay in the race over the next 10 games and then figure out how to be a better road team. They will need to bank a good number of wins in those remaining road series vs. bad teams. Need to go 5-1 against Pitt and Miami in late August, not 3-3 like they just did against CHW and OAK. 

 

[Stangstag]

2 minutes ago, Laika said:

Yeah. No real soft spots remaining on the schedule to be honest. 

Next 10 are SFG NYY DET

Then at BAL, home vs KCR, and on the road for COL and LAD. Jays have not been great on the road so you can't expect the BAL and COL series to be easy ones. 

They have PIT and MIA for six straight in August but again it's on the road. 

So they need to stay in the race over the next 10 games and then figure out how to be a better road team. They will need to bank a good number of wins in those remaining road series vs. bad teams. Need to go 5-1 against Pitt and Miami in late August, not 3-3 like they just did against CHW and OAK. 

 

Mobile pitch sim machine, road woes are OVER

[max silver]

3 hours ago, harvey16 said:

Unfortunately looks like only Garcia might return by the weekend, Varsho/Giminez won't be back till end of July at the earliest and Santander still hasn't even resumed swinging yet. We'll be lucky to have him back for September I think. It's too bad cause we have a real tough stretch of games coming up till the end of the month, with SF/Yanks and then on the road to play the best team in baseball the Tigers. We need to keep our heads above water during this crucial stretch. I'd be happy with .500 ball, before our schedule gets lighter in August.

Varsho is in the lineup for the FCL team at the moment so he could conceivably make it back within the next week or so barring any setbacks.

[Laika]

xwOBA is still too hot league wide, by about .012

but even when you correct xwOBA down for that misbalance most of the Jays core players are getting unlucky 

PLAYER	wOBA	xwOBA	Adjusted xwOBA	wOBA - axwOBA
Alejandro Kirk	0.336	0.371	0.359	-0.023
Ernie Clement	0.313	0.293	0.281	0.032
Vladimir Guerrero Jr.	0.357	0.402	0.39	-0.033
Bo Bichette	0.331	0.377	0.365	-0.034
Addison Barger	0.349	0.37	0.358	-0.009
George Springer	0.368	0.393	0.381	-0.013
Tyler Heineman	0.366	0.28	0.268	0.098
Nathan Lukes	0.34	0.335	0.323	0.017
Andrés Giménez	0.282	0.324	0.312	-0.03
Myles Straw	0.27	0.296	0.284	-0.014
Daulton Varsho	0.319	0.321	0.309	0.01
Davis Schneider	0.345	0.302	0.29	0.055
Joey Loperfido	0.419	0.308	0.296	0.123
Alan Roden	0.263	0.232	0.22	0.043

[R.O.]

 

[Pendleton]

 

[bronson44]

ticket prices are pretty wild lately

[Laika]

Manoah in Dunedin 

I can't see how he fits on the MLB roster unless a SP gets injured and they don't acquire any SP at the deadline. That slider velo isn't good and the fastball velo isn't good enough 

 

[keggy]

18 minutes ago, Laika said:

Manoah in Dunedin 

I can't see how he fits on the MLB roster unless a SP gets injured and they don't acquire any SP at the deadline. That slider velo isn't good and the fastball velo isn't good enough 

 

You can't make that assessment off of a rehab start fresh off of surgery

[John_Havok]

2 hours ago, Laika said:

Manoah in Dunedin 

I can't see how he fits on the MLB roster unless a SP gets injured and they don't acquire any SP at the deadline. That slider velo isn't good and the fastball velo isn't good enough 

 

assess after his 30 days.

I wonder though was it normal for his sinker to be harder than his 4 seam?

But the good thing is he still has option years so he doesnt have to solve any problems this season either way. He could spend the rest of the season in Buffalo, maybe hit winter ball for a few weeks, then come back in the spring.

[Masterbather]

18 minutes ago, John_Havok said:

assess after his 30 days.

I wonder though was it normal for his sinker to be harder than his 4 seam?

But the good thing is he still has option years so he doesnt have to solve any problems this season either way. He could spend the rest of the season in Buffalo, maybe hit winter ball for a few weeks, then come back in the spring.

It's going to be hard to land a front line starter at the deadline, if we don't, he's the only real chance we have at improving the front of our rotation and we need to improve the front of our rotation.

I know it's a long shot but we might have to hope for that long shot.

[infinitebook]

38 minutes ago, John_Havok said:

assess after his 30 days.

I wonder though was it normal for his sinker to be harder than his 4 seam?

But the good thing is he still has option years so he doesnt have to solve any problems this season either way. He could spend the rest of the season in Buffalo, maybe hit winter ball for a few weeks, then come back in the spring.

His 2022 year his average 4 seamer was 93.9, and average sinker 93.3, so used to be basically the same. 

https://baseballsavant.mlb.com/savant-player/alek-manoah-666201?stats=statcast-r-pitching-mlb

[glory]

Counting on Manoah the rest of the way seems really unwise. Maybe he surprises us but his last season in the bigs with any sample size was objectively awful by every metric. He'd have to dominate these rehab assignments for me to feel even a little bit comfortable. 

The Jays should add a starter, but Lauer has been so good that getting anything short of an ace to bump him out of the rotation might not be that helpful. Unless the plan is to go with a 6 man rotation (similar to 2016 after acquiring Liriano), which given how much they prioritize extra rest for the geezers in the rotation might be what they have in mind. Not like they use that last guy in the pen spot (currently owned by Pina) often enough to worry about losing it. In that case they could add another mid rotation option and be fine. Who they would start in a hypothetical game 1 playoff game in that scenario is the bigger question. 

[John_Havok]

16 minutes ago, glory said:

Counting on Manoah the rest of the way seems really unwise. Maybe he surprises us but his last season in the bigs with any sample size was objectively awful by every metric. He'd have to dominate these rehab assignments for me to feel even a little bit comfortable. 

The Jays should add a starter, but Lauer has been so good that getting anything short of an ace to bump him out of the rotation might not be that helpful. Unless the plan is to go with a 6 man rotation (similar to 2016 after acquiring Liriano), which given how much they prioritize extra rest for the geezers in the rotation might be what they have in mind. Not like they use that last guy in the pen spot (currently owned by Pina) often enough to worry about losing it. In that case they could add another mid rotation option and be fine. Who they would start in a hypothetical game 1 playoff game in that scenario is the bigger question. 

I truly don't think anyone's in the FO is counting on Manoah, and his status makes no difference as to their deadline plans

As the roster stands today, Gausman probably gets game 1, then Bassitt/Scherzer games 2 and 3 in whatever order with Lauer on standby to pick up after any one of them if they get booted early

[Masterbather]

41 minutes ago, John_Havok said:

I truly don't think anyone's in the FO is counting on Manoah, and his status makes no difference as to their deadline plans

As the roster stands today, Gausman probably gets game 1, then Bassitt/Scherzer games 2 and 3 in whatever order with Lauer on standby to pick up after any one of them if they get booted early

I agree with the deadline plans don't change regardless, but I think we might be kind of screwed if Manoah does not come back as a frontline starter.

Remember the 2015 rotation? History is repeating itself.  That rotation had serviceable veteran arms but no frontline guys.

Then they traded for Price. But even then they needed a returning Marcus Stroman to be their number two. I remember people said similar things about Stroman at the time, about how his return was more about 2016, maybe he can help us out of the bullpen, about how we shouldn't be counting on him.

No dice, we NEEDED him and even then our pitching was on fumes by the end of the Kansas City series. We might need Manoah either way.

[Pendleton]

Steven Kwan + Cade Smith please 

[jmomcc]

I'd put manoah in the pen to start. Two innings relief. 

[jaysthebest]

Santander is still not swinging and won't begin swinging for another couple weeks according to Schneider. Jays basically paid him 92.5m for 4 years lol...

[Angrioter]

 

Hector Gomez 

SOURCE: The #BlueJays in talks with O’s surrounded around relief pitchers Gregory Soto and Seranthony Dominguez.

 

[Grant77]

9 minutes ago, Angrioter said:

 

Hector Gomez 

SOURCE: The #BlueJays in talks with O’s surrounded around relief pitchers Gregory Soto and Seranthony Dominguez.

 

I like Soto as a second lefty who brings a different look than Little. As for Dominguez, I think we have better options in-house. We should aim higher.

[John_Havok]

2 hours ago, Grant77 said:

I like Soto as a second lefty who brings a different look than Little. As for Dominguez, I think we have better options in-house. We should aim higher.

Maybe you hadn't heard...Seranthony throws a splitter.

[John_Havok]

2 hours ago, Grant77 said:

I like Soto as a second lefty who brings a different look than Little. As for Dominguez, I think we have better options in-house. We should aim higher.

Agree on Soto, and Dominguez is actually a really intriguing arm from a stuff standpoint. He misses a ton of bats but walks more than his share amd limits hard contact.

He might be a decent Pete Walker special, though id rather see him as an offseason acquisition than a "down-the-stretch" thing where ya try to fix him on the fly.

[glory]

Dominguez's statcast page is pretty enticing. Looks like he added a splitter this season which has helped him get more whiff/chase. Could definitely see the Jays trading for him, assuming it's a reasonable deal. 

[Grant77]

19 minutes ago, John_Havok said:

Agree on Soto, and Dominguez is actually a really intriguing arm from a stuff standpoint. He misses a ton of bats but walks more than his share amd limits hard contact.

He might be a decent Pete Walker special, though id rather see him as an offseason acquisition than a "down-the-stretch" thing where ya try to fix him on the fly.

I agree about the off-season thing. This isn't a time for a projects. Realistically, we can't add more than 2 relievers. If one is a lefty (which I think it should be), the other should be a real impact guy that we can trust in the 8th inning. If you can set up something like this for the playoffs, it would be amazing. I think it covers you for pretty much injury and some what negates the need to add a starter.

9th: Hoffman/Bednar

8th: Rodriguez/Little

7th: Yimi/Soto

6th:Fisher/Sandlin

 

[John_Havok]

8 minutes ago, Grant77 said:

I agree about the off-season thing. This isn't a time for a projects. Realistically, we can't add more than 2 relievers. If one is a lefty (which I think it should be), the other should be a real impact guy that we can trust in the 8th inning. If you can set up something like this for the playoffs, it would be amazing. I think it covers you for pretty much injury and some what negates the need to add a starter.

9th: Hoffman/Bednar

8th: Rodriguez/Little

7th: Yimi/Soto

6th:Fisher/Sandlin

 

Just really missing a true long man really. We also don't know when Sandlin will be back yet. 

What the Jays really need is some of the bubble teams to decide if they're sellers or not. 

Aside from Bednar and a few arms from Baltimore, a ton of the quality relievers are on those bubble teams...Cleveland, Minnesota etc

[Vancouverite]

Im really excited foe the trade deadline and I hope the jays swing big here

Id love it for them to have a 2015 type deadline where you get a Price and a Tulo type