Blue Jays Discussion Thread (2026)

[Bob_Gratton]

I am no surprised at all. I wrote in december that Santander won't be able to play LF and he will be useless. The same about Bieber, he will miss a lot of games , and the only reason he's back, is that no one will have paid 16 millions for him. So Atkins needed sign Valdez or Gallen, and Bo or get a very good OF. Schneider/Lukes are perfect LF duo for a team like Pirates or Cards, but no for a team who want to win the WS. 

[Stangstag]

1 minute ago, Bob_Gratton said:

I am no surprised at all. I wrote in december that Santander won't be able to play LF and he will be useless. The same about Bieber, he will miss a lot of games , and the only reason he's back, is that no one will have paid 16 millions for him. So Atkins needed sign Valdez or Gallen, and Bo or get a very good OF. Schneider/Lukes are perfect LF duo for a team like Pirates or Cards, but no for a team who want to win the WS. 

You’re wicked smahtt

[Bob_Gratton]

1 hour ago, BTS said:

I don't think the Santander injury really matters. He sucks. 

DH - Springer

CF - Varsho

RF - Barger

LF - Lukes/Schneider platoon

And Straw is still around. Schreck/Clase/Loperfido. 

If people underperform or injuries come up they might have to make a trade, but this looks mostly fine going into the season. 

Hopefully we can make a trade for someone like Kwan without sending King, Parker or Sanchez in return. I am ok if we send NImmala, Loperfido, Stanifer or Tidermann

[G-Snarls]

Now I really really wish that Kyle Tucker had taken our money

[Jays24]

So we're still lacking:

- Closer

- High leverage bullpen lefty since we're obessessed with handedness

- downgraded offensively by losing Bo/Santandar 

[jaysblue]

2 minutes ago, Jays24 said:

So we're still lacking:

- Closer

- High leverage bullpen lefty since we're obessessed with handedness

- downgraded offensively by losing Bo/Santandar 

I’m fine rolling with Hoffman as the closer again. If he can cut down the home run rate, he has the stuff to be really effective.

Maybe Lauer emerges as that high-leverage lefty, or Little gets back to the first-half form we saw last season.

Offensively, though, we’ve clearly downgraded and that’s the bigger concern. We’re banking on Okamoto being the real deal, on Lukes, Clement, Barger, and Schneider repeating their production, and on Springer not falling off too much from his 2025 level. That’s a lot of “ifs” for a lineup trying to compete.

[Jonn]

1 hour ago, Stangstag said:

he’s right

Thank you : )

[Jays24]

15 minutes ago, jaysblue said:

I’m fine rolling with Hoffman as the closer again. If he can cut down the home run rate, he has the stuff to be really effective.

Maybe Lauer emerges as that high-leverage lefty, or Little gets back to the first-half form we saw last season.

Offensively, though, we’ve clearly downgraded and that’s the bigger concern. We’re banking on Okamoto being the real deal, on Lukes, Clement, Barger, and Schneider repeating their production, and on Springer not falling off too much from his 2025 level. That’s a lot of “ifs” for a lineup trying to compete.

I think Hoffman is a great pitcher but just isnt meant for the do or die 9th inning role.  Id rather try Garcia/Rogers there.

Jays already said theyre stretching Lauer out as a starter.  With Bieber already hurt, Lauer is 1 injury away from being in the rotation so I guess he'll be the long man out of the pen.  

The offense is definitely issue number 1 BY FAR.  Got hope Atkins has something up his sleeve trade wise.  Tough to go from thinking about Tucker/Santandar on the roster to neither.  

 

[Brownie19]

21 minutes ago, Jays24 said:

So we're still lacking:

- Closer

- High leverage bullpen lefty since we're obessessed with handedness

- downgraded offensively by losing Bo/Santandar 

Extreme shocker that you'd take this approach Chicken Little.

[Jays24]

1 minute ago, Brownie19 said:

Extreme shocker that you'd take this approach Chicken Little.

Almost feels like i gotta live up to the character at this stage lol.  

[glory]

2 hours ago, Jonn said:

Do we really want Leo Gimenez to make the team though? He might just because he’s out of options but I would be pretty disappointed with that outcome even as the 26th man. I don’t think it’s out of the question the Jays make a trade for an Outfielder sooner rather than later. They will probably have to part with more than they want to but I have a feeling they don’t go into the off-season with the status quo. Especially knowing they have money still. Just nobody to buy.

The only FA's available are probably just as much 1 WAR types as Lukes is (if not less so), and not sure there is a trade to be made at this point for anything significant. Jimenez projects reasonably well for a backup IF (~90-95 wRC+) and the Jays literally have nothing in the minors as far as middle infield depth other than Kasevich who is coming off an injury riddled 34 wRC+ in AAA last season. They kinda need to hold as much infield depth as they can at this point. They have a bunch of OF's in AAA with options remaining or who are not on the 40 man yet (Clase, Schreck, Pinango, Loperfido) and have the most lottery of lottery tickets in Eloy, so seems like they have enough depth there to stick as many things on the wall as possible come spring time and hope something sticks. The infield on the other hand doesn't look good at all from a depth standpoint. 

With that said if they can find/trade for a better option, then absolutely go for it. 

[Brownie19]

Yeah - I agree.  There's no real harm in carrying Leo to start the year.  I'm not married to him, but it's not a horrendous option.

[Spanky__99]

5 hours ago, max silver said:

FFS it was announced that Santander is undergoing labrum surgery and will be out 5-6 months. Also announced was that Bowden Francis will need UCL surgery but that's a smaller blow given his status as more of a depth arm. 

I just read this, oy-vey... injuries suck.

 

[Spanky__99]

2 hours ago, Jays24 said:

So we're still lacking:

- Closer

- High leverage bullpen lefty since we're obessessed with handedness

- downgraded offensively by losing Bo/Santandar 

[Spanky__99]

Seriously though, back away from the ledge folks. 😅

[Jonn]

12 minutes ago, Spanky__99 said:

Seriously though, back away from the ledge folks. 😅

We’re chilling Spanks. Addition by subtraction.

[Spanky__99]

5 minutes ago, Jonn said:

We’re chilling Spanks. Addition by subtraction.

K....

 

[Laika]

Getting tunnel vision and caring about "offense" is how the team made the Santander mistake signing to begin with 

They shouldn't care about the "offense" they should care about wins, or run differential. It seems like they know this now. I bet Atkins is privately relieved that Santander is out because the team projects better without him LOL it's sad but true. Lukes/Schneider platoon is probably better than Tony Titties on both sides of the ball. 

[Terminator]

3 hours ago, Laika said:

Tony Titties

 

Love a horrible nickname 

[mphenhef]

12 hours ago, Stangstag said:

You’re wicked smahtt

It's like someone made an agent from the typical Bluejays fan on reddit or facebook and unleashed it here.  Every post is like word vomit.

[Funky]

Might be smart to keep Berrios if Bieber is having some issues.  The Ponce acquisition and having Lauer around, at least gives us options. Should be need to be shut down for a while.

The Santander news is what it is. He was one of our worst players last year and it might give a guy like Loperfido a few few more at bat to show what he’s really made of.   It would be nice if he emerged it as a dark horse this year.
 

It’s exciting to have baseball in the air again  just need all this white s*** to melt so we can get back on the diamonds.  

[max silver]

8 hours ago, Laika said:

Getting tunnel vision and caring about "offense" is how the team made the Santander mistake signing to begin with 

They shouldn't care about the "offense" they should care about wins, or run differential. It seems like they know this now. I bet Atkins is privately relieved that Santander is out because the team projects better without him LOL it's sad but true. Lukes/Schneider platoon is probably better than Tony Titties on both sides of the ball. 

It's kind of absurd how the knives have come out for Santander because of an injury he suffered in the field. 

[Laika]

1 minute ago, max silver said:

It's kind of absurd how the knives have come out for Santander because of an injury he suffered in the field. 

It's sad for him how it is going but the projections are down hard on him and for good reason so it is what it is 

[glory]

8 hours ago, Laika said:

Getting tunnel vision and caring about "offense" is how the team made the Santander mistake signing to begin with 

They shouldn't care about the "offense" they should care about wins, or run differential. It seems like they know this now. I bet Atkins is privately relieved that Santander is out because the team projects better without him LOL it's sad but true. Lukes/Schneider platoon is probably better than Tony Titties on both sides of the ball. 

Atkins definitely relieved from a defensive standpoint. I said before, I couldn’t picture the Jays of all teams trotting Santander out in the OF everyday and being happy about it. At least in 2027 the DH spot will be available so they can put him there and not have to worry about his defense hurting them. At that point they just have to worry about how a 32 year old who would have essentially missed two seasons due to injury is going to bounce back when he only does one thing well. 

Atkins is usually pretty good with free agent signings but Taters was a big whiff. At least it’s due to injury and not his skills eroding but it may end up being both depending on how he bounces back in 2027 (I’m already writing him off for 2026).

[sliderguy35]

i just looked at some of the lukes projections and.... wow a 108 wRC+ feels very aggressive. having a .300 projected babip for a guy who doesn't hit the ball hard and hits it on the ground a ton doesn't seem like it'll age very well. my guess would be a wRC+ in the high 80s / low 90s and almost no meaningful at-bats in the back half of the season (if he's even on the roster).

if that's the case, then outside of a trade acquisition, it leaves 3 options for that left field spot by midseason: schneider, pinango and schreck.

• we kinda know what we're getting from schneider at this point, his approach is repeatable and it's commendable how much he improved his results against fastballs last year
• pinango's contact quality data is elite (you just don't see that combination of exit velocity & contact rate very often), but he has issues with getting the ball in the air and is apparently a butcher out in the field. my comp for him is like a left-handed heliot ramos. 
• schreck is almost like the opposite of pinango, his soft skills (putting the ball into the air on the pull side / approach at the plate / defense) are excellent and they allow his stats to play up, but his contact quality would be some of the worst in MLB if he were promoted immediately. think like nolan schanuel if he could play an outfield corner.

personally, unless pinango takes a barger-esque leap (another guy who had elite contact quality metrics combined with enough overall contact to make it worth it) and starts putting the ball in the air more, i'd like to see schneider get a legitimate shot to win the job

[glory]

14 minutes ago, sliderguy35 said:

i just looked at some of the lukes projections and.... wow a 108 wRC+ feels very aggressive. having a .300 projected babip for a guy who doesn't hit the ball hard and hits it on the ground a ton doesn't seem like it'll age very well. my guess would be a wRC+ in the high 80s / low 90s and almost no meaningful at-bats in the back half of the season (if he's even on the roster).

if that's the case, then outside of a trade acquisition, it leaves 3 options for that left field spot by midseason: schneider, pinango and schreck.

• we kinda know what we're getting from schneider at this point, his approach is repeatable and it's commendable how much he improved his results against fastballs last year
• pinango's contact quality data is elite (you just don't see that combination of exit velocity & contact rate very often), but he has issues with getting the ball in the air and is apparently a butcher out in the field. my comp for him is like a left-handed heliot ramos. 
• schreck is almost like the opposite of pinango, his soft skills (putting the ball into the air on the pull side / approach at the plate / defense) are excellent and they allow his stats to play up, but his contact quality would be some of the worst in MLB if he were promoted immediately. think like nolan schanuel if he could play an outfield corner.

personally, unless pinango takes a barger-esque leap (another guy who had elite contact quality metrics combined with enough overall contact to make it worth it) and starts putting the ball in the air more, i'd like to see schneider get a legitimate shot to win the job

Yeah, Lukes had an 89 wRC+ in the 2nd half of 2025 (84 against RHP) and a 90 wRC+ in the post season where he was primarily batting 2nd. He is a 31 going on 32 year old journeyman. I just don't see him being an above average offensive player moving forward, and even an average one is probably the high end of what I think he can be. As a 4th OF, that's fine. As a starting LF against RHP, that has the potential to be a sizable weakness. The Jays preferred playing IKF over DS in the playoffs, so I don't think DS will get the run that he probably should given the alternatives, though I guess we will see what they do. Even DS's 2025 numbers were skewed by 2 HR's against position players and being used in what the team considered to be favorable matchups.

We just have to hope the combination of Lukes/DS can be used in a way where both guys are put in favorable matchups that maximize their performance, whatever that may be. 

[BTS]

26 minutes ago, glory said:

Yeah, Lukes had an 89 wRC+ in the 2nd half of 2025 (84 against RHP) and a 90 wRC+ in the post season where he was primarily batting 2nd. He is a 31 going on 32 year old journeyman. I just don't see him being an above average offensive player moving forward, and even an average one is probably the high end of what I think he can be. As a 4th OF, that's fine. As a starting LF against RHP, that has the potential to be a sizable weakness. The Jays preferred playing IKF over DS in the playoffs, so I don't think DS will get the run that he probably should given the alternatives, though I guess we will see what they do. Even DS's 2025 numbers were skewed by 2 HR's against position players and being used in what the team considered to be favorable matchups.

We just have to hope the combination of Lukes/DS can be used in a way where both guys are put in favorable matchups that maximize their performance, whatever that may be. 

Luckily, corner OF help is probably the easiest thing to acquire midseason. If a Lukes/Schneider platoon disappoints, and if none of Schreck/Loperfido/Clase step up, then there should be options for 2-3 WAR LF available at the deadline without breaking the bank. 

[max silver]

26 minutes ago, glory said:

Yeah, Lukes had an 89 wRC+ in the 2nd half of 2025 (84 against RHP) and a 90 wRC+ in the post season where he was primarily batting 2nd. He is a 31 going on 32 year old journeyman. I just don't see him being an above average offensive player moving forward, and even an average one is probably the high end of what I think he can be. As a 4th OF, that's fine. As a starting LF against RHP, that has the potential to be a sizable weakness. The Jays preferred playing IKF over DS in the playoffs, so I don't think DS will get the run that he probably should given the alternatives, though I guess we will see what they do. Even DS's 2025 numbers were skewed by 2 HR's against position players and being used in what the team considered to be favorable matchups.

We just have to hope the combination of Lukes/DS can be used in a way where both guys are put in favorable matchups that maximize their performance, whatever that may be. 

Lukes produced a 118 wRC+ first half and was sitting at 112 wRC+ at the start of September so second half dropoff is primarily a result of a slow month of September alone. I agree he was misplaced hitting second in the lineup as he has more of a bottom of the lineup skillset however. 

[Brownie19]

A left-handed Heliot Ramos sounds good to me!

[Stangstag]

2 hours ago, max silver said:

It's kind of absurd how the knives have come out for Santander because of an injury he suffered in the field. 

I still like the guy, but its definitely alarming he will have only played 50ish games in the first 2 years of a 5 year deal. And those 50 games were pretty abysmal.

Hard not to see the entire deal as potentially sunk cost.

He is probably primarily a DH going forward, not ideal.