Blue Jays Discussion Thread (2026)

[sliderguy35]

also: buy any and all connor seabold stock available right now. this spring, he is currently:

• throwing all his pitches 2-3 ticks harder
• throwing his fastball with nearly 4 additional inches of vertical movement from a below average release height
  • adding velocity usually lowers vertical break, so gaining both is fantastic
• his changeup is averaging 17 inches of vertical break separation from his fastball (he averaged 20 today)
  • 10 inches of separation is considered good
• striking out close to 40% of hitters with a swinging strike rate over 20%
  • his swinging strike rate is 7th among all pitchers who've thrown at least 100 pitches this spring

the command looks a bit rocky but he'd be a legit bullpen arm with even a below average walk rate. a really great find for the org.

[jaysblue]

7 hours ago, abola2121 said:

Preferably guys who'll still be in their prime after 5 years.

Nothing wrong with shorter term deals on some vets if the price is right. 

You don't have to sign every arm to 5+ years. We even saw this past offseason, guys like Framber, King, and many other signing 3-year-deals or less. Only two pitchers who signed 5+ were Ranger Suarez and Dylan Cease. 

If you were a team, nothing wrong going year-to-year with a vet like Woodruff or Ray. 

[Spanky__99]

Guys talking about next offseason while in ST...😅

[jaysblue]

3 hours ago, Spanky__99 said:

Guys talking about next offseason while in ST...😅

Nothing wrong with that. 

Gausman, Bieber, Scherzer and Lauer will be FA's which leaves a rotation of Cease, Yesavage, Ponce and Berrios on paper. You definitely need to add some arms again next offseason. 

[Spanky__99]

1 hour ago, jaysblue said:

Nothing wrong with that. 

Gausman, Bieber, Scherzer and Lauer will be FA's which leaves a rotation of Cease, Yesavage, Ponce and Berrios on paper. You definitely need to add some arms again next offseason. 

Tips.

[hanton]

[Brownie19]

a stress fracture?  WTF man.  Brutal.

[hanton]

"Stress fractures are usually overuse injuries. They happen when physical activity puts too much pressure on a bone and it doesn’t have enough time to recover. Stress fractures start as bone bruises that eventually become small cracks in the bone’s surface"

I think "fracture" makes it seem worse than it is

[Laika]

 

 

[Spanky__99]

17 hours ago, Brownie19 said:

a stress fracture?  WTF man.  Brutal.

Better than a ligament tear, hopefully it works out. Barger hit a moonshot in yesterdays game it was glorious. Big year for him...
 

 

[Brownie19]

https://toronto.citynews.ca/2026/03/19/buck-martinez-toronto-blue-jays-level-of-excellence-rogers-centre/

As expected, Buck is headed straight to the Level of Excellence.  Ceremony will be August 29th.

[bluejaysinternNo5]

Yesavage starts the season in the IL with a right shoulder impingement. 

[John_Havok]

5 minutes ago, bluejaysinternNo5 said:

Yesavage starts the season in the IL with a right shoulder impingement. 

f***

at least he's already throwing and being built up. He just wont be built up in time to start the season on the big club. 

He tossed 35 pitches in a minor league game earlier in the week and felt good, but there isn’t enough time to complete his ramp-up before Opening Day. He is scheduled to throw again on March 25, though no formal return timetable has been set. 

[Olerud363.354]

1 minute ago, John_Havok said:

at least he's already throwing and being built up. He just wont be built up in time to start the season on the big club. 

Does this basically mean he already is rehabbing the injury, and will show up in late April or something?  I guess you never know for sure.  Hopefully nothing too serious. 

[John_Havok]

4 minutes ago, Olerud363.354 said:

Does this basically mean he already is rehabbing the injury, and will show up in late April or something?  I guess you never know for sure.  Hopefully nothing too serious. 

Yes. He apparently showed up to ST with the issue, and theyve been building him up slowly. per Schneider

[Laika]

So now the team makes a difficult decision I guess. 

MLB IL would mean he is still getting service time and would be PPI eligible if he comes back in a few weeks then wins rookie of the year or whatever. Would get a full year of service time regardless of awards, unless he gets demoted later. 

Optioning him and putting him on the minor league IL and bringing him along more slowly would negate the PPI upside, add PPI downside (him getting a full year of service time without the team using him that much), but leave the possibility of getting an additional year of control over him. 

[Laika]

The bullpen decisions are narrowing too. 

Lauer in the rotation means Miles and Bastardo can make it if they option Fisher. 

[gruber9292]

Varsho primed for a big year 

[mellowgold2]

Haven't been following closely but I hear Bieber, Berrios, and Yesavage are starting the year on the IL.

 

So who does that leave in the rotation?

Gausman, Cease, Ponce, Lauer, and...?

Is Scherzer ready to go?

[Orgfiller]

1 hour ago, Laika said:

The bullpen decisions are narrowing too. 

Lauer in the rotation means Miles and Bastardo can make it if they option Fisher. 

I just don't see how they keep both guys on the roster if they're serious about contending. Haven't looked at the schedule so maybe there's enough off-days in the early going where you can get away with essentially punting your last two relievers, but if that's not the case then it seems likely we return one or try to make an agreement with their original team if we really want to keep them around.

[Stangstag]

20 minutes ago, mellowgold2 said:

Haven't been following closely but I hear Bieber, Berrios, and Yesavage are starting the year on the IL.

 

So who does that leave in the rotation?

Gausman, Cease, Ponce, Lauer, and...?

Is Scherzer ready to go?

Getting close to having a full MLB rotation on the DL loll

[Laika]

21 minutes ago, mellowgold2 said:

Haven't been following closely but I hear Bieber, Berrios, and Yesavage are starting the year on the IL.

 

So who does that leave in the rotation?

Gausman, Cease, Ponce, Lauer, and...?

Is Scherzer ready to go?

Seems like it. He was building up before the Jays signed him. 

[Laika]

2 minutes ago, Orgfiller said:

I just don't see how they keep both guys on the roster if they're serious about contending. Haven't looked at the schedule so maybe there's enough off-days in the early going where you can get away with essentially punting your last two relievers, but if that's not the case then it seems likely we return one or try to make an agreement with their original team if we really want to keep them around.

They play 7 straight days but then get 4 off days within the rest of April. 

Fisher was so good last year. Would hate to option him if he projects as a top 5 RP. 

Nance is 35 years old... how much stock do you put in 30 good innings in 2025? Does letting him go or trading him make sense? 

I thought Bastardo was having a better spring but I just looked and he actually has been s*****. lol

 

[Brownie19]

8 minutes ago, Laika said:

I thought Bastardo was having a better spring but I just looked and he actually has been s*****. lol

His ERA looks great!!!

[glory]

Neither Bastardo or Miles have been that good, at least numbers-wise, in spring training. Maybe they've looked better with their stuff, I'm not sure, but a serious team isn't putting two rule 5 guys in the pen and demoting someone like Fisher. With the amount of arms on the IL (Bieber, Berrios, Yesavage, Garcia), I could see one of Bastardo or Miles making it, but that's about it. Probably Bastardo if they think he can give them length in low leverage spots where they need someone to soak up innings. With Lauer in the rotation they need a long man, at least temporarily, and Lauer is a big time regression candidate so someone who can eat up innings and be good at the same time would be better. 

[Spanky__99]

4 hours ago, Brownie19 said:

https://toronto.citynews.ca/2026/03/19/buck-martinez-toronto-blue-jays-level-of-excellence-rogers-centre/

As expected, Buck is headed straight to the Level of Excellence.  Ceremony will be August 29th.

I knew it, a Blue Jay staple.

[Spanky__99]

3 hours ago, John_Havok said:

f***

at least he's already throwing and being built up. He just wont be built up in time to start the season on the big club. 

He tossed 35 pitches in a minor league game earlier in the week and felt good, but there isn’t enough time to complete his ramp-up before Opening Day. He is scheduled to throw again on March 25, though no formal return timetable has been set. 

This is all by design. He's likely where they want him at. Phantom injury to build him up for May and onward.

[sliderguy35]

my gut tells me they'll try and sneak bastardo on as the last bullpen guy for the requisite 90 days (because they stashed him last year, it's only 90 days this year) if they can. he hasn't really shown a feel for location but he's younger & the stuff is good enough to play at least. miles' stuff isn't as good and they'd have to hold him for the whole year to keep him, IMO there's no way he sticks.

arden's tweet about them wanting a guy who can fill multiple innings for the last slot in the pen makes me think that they're going with seabold for one of the spots & then deciding whether its worth it to consume fisher's last option to keep nance. seabold's been a bulk guy who's started games in the minors the last few years & he's looked legitimately good this spring

 

[Terminator]

18 minutes ago, sliderguy35 said:

my gut tells me they'll try and sneak bastardo on as the last bullpen guy for the requisite 90 days (because they stashed him last year, it's only 90 days this year) if they can. he hasn't really shown a feel for location but he's younger & the stuff is good enough to play at least. miles' stuff isn't as good and they'd have to hold him for the whole year to keep him, IMO there's no way he sticks.

arden's tweet about them wanting a guy who can fill multiple innings for the last slot in the pen makes me think that they're going with seabold for one of the spots & then deciding whether its worth it to consume fisher's last option to keep nance. seabold's been a bulk guy who's started games in the minors the last few years & he's looked legitimately good this spring

 

It would be a good time to try out someone like Seabold. Give him a couple of appearances and if he sucks they can swap him out for Fisher or Yariel.

[Vancouverite]

Im personally over the Davis Schneider excitement

Rather Jimenez or Kasevich make the team... better D, better base running, better flexibility

Jimenez is a career .393 OBP in minors and has shown a good eye in limited mlb time

Kasevich is unknown and thats excited

Schneider is what he is.

 

Send Schneider down.

Roll with Okomoto in LF vs LHP, slide Ernie to 3B and put Jimenez/Kasevich at 2B.

As of now we need a much better LH bench bat than Schneider. That should be a priority acquisition throughout the year