Blue Jays Discussion Thread (2026)

[Spanky__99]

On 6/18/2026 at 11:24 AM, Laika said:

From now until the All Star break:

1x Boston (29-42)
3x Cubs (39-36)
3x Astros (35-41)
4x Texas (35-38)
3x Mets (33-41)
(one off day)
3x Seattle (38-37)
3x Giants (31-43)

A few bad teams in here and a few teams around .500 with fanbases about as frustrated as Toronto's, for various reasons. 

Win every series. 13-7 in this stretch and the Jays go into the break 49-45 

5-1 thus far... Feels Good Man.

[Gen.Disarray]

So last June Atkins seeing the writing on the wall...

Ross - Satan if you're listening, I'd like to make a deal.

Satan appears

Satan - You rang?

Ross - It's not looking good for me. Just get me to the world series, you can do whatever you want to us next season. Season ending surgeries for multiple pitchers, anything. 

Satan - Done! *mutters under breath* Should've asked to win it all...

Ross - What?

Satan - Oooh nothing. I'm off to see a *checks brimstone scented request list* Mr. Ponce. See you next year. Hahhahahhahahhaha...

Fin

[Slade]

Might as well add Keys in, he'll have more homeruns than Vlad by the end of July. 

[harvey16]

With Macko and Keys heading to the big club, whose getting sent down?

[Laika]

13 minutes ago, harvey16 said:

With Macko and Keys heading to the big club, whose getting sent down?

I'm thinking it has to be two injuries... 

Honestly, Vlad to the IL makes a ton of sense. He has clearly been playing through some kind of injury for a month. 

[Slade]

SWR was DFA'd for the 40 man spot. Imagine, Vlad or Springer on the IL? I don't know where else they can fit Keys. 

[Laika]

5 minutes ago, Slade said:

SWR was DFA'd for the 40 man spot. Imagine, Vlad or Springer on the IL? I don't know where else they can fit Keys. 

it's probably NOT an IL thing after all as the rumour is now that Keys will get activated tomorrow 

[Spanky__99]

 

[bronson44]

 

[JaysFan99]

How did Barger play all of last season?  Dude is made of glass all of the sudden.

[Stangstag]

24 minutes ago, bronson44 said:

 

Bruh what

What tf is this cursed season man, im tired of this sht

[Masterbather]

Mama put my guns in the ground

I can't shoot them anymore

That cold black cloud is comin' down

Feels like I'm knockin' on Heaven's door

[Laika]

SWR cleared waivers! 

Outrighted to AAA

Unexpected, nice

[bronson44]

 

[Stangstag]

15 minutes ago, bronson44 said:

 

Canada day Bullpen start ROFL

[keggy]

20 hours ago, bronson44 said:

 

They haven't pitched Miles since Corbin's last start. They may be planning to build up Miles for a direct swap.

[Terminator]

14 minutes ago, keggy said:

They haven't pitched Miles since Corbin's last start. They may be planning to build up Miles for a direct swap.

Feels like his arm is going to fall off at this rate. He's thrown about 20 innings of pro ball across 5 seasons prior to this. Maybe they can just keep using him as a bulk pitcher until the trade deadline.

[harvey16]

This 9 game road trip before the allstar break is huge. We need to go on a run here to hopefully get close to .500 by the break. If not, we have to seriously consider trading all of our guys on expiring contracts and retool like we did at the 2024 deadline. Guys like Varsho, Beiber, Springer and Gausman should all be on the trade block. At this point the AL East title is basically a pipe dream and even a WC is getting further and further out of reach. Even if we somehow squeak into a WC spot it will be on the road and were likely 2 and done. Last year we got extremely lucky with very few injuries and things seemed to fall our way. Yes we've had alot of injuries this year but it's not even like we've been getting unlucky. Our expected W-L record is actually worse then our actual record. At this point being 5 games under past the halfway mark seems like a daunting task to even secure a WC spot. We have less then a 30% chance now to even make it. Honestly if we don't win all 3 road series before the break, it's time to go into hard sell mode and let the rookies see what they have.

[hanton]

Vlady's OPS is now in the 600's, f***ing brutal.

I say put him on the mound see what he can do.....maybe he needs a position change

[jaysblue]

Hoffman hasn't allowed an earned run since June 6, and over 11 appearances since then he's produced a 0.79 WHIP and 15:5 K:BB in 11.1 innings while picking up one win and two holds. 

Hmmm I wonder what changed? 🤔

[Laika]

1 hour ago, jaysblue said:

Hoffman hasn't allowed an earned run since June 6, and over 11 appearances since then he's produced a 0.79 WHIP and 15:5 K:BB in 11.1 innings while picking up one win and two holds. 

Hmmm I wonder what changed? 🤔

Regression to the mean lmao 

[keggy]

28 minutes ago, Laika said:

Regression to the mean lmao 

They also stopped pitching him in the 9th entirely.

[Stangstag]

11 hours ago, hanton said:

Vlady's OPS is now in the 600's, f***ing brutal.

I say put him on the mound see what he can do.....maybe he needs a position change

At least he has the sense to sit out the all-star break and rest up/get his mind off things for a bit.

Really gotta wonder if a 2 week IL stint would be beneficial for him

[jaysblue]

55 minutes ago, keggy said:

They also stopped pitching him in the 9th entirely.

Nah that had nothing to do with it 🤡

[max silver]

3 hours ago, jaysblue said:

Hoffman hasn't allowed an earned run since June 6, and over 11 appearances since then he's produced a 0.79 WHIP and 15:5 K:BB in 11.1 innings while picking up one win and two holds. 

Hmmm I wonder what changed? 🤔

Part of this is pitch mix, and part of it is normalizing of his historically inflated BABIP. He's throwing his best pitch more (slider) and reduced the usage of his worst pitch (4 seamer). I'm guessing you are trying to point to the inning he's pitching but I think he would be killing it in any inning presently based on how well he's pitching.

[jaysblue]

5 minutes ago, max silver said:

Part of this is pitch mix, and part of it is normalizing of his historically inflated BABIP. He's throwing his best pitch more (slider) and reduced the usage of his worst pitch (4 seamer). I'm guessing you are trying to point to the inning he's pitching but I think he would be killing it in any inning presently based on how well he's pitching.

“He’d be killing it in any inning” is a pretty convenient claim when you’re not actually asking him to do it in the ninth inning. 

Pitch mix and BABIP are part of the story, sure. Nobody is denying that. But closing isn’t just “take the same pitcher and move him to the 9th.” The leverage is different, the pressure is different, and the consequences of one bad pitch are different.

If the argument is that he’s fixed and it’s all just sliders and BABIP normalization, then great - put him back in the 9th and prove it. Until then, pretending the mental side of the game doesn’t exist is just box-score scouting dressed up as analysis.

[max silver]

1 hour ago, jaysblue said:

“He’d be killing it in any inning” is a pretty convenient claim when you’re not actually asking him to do it in the ninth inning. 

Pitch mix and BABIP are part of the story, sure. Nobody is denying that. But closing isn’t just “take the same pitcher and move him to the 9th.” The leverage is different, the pressure is different, and the consequences of one bad pitch are different.

If the argument is that he’s fixed and it’s all just sliders and BABIP normalization, then great - put him back in the 9th and prove it. Until then, pretending the mental side of the game doesn’t exist is just box-score scouting dressed up as analysis.

Hoffman had pretty damn similar success to the last month of the season in the post season last year as he only allowed 2 earned runs over the entire month. He was pitching the 9th inning so it's not like that success was driven by pitching in the 7th or 8th innings so there's history of success in the 9th inning in a closer role.  He's shown that he can go a month or more at a time between meltdowns in prior seasons in the 9th inning so it's far from proven to any degree at this point that the success is a function of inning as it's still a very small sample size. For instance he had a 5 week period in between meltdowns this season while primarily pitching in the 9th inning so it's not as if he hasn't experienced stretches of success in this role.

I don't have the ability to pick what inning Hoffman is pitching in so I don't see any value in your argument that I somehow have to put Hoffman back in the 9th inning to prove my theory. You've made this point several times for reasons I don't understand as I'm not the Blue Jays manager and can't pick and choose who pitches what innings. If/when Hoffman has a meltdown appearance in a lower inning we'll finally be able to put this silly narrative of him pitching better because of the inning he's pitching in to bed. I believe there's bound to eventually be an appearance where Hoffman shows up with poor stuff and even worse command even while pitching in the 7th or 8th inning as he's prone to occasional appearances of this nature. On these days I just hope the manager doesn't hang him out to dry and allow 4 or 5 runs to cross the plate before finally making a switch.

[Brownie19]

6 hours ago, jaysblue said:

Hoffman hasn't allowed an earned run since June 6, and over 11 appearances since then he's produced a 0.79 WHIP and 15:5 K:BB in 11.1 innings while picking up one win and two holds. 

Hmmm I wonder what changed? 🤔

You know the answer to this...

[jaysblue]

5 hours ago, max silver said:

Hoffman had pretty damn similar success to the last month of the season in the post season last year as he only allowed 2 earned runs over the entire month. He was pitching the 9th inning so it's not like that success was driven by pitching in the 7th or 8th innings so there's history of success in the 9th inning in a closer role.  He's shown that he can go a month or more at a time between meltdowns in prior seasons in the 9th inning so it's far from proven to any degree at this point that the success is a function of inning as it's still a very small sample size. For instance he had a 5 week period in between meltdowns this season while primarily pitching in the 9th inning so it's not as if he hasn't experienced stretches of success in this role.

I don't have the ability to pick what inning Hoffman is pitching in so I don't see any value in your argument that I somehow have to put Hoffman back in the 9th inning to prove my theory. You've made this point several times for reasons I don't understand as I'm not the Blue Jays manager and can't pick and choose who pitches what innings. If/when Hoffman has a meltdown appearance in a lower inning we'll finally be able to put this silly narrative of him pitching better because of the inning he's pitching in to bed. I believe there's bound to eventually be an appearance where Hoffman shows up with poor stuff and even worse command even while pitching in the 7th or 8th inning as he's prone to occasional appearances of this nature. On these days I just hope the manager doesn't hang him out to dry and allow 4 or 5 runs to cross the plate before finally making a switch.

You’re still not really addressing the actual concern.

Nobody is saying Hoffman has never had success in the 9th inning. Obviously he has. The issue is whether he’s mentally reliable enough to be trusted there over time, especially when the inning starts to get away from him.

“He can go a month between meltdowns” is not the airtight defense of a closer that you seem to think it is. That’s basically the concern. Closers are not judged only by their clean stretches. They’re judged by what happens when there’s traffic, bad command, a hostile crowd, and the game is sitting on one pitch. That’s where the mental side matters.

With Hoffman, the problem has never been that he lacks stuff. The stuff is clearly good enough. The problem is that when he starts unraveling, it snowballs fast. That’s not just a pitch-mix issue or a BABIP issue. That’s a composure issue. That’s a mound-presence issue. That’s a closer-role issue.

And the “I’m not the manager” point is irrelevant. Nobody thinks you personally control the bullpen. When I say put him back in the 9th and prove it, I’m talking about what would actually test your claim. If the inning and role don’t matter, then he should be just as trustworthy closing games as he is pitching earlier.

Also, one eventual meltdown in the 7th or 8th would not “put the narrative to bed.” It would only prove he can blow up in any inning, which nobody denied. It would not prove the mental pressure of the 9th is irrelevant.

Your argument keeps coming back to “he’s had good stretches before.” Sure. But the concern was never that Hoffman is incapable of being good. The concern is that when he’s bad, he doesn’t just bend - he combusts. And when that happens in the 9th inning, it’s a completely different problem.

[max silver]

1 hour ago, jaysblue said:

You’re still not really addressing the actual concern.

Nobody is saying Hoffman has never had success in the 9th inning. Obviously he has. The issue is whether he’s mentally reliable enough to be trusted there over time, especially when the inning starts to get away from him.

“He can go a month between meltdowns” is not the airtight defense of a closer that you seem to think it is. That’s basically the concern. Closers are not judged only by their clean stretches. They’re judged by what happens when there’s traffic, bad command, a hostile crowd, and the game is sitting on one pitch. That’s where the mental side matters.

With Hoffman, the problem has never been that he lacks stuff. The stuff is clearly good enough. The problem is that when he starts unraveling, it snowballs fast. That’s not just a pitch-mix issue or a BABIP issue. That’s a composure issue. That’s a mound-presence issue. That’s a closer-role issue.

And the “I’m not the manager” point is irrelevant. Nobody thinks you personally control the bullpen. When I say put him back in the 9th and prove it, I’m talking about what would actually test your claim. If the inning and role don’t matter, then he should be just as trustworthy closing games as he is pitching earlier.

Also, one eventual meltdown in the 7th or 8th would not “put the narrative to bed.” It would only prove he can blow up in any inning, which nobody denied. It would not prove the mental pressure of the 9th is irrelevant.

Your argument keeps coming back to “he’s had good stretches before.” Sure. But the concern was never that Hoffman is incapable of being good. The concern is that when he’s bad, he doesn’t just bend - he combusts. And when that happens in the 9th inning, it’s a completely different problem.

You are creating a strawman counter argument based on an opinion that I didn't even state in the first place. I never once stated that I think Hoffman should be pitching in the 9th inning so there's no need to spend so many paragraphs on a statement I didn't even make. My argument hinges on the opinion where I believe Hoffman likely would have enjoyed similar success if he had been pitching in the 9th inning during this recent stretch of dominance. He's largely been bringing his best stuff into games, commanding his pitches more effectively, and avoiding mistake pitches that end up in seats. Having said that I'm firmly on board with the current setup of Varland typically pitching the 9th inning as he's one of MLB's most dominant relievers and can pitch more than a single inning at a time if the situation warrants it. I like the current arrangement of the 3 headed monster of Hoffman and Rogers in setup roles with Varland closing as it's a very potent trio that should allow the team to successfully close out most games where they have a late lead.

You seem to be confusing correlation with causation a bit. We can absolutely correlate Hoffman having success when not pitching the 9th inning during this recent stretch, but what we can't do with any level of certainty is assign causation to Hoffman's success due to the inning he's pitching in. At the end of the day you are crafting a theory in exactly the same fashion as I am and neither of us can prove or disprove our theories due to the other confounding factors. As I previously mentioned I surmise that Hoffman's recent success is largely due to utilizing a more effective pitch mix and evening out of his historically inflated BABIP over the first few months of the season. Hoffman was the victim of a comically high .500 BABIP over the first two months of the season and this was something that was bound to regress to the mean in time, and reducing usage of a pitch that was being hammered on the regular in favor of his best pitch was a tweak that probably should have been made sooner. Once again Hoffman has experienced extended runs of several months of consecutive success in the 9th inning in the closer role, so a 4 week sample of success in a non 9th inning role isn't any kind of silver bullet towards proving causation of him being unable to succeed in the 9th inning.