Blue Jays Discussion Thread (2026)

[Jonn]

Feel like the logical move is to have Santander replace Springer as the DH. But we have no idea what they would actually get out of him. He basically hasn’t played Baseball in 2 years. His shoulder and back could just be toast at this point.

We also don’t know how Barger is going to show up to camp,

[glory]

17 hours ago, bluejaysinternNo5 said:

If we can sign one of Jazz or Suzuki, who would you pick? I like Suzuki more even while acknowledging his age.

For 2027, Jazz will be 29 while Suzuki (and Arozarena and Lowe) will be 32. Just by age alone you probably lean towards Jazz. The issue is he has a lot of Stroman-like qualities in terms of personality, which I personally don’t care about (half the 2015 team were *******s and we loved them) but this FO probably takes it seriously. 

I mentioned Marte earlier. It seems like he’s writing a ticket out of Arizona (home fans booed him last night and he wore a hat talking about burning bridges post game). A buy low there would be ideal compared to the FA alternatives but unlike Jazz who is just arrogant, Marte seems like more of a head case type, so that possibly crosses him off the Jays list as well.

[Laika]

6 hours ago, Forever92 said:

I hope you joking Santander starting in left?

I guarantee they try it 

He is 32, not 36

He was a bad but not atrocious outfielder before 

I will not guarantee that it will be pretty or work at all but if he can play 81 games there or whatever it opens up a lot more for the roster, offensively. Sean Keys etc. 

[Brownie19]

48 minutes ago, glory said:

For 2027, Jazz will be 29 while Suzuki (and Arozarena and Lowe) will be 32. Just by age alone you probably lean towards Jazz. The issue is he has a lot of Stroman-like qualities in terms of personality, which I personally don’t care about (half the 2015 team were *******s and we loved them) but this FO probably takes it seriously. 

I mentioned Marte earlier. It seems like he’s writing a ticket out of Arizona (home fans booed him last night and he wore a hat talking about burning bridges post game). A buy low there would be ideal compared to the FA alternatives but unlike Jazz who is just arrogant, Marte seems like more of a head case type, so that possibly crosses him off the Jays list as well.

These comparisons require consideration for the years/AAV required to sign them.  3 years $70M for Suzuki/Randy v. 5 years $150M for Jazz has to be factored in.  Of course I'm just making those numbers up, but it's a huge factor IMO.

If it takes 4 or 5 years to sign Suzuki/Randy and only 5 or 6 years to sign Jazz, then that favors Jazz a lot.

[John_Havok]

1 minute ago, Brownie19 said:

These comparisons require consideration for the years/AAV required to sign them.  3 years $70M for Suzuki/Randy v. 5 years $150M for Jazz has to be factored in.  Of course I'm just making those numbers up, but it's a huge factor IMO.

If it takes 4 or 5 years to sign Suzuki/Randy and only 5 or 6 years to sign Jazz, then that favors Jazz a lot.

It's rather disheartening the best FA hitter options begin and end with Jizzuki.

[bluejaysinternNo5]

The Jays also have a lot of slightly above average hitters. Not sure if I love spending a theoretical 150M for yet another slightly above average hitter.

[Terminator]

We suck against lefties and it's tough to find right handed hitting outfielders right now. Taters can fill that role and can get some run at DH as well. It's easy to fit him into the roster next year.

 

[Laika]

 

 

 

[Laika]

Sounds like Jose Rodriguez is another "bad fastball" guy

Braydon Fisher, sort of

Except the 6"6" version who looks like a freaking daddy long legs coming at you and throws a changeup 

[G-Snarls]

So we traded Rodríguez for Rodríguez?

[Pendleton]

1 hour ago, Laika said:

Sounds like Jose Rodriguez is another "bad fastball" guy

Braydon Fisher, sort of

Except the 6"6" version who looks like a freaking daddy long legs coming at you and throws a changeup 

Pipeline described his changeup as the best in the Dodgers farm system, " a low 80s cambio with tremendous fade and some depth as well". 

[max silver]

2 hours ago, Laika said:

Sounds like Jose Rodriguez is another "bad fastball" guy

Braydon Fisher, sort of

Except the 6"6" version who looks like a freaking daddy long legs coming at you and throws a changeup 

His changeup generated a crazy 68% whiff rate in AAA this season.

[G-Snarls]

2 minutes ago, max silver said:

His changeup generated a crazy 68% whiff rate in AAA this season.

Call him up!

[max silver]

2 minutes ago, G-Snarls said:

Call him up!

It appears this guy has an excellent changeup to go with an effective slider but very little command of his arsenal. I don't know if my heart could take a right handed version of Brendan Little at this point.

[Pendleton]

8 minutes ago, max silver said:

It appears this guy has an excellent changeup to go with an effective slider but very little command of his arsenal. I don't know if my heart could take a right handed version of Brendan Little at this point.

Brendan Rittle 

[Brownie19]

11 minutes ago, max silver said:

It appears this guy has an excellent changeup to go with an effective slider but very little command of his arsenal. I don't know if my heart could take a right handed version of Brendan Little at this point.

This is exactly the type of player the Jays have been targeting.  He's like a carbon copy of Fisher.

[Spanky__99]

 

[Omar]

8 minutes ago, Pendleton said:

Brendan Rittle 

Ringlish?

[G-Snarls]

5 minutes ago, Spanky__99 said:

 

Excited to see Tiedemann again and to get Keys some at bats

[Spanky__99]

RHP Simeon Woods Richardson cleared waivers and elected free agency

[Terminator]

6 minutes ago, Spanky__99 said:

RHP Simeon Woods Richardson cleared waivers and elected free agency

Thank god. 

[Spanky__99]

Kind of surprised by the DFA of Daz?

[Pendleton]

7 minutes ago, Spanky__99 said:

Kind of surprised by the DFA of Daz?

 

He had a couple wet noodle throws from LF, really limits his value if he's essentially a bat-only guy who can't take a walk. He did show that he can hit a nuke though 

[Spanky__99]

3 minutes ago, Pendleton said:

 

He had a couple wet noodle throws from LF, really limits his value if he's essentially a bat-only guy who can't take a walk. He did show that he can hit a nuke though 

Jesus, is a nightmare out there, we're going to see a lot of Straw.

[Jonn]

Jose Rodriguez is a nice get. I think he could be a legit bullpen guy for the foreseeable future.

[glory]

If you assume the Jays are terrified of playing Sanchez in LF, meaning Straw is now an everyday player (barf), then the non-catching bench looks like this:

Keys (LHB)
Smith (LHB)
Sanchez (LHB)
McAdoo (RHB)

It's probably a long shot that Keys can handle LF (at least in 2026....maybe in time he will) and Max losing his mind at Sanchez probably has made JS apprehensive to start him there. They really need a RHB who can hit LHP on the bench. Even if Straw was put back on the bench, he's actually worse against LHP than he is against RHP, so that wouldn't help either.

 

[max silver]

50 minutes ago, Brownie19 said:

This is exactly the type of player the Jays have been targeting.  He's like a carbon copy of Fisher.

He features a different arsenal than Fisher but there are certainly similarities in that each features a fastball with substandard shape and several effective non fastball whiff generating pitches. The club has enjoyed success in players like this such as Fisher/Little/Nance so hopefully history repeats itself. 

[John_Havok]

59 minutes ago, Terminator said:

Thank god. 

He served his purpose well enough here but yeah... see ya!

He'll catch back on somewhere as a depth guy to be abused at some point

[cjm]

Let's give Vladdy the brotherly love "Trea Turner treatment" on Sept 11th.

Hey Blue Jays fans, seeing our own crowd boo Vladdy at Rogers Centre recently was devastating. He is clearly stuck in his own head and struggling for power, but we know his generational talent. He needs a spark that a batting cage can’t give him—he needs to know Toronto has his back!

I propose a plan for our next home game on Friday, September 11th against the Orioles: When Vladdy completes his first at-bat, he gets a massive, deafening standing ovation regardless of what he does.

Let's do this to show appreciation for his past performance, recognize that he is doing his best, and drown out the hometown boos. Philadelphia did this for Trea Turner and it completely saved his season.

If you are going to the game on Sept 11th, please commit to stand up and cheer our hometown hero. Spread the word to anyone with tickets. There's plenty of time. Upvote, Upvote, Upvote! Let's pull our superstar out of this slump. Now is the time! If they make the wildcard, this will be the trigger to something big. Let's go Blue Jays!!!

Upvote, Upvote, Upvote!

cjm

[Brownie19]

1 hour ago, max silver said:

He features a different arsenal than Fisher but there are certainly similarities in that each features a fastball with substandard shape and several effective non fastball whiff generating pitches. The club has enjoyed success in players like this such as Fisher/Little/Nance so hopefully history repeats itself. 

Sorry - I also meant from a high K%, high BB% perspective.  Jays clearly believe they can turn great stuff/poor command pitchers into great stuff/acceptable command pitchers.