glory

Great spot to use Garcia given how good he has been this year. If Romano is getting the 9th then I'd be a bit nervous considering it's his first game back.

Bichette better make up for this with a massive hot streak at some point, this is just ugly baseball from him in every facet of the game.

He's a Boras guy so he'll go to the highest bidder, which could be the Jays, but who knows. I think a QO is very possible, which no one would have predicted when he signed the contract.

Yeah, Atkins' strength has definitely been short term MLB signings/trades from 2020-onwards (he was kinda bad from 2017-19 in that area). Obviously having a large payroll is a reason for that, but you still have to hit on those signings, and he has for the most part. Not sure what that says about Atkins moving forward as Vlad and Bo come closer to free agency. Spending big in free agency is not a sustainable team building model. They'll need internal improvements relatively soon. If he stays on, then he needs to have his next core group of players filtering up yesterday. Hitting on Yariel would be huge, and obviously lots of pressure on Tiedemann, Orelvis, Barger, etc, to make an impact in the short/medium term. It's kinda sad that Vlad was not as good as everyone expected him to be. Could have changed the entire dynamic of these last two years, plus 2024-25 as well. Now he's legitimately a non tender candidate after this season.

Seriously, Cabrera is awful. Look at the track record. He hasn't even been good this season. I can't believe the Jays are looking at which hand the ball is thrown out of rather than actual talent. Not saying Pearson is a stud or anything, but him vs Genesis is a no brainer.

Mitch White DFA, and Pearson optioned. Sucks for Pearson. Cabrera has options (I think) and there’s a good chance he stinks so aside from being a lefty I’m not sure he’s a better guy to have in the pen.

Vlad, Bo, Springer, Varsho, Kirk, and KK have collectively been bad (combined WAR of 0.1). I think there’s a real chance KK is washed (never should have brought him back) but the others should get better as Turner, IKF, and Biggio regress. Then add Jansen to the mix which should help.

Big win. Would have been a painful loss if the pitching couldn’t hold it considering Gil was essentially trying to give the Jays the game on a silver platter. Being 9-8 with the majority of the offense being s*** isn’t a bad spot to be in. Just have to hope the offense gets hot and pitching/defense remains effective. Getting Gausman back on track as well as getting Romano/Swanson back will help as well.

Mayza in this spot scares me.

Gil was literally trying to give the Jays runs. KK gets 5 straight balls and swings through 3 of them, then Varsho forgets how to play baseball. If the team wants to not hit home runs then they better be great at everything else. Very frustrating to watch, gotta hope Bassitt can hold the Yankees down here.

This team is so frustrating to watch.

Kiermaier might be washed.

Bichette has been trash this season so far.

My guess is Kirk is Bassitt's "personal catcher". Kirk caught 28 of his games last year. Of course, Kirk has also started 14 of the team's 16 games already, and he's been absolute ass at the plate, so starting Jansen with Bassitt this one time probably wouldn't have done any harm, but the Jays benching one of the few players on the team who pulls the ball and hits it in the air is something we should be getting used to by now.

Tonight's lineup is same old, same old (Springer-Vlad-Bo-Turner-Biggio-Kirk-Varsho-IKF-KK). It's bad enough they never start DS, now they make us wait for Jansen too.

Votto's dead cat bounce was 2021. I mean I'd rather have him in the Vogelbach role than Vogelbach, but expecting anything significant from Joey at this point is wishful thinking. I'm more curious what they do with Horowitz. It's not like this FO has been prioritizing power over the last couple of years, and his offensive skill set is basically the prototype for what the 2023-present Jays seem to value (contact, low strike outs). I feel like he'd be above Votto on the depth chart at this point, but who knows. Maybe he's trade bait, although with Vlad being a legitimate question mark when it comes to tender/non tender this winter, they might hold on to him for that reason.

Damn, Jimi looks lethal this season.

Varsho's wRC+ up to 90 now.

Davis Schneider continues to save the Jays.

Yeah I want no part of Bichette on a long term, $200-300m contract. His offensive profile with the low walk totals is not going to age well. I actually would have considered trading him prior to 2024 but I realize the Jays operate differently (optics, attendance, etc) so a quick pivot like that was likely never even a consideration. So if the team is still good, then keep him through 2025 and then let him walk as a FA. If the team looks middling by the deadline this season or by the end of the season, then look into trading him. Vlad is more difficult to read because he's legitimately a non tender candidate but his 2025 season prior to hitting free agency could be very tantalizing. Contract years can do that to players sometimes. Either way, he's looked closer to Miguel Sano than Miguel Cabrera, and I'm not banking on that. If he develops later into his career, it likely won't be with the Jays as if they couldn't get the most out of him now, I'm not sure what is going to change. I've said before, if Atkins was better at drafting, then moving on from this core would have been easy. Both Vlad and Bo are flawed enough to where moving on from one or both would be completely reasonable, and wouldn't prevent the team from contending. They kinda have to develop some talent though for that to become a reality.

RF Springer 1B Vlad SS Bichette DH Turner CA Jansen 2B Biggio LF Schneider 3B IKF/Clement CF Varsho/Kiermaier Doesn’t look that bad. Put Barger at 3B over IKF in that scenario and it would give the team legitimate power threats in the bottom of the order rather than slap dick singles hitters from 6 through 9. I don’t see the team doing this unless forced to, though. A poor start can change a lot of things though.

Strider had UCL surgery and is out for the year. Big blow to the Braves.

Yeah this is beginning to resemble 2023 from an entertainment standpoint and that’s not a good thing. I mean if they can win 90 games again in the most frustrating and boring way possible then I’ll take it, but man it’s just a bland ass team. Has the look and feel of a mid 2000’s JP Ricciardi squad.

Since the trade, Varsho has an 81 wRC+ and 2.0 WAR in 623 PA (167 G). Something is not right with him. It looks like he has options remaining so if it's possible to send him down then it's getting to the point where they should consider it. Fixing his bat is pretty important for the organization given he's controllable through 2026.

Honestly, if they were structuring the playing time around who makes the most, then I think that would be more reasonable than thinking IKF, KK, and Varsho (the Jays version) give them a better chance to win than DS. My only guess is that the Jays as an org aren't as high on DS as the projections are for whatever reason, which is fine, but if your alternatives are what they are, then you kinda have to give DS more burn. He's not being blocked by Semien and Teoscar. This is the 2024 Jays. There shouldn't be any barrier to playing time.