glory

Sanchez only had one good season in his entire pro career, and it was 2016. Wasn't good before or since (at least as a SP). From memory, his minor league numbers were pretty s*** for a top prospect. This is the first season in Ray's career that he's looked like an ace, but his pre 2020 numbers were good. If the expectation is that he'll be somewhere between his pre 2020 numbers and his 2021 numbers over the next few years, then that's pretty damn good, but if you're expecting him to repeat this season again, then it's probably optimistic. Semien has been a MVP caliber player for the last two full seasons. He's probably the safer bet.

4D Chess once again.

Soria was an all star like a decade ago, so in Buntoyo's mind, he has what it takes in the high pressure spots.

He used Mayza, Richards, and Cimber yesterday, so I'm guessing, what Soria and Pearson to bridge to Romano (assuming the Jays still have a lead after Soria is walking off the field)?

Use Cimber in a 8-0 game yesterday....... warm up Soria to come into a 4-1 game the next night.

Even Yankee announcers are wondering why he wasn't walking gingerly back to the dugout after being taken out. Kirk ripped the man's heart out is a more likely explanation.

As I said before if Springer is not healthy then Kirk is the answer at DH. Of course he’s not a vetrin so I’m sure Charlie will disagree but get Kirk’s bat in the lineup as much as possible.

Judge almost had two fake home runs in that AB.

Not only is the season almost over, but Merryweather only has a very finite amount of bullets a season anyway before he gets hurt. Waiting until he does well in AAA just potentially takes some of those bullets away. Call him up, let him throw 100, and hope his arm stays in tact long enough to actually help over the next 3-4 weeks.

With 3 catchers on the roster, the Jays should definitely DH Kirk if Springer is hurting.

Of course Yarborough lays an egg when we need him. More reason to hate the Rays.

How the f*** did Kirk not pinch hit for Jansen??

Man, I know Merryweather staying on a field for more than 10 seconds is asking a lot (same with Pearson to some degree) but a pen of Romano, Pearson, Merryweather, Mayza, Cimber, and Richards actually looks very formidable. I'm sure Buntoyo will find a way to give Soria a bunch of 7th or 8th inning high leverage spots because of vetrin presents, but if he keeps that to a minimum, then there's real upside for once this season for the pen.

There is also the impending decision to make on Berrios after 2022. Not sure the team is going to want too many big free agent contracts on the books and then have to deal with Vlad and Bo in a few years (along with rising arb numbers before that). It doesn't mean they won't try to bring both back, but those two + Berrios all being on the 2023 team seems unlikely, although Ryu and Grichuk both coming off the books in two years will help (damn that Grich contract feels like it's Pujols' contract in length).

The fact that Semien went to the Jays knowing he wouldn't play SS leads me to believe that he will go to the highest bidder regardless. Whether the Jays will end up being the highest bidder for him this winter remains to be seen, but if they are, then I don't think he'll have an issue playing 2B full time and being Bo's backup at SS. Dude wants to get paid, can't blame him. I've said before, if you can get both Semien and Ray locked up on 4 year deals, then go for it. If it goes beyond 4 years, as it could for Ray, then they might have to go a different direction.

90 wins probably won't be enough. I agree that the only realistic way to make it, or at least greatly improve the odds, is to play better than expected against the Rays and Yankees (and obviously sweeping the A's today) while also doing what they're supposed to do against the O's and Twins. I think 92 or 93 wins at minimum is required as expecting 3 or 4 teams (BOS, NYY, OAK, SEA) to tank simultaneously is asking a lot. So 20-8 the rest of the way might give them a fighting chance, but they probably need to go something like 22-6 or 21-7. The margin for error is basically none.

Damn, Romano got hit hard and then ump saves him in the end. I’ll take it.

Jansen's OPS is now almost identical to Grichuk's (.703 versus .704). Not sure Dickerson in CF is a smart move if done too much, but with Gurriel on a hot streak (pretty much since June), he shouldn't be sitting. Find a way to platoon Dick and Grich somehow.

Agreed. Every team is going to have an injury or bad luck here and there. Way more went right for the Jays than wrong, and the things that went right went VERY right. Rotation was healthy all year aside from minor time missed. The team's best starters (rotation and lineup) stayed healthy all year for the most part. I mean, we can look at things like Kirk's injury, or Biggio's regression, but that's small potatoes in the grand scheme of things. If Vlad, Bo, and others missed time, then we could have played the injury card. The good news is the Jays are a very young team, so there's still a chance that the roster is ascending. Maybe we look back on this season as a 2016 Astros type of season where it was the calm before the explosion (although whether the Jays decide to cheat or not in 2022 is up to them).

Honestly, if the Jays aren't going to make it (spoiler: they won't), then I'm more than fine with a Yankees/Red Sox Wild Card game. Two historic franchises, winner take all, and will generate a lot of buzz. Obviously I'd prefer the Jays being there over the Red Sox, but run differential doesn't guarantee playoff spots unfortunately.

You don't want him to play while injured and risk either re-injury to the same body part or hurt something else while compensating. Yes, he'll have an entire off season to rest, but that doesn't mean another injury/re-injury wouldn't negatively impact him in some way. For a hail mary run at a 2nd WC spot where the winning team gets Gerrit Cole at Yankee Stadium, you really have to weigh the pro's and con's carefully on a long term investment like this.

Glad to see the Jays throwing caution to the wind with a guy they are paying big money to for the next five years, who is already in his 30's. Not asking for trouble at all.

The Jays had the best case scenario type of off season where practically every acquisition they made greatly exceeded expectations, and they'll still finish 4th place in the division and anywhere from 7th to 8th in the AL (depending on what happens to Seattle down the stretch....don't see the Jays overtaking Oakland or Boston). Semien is a top 3 WAR player this year and Ray is a legit Cy Young candidate. Matz has been a very solid bottom of the rotation option. Springer has mashed when healthy. Yates got hurt in spring training but the Jays signed him knowing he was hurt to begin with. I don't think you can dream about having an off season this good most years, and it amounted to nothing despite the fact that Vlad broke out, Teoscar has been better than expected, Bo is Bo, McGuire was actually more than serviceable when injuries hit the starting C's, etc. A lot went right. In fact, too much went right for the Jays not to have made a playoff spot. The sad thing is if Manfred's vision of expanded playoffs were a reality right now (7 teams in each league), the Jays would still miss the playoffs as of today. One of the more frustrating seasons in recent memory. The last time I remember being this annoyed by a season was 2014, when the Jays were literally in a playoff spot (2nd WC) on July 31 but didn't do a damn thing at the deadline to improve the roster.

Boston down 7-1 (unfortunately A's up 6-1). Better not f*** this game/series up.

Worst trade? No. Bad one? Yes. And I say that as someone who thinks Riley Adams won't amount to much.