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I had a quick gander various bullpens in the top 15 in saves, and really only came up with a small assortment of contending teams that split the closer duties in this fashion. Nearly every contending team has a definitive closer who has vastly more saves than the rest of the bullpen options. There have been several teams who switched closers mid season due to health and/or underperformance (Dodgers, Yankees and Braves are all examples of this) but for the most part a team chooses the reliever who is best suited to pitch the 9th inning and sticks with this option as much as possible, changing as needed due to availability on any given day.

I really don't think bullpen upgrades were available in June as there were next to no trades made at all for the entire month. Prices were already stupidly high at the deadline, I shudder to think what the cost for relief upgrades would have been prior to the deadline this season. I actually like the bench quite a bit right now. Having Biggio, Tapia, Merrifield, and Kirk when he's not catching/DH that day is actually pretty decent, especially compared to previous years. When everyone is healthy the rotation is 6 deep. Of course this depends on Kikuchi actually contributing something, but his first few starts after returning from the IL have been pretty encouraging.

Jackie Bradley Jr. is the complete antithesis of an impact bat. His bat is so weak that he's subreplacement for the last few seasons. The Jays already have a no bat defensive replacement available off the bench in Bradley Zimmer.

I imagine the front office wants Thornton in case the need to cover multiple innings arises. The pen has really been taxed over the last few games of this series.

It looks like fastballs aren't a huge issue for him as he produced an xWOBA of .352 against fastballs. Breaking pitches are a much bigger issue, he stuggles to even make contact with them as he has a 55% whiff rate. It seems as though the league has noticed this and really been feeding him a steady dose of breaking stuff.

I'll go ahead and assume you mean Merrifield. I caught one of my earlier posts using Merryweather instead. It seems as though the front office has been trying to address the lack of left handed balance in the lineup over the last few offseasons but have come up empty handed. A deal with Michael Brantley was all but finished until he changed his mind at the last minute. The team was a reported finalist for Corey Seager but the Rangers ended up paying him $325 million, hard pass to signing Seager to that kind of boat anchor contract. They were also linked to Schwarber who ended up taking big dollars to sign with the Phillies. They were also linked to Jose Ramirez as well this offseason, that's the missed opportunity that stings the most.

Sadly this is what happens when the inmates are allowed to run the asylum.

Laureano would have been an interesting pickup but there are reasons to argue for and against picking him up. Cons include the fact that Laureano bats right handed and his defensive metrics in center field have really plummeted this season. He was busted for PED's as well so that's another strike against him. Acquisition cost likely would have been more painful as well. Pros include the fact that he likely a better player for the rest of this season and moving forward compared to Merrifield and is cheaper/has more remaining years of control. It's hard to say whether Oakland was interested in moving him or not though given the cheap remaining years of control.

Given how close to the deadline the Merrifield acquisition was made I'm sure this was far from the first choice for the front office. It was definitely a headscratcher to move out Castillo given the lack of starting depth in the organization, but Taylor isn't likely somebody to lose any sleep over. The team didn't even protect him ahead of the rule 5 draft, and given the large number of prospects needing to be added to the 40 man roster this offseason it made a lot of sense to consolidate some of the more extraneous prospects into help for the big league roster. There was a pronounced need to attain outfield help given the tenuous Springer injury situation, so if moving out Castillo ended up being the only way to get this done then so be it. You can certainly choose to call me a homer, optimist or whatever other descriptor you choose but I am a firm believer in both Teoscar and Gurriel offensively. If I recall correctly the only time Teo has really struggled since his breakout was this season after his IL stint. He's been one of baseballs best hitting outfielders dating back several seasons now and has several silver slugger awards to back this up. Gurriel is certainly hot and cold, however the hit tool is top notch and he appears to have settled into a new lower power high batting average approach. I don't see either of these guys presence in the lineup as an issue in the slightest. Benintendi may have been a decent pickup, but it doesn't appear he can play center field anymore. It's a small sample size but he's struggled tremendously so far as a Yankee. Ian Happ wasn't moved at the deadline despite this being a true sellers market bringing back big returns, so the ask from the Cubs must have been pretty outlandish. The front office wasn't interested in moving out handful of elite prospects in the minor leagues this trade deadline, and without knowing what the asks were from other teams for more impactful lineup help it's hard to get terribly upset about the players who were brought in.

We've only seen him for a few games, but Merrifield should be able to cover for Springer just fine for the next week and a bit. Stripling's IL stint is expected to be very short, and White looked ok in his debut so I don't really feel the need to push the panic button right now. Of course another injury to a member of the rotation would change that in a hurry though.

He's getting a ton of attention all over the baseball stratosphere and very deservedly so. Future Jays is very excited as well. https://futurebluejays.com/2022/08/06/tiedemann-sizzling-in-aa-debut/

The Twins seem to have the Jays number this season, hopefully we don't end up playing them in the playoffs as their pen is largely murder against the Jays mostly right handed lineup. Bundy should have been lit up based on the stuff he was featuring today, he's likely very lucky it was pouring rain early in the game as that might have saved him from allowing a bushel load of runs. White was decent in his first start, if Gurriel hadn't lost the ball in the lights he only would have allowed 2 runs over 5 innings of work, that will work just fine for a swing man/back end of the rotation starter spot. The Mayza injury was pretty scary, only saving grace is that it's not his pitching shoulder. Hopefully he'll be able to come back at some point this season. I'm only guessing but that looks like some sort of shoulder separation. Maybe this means Matt Gage gets a longer look out of the pen, although Saucedo has been throwing well in AAA also.

I guess it all boils down to whether it's death with a covid shot or death from a covid shot.

Vladimir Guerrero Jr. has had a bit of an up and down season, but aside from a 5 week stretch early on where he really struggled he's largely been excellent with the bat. Vlad started out hot in the first few weeks of the season. He was squaring up baseballs regularly and ground balls were kept well in check. April 8 to April 23 .333/.393/.648, OPS of 1.042, WRC+ 185 Average exit velocity 94.2 MPH, barrel rate 19.5%, launch angle 10.5 degrees ground ball rate 36.6% Vlad hit the skids in the 5 or so weeks to follow. Average exit velocity dropped but was still very solid, hard hit rate was still very good as well, but his ground ball rate skyrocketed and he stopped barreling up baseballs. April 24 to May 31 .209/.319/.339, OPS of .658, WRC+ 83 Average exit velocity 92.6 MPH, barrel rate 6.2%, launch angle 2.7 degrees ground ball rate 56.7% Vlad has been really caught fire since the All Star Break, but going back further to the start of June he has been on a very nice run at the plate. Average exit velocity and hard hit rates have remained pretty constant from the period where he struggled, however barrel rate has jumped as he's hitting the ball hard in the air more frequently. Ground ball rate is improved but still a bit high while average launch angle has crept up a bit. May 31 to Aug. 5 .318/.377/.57, OPS of .948, WRC+ 165 Average exit velocity 92.7 MPH, barrel rate 12.2%, launch angle 4.4 degrees ground ball rate 48.1% Hopefully Vlad can hit another gear to end the season to help carry the club into the playoffs. He can provide elite offence in many different ways, whether it's when he goes on home run tears, or is producing tons of line drive base hits. We haven't seen a stretch where everything comes together for him as he's been a bit swing happy at times and looked a bit in between in his approach at times as well.

Wouldn't the contraction of MiLB mean that the average talent level in the minor leagues is actually higher? Less spots available should lead to the lesser talented players needing to play in independent ball instead of being able to ply their trade in affiliated ball.

Orelvis had a 2 for 4 night at the plate with 2 singles. He's had an interesting season as he has more extra base hits (37) than singles (32).

Another shift has been drafting more athletic pitchers who can fully take advantage of the new pitching lab and strength facilities. These are the types of guy who can really benefit the most from the new facilities.

Dietrich was busted for a stimulant of the like that can be commonly found in over the counter preworkout products and not for steroids. I certainly wouldn't place any bets against him using some sort of undetectable steroid but he hasn't been caught using anything of this sort.

There really wasn't a concrete indication that Gaudreau wasn't going to resign with the club. He certainly wouldn't have commanded the type of return the Tkachuk did given the down season(s) leading up to 2021 and far more advanced age.

Merrifield in on record stating that he has bene vaccinated. It seems remarkably unlikely that the Canadian federal government would hand out an exemption for a professional athlete given how stringently the vaccine requirements have been handled. https://theathletic.com/3479953/2022/08/05/with-his-vaccinated-status-confirmed-whit-merrifield-excited-to-contribute-to-blue-jays/

Oh thank you from the bottom of my heart. It's great to see that there's still so much good in the world, it's really needed in these dark times.

It's not my fault if you are too dense to understand why a member of a different team's message board would get sick and tired of somebody constantly cheerleading about how awesome one of their main competitors is. If this finally gets you to shut the f*** up once and for all about how awesome the Rays are I'll happily take the win.

You honestly have some of the worst self awareness I think I've been witness to by having the gall to call anybody else a cheerleader or fanboy. Look in a mirror, the posts I quoted above are exactly the type of posts that a true fanboy makes. I don't know if you noticed but this is the BLUE JAYS message board, not the Rays message board. The constant fawning and cheerleading for the Rays is getting seriously f***ing old. We all get it by now, you absolutely adore the Rays and think that no other team in the universe is as worth of your adoration. We don't need to hear about how great the Rays are every time a Blue Jays hitter swings at a bad pitch. We don't need to hear about how awesome the Rays are every time they trade a player before they get paid in arbitration. We don't need to hear you fawning over Rays management every time you don't like a trade the front office makes. We don't need to hear you slobbering over the Rays pitching development every time a Blue Jays bullpen member allows a run or two. WE ALREADY GET THE MESSAGE! Do you honestly think anyone on the BLUE JAYS message board appreciates somebody primping and preening over the Rays every time a Blue Jays player makes some sort of mistake in the field? The Jays aren't a perfect team, and are made up of real world individuals who sometimes make poor decisions in the heat of the moment. Guess what, despite your constant proclamations to the contrary the Rays make mistakes on the field too.

I can't help but wonder if Dante Bichette's let the ball travel philosophy may have done more harm than good when it comes to Bo's (and possibly Vlad as well) results at the plate. For such young hitters they may be better off to sit fastball and adjust to offspeed as needed.

I posted a similar theory in a different thread that Bo seems to be sitting off speed instead of hunting fastballs. He has been rather abysmal doing damage on fastballs this season in particular. Aside from his loud debut season he never really did a ton of damage on fastballs anyway, but it's turned into a rather pronounced weakness in 2022. There's far too many times he's been fouling back fastballs in the middle of the plate which indicates he's late getting to these pitches. For a guy with a bat as quick as his this just shouldn't be happening so frequently.