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Why does it matter so much how old he is? I can't see any way he debuts in MLB this season but if he continues to dominate in high A to the degree that he has so far and he's hit the developmental milestones set in front of him then there's no reason to hold him back just because he's 19. Hitting AA this season leaves a good chance we see him in MLB next season. This front office has a history of aggressive placements for their top prospects, and Atkins is on record stating Tiedemann could retire MLB hitters already given his combination of raw stuff and command. If he's ready to be pushed for an appropriate challenge then so be it.

With everyone at full health the bench is actually pretty decent. Backup catcher is either Jansen or Moreno which is basically elite compared to most teams, super utility player of Biggio is very good assuming he continues to produce, and even Tapia as 4th outfielder isn't the end of the world if he can continue to pitch in with some hits like he has been. A late game defensive replacement center fielder who can actually hit his weight would certainly be nice to have, but that's the only glaring weakness on the bench to my eyes.

You may not have noticed but Teo has produced a 165 WRC+ over the last 30 days. He had a very slow start after the oblique injury but has been in peak form offensively for quite some time now. Bo has been good at the plate for nearly two months now. He was actually hitting the ball hard with regularity in April but since May the hits have been falling for him. Over his last 48 games he's produced a 129 WRC+, which is quite a bit higher than his career average. Each of these guys will have frustrating at bats where they swing at pitches out of the strike zone but neither of them is an issue offensively right now. The team does not need a DH bat, there are already multiple players on the roster who regularly receive DH time in order to keep their bats in the lineup and keep them fresh/healthy. The Jays regularly run players like Springer, Kirk, Gurriel and Vladdy through the DH spot. Does this really look like something that requires some kind of upgrade?

I'm not sure I fully agree here with regards to the bullpen and injuries. Pearson was expected to be a big contributor, and he's missed the entire season up to this point due to mono (that's about as bad of luck as possible), Merryweather is injured (no surprise there obviously), Garcia is injured, Mayza missed time due to injury and Borucki missed time due to injury. Many of these guys were obvious injury risks and a few of them were ineffective even when healthy, but injuries in the pen have absolutely been an issue. Why LOL to Stripling being a rather effective starter? Just because he came from the Dodgers it doesn't mean he wasn't a great pickup that the front office deserves credit for. There have been success stories in the past with unheralded players who were effective out of the bullpen. The 2020 bullpen had several such stories in players like Dolis, Cole and Bass. 2021 saw a sneaky good pickup in Cimber who was attained for peanuts, and Richards was a good pickup as well. Gage has the appearance of being one of these types of successful turnarounds in the early going, and it remains to be seen who will be acquired in the not too distant future to shore up the pen this year.

Your start date of April 26th is basically irrelevant. Espinal is in the throes of a deep slump which extends over the last 8 games. Over these 8 games he's really struggled to the tune of a -74 WRC+. From the start of the season until June 15 he produced a 125 WRC+ and was the second most valuable position player on the team behind Kirk as he was worth 1.9 FWAR. As a whole Espinal was a tremendous contributor over the first 2 months of the season and I don't see any reason he won't eventually emerge from this mid-season slump. I certainly don't think he should be hitting at the top of the lineup right now but benching a player who was as productive for an extended period as Espinal was is only going to weaken the team long term.

I think this year is indicative of the direction the front office is headed in with regards to pitching development. There are a number of really high profile success stories happening in the low minors, and I suspect this may be a sign of things to come in the future as well. I recall somebody from the front office stating recently that their draft methodology has changed and that they are going to start targeting more potentially high ceiling arms. I think the player development complex will soon start bearing fruit as well in regards to coaxing the best velocity and pitch design out of their young pitchers.

Yeah Orelvis is starting to lose his shine quite a bit. His hit tool looks like it's being exposed quite a bit in AA this season. The biggest saving grace that he is still very young for the level.

I'd maybe consider trading for a Montas/Castillo type, but only if one of the top 3 members of the rotation were to get hurt and end up missing the remainder of the season.

Those are my thoughts as well. Tiedemanm is close to approaching the same status as Moreno where I would only send him out in trade for an elite player with control.

Oh for f***s sakes. This s***** bullpen is about to get even worse.

I still think the team is going to have a preference to which catcher(s) they want to keep long term. The Alomar/Carter trade was actually pretty similar to the current catcher scenario in that the team had replacements for Fernandez and McGriff already available to take over.

I don't agree with Jim's take that you don't pick which catcher(s) you want to keep based on value to the MLB team instead of what's coming back in trade, but I do see his point in a way as the team has 3 MLB capable starting catchers on the roster. The front office has a ton of flexibility in determining how they want to shape the roster with 3 assets such as this, where they don't have nearly that same type of flexibility elsewhere. You can't just trade Vlad or Bo in the same way as there aren't equivalent replacements available, but with Moreno, Kirk and Jansen you could choose any one of the 3 as your MLB starter and receive very good production out of the position.

It's odd that Kikuchi is so fearful as prior to yesterday's game he had actually pitched very well against the Yankees this season.

Yeah I don't think it sounds crazy at all. I think it's far crazier to concoct conspiracy theories when the information that's been presented to you is perfectly reasonable.

Great post man. The front office and coaching staff have repeated as nauseam that Kikuchi is going to be a bit of a long term project to fully unlock. If Kikuchi can start to command his fastball a bit better he has the opportunity to be a very effective starter, and this should allow him to also utilize his splitter more often as this has potential to be a true swing and miss offering. Just last season Matz was sitting at a 4.58 ERA/4.02 FIP on August 1st before going on a very nice run to end the season. I think Kikuchi has more potential than Matz and he's locked up for a few more seasons after 2022. Definitively stating a 3 year deal is a failure based on less than 3 inconsistent months into the first season just seems premature.

I see Pearson had an appearance where he only threw 3 pitches before exiting. Anybody know if he suffered yet another injury?

There wasn't really $5 million saved because the Jays sent almost $10 million cash to the Rockies in this deal. To me it looks more like using cash to get an interesting prospect back in return.

That sounds an awful lot like that JuniorFelix moron that used to frequent here.

What's this "slobbing Cavan's knob" garbage supposed to mean? This constant bashing is making you look like a dumbass. The guy has produced a 158 WRC+ since returning from AAA and it largely looks to have been earned as he's been barreling baseballs, hitting a ton of line drives and walking at a 20.8% clip. This is a really nice player to have batting at the bottom of the lineup, and if it weren't for the fact that the entire team is on a heater it would be very easy to justify hitting him higher in the lineup.

Whoa why so angry here? You might just be tearing a new ******* for the wrong poster in that particular conversation.

You live in a fantasy land if you expect the baseball team you follow to constantly go on extended 10-15 winning streaks simply because they are playing teams that are below them in the standings. Since the Jays offence came to life they have a 14-5 record, that is a 119 win pace over an entire season. Are you going to continue throwing a temper tantrum like a 4 year old over a team with a win record of this nature? Sometimes s*** happens and the other team ends up winning, typically the best teams in MLB still end up losing 60 games or so. Like it or not most MLB players simply aren't going to play 162 games anymore. Maybe Espinal picks up a hit or two or maybe he goes 0 for 4 as well, you can't simply assume that a player who is resting for the day is going to have a better game than the player that filled in that day.

Pearson has to first show the ability to actually remain on the field before the team can get to fixing him. Kikuchi's command struggles have nothing to do with Pearson coming back as a starter, it's strictly health and workload related. If the team really wanted Pearson to work as a starter this season they have the perfect guy in Stripling to go back to the swingman role, so if they thought Pearson could handle a starters workload it would be a no brainer decision.

Kikuchi was expected to be a bit of a long term project and there is still 2/3 of the season left right now. There is still plenty of time to get him on track and with 2-2/3 years remaining on his contract he'll be given ample opportunity to do so.

Gee if only teams were able to make trades in season to pick up rotation depth. We better start panicking now because there isn't great depth stashed away at AAA already. This isn't the end of the world, Atkins has shown ability to pick up rotation help mid season when needed.

Gage has a 40% whiff rate so far in his limited appearances. In AAA this season he was striking out 11.34 batters per 9 innings. It doesn't appear as though missing bats has been an issue for him. The team might as well continue to throw him out there in lower leverage spots to see if he continues to have success as he's fully earned his chance.