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It's good to see Bo back in there today. That really deepens the lineup nicely. I just wish the club would give Kirk more of a chance to show what he can do. I can't see his development being helped out much by playing twice a week.

You are seriously underrating what these pitchers can bring when at the top of their games. In his 17 innings of MLB experience Merryweather has accumulated 0.9 FWAR. Extrapolate that to full 60 or so innings of work and you suddenly see a 4 win reliever. Does that sound "pretty good" to you? I'm guessing that's a hard no. Remember what the reliever version of Pearson did in the playoffs to the Tampa Bay Rays? If he's fully healthy and effective he's a player that struck out 5 out of 6 batters against a good hitting Rays team. Don't you think that's an impact addition? Mayza has been an absolute stud this season. He had a rough stretch of 5-1/3 innings from May 7-24 where he allowed 12 earned runs. But outside of that bad stretch he's been basically perfect. Outside the short stretch where he struggled he's given up a grand total of 3!!! earned runs in his other 30-2/3 innings. Does that not sound like another elite bullpen addition? Soria admittedly won't have the same type of impact, but his presence removes the worst from the middle reliever stash on the club, removing the weakest link from the bullpen. Having a bullpen of Romano, Pearson, Merryweather, Mayza, Dolis, Hand, Cimber, Richards and Soria has a very high possibility of elite production. With the starting rotation mostly pitching well there wouldn't be a ton of innings to cover, and each member of the bullpen would likely get ample opportunity for proper rest as well.

If Grichuk were utilized more like a true 4th outfielder rather than full time player there would likely be less consternation as well. Lately since Springer has been playing more frequently in the outfield and Dickerson has returned from injury we have seen a fair bit less of Grichuk in the lineup thankfully. I have no issues with having Grichuk on the roster, as you mentioned the excess salary is pretty small in the grand scheme of things, and will do nothing to prevent the Jays from signing more high quality players in the future.

It's a little hard to know what to think with regards to Martin's lack of power up to this point. He has displayed the top notch hit tool and plate discipline but hasn't really excelled anywhere else if reports are to be believed. There were whispers that the Jays were very concerned about the lack of power Martin has displayed up to this point, which would certainly lend credence to his internal value having fallen off a fair bit. If Martin was dealing with a hand injury for most of the season that would certainly help to alleviate much of the concern. Heading into the season I thought he was one of the untouchable prospects in the organization, but now aside from Orelvis Martinez and Gabriel Moreno I don't know if anyone else would rank as untouchable at this point.

I'm fairly certain it was Keith Law who mentioned that Martin had altered his swing due to a hand injury. I've not heard a peep from the organization or any of Rogers multiple writers about this issue though.

If the club can add most of Pearson, Merryweather, Mayza and Soria back to the pen it suddenly starts bordering on elite. If Borucki can get his s*** together as well that adds another potential fireman to the club to snuff out opposition rallies. These are 5 high quality potential reinforcements that will force the lower end options off the 26 man roster and hopefully make the constant bullpen worries a thing of the past.

https://theathletic.com/2759638/2021/08/08/this-week-in-blue-jays-george-springer-delivers-his-signature-toronto-moment-lingering-questions-for-stretch-run/

Yeah that's a ridiculous understatement. Merryweather has already smashed past that limit as he managed 13 innings in 2020. If the Jays manage his workload and stick to a 20% increase year over year he should be good for 15 innings this season.

I'd like to take the cautious optimism approach with this one. Adding a healthy Merryweather for the stretch run would be a huge boost to the bullpen. I fully expect to ultimately be disappointed when he ends up getting shut down for the season after yet another setback though.

That sounds fair for both sides on the upper end, but if Ray finishes the year strong I wouldn't be surprised to see him earn even more.

Kirby and Snead have both had fantastic seasons in AAA, hopefully they can translate some of that success into major league success as well. We just have to hope that Mayza and Soria are only out short term. Hopefully Pearson will be back soon as well.

I am very hopeful for this series. The Jays have the best collection of talent available that they've had all season, and have been playing very well since the all star break. Meanwhile Boston has been reeling, so there is a very good shot for the Jays to make up a few games in the standings against Boston.

Even further to that Espinal is actually hitting righties better than lefties this season, with a 129 WRC+ vs righties vs a 101 WRC+ vs lefties. This dumbass platoon situation that has popped up recently is weakening the club offensively and defensively.

It looks like Romano's spin rates jumped a good deal early in the season compared to previous years, and have trended downwards as the season went on. I surmise that Romano may have been introduced to sticky stuff by a certain teammate that was signed in the offseason and ended up being recently released.

This Montoya dude sounds like a real clown. Too bad the Jays manager is MontoyO though.

Protecting Smith on the 40 man roster is an absolute no brainer decision.

The 6 man rotation plans were mentioned several times during the Jays broadcast earlier today. But logically I certainly tend to agree with this plan.

I'd really like to see Smith get a shot at third base at some point this season, but he very well may have to wait until 2022. It will be hard for Smith to get a decent shot with Espinal having been playing so well for the last few months.

I wouldn't complain in the slightest if the Jays were able to land Kevin Gausman or Carlos Rodon instead of Ray. Any one of Ray, Gausman or Rodon would likely be the ace of the Jays staff in 2021 unless Manoah keeps improving at the major league level. I hate to hazard a guess which of these 3 ends up receiving the biggest contract. Rodon is the youngest of the trio but has only been this good once in his career. Gausman has been tremendous in both 2020 and 2021, but just had a pretty rough month of July. While he is the oldest of the 3 at 30 years 6 months old, that's not unreasonable for a good quality starting pitcher. Ray was pretty mediocre from 2018-2020 before turning it up in 2021, and looks to be getting better as the season goes on.

The club is going to roll a 6 man rotation for at least the next few weeks as they have very few days off and several double headers coming up. I think this can act as an audition between Stripling and Matz for the final rotation spot. I like the 6 man rotation largely for this club as Ryu tends to need extra rest on occasion, and this would help to manage Manoah's innings a bit. The biggest drawback for me would be moving Ray off of regular rest, he seems to really strive by being able to stay on turn for his rotation spot.

Yeah this is really terrible for baseball. This is one of the most charismatic and physically talented players who has existed, it would be a real shame if his shoulder ends up messing with his career on an ongoing basis.

This team feels poised to go on a massive run. I see a level of talent that's easily comparable to the stacked 2015 team. This team isn't as good defensively but the offence is pretty comparable and the pitching staff is likely a bit better as currently constructed. I just hope that they didn't piss away too many victories early in the season when the bullpen really struggled.

The difference in performance level for Epsinal vs Biggio over the last 30 days is quite stunning. Espinal has produced a 168 WRC+ and 0.6 WAR with very solid contributions in the field and on the bases. Biggio for comparisons sake has produced a 29 WRC+ and -0.4 WAR. If you go back another month to June there is still a massive gulf in relative performance between the two players. Espinal has produced on almost the same level of July for the last two months, with a 173 WRC+ and 1.1 WAR, vs 95 WRC+ and 0.2 WAR from Biggio. I don't expect Espinal to keep up this level of performance at the plate as so much of it seems to be BABIP driven without the corresponding hard contact to make it sustainable. However you definitely need to play the hot hand when there is such a performance disparity.

I've gotten over my early post trade disappointment. He is going to be a huge contributor moving forward, and I have a lot of confidence that an extension will be worked out. Berrios is stepping into a great situation with the core that is present in Toronto.

If he keeps producing the way he has at the plate Espinal might earn himself the starters job.