Eat My Shatkins

The 2026 Jays season still makes my eye twitch. So many new acquisitions or guys put in new roles just excelled and they still came up short. Cease was our best starter, Cy Young level of a season Varland got moved to the closer role and was one of the best in MLB Okamoto was our best position player with 3 fWAR Bateman came over and put up 1.9 fWAR in 181 PA's Hopefully they keep performing in future seasons but it's realistic that we may never see seasons that good from any of those guys again. To have all those things go as well as they did and not even be a 500 team is pretty frustrating.

Suzuki seems like a perfect fit for the Jays on a 3 year deal. Aren't he and Okamoto close? Ideally you'd love to snag a 2B as well, like Lowe or Arraez, but if they were to get Suzuki having 2B manned by some combo of Clement/Smith/McAdoo would be alright I think. Between Barger/Keys/Santander/Lukes DH and RF should be covered as well, although admittedly that is a lot of question marks. Still hoping the Jays go out and get Kwan. He's getting too expensive for the G's and gives insurance against Bateman being a flash in the pan.

Not to mention, Gausman had 3.2 fWAR this season which ranked him 28th in MLB. If you think he's "back of the rotation" caliber, your math ain't mathing properly.

What do we think of Keys? Can this guy be the Jays DH when Santander goes on the IL again? Or will MLB pitching be too much for him to handle? 23 years old, 160 wRC+ and 28 home runs in AA and AAA last year. He doesn't really fit anywhere in the field, maybe DH is the way to go.

What are the chances of landing Suzuki for a corner OF spot? And do we even want that to happen? Bring in Lowe and Suzuki on shorter term deals? They are 32 after all. You'd have 6 batters who could legitimately hit 20+ home runs, 5 guys who have hit 30+ in their careers. CF Bateman LF Suzuki 1B Vlad DH Santander 3B Okamoto 2B Lowe C Kirk RF Barger SS Giminez

I've already written off any chance of getting Skubal. Don't you buggers go and give me false hope again.

Hopefully the Jays land a 2B that can hit and a COF that can hit. Then have Barger and Santander come back healthy and smack 60 dingers between the two of them, and have Vlad bounce back to 30ish homers and 5 fWAR. Oka with 30ish again. Then have guys like McAdoo and Keys launching nukes coming off the bench.

Bringing back Gausman on a short term discount deal and Bieber on a one year pillow deal seems like it's not "big game hunter" enough. It would also be basically running it back with the pitching staff, but that's not a terrible idea since the only thing wrong with the staff in 2026 was injuries. Doesn't seem likely that they'd only get 155 combined innings from Bieber, Yesavage and Ponce again. Plus now you'd also have Soriano in the mix. Cease Gausman Soriano Yesavage Bieber Ponce Pushes guys like Miles and Tiedemann to the bullpen and deepens the pitching staff across the board. Hmm, I dunno. Maybe they have something bigger in mind. I could live with the above though.

SP depth: 1. Cease 2. Soriano 3. Yesavage 4. Ponce 5. Miles (I could see them moving him to a starter role) 6. Berrios (injured until mid season-ish) 7. Arrighetti 8. Francis (should see if he plays up in a reliever role IMO) 9. Bloss 10. Tiedemann (I'd like to see him in the MLB bullpen) 11. Dallas (AAAA fodder) 12. Van Eyk (AAAA fodder) 13. Klein (AAAA fodder) 14. Stephan (AAAA fodder) 15. Estrada (AAAA fodder) 16. Stanifer 17. Guerra 18. Perry (AA) 19. King (AA) Obviously the Jays are most likely going to add a couple MLB starters, and if that pushes arms like Miles and Tiedemann to the bullpen, so be it. The Jays have the makings of one hell of a bullpen, especially if they a couple starters via free agency, and also with Little coming back very strong in the second half. CL - Varland SU - Rogers SU - Miles (if starters added) HL - Tiedemann (Lefty) MR - Little (Lefty) MR - Winckowski MR - Fluharty (Lefty) MR - Fisher Depth - Jose Rodriguez Depth - Francis (if moved to reliever) Depth - Cellucci (Lefty) Depth - Yariel Rodriguez Depth - Coleman (Lefty)

Is Brendan Cellucci any good? Had himself a hell of a first go of it in MLB.

I don't think you can count on Barger or Santander for anything next season. Santander has been out a long time and is no spring chicken. Barger barely got his feet wet and then missed basically a whole season. If you get anything from them it's a bonus in my books. That's why I'd go hard after Arozarena. I also wouldn't count on Bateman being this good either, again if he is it's a bonus. Because of that I'd try to get Kwan from the Guardians. He's going to be getting too expensive for them now.

Yeah I'd go after Arraez and Arozarena. Santander may as well be deceased at this point. I wouldn't count on him for anything. Love Springer but he's always banged up it seems, and at 35+ it likely isn't getting any better. I also hope Kwan is too expensive for the Guardians now, and the Jays swing a trade for him. Can't count on Bateman to be this good going forward, but if he is it'd just be a bonus and having both Kwan and this version of Bateman wouldn't be a bad thing either. CF/LF - Kwan 2B - Arraez 1B - Vlad LF - Arozarena DH - Barger (OR Santander if healthy) C - Kirk 3B - Okamoto CF/LF - Bateman SS - Giminez Bench C - Valenzuela Bench UT - Smith, Clement Bench OF - Lukes

PCA with 10.1 fWAR so far this season. Imagine trading him for 189 Javier Baez PA's and about 120 IP's from Trevor Williams.

Yeah, it's been well established that the guy doesn't have power. Any home runs from him at all are just a bonus.

Spencer Miles is an absolute weapon. Obviously the best case scenario would be that he (and Tiedemann too) not only stay healthy, but eventually get stretched out and become really good MLB SP's But I salivate at the thought of what the bullpen could look like next year with Varland, Rogers, Miles, Tiedemann, Winckowski, and new & improved Little. Flu and Fish aren't terrible either,

Brendon Little since coming back from AAA (July 20) 20 IP 14.85 K/9 6.75 BB/9 (Still too high) 2.25 ERA 2.60 xERA 3.35 FIP 2.80 xFIP The guy appears to be a weapon again. We all hoped his off season adjustments would take from the beginning of the season, but he had to work things out in AAA first for a bit I guess.

Going to be nice having Winck for the bullpen next season.

Stanifer get promoted to AAA? He's listed there on fangraphs now. Doesn't look like he's made an appearance yet

The top 3 teams in the AL are from the AL east, and 5 of the top 8. This fricken divison, man.

I'd imagine Guerra and maybe Stanifer will get their feet wet at the MLB level late this season in relief roles possibly, but either way both will probably start next season on the AAA rotation. I can see Tiedemann getting the 2026 spencer Miles role with the Jays. 50 or so innings of relief / long man / spot starter as long as his arm doesn't fall off again. Jays system is certainly starting to have some juicy/intriguing arms work their way into the upper minors this season. Following Javen Coleman with a high level of interest at AAA as well. Although he is strictly a reliever, he could be a good one from the left side.

IMO it's just Springer and Vladdy for the most part. 7.6 fWAR combined from Kirk, Giminez, Clement and Lukes isn't awful. It's not great and I'd love more, but Springer (0.6 fWAR) and Vladdy (0.9 fWAR) if beyond brutal. I'd lump Varsho in with those two as well. 1.1 fWAR with the Jays at the time of his trade was well below expectations, and his drop in D was unexpected.

Maybe the Jays do too and thus were OK dealing Nimmala for a controllable top of the rotation starter.

If the Jays are OK paying $8 million or whatever for a bench player with great OF defense and good speed, it doesn't bother me. Having players like that around sure doesn't seem to hold them back from spending big and/or chasing big name FA's A 66 wRC+ is certainly terrible, but Straw does his job for the most part. We wouldn't even notice his bat if Vlad and Springer weren't lugging around sub 100 wRC+ bats this season. They are the ones hurting this team the most, not Straw.

Man I'd love to see Bieber extended. Healthy now, rust is shaken off and he's starting to cook again.

No point crying over spilt milk but that 7 game stretch at home vs. Houston and Texas where we lost 6 straight, including getting swept 4 straight by Texas is huge right now. Especially with three of them being by 1 run and two of them by two runs (one in extras). Just a string of very winnable games.