Yeah, agreed Org it's certainly fishy...
Had their bullpen been in better shape, the Toronto Blue Jays would likely have used an opener in front of Eric Lauer and while the two strips of kinesiology tape on the back of the left-hander’s neck raised eyebrows, they had no connection as to why.
“It's mostly just to be used as a reminder,” he explained. “We're trying to fix some things posture-wise when I'm sitting. I've been having little neck issues, so it's more just like a reminder to keep my head back and make sure I'm not slouching or anything. It's just more precautionary.”
There’s nothing related to injury, either, Lauer added, yet his velocity was down Wednesday, so much so that Statcast initially tracked some of his first-inning fastballs as changeups before correcting. Lacking his best stuff, he was forced to make do over five innings of three-run ball, a theme that applied across the board for the Blue Jays in a 7-3 loss to the Los Angeles Angels that ended a three-game win streak.