It's kind of remarkable Urena has hung around for 11 years and 233 games despite being pretty bad for most of his career. Granted, he's pitched for some very bad teams, but there's obviously a certain value in being a guy who'll take the ball whenever you ask him to.

Maybe he can soak up a few innings. Or maybe he'll pitch the game of his life and the Jays will still lose 2-1.

The Angels stink, but the Jays are facing their 3 best SP. They need to start this mini road-trip with a series win.

Lauer is very fresh to backup Urena. I'd stay away from Garcia, Little, and Rodriguez tonight, and stick to Hoffman, Green, and Fluharty.

I’ll consider paying attention again when (if) the team is over .500 again.

Who will you be following in the meantime?

I noticed today that Gunnar Hoglund, part of the Chapman trade, made his debut on Friday for the A's, and had a very nice start. Six innings, seven strikeouts, no walks and one run on a homer.

Urena's perfect for a defense-first (only?) team... he doesn't strike anybody out so lots of balls in play.

I predict Jays come back in first place or close to it.

If one assumes league-average offense by both teams, the pitching matchups would seem to favour us to win 2/3, with one blowout. Matched up differently one could expect us to get swept.

If you told Angels fans their team would be tied with Baltimore in the overall standings at this point they'd have been happy - both are 13-20 though so I guess they are not. Good reminder as frustrating as the Jays are, things can be worse, and might be. But I'm hoping for the best. I suspect Mattingly pushed for Urena as he was pitching for Mattingly years ago in Miami and had 2 very solid years and one infamous HBP (hit Acuna Jr with the first pitch of a game, leading to bench clearings and a delayed ejection from the game).

george torqued that one

Any question to which Urena is the answer should never be asked. Lots of very hard contact that inning.

opposition intentionally walking guys so they can face our brand spanking new slugger signing.

not great.

why he left Straw in to hit there i'll never know.

Lefty on the mound and your bench is three lefties and the backup catcher.

The real issue is carrying two of the same player in Roden and Lukes.

Am I the only one getting tired of watching Bo and Vlad waving at these balls in the dirt or so far outside of the plate they can't reach it leaning over the plate with one hand on the bat?

To me this demonstrates terrible focus and waste an at bat.
The most incriminating thing about many of those pitches is it's obvious the second it leaves the pitchers hand it's going to be a ball.

They have some of the worst plate appearances on the team.

That’s a new one.

I get tired of watching ABs like that Varsho AB with a runner on third.

Same nonsense. Offense can't score, can't even knock in guys from third with less than 2 outs so game is closer than it should be and Jays have to go to best relievers who have all been overworked.

Ugly but at least we burned our two best relievers too.

Maybe it’ll change but right now this is simply not a serious team.

I wonder if this isn’t the end of the line for Schneider. The vibes are bad. Super bad.

Can’t even blame Hoffman. You’re basically asking the dude to be perfect every single damn time because the team refuses to score.

What a mess.

Well the bullpen is toast. The strength is becoming a weakness. Your lead off hitter looks lost at the plate. "Aircraft carrier," Vlad is pressing. I think Atkins has to move on from Schneider now or never as the Jays are still in the race but the team looks to be on fumes right now, about to implode into a downward spiral. If there is ever a time to pull the plug on Schneider it would be now. Call it bad luck but it isn't working out for him.

Starters look to be overworked and fed up with the offense. Bullpen looks the same way now. Offense is pressing. Does not look good.

Offense can't score, starters suck, roster filled with borderline major leaguers. Schneider hasn't done a great job but the roster isn't a winning one and he didn't build it.

I agree Glevin. It’s an incredibly expensive, thoroughly mediocre, roster. But firing the manager is the last bullet in the chamber for Atkins.

When it rains it pours. Just read that Bloss is out with an arm injury

Why is Roden still up? He doesn't play at all. Play him regularly or send him down. He's never getting out of a funk playing once a week and he's one if the only gus who could be part of a jays future.. Time to take Bo out if leadoff spot too. Put Lukes there now as he is getting on base. Issue is that Jays only have a few guys who should be in a major league lineup so no matter how you structure it, the lineup is going to suck.

One thing that's crazy to me is how few pitches starters have thrown this year. We're no longer early in the season. Bassit threw over 100 pitches in March once and nobody else has done it since. Berrios topped 90 pitches once. He's being taken out pitching well at like 88 pitches. These are veteran guys. They can go 110 pitches once in a while to save your bullpen a bit.

Do the Jays already have a Trajekt machine (or similar) and/or is there a reason the Jays don't have one? Just seems like another thing the Jays are lagging behind on instead of getting in front of/experimenting with. I was thinking about how I think Roden and Schneider (as examples) might benefit from going to AA to face more good fastballs when I thought: wait, why can't you just have a pitching machine throw 100mph to location? It turns out you can.

Glevin I couldn't agree more. The starters are being managed in a fearful way. Maybe everybody in MLB is babying their pitchers but the Jays spent the $$$$ on the "rubber arm" starters for a reason. Babying them when your offense is limited only puts more pressure on the bullpen to implode.

Many felt the Jays needed to add a starter and two sluggers but they only did 2 of the three in Santander and Scherzer.

I looked it up - it seems the Jays do have one in Dunedin. Supposedly even the Rockies are using them at home - so it would seem that it isn't a panacea I envisioned and the Jays aren't necessarily laggards as I assumed.

Another facility question: if the Jays put one of these in the clubhouse...do they need to give the other team access to it? What are the rules on training/recovery facilities at home?

Re the starters: bear in mind that if one of the big guys goes down that will effectively torpedo the season. I think it’s right to be cautious with them in particular, as a general rule. On top of that, the last time they let someone push it they ended up throwing 53 pitches in an inning.

I prefer the cautious approach with the starters, because I think they can make moves to lengthen the bullpen in June fairly painlessly, compared to a rotation upgrade.

Don’t get me wrong, I agree with the underlying sentiment: the season feels like it’s close to slipping away and the team needs to make changes. I just think they should be trying to address the black holes in the lineup first, since that is what is hurting the team the most, rather than trying to squeeze more out of one of the better parts of the team.

Still a little early to pull the plug. Starting pitching, bullpen and hitting all looking too weak to compete. Things could flip! But a few more weeks of this would indicate a tear down is necessary. This time Aitkins will have to go. Perhaps Shapiro too.

I thought some might find it amusing that cuttlefish also use hand/arm signals.. Cuttlefish talk with their arms

Clase up for Roden which makes sense for Roden but is Clase going to play regularly? They still have too many Ofers. Berroa designated for assignment as well. I liked him but he was awful this year and Jays have 43 AAA Ofers.

The issue with a tear down is how does that happen after the Vlad extension? Signing a (flawed) star for 14 years and then punting what should be the best years of the contract doesn't make sense. That extension essentially means the team has to try to win for the foreseeable future. A new GM coming in and trying to take a previous GM's crap and turn it into gold seems like a job that not many qualified candidates are going to be interested in. Unless Rogers is fine with rebuilding and just wanted Vlad on the dotted line, which would be insane, but maybe something they would be open to.

Full blown tear-downs don't make sense anymore anyway. Highest pick Jays could get this year is #10. What they can do and what they should have done last year is retool. Trade veterans. Give youngsters a shot, build the system up and hope to compete in a year. You have Nimmala, Yesavage, etc coming and hope they can be next core with Vlad. Jays can still do that and only sacrifice a year of Vlad's prime but I wouldn't let this front office near that process. The fact that they were incentivized to compete when it clearly wasn't in franchise's best long-term interests falls on ownership. Any other path IMO just keeps kicking the can down the road. (unless ownership is willing go Steve Cohen)

The team has roughly $65M coming off books next year and maybe $75M coming off books year after that so there will be a lot of money to spend if Jays can build some talent internally.

Cease versus Fried is a good matchup. It's currently 1-0 San Diego over the Yankees. A Jackson Merrill (221 wRC+ in 47 PA this year) home run is the difference in the game so far. Cease has yet to allow a hit.

An OFer had to go but I do believe Berroa is a more useful piece (speed, defence, great character guy) as a bench player than Schneider.

I doubt Clase is the answer but it's worth a try and there really weren't any better options, once again highlighting the absolute lack of depth.

The Athletic (May 7): “Kikuchi stands out, to some degree, because all of his pitches have gotten worse. His fastball has less ride and less velocity. His slider has less drop and less velocity. His changeup is two ticks slower. His curveball is three ticks slower and also has less break, which is hard to do.”

(Kikuchi completely shuts down Blue Jays offense hours after article is published.)

Scherzer said he felt good after throwing 20 pitches to live hitters.

"It felt good," Scherzer, 40, said. "I've gotten all the inflammation out, so I can finally grip the ball again and not blow out my shoulder. But I'm not celebrating this until I'm back starting in a major league game."

Why did Springer take 3 straight strikes after going up 3-0

Why did Gimenez get pulled?

This team knows how to snatch defeat from thr jaws of victory.

Schneider manages every game like its a playoff game. Hoffman shouldn't have pitched yesterday in a tie game in the 8th and he got shelled and shouldn't have pitched tonight. If you try to win every game individually with no thought of how things fit into the season, you'll lose a ton of winnable games. Little hasn't pitched in a few games and he's great. Let him go 1 2/3. Give Hoffman a break! Something needs to get blown up soon.

And again, Jays offense should have blown game wide open and didn't. I'm sure Jonathan Clase will solve this issue.

I’d hate for John Gibbons to miss out on Mother’s Day Brunch this weekend, but his services could be warranted sooner than that.

Didn’t Schneider *just say* a day ago that he was looking for opportunities to give Yimi and Hoffman a break? The manager is going to break his bullpen a month into the season. Maybe he already has.

The team has clearly needed a vibe shift since that god awful ending of ‘23. Now I know on a site that was founded on intelligent discourse and sabermetrics I just used the word vibes. And yes, the offence has been bad, sometimes extremely bad. Every number every metric every measurable data point has this teams offence as bad since the end of ‘23. But clearly the bullpen decisions; one of the only main direct influences a manager has on a game have been terrible. They’ve just been terrible overall. I’ve watched almost every game of the Schneider era, and he’s over his head when it comes to in game roster decisions.

I think you guys have summarized the setting perfectly. Obviously the offense is sucking but it's so much worse when you are also giving away wins when you have a legit good bullpen. Great point to highlight that managing "game by game," or "like it's the playoffs," without a thought for the duration of the season can be crippling. Yes Schneider is in over his head and rather than delivering with what he has to work with he somehow gets less juice from the squeeze. It must be extremely demoralizing to be a player under him.

Let's re-summarize:

Last year...Offense inept and no star signed going into 2025
Bullpen non existent in 2024 (implosion and not addressed in season)
Rotation was a strength
Manager was poor but hard to blame him with what he had.

After off season...Offense inept still but they traded in contact from Horwitz for Santander power and Gimenez defense. Springer rebounds. So offense isn't any worse to me.
Bullpen is a legit strength now with additions.
Rotation remains strong.
Superstar signed long term.
Manager still bringing the stench of demoralizing losses in important stretches.

Can we say the parts are greater than the sum?

Of 162 qualified hitters in MLB, Vladdy ranks 82nd in fWAR. (0.6). So it's hard to say that Schneider is failing to capitalize on having a superstar on the roster.

The fWAR leaders are Judge (3.4), Carroll (2.5), and Alonso (tied for third with 2.2). Bregman is eighth at 2.1.

If you try to win every game individually with no thought of how things fit into the season, you'll lose a ton of winnable games. Little hasn't pitched in a few games and he's great. Let him go 1 2/3. Give Hoffman a break! Something needs to get blown up soon.

Yariel Rodriguez only threw 17 pitches - he likely could have made it through another couple batters. On Tuesday, Eric Lauer would have been a logical choice to follow up Urena with a couple innings, but Schneider went straight to Green.

There was a saying I read a few years ago - "The more pitchers you use, the more likely you are to find someone having a bad day." It seems like Schneider is determined to find out who's having a bad day every game.

It seems as though the Jays have trouble attracting experienced, proven managers. They usually hire a first timer with no track record at the major league level.

Schneider is not good at managing his bullpen, but this team stinks because Vladdy and Bo are not playing well.

Greenfrog how did you come away with the suggestion that I said Schneider is failing to capitalize to get something out of a superstar on his roster? I'll repost bullet points:

* I agree with the posts and sentiments from last night and this morning (including yours)
* Manager didn't get a lot out of the team last year but hard to blame him with the bullpen and lack of offense
* this year the offense it not any worse, the bullpen is legit good and the FO signed a superstar which eliminated any possible distractions to the clubhouse
* manager still not getting anything close to above average performance from the team and it's harder to say that he can't be blamed

Basically John Schneider is finding a way not to close-out games with an improved bullpen while at the same time burning his top arms 5 weeks into the season. I can't imagine they the morale will be high with what, 4 squandered leads in the 8th or 8th inning including a grand slam?

There's no WAR stat that will convince me the Blue Jays wouldn't be higher in the standings if Schneider could have managed differently to turn these L's into Ws.

Excuse typos from my mobile.

The top three hitters in the lineup (Bo, Vladdy, Santander) have combined for 0.6 fWAR this year. That is shockingly bad for those three well-paid and still-young veteran offensive players.

Schneider committed a comedy of managerial errors in Game 2 of the 2022 Wild Card series and it wasn’t even 3 weeks later that he was extended. He’s exactly the type of manager the FO wants; someone they can bully into doing whatever they want, as evidenced by Atkins having no issues throwing him under the bus after the Berrios ordeal. The FO either knows that Schneider is in over his head, or believe he’s actually good, and both scenarios make the FO look bad, not Schneider.

Is it the manager’s fault that the team stinks? No. But Schneider has been losing the team games for years due to bad bullpen decisions so he’s not a manager you want for a team that has a razor thin margin for error every game.

Absolutely but how is this related to the conversation about John Schneider and his bullpen management and overall poor record managing the team to below expectations even after factoring in the anemic performance of the offense?

SK my message meant for gf.

SK, Shapiro spoke about the value of developing a manager over time in house with growing pains. He likened Schneider's growth to that of Dave Roberts. This was at the end of season presser in 2024 I think.

He also spoke about Atkins having a strong track record up to that point.

I find it easier to agree with his point about Atkins than Schneider and it would be silly to me if Schneider survived another lost season but Atkins didn't.

I think Schneider has messed up a bunch but I think that with most managers. Part of it is because they all make dumb decisions and part of it is because there's a whole bunch of stuff that goes into decisions we are not privy to. I will never blame a manager for not having a winning team or credit a manager for having a winning team. The fundamental issue is that the team simply isn't good enough and since the Jays' payroll is high, that's entirely on Atkins.

That's a good take I think. Managers can maybe make a couple or a few games' difference over the course of a season. Yes, some of Schneider's decisions can be infuriating. But overall what matters is the quality of the roster.

I think Schneider is very much like his bosses - pretty meh - you can do (much) worse and you can do better. I think the need to change managers arises when the vibes/attitude look bad. I generally don't think that's been the case for the past year or two but I do think it looks bad now.

As to the bullpen management. There's definitely room for criticism. The top arms have been over worked. But there's also likely an element of regression going on too. The pen was horrible last year and its not likely that a pen made up of many of the same arms (a couple of notable exceptions) has suddenly become good. If the pen turns out to be league average or a little better this year that's a definite victory.

The Pirates have fired old friend Derek Shelton.

“Schneider as Jays skipper is 0-4 in postseason games, and last season the Jays backslid to a disappointing 88-loss season — their worst season since 2019, when they were rebuilding,” Perry wrote. “Present conditions find them at four games below .500 and tied for third place despite what was a reasonably active winter.”

The Blue Jays executives might feel that they have given Schneider ample talent to do better, even as they have failed to entice players like Shohei Ohtani and Juan Soto to join the team. Toronto has the third-highest payroll in Major League Baseball, per Spotrac, and it brought in bonafide veterans like Anthony Santander, Andres Gimenez, Jeff Hoffman and Max Scherzer this winter.

And, most notably, the team agreed to a 14-year, $500 million extension for Vladimir Guerrero Jr. shortly after the season started.

“Given that Schneider’s job seemed to be in danger coming out of the 2024 season, he’s done nothing to improve his standing this year,” Perry added. “Absent a turnaround in the standings, he’s probably in serious danger.”

CBS Sports

So Garcia & Hoffman meltdown over 3 of the last 4 games. And the entire discussion is how it is all Schneider's fault somehow?

This really feels like a situation where one decides to look for their lost keys under the streetlight simply because the light is better there.

We are not that far removed from the bullpen stylings of Charlie Montoyo, and perhaps that has set an unduly low standard for bullpen usage in my mind. At any rate, I haven't been stunned by Schneider's decisions.

In my opinion, that article largely misses the mark. How much is Schneider benefitting from “bona fide” veterans Scherzer, Santander and Gimenez? How about Bo and Vladdy, who are contributing relatively little so far this year? The article is correct, however, that managers are often fired for poor team performance, even if the underperformance had more to do with the talent level on the roster and the farm.

That said, I would love to see someone like an in-his-managerial-prime Terry Francona hired to manage the team (maybe after a rebuild).

"So Garcia & Hoffman meltdown over 3 of the last 4 games. And the entire discussion is how it is all Schneider's fault somehow?"

Pooks you're re-framing the conversation. The criticism against Schneider is stronger when you look at the entire season and past seasons. It ain't based on a 4 game window.

I agree with pooks. The anger towards Schneider is misplaced, the blame should be on the front office.

Schneider is not the reason the team is 27th in MLB in runs scored, or 17th in runs allowed. They have almost the exact same runs for/against as the White Sox. 5 players in tonight’s lineup have an ops below 700. Only 1 player on the roster has an ops above 800.

Too many players being shitty at the same time, and too few hot/exceptional performances is what has sunk the team lately. Until that changes, they will continue to suck regardless of the lineup card or pitching changes.

Your star closer with an amazing fastball threw 14 pitches and only 3 were fastballs. A smart manager would send his pitching coach in at some point to tell his pitcher to use his FB. This is just one fans opinion. We're talking about big decisions on small things. People call it a game of inches for a reason. If you only look at results based on stats then it's going to be impossible to fault anyone except the players on the field.

I'm sympathetic to that point of view. We've all seen decisions by Schneider that seem dubious to us. Montoyo + Schneider hasn't exactly been a legendary duo. The only thing I would say is that many teams are in the same boat. Check out some Sons of Sam Horn game threads, for example, and you'll see lots of fans excoriating the manager's decisions on a regular basis. So I think it largely evens out, or the difference between meh and good is probably two or three wins a year at best.

People remember Gibbons fondly, but he burned out some bullpen arms as well (like Delabar and Janssen).

Three horrible ABs by Springer, Varsho and Kirk. Soriano threw a total of 4 pitches in the strike zone to the 3 of them and still struck them out.

I’m pleased that Ward made it back to big-league play after Manoah hit him in the face with a fastball (when Alek was having serious wildness issues).

Just heard on the broadcast that Michael Stefanic is likely on his way to Seattle - perhaps just as a taxi squad player in case Giminez needs an IL stint for his quad.

And for tonight, the backup infielders are Santander (13 career starts at 1B) & Straw (27 career starts at SS, 4 at 2B).

I wonder how bad it can get...

Turned it off when it got to 4-0 now I look in and it is 4-2. Damn, they keep giving me hope.

Three horrible ABs by Springer, Varsho and Kirk. Soriano threw a total of 4 pitches in the strike zone to the 3 of them and still struck them out.

They sure look like they're pressing. And I mean P-R-E-S-S-S-I-N-G. It would be hard not to, of course. But they need to stop doing that.

The radio broadcast just said the last time the Jays scored 7 runs in a 9-inning game was the second game of the season.

I wish injury on no player but I’m torn as to whether I’d be disappointed if Gimenez had a DL stint.

Lost in the misery of the last few games is that Satander’s bat definitely seems to be warming.

The radio broadcast just said the last time the Jays scored 7 runs in a 9-inning game was the second game of the season.

True - the other 7-run games were Apr. 13 and Apr. 30, 7-6 wins in 10 innings.

Lost in the misery of the last few games is that Satander’s bat definitely seems to be warming.


Hopefully Varsho, too. Kirk seems to be hitting harder, but his plate discipline is soooo off this year. I don't expect much until that comes around ( maybe a bit less than before if he tradesnoff for power).
Other necessary things - good Rodriguez outing, now 2 in a row.
Good scoring position results if not process 6/15 currently.

I know we talked about it last year... but I really don't understand how there isn't more criticism of the broadcast anywhere online. How many times when there is a play happening do we need to spend 15 seconds watching the runner cross the plate with an action shot instead of what's actually going on? Where's the overhead shot? How many times is someone going to hit the wrong camera or not even switch camera at all when the pitcher tries a pickoff at 1st?

It's honestly embarrassing how bad the production has gotten over the years.

There was a flyball two nights ago where the live broadcast was centered on Varsho while Bichette ended up making the putout, not even ever in the frame.

I wish injury on no player but I’m torn as to whether I’d be disappointed if Gimenez had a DL stint.

The FO's tendency to hamstring the active roster by leaving day-to-day & unavailable players in purgatory for days on end is really frustrating.

Gimenez isn't playing well enough to keep him around to shortstaff your bench. A 10-day trip to the IL coupled with a stint at the Dunedin complex +/- a rehab stint to get his confidence back would likely be good for all parties.

The ridiculously shortstaffed infield came into play a few times last night.

Bo jawed with the home plate umpire late in the game last night over a strike call. Hopefully he remembered that he couldn't get tossed. Otherwise we would've likely seen a Vlad-Barger-Clement-Santander infield to close out the game.

Similarly, the Jays got exposed but ended up lucking out with Brock Burke in the game, a LHP relieving Soriano with the high pitch count (due to striking out so many Jays with his low slider).

It ended up working out in the 4-run inning to go up 7-4, but the Jays ended up with Barger hitting in a big spot with runners on & 2 out against the LHP Burke simply because his infield arm had to stay in the game at all costs.

Barger came through with a big hit, but they got lucky since they gave up the platoon advantage and many pinchhitting opportunities simply to wait on Gimenez another day.

Apparently Stefanic is meeting the team in Seattle. Would be nice to give a shot to another AAAA vet before he opts out or asks for a trade.

The 40-man still remains tight with few easy cuts even with Berroa gone , so it will be interesting who goes if Stefanic isn't just taxi squad insurance.

The Jays could simply move Leo Jimenez (mono) or Jake Bloss (elbow) to the 60-day IL. Probably Jimenez, as he'll need a lengthy buildup once back; he hasn't played since the spring. 30-day rehab + the 40 or so days already missed more than covers the requirement.

Wouldn't Jimenez or Bloss need to be called up first before being transferred to the 60-day IL Marc?

They are both currently on Optional Assignment.

I thought the 60-day IL to open 40 man spots was only for major leaguers.

Dalimon, we obviously have very different expectations for the manager role.
Pitch calling is up to the battery to me, so your expectation crosses way into micro managing from my perspective.

The manager’s role, to me, is line-up card, substitutions, overseeing the coaches, and some clubhouse management. So, yes I think the overwhelming majority of complaints belong solely with the players.

I know we talked about it last year... but I really don't understand how there isn't more criticism of the broadcast anywhere online. How many times when there is a play happening do we need to spend 15 seconds watching the runner cross the plate with an action shot instead of what's actually going on? Where's the overhead shot?

This has been bugging me for a long time. It happened last night with the Varsho sac fly. It was deep CF, we know the runner's scoring, yet the camera follows Vlad in to home, then it switches to Varsho who's out, instead of showing what's happening with the other two runners. Luckily Shulman actually told us they were both tagging and advancing.

Similarly when a runner's on 2nd let's say, batter hits a ball in the gap, we know the runner's scoring and yet the camera shows him crossing the plate and then follows him for a few seconds after. Meanwhile, the batter-runner is trying for 2B and that's where the throw's going and we miss that play entirely.

Also broadcasts should really pull back and use an overhead view sometimes. They always want to zoom in.

I cancelled my cable just before the start of the season, so have been listening to the radio calls when I can. And knowing that for away games they have to call it off the monitors since Sportsnet won't send them on road trips, well I have to say they are doing a pretty solid job under the circumstances.

"The FO's tendency to hamstring the active roster by leaving day-to-day & unavailable players in purgatory for days on end is really frustrating."

Every team does this and Gimenez literally missed one game. The roster construction is way too OF-heavy which leaves the Jays thin but every team will let a guy go a couple of games on the bench rather than IL him.

To me the roster issue is the weirdness of having 6 outfields on the 13 hitter part of the roster. Add in 2 catchers and you are down to 5 infielders - one of whom is Barger who is also a RF.

Calling up Clase was bizarre imo - CF=Varsho/Straw, RF/LF/DH = Springer/Santander/Lukes/Straw so how is Clase going to get much playing time unless you bench Lukes/Straw (116/105 wRC+ respectively). Yeah, Straw has been hitting more Straw like lately (375 OPS last 8 games, 200/226/233 his last 16) and should be just a backup but with the way the roster is I don't see Clase getting the playing time he needs. Lukes on the other hand - first 12 games 167/310/208 11 since 346/419/500. Might be time to see if Lukes can play in the majors given a near full time shot imo, or at least as the busier half of a platoon.

Hopefully later today we hear someone was sent down (Clase ideally - would love the kid to get playing time but how?) to make room for Stefanic (319/454/372 in AAA).

I think one of two things will happen:
- If Giminez is likely to return at some point this weekend, they won't make any roster moves and just roll with Santander and Straw as their backup infielders.
- Otherwise, Giminez goes to the IL, Stefanic is added, and I would guess that Davis Schneider gets DFA'ed (and clears waivers and gets outrighted to Buffalo).

Dan & Buck mentioned on the broadcast that the plan is for Clase to get playing time against both LH and RH pitchers. It appears that he'll get the same type of shot that Roden got in April. He's out of options after this year, so it's soon time to make a decision about whether he could be a full-time MLBer next season. But I certainly agree that it's very poor roster construction to roll with 3 backup outfielders with similar skills, so I'm not sure how long this can all last...

Not sending the radio crew on the road seems like a ridiculous penny-wise pound-foolish decision. Radio still has a significant audience, and Rogers has the whole country to market the team to. A good radio broadcast is going to help bring in casual listeners and increase fan engagement, which will in turn help the TV ratings and the overall franchise.

If the plan is really to give Clase a run with a starting job, I can't understand it. He's had a .438 babip-supported line in AAA, showing poor contact quality and absolutely no power. Whereas Lukes has been showing strong, balanced production and skills at the major league level, and, as I keep banging on about, Barger is showing much-improved skills and is getting snakebit on balls in play (he is hitting the ball harder than Vladdy, with more loft, with more contact and better strike-zone judgement). Frankly there's no indication that Clase can succeed in the majors yet, and there's much better reasons to think Lukes and Barger can.

I'm guessing with Clase they see something we don't - perhaps there are advanced metrics they use in the minors we don't see. He does have a 371 lifetime OBP in the minors, his worst was 333 over 14 games in '21 at age 19. He also hit 20 HR in 2023, and stole 79 bases that year. Kid could be something special possibly and only cost part of a season of Yimi Garcia (10 G, 9 IP, 6 ER, ouch). If they are giving him a shot then give him the weekend in Seattle (where he signed) and see what happens.

It just feels like hoping someone can find lightning in a bottle rather than a plan. Roden was great in minors and spring so he deserved a shot but other guys, I don't really get it.

MLB Career

* Clase (22-23): 74pa, .306babip, 74wrc+
* Barger (22-25): 270pa, .234babip, 65wrc+

AAA Career

* Clase (22-23): 526pa, .356babip, 106wrc+
* Barger (22-25): 727pa, .304babip, 112wrc+