Batter's Box Interactive Magazine - Minnesota at Toronto, August 25-27

Paul Skenes one week, Joe Ryan the next?

What can I tell you. It's not supposed to be easy.

Ryan is coming off his worst start of the season, having been roughed up for five runs in four innings by the lowly Athletics last Tuesday. It was the first time all season he'd failed to make it through five innings, so he's likely spent the last five days stewing about it. Ryan is probably the Twins' best pitcher since Johan Santana was winning Cy Young Awards twenty years ago, and all Ryan cost them was two months of a 40 year old Designated Hitter. That's almost as sweet a transaction as the one the Angels pulled off half a century ago to land another starting pitcher named Ryan, although Joe is extremely unlikely to age as well as his namesake.

The Twins kept Ryan at this year's deadline - he is still a couple of years away from free agency. They unloaded just about everyone else, of course, to mutters of dismay from their fanbase. They stripped their bullpen bare, trading away closer Jhoan Duran and most of his setup crew: Griffin Jax, Louis Varland, Brock Stewart, Danny Coulombe. They cleared out a host of players approaching free agency: starter Chris Paddack, infielders Willi Castro and Ty France, outfielder Harrison Bader. Most surprising of all was the decision to return shortstop Carlos Correa to Houston (thus allowing Correa to switch to third base, which he has wanted to do for several years now) and eat a third of the money remaining on his contract.

The mutters from the fanbase grew quite a bit louder when the Pohlad family then unexpectedly announced that, after dangling the franchise on the market for almost two years, they had decided not to sell the team. (As Darragh McDonald wrote just after the deadline, "While the Pohlad family is still in charge, the safe bet is on minimal investments. ") No kidding.

So it's been a bad year in the Twin Cities. The team that was left behind has gone 8-14 since the deadline. That 13 game winning streak back in May, the longest in the AL this season? it doesn't mean much these days. It's become just another of the many odd things that happen in the course of a season. Detroit, Houston, the Yankees, Cleveland... their longest winning streak this season is a mere five games.

Matchups

Mon 25 Aug - Ryan (12-6, 2.96) vs Scherzer (4-2, 3.60)
Tue 26 Aug - Ober (4-7, 5.05) vs Bassitt (11-7, 4.18)
Wed 27 Aug - Matthews (3-4, 5.30) vs Lauer (8-2, 2.76)

Posted by Magpie on Monday, August 25 2025 @ 12:46 PM EDT.

Minnesota at Toronto, August 25-27 | 8 comments | Create New Account

The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. This site is not responsible for what they say.

ISLAND BOY - Monday, August 25 2025 @ 01:36 PM EDT (#466895) #

I'm not getting the next man up vibe that the Jays had earlier in the summer when they seemed unbeatable, but they've still done darn good lately considering Clement, Bargar and Heineman have been largely ice cold and Vlad's missed several games. Springer, Varsho and especially Bo have kept them afloat. We need a few more people to step up but, hey, the Jays have been in first place for nearly 2 months, Michael Kay!

uglyone - Monday, August 25 2025 @ 01:38 PM EDT (#466896) #

Fangraphs Combined Rest of Season Projections:

RH Bieber 5gms, 6.4ip/gm, 3.52era, 3.61fip, 3.8war/32
RH Gausman 6gms, 6.0ip/gm, 3.90era, 3.83fip, 2.9war/32
RH Scherzer 5gms, 5.8ip/gm, 4.00era, 4.05fip, 2.9war/32
RH Bassitt 6gms, 5.7ip/gm, 4.06era, 4.14fip, 2.7war/32
RH Berrios 6gms, 5.7ip/gm, 4.30era, 4.40fip, 1.9war/32
LH Lauer 10gms, 1.7ip/gm, 4.12era, 4.30fip, 0.3war/32 (0.7war/65)
RH Manoah 2gms, 2.5ip/gm, 4.47era, 4.53fip, 0.0war/32

RH Hoffman 12gms, 1.0ip/gm, 3.22era, 3.25fip, 1.4war/65
RH Dominguez 12gms, 1.0ip/gm, 3.53era, 3.73fip, 1.1war/65
LH Little 11gms, 1.0ip/gm, 3.38era, 3.61fip, 0.6war/65
RH Varland 12gms, 1.0ip/gm, 3.40era, 3.62fip, 0.5war/65
RH Nance 11gms, 1.0ip/gm, 3.77era, 3.70fip, 0.3war/65
RH Fisher 8gms, 1.0ip/gm, 3.93era, 4.02fip, 0.0war/65
RH Rodriguez 11gms, 1.0ip/gm, 4.10era, 4.14fip, 0.0war/65
LH Fluharty 10gms, 1.0ip/gm, 4.16era, 4.26fip, 0.0war/65

RH Yesavage 2gms, 1.0ip/gm, 3.33era, 3.39fip, 0.0war/65
RH Garcia 5gms, 1.0ip/gm, 3.68era, 3.70fip, 0.0war/65
RH Sandlin 3gms, 1.0ip/gm, 4.11era, 4.35fip, 0.0war/65
RH Schultz 10gms, 1.0ip/gm, 4.30era, 4.29fip, 0.0war/65
RH Pina 7gms, 1.0ip/gm, 3.93era, 4.39fip, 0.0war/65
LH Bruihl 8gms, 1.0ip/gm, 4.25era, 4.47fip, 0.0war/65

DH Springer 118pa, .339obp, 118wrc+, 2.8war/650
SS Bichette 126pa, .336obp, 119wrc+, 4.1war/650
1B Guerrero 130pa, .381obp, 147wrc+, 4.5war/650
C Alejandro 93pa, .352obp, 115wrc+, 5.6war/650
CF Varsho 114pa, .295obp, 104wrc+, 3.4war/650
LF Schneider 58pa, .326obp, 106wrc+, 2.2war/650
RF Lukes 83pa, .335obp, 105wrc+, 2.3war/650
3B Barger 100pa, .311obp, 105wrc+, 2.6war/650
2B Gimenez 119pa, .317obp, 95wrc+, 3.3war/650

UT France 47pa, .329obp, 102wrc+, 1.4war/650
OF Straw 33pa, .301obp, 75wrc+, 2.0war/650
IF Clement 62pa, .302obp, 93wrc+, 2.1war/650
C Heineman 32pa, .325obp, 91wrc+, 4.1war/650

UT Santander 33pa, .311obp, 110wrc+, 2.0war/650
OF Loperfido 33pa, .303obp, 93wrc+, 2.0war/650
IF Jimenez 3pa, .324obp, 94wrc+, 0.0war/650
C Bethancourt 1pa, .255obp, 69wrc+, 0.0war/650

Nigel - Monday, August 25 2025 @ 02:08 PM EDT (#466900) #

I'm not advocating for Clement in this, but these are the wRC+'s in August: Clement 92, Barger 62, Gimenez 49. I think Clement needs some rest/days off, but Barger and Gimenez are actually struggling more. A few more ABs for Schneider at 2B wouldn't be a terrible idea in the circumstances.

Mike Green - Monday, August 25 2025 @ 02:26 PM EDT (#466903) #

Varsho is definitely doing something differently this year (and it began in spring training). Statcast tells the story. He's swinging much more at pitches in the zone and a little less at pitches out of the zone. He is making contact much less often on pitches in the zone and about as often on pitches outside the zone and as a result, his swinging strike rate is way up. Sounds bad. But...when he makes contact, his avg and max EV are both up about 2 mph, his barrel rate is almost double and his hard-hit rate is way up. He's actually pulling the ball a little less, but it doesn't matter because he's hitting it so much harder. The results are what you would expect from the Statcast data- OBP constant and low, slugging percentage way up. It looks like he has found a way to handle a few locations in the zone that he previously couldn't. You definitely don't want to pitch him low and away- very high barrel rate, with an average EV of 101 mph. He also has hit the ball very hard on pitches up and away and out of the zone. Surprising.

The closest comp I can think of to him in terms of skills is maybe Devon Whyte. Not quite as much D, more power.

John Northey - Monday, August 25 2025 @ 02:36 PM EDT (#466904) #

Weird thing is a recent interview Varsho gave he said that he is trying to hit a ground ball at the pitcher every time now and that is part of what is working for him. Whatever works I guess.

92-93 - Monday, August 25 2025 @ 04:06 PM EDT (#466908) #

Varsho 170PA - 40RBI
Clement 489PA - 40RBI

Mike Green - Monday, August 25 2025 @ 04:56 PM EDT (#466910) #

Ernie Clement starting getting regular work in August 2023. Here's the list of Blue Jay performers over the 2023-25 period. Varsho has 1264 PAs to Clement's 993, and they're actually quite comparable overall- Clement leads in OBP .301 to .289, Varsho leads in Slug .424 to .406 and Varsho has slight leads in baserunning and defensive value once you adjust for the playing time differences.

Now Varsho seems to have taken a step forward in 2025. We'll see if he can sustain it over the medium term. In which case, he's a very valuable player.

uglyone - Monday, August 25 2025 @ 05:15 PM EDT (#466911) #

Arden Zwelling
@ArdenZwelling
·
1h
Yimi Garcia (ulnar nerve symptoms) hasn’t been bouncing back well between recent throwing sessions and is going to visit with Dr. Keith Meister for another opinion on his elbow — date TBD

Arden Zwelling
@ArdenZwelling
·
1h
Nick Sandlin (elbow) experienced some discomfort in his elbow while throwing from 120-feet recently. He’s in Toronto to be assessed by Blue Jays staff.

Club’s hope is Sandlin’s setback is a minor one and he can continue throwing, but it’ll depend how medical staff evaluates him

Arden Zwelling
@ArdenZwelling
·
1h
Anthony Santander (shoulder) is in Toronto with the Blue Jays; he’s progressed to hitting off high-velocity pitching machines

Arden Zwelling
@ArdenZwelling
·
59m
Santander is also scheduled to take some fly balls in the outfield pre-game on Monday

Minnesota at Toronto, August 25-27 | 8 comments | Create New Account

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