Nice seeing Cease get out of that relatively unscathed - how he does when a bunch of runners start getting on is my biggest worry with him.

Even if the White Sox have been a bit lucky on a couple of batted balls, this has been an uneven performance by Cease and the Blue Jays. He had a chance to beat Hays in the key PA in the third, but he gave in and threw a hittable FB on the 3-2 pitch, and Hays drove it into left-centre for a two-run single.

Estrada is warming up in the Jays pen so its unlikely he will start tomorrow. Maybe a Buffalo starter is on the way? Could be Voth, Dallas or Van Eyk.

boom.

I can't stand this pinch hit. Straw is not a good hitter and Barger might be. Schenider is so absurdly push button lett/right and the team just doesn't lend itself to that. Now, it's very possible that Jays will be up in 11th with guys on and Straw in to face a righty instead of Barger.

Golden Sombrero for Okamoto today.

48.4k% for Okamoto on the season now.

not great!

this has been a very unpleasant, dicey game from the start. babips were going all chisox way until the very end there.

please hoffman just seal this without any fuss i want this one to be over now.

oh lord why on earth did you throw that, heineman.

I hear that there's something to be said for taking advantage of the weak teams. Maybe they should try that?

Kirk injury — broken hand or torn ligament?

Disaster of a ballgame (because of the injury).

At least the Blue Jays have Valenzuela waiting in the wings, but the Ponce and Kirk injuries are likely going to have a big impact on the 2026 season. And we’re only a week into the season.

The Blue Jays have signed Patrick Corbin to a one-year contract and assigned him to Dunedin.

I didn't see that coming when the debate was about how the team was going to handle having eight starters, including Lauer.

Trey Yesavage went 2.2 innings, 44 pitches for Dunedin tonight. Two more starts would get him up to around 75 pitches and be ready for a return to the Jays.

Mason Fluharty to start tomorrow so it looks like a bullpen day.

Ugly situation - hopefully works better than Spencer Turnbull did last year with his 7.11 ERA (dang, want a slushie now). Lucas Giolito had 2.0 fWAR last year with Boston but looking at his BB/9 and K/9 he looks to have been very lucky to get that. The only catcher listed as a free agent is Tom Murphy (35 years old, no pro baseball last year, 104 wRC+ lifetime) who missed a lot of time due to SF misdiagnosing his injuries the past 2 years (thus showing why players are interested in the Jays rehab setup in Dunedin). If he seems healthy he might be worth a flier. CJ Stubbs is the vet backup in AAA right now, 0-3 as a ML player, 711 OPS in the minors lifetime, 805 in AAA over 48 games. Safe to say if Kirk is down that Valenzuela will get the call (on the 40 man, hit 304/370/478 in spring, strong defensive rep).

Ugh, April 3rd and 2 significant injuries off fluke plays? Getting a bad feeling this year won't be the Jays one.

Still no update on the extent of Kirk’s injury?

Okamoto also fell asleep on a double steal, breaking late to the bag and giving Kirk zero shot at throwing the runner out on a play that could have been made. The runner scored later in the AB.

MLBTR tends to be fairly up to date on this stuff - checking Twitter so we don't have to. The Jays are waiting for X-Rays on Kirk's hand. Brandon Valenzuela will come up if needed, and I suspect he is on his way to Chicago right now just in case. If we are lucky Saturday will be rained out - supposed to be raining there non-stop until noon or 1 PM. Sadly that leaves time for it to dry off and get the game in still. If that game was canceled though they'd probably play a double header on Sunday so no real gain regardless.

Sigh. If only the offense would get going then Kirk wouldn't have had that freak injury and the Jays would've won. Ah well. Nothing can be done about the past, read that Vlad went for extra batting practice after the game as he wasn't happy with how he is swinging right now. Hopefully we get playoff Vlad tomorrow. Hope shines eternal.

I agree on the Okamoto play. At first I thought that it was a function of how far from the bag he was positioned but when they showed the wide field shot it was clear that he just fell asleep and reacted way too slowly.

Brandon Valenzuela is in Chicago. Kirk update coming at noon ET.

Thumb fracture for Kirk.

Too many injuries so far in 2026.

Hopefully we're just getting the injuries out of the way early.

Kirk's thumb was dislocated and fractured. The dislocated thumb was out back in place. Kirk will see a specialist on Monday to see if surgery is needed for the fracture.

So Ponce and Kirk see doctors on Monday.

Patrick Corbin starts for Dunedin today and is expected to throw 75 pitches. He could be ready for a major league start next week.

Not a fan of Flu being the opener when the left bats are 4, 6, 8 and 9.

The lefty bats are there because Fluharty is the opener. The Sox have rolled with Murakami-Benintendi-Montgomery as 2-3-4 vs. some righties this year.

Yeah, but it still feels like walking into a sucker punch.

Guessing we’ll see Kirk sometime in the summer.

This team looks lifeless right now.

If they would have just jumped the market on Cease and Tucker they'd be in much better shape. Waiting until January to try to take advantage of the slower to develop Bo and Tucker markets backfired as it allowed the Dodgers (and then Mets) to get involved with creative offers at the end.

Jays have acquired inf Tyler Fitzgerald from the Giants for cash. He has been sent to AAA.

Davis Schneider

Year 1: 141pa, 175wrc+
Year 2: 454pa, 80wrc+
Year 3: 227pa, 131wrc+
Year 4: 9pa, 187wrc+

if vladdy leads, the rest will follow.

Not Brendon Little.

Man is literally BEGGING to get a ticket to Buffalo. You had ONE job.

This is unsustainable.

Little had a couple of ok outings, but this was brutal. Not reliable, and given too much leash.

that's gonna have to be the end of the line for Little, methinks.

another egregious Heineman blunder.


and a reminder that Davis Schneider has hit righties (115wrc+) much better than lefties (103wrc+) in his career, and only one year in his career has hit lefties better (his rookie season - where he still posted a 133wrc+ vRHP).

like even in his one awful year, Schneider was still decent vRHP (93wrc+), just couldn't hit lefties a lick (47wrc+).

If you were on the 2025 roster and had a modicum of success then your leash is going to be long, apparently.

The evidence of Little being a useful MLB pitcher is exactly half a season so there’s no reason to give him a long leash. The biggest issue is that there really aren’t many attractive options on Buffalo.

holy moly heineman is having a run

I believe managing the clubhouse is the most important aspect of managing and I think Schneider is good at that but man do I hate his in game managing.

John Schneider made a lot of questionable decisions in 2025 and they almost always ended up working out. I’m not sure the Baseball Gods are that nice for more than a season.

"The biggest issue is that there really aren’t many attractive options on Buffalo."

I am sure this is the Jays thinking but it's wrong because they don't need to be attractive, just not completely useless. Like maybe Macko has a 5 ERA up here but a) that's better than Little b) Schneider wouldn't treat him like a late inning reliever and keep throwing him into high leverage spots.

The worse part of opening with Flu was setting up Little to face the easy lefties at the bottom of the order.
These guys couldn't do anything against 93mph fastballs down the middle.
So let's use the guy who can't throw a fastball.

This one is all on the manager.

Also, teams are continuing their trend from last year of not throwing Lukes strikes. He has excellent bat control so he hits some of them but he is chasing so many pitches out of the zone. Last AB, called first strike and then no pit he's remotely close to the zone.

Corbin dominating in A ball as one might expect. Maybe one turn in Buffalo and he'll have nothing left to do in the minors

"If you were on the 2025 roster and had a modicum of success then your leash is going to be long, apparently."

To be fair, there's no such thing as a long leash - in general terms - after 8 games.

But Little is marking himself as a special case.

It's only 3 series but I'd imagine the front office is already concerned after losing 2 of three against Sacramento, Colorado and Chicago as well as one major starting pitcher injury and star catcher injury.

I wonder if they'll pony up and trade prospects for a legitimate bat if this team continues to struggle by end of May. Or would bullpen upgrade be the better route?

The Yankees are 6-1, rest of division also popping like the Jays.

I am all for giving people a long leash…but, yeah…

Little already had an outstanding ERA of 18.9 coming into the game, but he built on it today. He’s now achieved an ERA of 24.5. While Little’s outing had a certain comedy value, perhaps he could work on his routine in Buffalo for a while. It looks like he still has an option.

Jays pick up Tyler Fitzgerald. Flukey great season with Giants in 2024 but that's not who he is. Strikes out too much but is maybe a decent utility guy in spurts if Jays need him. Infield depth at AAA is pretty strong already.

it is of course foolish to make positive assumptions but nevertheless...

Corbin probably gets one more tune up (likely at Buffalo) and slides into the rotation before the 18th and he might be a mess.
(He was good for his first 4 months in TX and a mess the last two months)
But if he's at least as good as, say, Berrios was last year then when Yesavage is ready, there will be a decision. One wonders if they have prepared him for the possibility that he'll be asked to do what they originally thought Lauer would be doing. That postpones the theoretical "overcrowding" when (if) Berrios gets ready and THAT may lead to Lauer being asked to be what they wanted Little to be if Little can't get right.

Lots of moving parts. We still don't know what kind of schedule Berrios or Garcia are on, nor how much patience they'll have with Little while they await reinforcements.

Fitzgerald had a mostly nice track record in the minors but the big asterisk is how much of that was played in the PCL.

For replacing Little - which has to happen, from June 1st to now (including playoffs) he has 40 BB 49 2/3 IP - that is very, very, very unusable. Before that in '25 he had 13 walks in 26 1/3 IP - not good, but you can work with that, especially mixed with 37 K's. But 7.2 BB/9? No. Just too much. No hitter should swing unless it is a meatball down the middle at this point when Little is on the mound.

I'd be looking at Macko (4 1/3 IP in 3 G 2 H 0 R 1 BB 5 K) if you want a LHP, or Chase Lee (4 IP 4 H 3 unearned runs 1 BB 2 SO) if you want ML experience. Both have options and are on the 40 man already (Macko on his final option this year). I'd be giving Macko a shot - at least he won't put his fielders to sleep while pitching.

Mantiply and Voth with team. No moves announced but have to think Little and Estrada down.

I think they've just made that official, Glevin.

Ponce and Santander to the 60-day IL to make space on the 40 man.

Lots of issues with the team right now but the biggest offensive issues are fairly simple. They are getting absolutely nothing from the LHH’s who aren’t named Gimenez.

Had a feeling about Voth when he didn't pitch yesterday as scheduled. Surprised about Mantiply.

You mean Barger, Lukes, Varsho and Sanchez haven't delivered so far? Shock! Overreaction for sure but I also feel it was silly for FO to think that these guys could provide all the OF offense needed (even with Santander instead of Sanchez).

Straw 9pa, 229wrc+
Schneider 10pa, 203wrc+
Sanchez 26pa, 161wrc+
Varsho 28pa, 26wrc+
Lukes 13pa, 21wrc+
Barger 20pa, 6wrc+


Barger probably never deserved favored status out there tbh. But of course he'll be better than this.

Varsho the one fulltime guy not prodcucing at all is hurting us tho.

Nigel/dalimon5 - not sure why you're saying everyone EXCEPT Gimenez and calling out Sanchez?? An 878 OPS / 151 OPS+, 0.2WAR, SSS notwithstanding, is way, way better than we could have expected, is it not? If he continues to hit this "poorly" for the rest of the season, I see an AS game in his future, as well as possibly a silver slugger..

OTOH, why is Little still in the majors? His -1.1WAR basically cancels out the positive war from Gaussman (0.7) and the 0.2 from Cease and Lauer.. If you think there's something there, we have Buffalo and 3 or 4 other places he could work on things..

gold star play by okamoto there.

vw_fan - Little is no longer in the majors!

Vw, yeah you're right. I did mention overreaction...

Honestly I'm not worried about Barger and Sanchez does look the part. It's Varsho that il worried about... he's here for his defense but this offense needs some help.

just constantly on the back foot from the very start of every game.

welcome to the bigs, Brandon!

would be a good time for a clutch hit here.

sigh.

Jays OF is killing them. Sanchez has been pretty good and Straw has been great in a tiny sample but Varsho, Lukes, and Barger have been useless and they are hitting 2/4/6 usually.

Davis Schneider has also been very good.

That's right and unlike Straw it's not a fluke. Give Schneider some run!

All things considered, if this doesn’t end up being the worst seven day stretch of the season…. *tugs collar nervously*

baseball can be excruciating.

A hit with runners in scoring position? What a concept.

Anyone want to downgrade their 90 to 100+ win prediction for the team?

This is excruciating. These are terrible teams with awful hitting and awful pitching and Jays look like a AAA team.

2026 wRC+

Tucker 125
Donovan 234
Lukes -3
Barger -9

To be fair, Jesus Sanchez is off to a strong start this year (161 wRC+).

Barger removed from game with ankle injury.

The Jays definitely managed to catch more than their fair share of lightning in a bottle last year; it continues to strike me as curious that their plan for run creation is to catch as much or more this year. Very early days but I hope they are looking outside the org for some reinforcements.

Jays should still rotate Lukes in as long as he's with the team, but for the love of God, stop hitting him second!

I'm going to wait until this team isn't half-dead from the flu or whatever they've got right now before jumping off any bridges.

With the Yankees’ hot start and the rest of the AL East sputtering so far, Fangraphs now projects its “Win Div” percentage as follows:

Yankees 64.2%
Blue Jays 12.0%
Red Sox 10.2%
Orioles 8.5%
Rays 5.0%

For me, I would downgrade their win predictions for a few reasons 1) Kirk injury hurts a lot 2) starting pitcher injuries would be ok but most of the rotation is hurt 3) Jays relying a fair bit on Barger improvement, Varsho continuing success, and Lukes to be first half version of himself. All are still possible but none are happening so far.

I'd definitely downgrade projections after the first three series in which they've lost 2 of three against the worst two teams in the majors last year. They aren't good and haven't played well against these poor teams and they are getting worse after the injuries.

As has been said many times by players, you can't win the AL East in April but you can certainly lose it.

there worst stretch in '25 began April 19 in which they went 4-12

Hopefully they are just getting it in early, but I'd love to hear some reporting from the beat guys on the illness situation.

Yeah, I think they are about 3 games below expectations given the schedule. 4-5 instead of say expected 7-2. If you think it is mostly a fluke, cut the preseason expectations by 3. If you think it a trend, cut the preseason expectations by about 30 wins. As mentioned the Kirk injury among others probably knocks another win or two off so I'd say my 93 wins is probably trending to 88 based on the play so far.

If they can get out of April .500 with all these injuries/illnesses, that'll be a victory. Kirk, Bieber, Yesavage and Yimi Garcia should all be back by the end of the month to give the team a boost. The pitching and defense will remain very strong and win them a lot of games, no doubt in my mind. The sloppiness of this weekend in that regard will be forgotten.

I do think the team misses Bichette's consistent bat at the top of the lineup. I don't see Okamoto as someone who will match Bo's career .800 OPS. I also worry about the lack of pop from Clement, Lukes, Barger and Schneider so far. Just a combined .583 OPS between the four of them so far...no good there. The eye test also sees Ernie Clement a step or two slower on the basepaths and in the field early on, or is it just me?

I was very excited but seeing the rotation being shredded (4 down, maybe Lauer on edge of it as well) isn't helping one iota. Mix in Kirk down, now maybe Barger as well and things are not looking good. Jays could use something positive to happen soon. Okamoto has a 119 wRC+ still, so he is a positive but that 43.6% K rate is scary. Right now I guess we have to hold onto 'it is early' and hope things get better. Losing 5 of 6 to 2 terrible teams isn't good, but maybe it is an adrenaline thing - hard to get excited for terrible teams after being inches from a title. We'll see how they do vs the Dodgers (missing Mookie Betts).

Bellinger is another rumoured offseason LHB target who is off to a good start: .267/.410/.467 (154 wRC+), 20.5 BB%, 10.3 K%. Tucker, Bellinger and Donovan are all players I was hoping the Blue Jays would target in the offseason.

One thing that could help the Blue Jays secure a postseason spot, even with a diminished offense, is the starting rotation (even without Ponce). Gausman and Cease have looked very good, and Yesavage / Scherzer / Bieber / Lauer / Berrios could give them some excellent #3-5 rotation options. Assuming sufficient health, the rotation should help keep them in a lot of games throughout the season. Whether that would get the team into 88+ win territory and a WC spot is an open question.

The other thing that was bad in this series that you don't expect and shouldn't slump the way hitting or pitching can is defense. The Jays defense was horrible this series, and that has been a consistent and needed strength. That certainly needs to be fixed up moving forward.

The weird thing is it’s across the board. Varsho has looked horrible defensively which is shocking. Offensive struggles not surprising but defensively, jays need him, his range is 51st percentile so far. It was 95th last year. Gimemez has 31st percentile range after 97th last year. Ernie gone from 98th to 79th. Lukes from 81st to 41st. I expect most guys will regress to close to last year’s numbers, but it’s part of the team’s brutal start.

Gimenez was a 2B last year, and Clement played mostly 3B. Gimenez didn't look all that special at SS in the playoffs.

Still wondering how Brendon Little made this team after last year's finish and then pitched so much (15 earned runs by him and Heineman) which would be gone with better roster construction.

I think defense can slump like other aspects of play. To 92-93’s point though, Clement’s historical numbers have suggested that he’s very good to elite defensively at 3B and merely good at 2B. I think the defense will improve but it does look like a few chess pieces aren’t playing in their optimal positions.

I don't expect Gimenez to be an elite SS but I also expect him to be better than 31st percentile.

Defensive numbers 1 week into a season are as meaningless as spring training numbers. Reading ANYTHING into them is silly and counterproductive. Generally they say it takes 2 years to get a strong feel for a player via defensive numbers. So try not to panic about it. Yeah, the team has played horribly this past week. 3 wins barely over the A's, then 1-5 vs two terrible teams. I think the biggest issue is letdown - after being in the WS and 2 outs from a title playing 2 100+ game losers in March/April is hard to get up for. They tried, but the other teams were 100% into the games - for them this is as close to the WS as they will get and they know it - beating the Jays and/or Dodgers is the best they will get in 2026.

That is life. The Jays will get going at some point, hopefully soon. We'll see hot streaks and cold. It is just amped 100 times early on due to the stats not having months of normal play to keep them from looking ugly. Safe to say Varsho won't have a 32 OPS+ at seasons end, Barger -19, Springer 69, Lukes -10, nor will Schneider have a 199, Straw 218, and at some point Gausman will walk someone, Cease won't have a 16.8 K/9 rate, Hoffman a 21.2 K/9, etc.

Clement's DRS numbers on Baseball Reference tell a different story. I hadn't looked at the Statcast numbers. There's probably value in amalgamating all of the defensive metrics.

Tyler Fitzgerald and Josh Fleming (lefty pitcher) are with Jays. Unfortunately, looks like maybe Barger TO IL. What a brutal start.

It isn't just the SS DRS type numbers, it is the throwing errors costing a couple of games (the throw from home to first missing the out and allowing the tying run to score and the winning run to go to 2nd; the failed run down) as well as the errors as well as things like Vasho playing a single into a triple by missing a relatively routine ball in front of him on a short hop. And these are just from things I've seen, I haven't seen all the innings/played games, but enough to see notably bad plays which is the opposite of what I expect after the past years of the Jays.

Dodger series thread up