At one point in the radio broadcast, the PBP guy said something along the lines of 'Gausman looks into Valenzuela for the sign'. Is there something wrong with the PitchCom, or did he just lapse into pre-PitchCom parlance?

It seems Minnesota's hex vs. Gausman is alive and well.

Dan Shulman seems to be on vacation this weekend so his son Ben, the usual radio guy, is doing TV. In previous years they have used Barry Davis (I think thats his name) to do the radio as a fill in and he is not good. I assume thats who thought Gausman was looking for a sign.

Oooof, that’s some T-Ball level defence. Minnesota hex indeed.

Geez Ernie, 3 BBs in the last couple of games? That’s ruining your whole schtick.

George leadoff single the highlight of the game.

Well, that game was a waste of time to watch. A few moments of fun, but generally just ugly. It is rare I turn a game off mid-way with zero intent to turn it back on, but that game was one of them. Just ugly.

George not challenging those two strike calls was the turning point.

It was cold. Gus's velo was down.
Some bad pitching, some bad fielding and not a lot of good offense.

Lenyn Sosa gets the start at second base while Ernie Clement rests.  Davis Schneider does not get a start against SWR- in his 7 PAs against SWR, he has 2 doubles and 3 homers.  If you're going to sit him against RHPs with blazing fastballs, you'd think that he might get a shot at a RHP who doesn't have that and he has a track record of success.

It remains perplexing how the Jays front office imagine Lenyn Sosa is going to help the team. Leo Jimenez, who might actually be good, is getting a lot less playing time for Miami.

No issue with Ernie sitting. He's played every game this year. Give him a breather. Agree though that the Jays trying to force Sosa in the lineup is very odd. He now has 1185 PAs with a 79 WRC+, 3% BB rate, and negative defensive value. There's nothing there except an occasional HR. Why not just call-up Mendoza from AAA. He's an unknown at least.

The problem with Schneider is that he's looked awful at the plate.

Apparently Barger is back next week so maybe they just want to get some last looks in before cutting anyone.

Leo Jimenez, who might actually be good, is getting a lot less playing time for Miami.

Unfortunately for Jimenez, he landed in a poor place to expect playing time. Miami is very strong at 2B and SS.

Schneider recently started 5 games in a row and didn't get a hit, his last of which came back on April 14th. He isn't helping his case. Uncharacteristic for the manager to ignore that kind of success against the guy on the mound though.

And Sosa goes 3-for-3 against SWR.

Poor Hoffman. Pitching great but he's having such terrible batted ball luck.

Pinango reminds me of Devon Travis, but lefty.

Hoffman 18.4 K/9 but .548 BABIP

At a certain point, the high BABIP helps the K/9 be so high. If anyone that puts the ball in play is safe, you are left with most outs being strikeouts. But yeah it does seem weird to be both so easy for opponents to get hits on balls in plays, HR on balls in the air, but yet so many Ks at the same time.

I also was groaning at Sosa being in the lineup, then he goes and gets 3 hits. I wondered if the Jays saw something the public stats don't show in him and I guess they did. Is it enough for him to keep his job? We will see. Sosa has no options left, while Pinango (who also had 3 hits) has all 3 options left, Schneider 2 left, and Valenzuela all 3. Those are the guys in danger of being sent down/released as the IL comes back - Barger, Lukes, and Kirk. Valenzuela obviously is up until Kirk returns. Pinango has to hit the crap out of the ball to survive both Barger and Lukes returning and so far so good on that front (205 wRC+, 475 wOBA 500/545/500) with tons of praise from the manager. BP had him predicted for a 217/292/355 line, with the 99% (super optimistic) being 239/331/431 so his current level was most definitely not expected by the stats. ZiPs had him at 223/290/353. It'll be interesting to see how he does as time goes by.

They got Sosa to hit a few bombs but he hasn't hit a HR yet.
Would be hard to demote Pinango while he's this hot.
But once a lefty outfielder comes back there goes his playing time.
I still thinks Schneider needs to go back to AAA and get his bat going there.

I like Pinango but Jays when healthy alrwsdy have Sanchez, Lukes, and Barger at corner OF and Springer at DH so there's just nowhere for him to play. It does maybe give Jays depth to trade a LH corner OF but also hard to see.

Man was I wrong about Straw.

I’ll say it again. Cease is the RH Robbie Ray. Very good pitcher with elite stuff but too many BBs, too many pitches, not great fielding and not good at holding runners means that the results are a little less than should be given the quality of the stuff.

Springer takes a pitch directly off the toe that was broken. Out of the game. No I'm not kidding.

They need to stop playing Schneider. The every day experiment has failed. Go back to using him strategically like they did last year. Right now he’s just not a threat at all.

Lefty on the mound.

Lefty on the mound, sure. But one that throws 96.

Do you honestly think Pinago couldn’t manage a 520 OPS vL? Or Sanchez?

Schneider looking like the loneliest to be demoted after Barger returns.

Cease is more like Burnett than Ray.

Well, that's a nice inning. Lots of credit to Cease for hanging in there. Good to see Schneider get a big hit. He needs it.

Schneider showed me!

Has tomorrow's pitcher been announced? I was only half-listening to the radio, not sure if it was mentioned.

Yesavage, because they're giving Berrios another AAA start.

Thanks. I missed his first start, so hopefully he makes Sunday chores a little more enjoyable!

Going by OPS by lowest going up...

• Not at risk: Barger: 279 (IL), Heinemann: 423, Kirk: 577 (IL)
• At risk: Schneider: 578, Lukes 613 (IL), Sanchez 669
• Was doomed, but is fighting hard: Sosa 748, Pinango 1045

A few days ago I had Sosa and Pinango as locks to be dumped as Lukes & Barger returned. Now... not so sure. I'd put Schneider as #1 at risk. Sanchez was safe, but has slumped and has by far the most PA (99 vs Springer at 66, then Lukes 52, Schneider 51) of anyone with a sub 700 OPS who isn't a shortstop (Gimenez).

Realistically I'd say the demotions will be first Pinango (sucks to be a rookie), then Schneider (keeping the RH bat as long as possible plus he appears well liked according to media reports mixed with how well he hit last year and in '23). When Kirk returns it is obvious that Valenzuela goes back to AAA. But the leash on Barger and Lukes will be short.

Pitching is a far harder beast to deal with. Corbin has been far better than he should be with a 3.65 ERA but his xERA is a horrid 5.73, xFIP 4.24 (bad but livable). All of which suggests the Jays would be smart to trade him if someone makes a decent offer. Lauer is a mess - 6 ERA, 5.51 xERA, 5.70 xFIP - if someone offers a bucket of balls it'd be tempting - yeah, he was great last year, but this is 2026 not 2025. In the pen Nance is the anti-Corbin, 5.14 ERA vs 3.17 xERA 3.12 xFIP. Fluharty has options though so I'd rank him high on short end of the stick situations. Mantiply also has an option left but has been more effective. Fisher & Varland also have options but no way they go down right now, same for Yesavage. So tough choices, but good tough coming up soon.

Heinemen should be at risk when Kirk is back. Valuenzuela just seems like a better player right now and he's 10 years younger than Heinemen. Not saying he should be cut, but it should be a discussion at least.

I've noticed Sportsnet TV's broadcast since Thursday has added 2 vertical bars to the left of each team abbreviation in its lower-right score bug.

It took me a while to figure out what they're for (it seems they indicate the number of ABS (Automated Ball-Strike) challenges the team has remaining in the game).
(Not sure if the announcers ever explained it, I only saw parts of the broadcasts.)

The Jays' comeback today was with 0 challenges left (DSchneider got burned challenging a high strike call, and Valenzuela catching appealed a DCease pitch that had run just outside the zone).

Cease is the RH Robbie Ray.

If you want to go further back, AJ Burnett.

Burnett is definitely a member of that family of pitchers. Although Burnett, for his career, actually had fewer BB/9 than either Cease or Ray (hard to believe).

AJ Burnett pitched in a different era, in some sense. He probably had way more walks than league average, whatever was league average back then.

Ray and Burnett are both in the top 10 of comparable to Cease through age 29 at bb-ref. Jack Flaherty and Jake Odorizzi are 1-2, followed by Ray.

Also, if the season ended right now, Toronto would be in a tie for the final AL wild card spot.

Baseball Reference has MLB pitching averages by year. Interestingly, although K/9 rates have increased significantly over the last three decades, BB/9 rates have not. If anything they have held steady to dropping marginally. Burnett was closer to league average than Ray and Cease.

Nigel you should look at Burnett and Ray through the same age seasons as Cease. From how I remember it, Ray walked everyone and then stopped walking everyone after some changes with Pete Walker. Burnett was not putting hitters away and was also walking too many until he came to Toronto, started training with Halladay and then left Toronto and became a much better pitcher with less walks (how I remember).

So a fair comparison would be to compare Cease to Ray and Burnet "Before" their changes. If you take the "best" or "fixed," versions of those pitchers into the comparison then you might as well wait until Cease finishes his career to see if he improves his walk rate otherwise you're only going to see "fixed" pitchers compared to "unfixed" Cease. This is likely what Toronto is banking on and what they paid up for, is this belief that he can be an ace pitcher who doesn't strike out 12 guys a game with no gas left past the 5th.

It's no secret that Cease is not a finished product and it's likely the only reason he was made available to reach free agency. I'm very bullish on Cease just like with Ray and Burnett. It's much easier to make a statue from a full block of stone than it is to from rubble. He clearly has the goods and just needs to finish polishing his ABC's of Baseball...

The legit straightaway power that valenzuela keeps showing is super encouraging. I don't think he'll ever be a great hitter but having at least some real mlb power should go a long way to making him a pretty useful mlber with his seemingly great D.

And i appreciate the Cease - Ray comparison but Ray had severe consistency and durability issues which Cease so far hasn't. At this point in his career Cease has been significantly better, significantly more consistent, and significantly more durable than Ray had been.

i pinch hit ned flanders for H here.

Or go straight to Valenzuela.

Yeah, hard to unseratand because Heinemen is such a bad hitter and that's your big chance to get back into the game.

Berrios getting ready for his next start by giving up seven runs to Scranton in 3.2 innings. Put him in coach!

then Valenzuela goes into the game anyway bot6

Felt like a very winnable game. Sosa is going to hit a HR every two weeks and the Jays are going to keep playing him hoping it turns into more but it won't. Really can't have him hitting 5th. He's the second worst hitter on the team.

Heineman was removed due to a managers decision. No further elaboration provided.

Heineman has to watch himself for when Kirk is back, Valenzuela could be taking his spot.

Apparently, Heinemen not hurt and Schenider called it "manager decision" to remove him so looks like something else happened (maybe he was told to take a couple of pitches and popped up first pitch but just a guess).

Heineman was benched as a "manager's decision" after his at-bat with the bases loaded - a somewhat defensive swing at a borderline first pitch. We haven't seen Schneider react this way very often... I think he was clearly disappointed that he trusted Heineman in that situation. A lesson learned I hope.
Meanwhile, Valenzuela just took another step forward in claiming his role as Kirk's backup.

Two critical PA's with 2 outs - Heineman hit in one, Sosa the other. Both flopped as expected. Heineman now has a 398 OPS, Sosa 661. Neither is good with the bat, but at least Heineman is a catcher so he has an excuse. Sosa is a pure bat who has 0 walks vs 10 K's as a Jay. I saw hope for Sosa earlier, but really there isn't much there it seems. Stats don't show it and he hasn't shown much as a Jay vs his lifetime 660 OPS.

So who is in AAA who is a RH bat to replace one of the dead RH bats we see from Sosa and Schneider? Will Simoneit has hit well in Buffalo it seems - 313/377/542 but missed all of last year and never had an 800 OPS before this (609 in '24) - he is a 29 year old C/1B so while useful, very unlikely to get a shot unless Heineman is hurt. Charles McAdoo is next for RH bats - 243/347/447 at age 24 being used at 3B/1B/DH with some past experience at 2B/LF/RF (mainly a 2B in college). He might be a good choice to have here instead of Sosa - at least he might take a walk. Then comes Josh Kasevich a strong defensive SS hitting 271/350/393. I'd go for McAdoo myself. Clase has sucked when he played (just 9 games so far, 548 OPS), and Schreck who some thought might get a shot this year has flopped so far in AAA with a 579 OPS (bats left anyways so behind a lot of guys).

Ugh. I get a feeling we'll be seeing both Sosa and Schneider for a bit here.

From Shi Davidi:

Tyler Heineman said it was “just situation, everything that's been going on, and I just didn't get it done. Manager’s decision. I stick by it. One of the best managers in the game, the best manager I played for. He has a reason for everything he does. And I fully support him.”

Asked to clarify what everything that’s been going on meant, he pointed to his fly out in the sixth: “That at-bat was pretty trash. I popped up on a pitch I should have drove. I've been pretty crappy the last, I don't know, 10 games or so. Probably saw something that he shouldn't have saw or that I did wrong and he made his decision.”

it's frustrated me for a while that while the manager loves pinch hitting based on queestionable platoon splits, he almost never simply uses the fact that he has a good bench to pinch hit based on pure hitter quality - like putting a real hitter in instead of a backup C in a crucial at bat.

Options should be irrelevant when Kirk comes back. Valenzuela is clearly the better option at backup catcher. Hopefully that's the direction they go. Heineman had a great 2025 but once the magic is gone you have to be realistic about talent level.

How upset will people be when Sosa stays and Schneider goes to AAA?

Sosa seems like the kind of guy who'd have played on a rudderless John Farrell or early John Gibbons 2.0 Blue Jays team.

Schneider needs to seize the means of production.

No Springer in the lineup today.

Plausible best lineup using....

Last 1 Calendar Year...

1. DH Springer 555pa, .382obp, 156wrc+, 4.9war650
2. 3B Okamoto 138pa, .319obp, 119wrc+, 3.3war650
3. 1B Guerrero 687pa, .393obp, 141wrc+, 4.3war650
4. CF Varsho 381pa, .289obp, 112wrc+, 4.4war650
5. C Alejandro 427pa, .356obp, 122wrc+, 6.5war650
6. RF Barger 490pa, .303obp, 107wrc+, 2.9war650
7. 2B Schneider 271pa, .354obp, 121wrc+, 3.6war650
8. SS Clement 643pa, .322obp, 106wrc+, 3.7war650
9. LF Lukes 445pa, .314obp, 99wrc+, 2.3war650

B. UT Sanchez 553pa, .300obp, 94wrc+, 1.3war650
B. OF Straw 305pa, .319obp, 95wrc+, 3.6war650
B. IF Sosa 506pa, .287obp, 99wrc+, 2.3war650
B. C Valenzuela 47pa, .255obp, 82wrc+, 4.1war650

X. UT Pinango 14pa, .500obp, 179wrc+, 9.3war650
X. OF Clase 108pa, .299obp, 76wrc+, -1.2war650
X. IF Gimenez 360pa, .293obp, 81wrc+, 2.3war650
X. C Heineman 201pa, .306obp, 75wrc+, 3.9war650

X. UT Santander 85pa, .294obp, 64wrc+, -2.3war650




Fangraphs combined Projections....

1. DH Springer 487pa, .339obp, 116wrc+, 2.1war650
2. LF Lukes 205pa, .335obp, 105wrc+, 2.5war650
3. 1B Guerrero 536pa, .385obp, 146wrc+, 4.5war650
4. 3B Okamoto 448pa, .328obp, 116wrc+, 3.3war650
5. RF Barger 288pa, .313obp, 105wrc+, 2.0war650
6. C Alejandro 280pa, .349obp, 115wrc+, 6.3war650
7. CF Varsho 476pa, .296obp, 101wrc+, 2.9war650
8. 2B Clement 498pa, .311obp, 97wrc+, 2.7war650
9. SS Gimenez 481pa, .313obp, 95wrc+, 3.1war650

B. UT Sanchez 337pa, .314obp, 105wrc+, 1.9war650
B. OF Straw 144pa, .302obp, 78wrc+, 0.9war650
B. IF Schneider 232pa, .329obp, 104wrc+, 2.5war650
B. C Heineman 167pa, .297obp, 73wrcz+, 2.3war650

X. UT Santander 22pa, .309obp, 103wrc+, 0.0war650
X. OF Pinango 72pa, .309obp, 85wrc+, 0.0war650
X. IF Sosa 144pa, .280obp, 88wrc+, 0.5war650
X. C Valenzuela 71pa, .275obp, 72wrc+, 1.8war650

X. OF Schreck 11pa, .316obp, 90wrc+, 0.0war650
X. OF Clase 11pa, .291obp, 80wrc+, 0.0war650
X. IF Kasevich 17pa, .296obp, 73wrc+, 0.0war650
X. C MacIver 5pa, .288obp, 77wrc+, 0.0war650

Ben Nicholson-Smith
@bnicholsonsmith
·
15s
Addison Barger says he’s feeling good. Will play tomorrow and possibly Wednesday in rehab games. Tentatively on track to be activated this weekend per John Schneider



Ben Nicholson-Smith
@bnicholsonsmith
·
1m
Blue Jays hope Alejandro Kirk can start swinging a bat later this week per John Schneider



Mitch Bannon
@MitchBannon
·
2m
George Springer should be available off the bench today, Schneider says #BlueJays

Mitch Bannon
@MitchBannon
·
1m
José Berríos is joining the #BlueJays today in Tampa, and they’ll talk with him about next steps.

Schneider: “Just want to sit down with him, Pete and the trainers, and kind of see exactly where he's at and what he's comfortable with going forward.“



Hazel Mae
@thehazelmae
·
1m
George Springer hit inside and “felt great”.. he reiterated, “I want to play.”

Don't really get the Okamoto at #2. My guess is he goes to #4 when Springer is back. Jays need a LH BAT at #2 but nobody is great fit. Barger has most upside but is more of a power bat with lower OB. Varsho too streaky. Lukes and Sanchez not good enough to be hitting #2.

Schneider has such a nice way with words. He makes it sound like Berrios is in control and not the other way around. But I don't think they can let him pitch in the majors right now... his velocity is down 2-3 mph, and he doesn't seem to have consistent command of any of his pitches right now. Berrios is very competitive and might think he's ready, but he's got to least find his command if not his velocity before his rehab is over.

I'd like to see a line up:

Springer
Lukes
Guerrero
Okamoto
Barger
Kirk
Gimenez
Clement
Varsho