Hazel Mae
@thehazelmae
·
2m
Nothing new on Jose Berrios, yet. Probably know more tomorrow. Surgery is on the table per John Schneider.

Still talking through what next steps are. Berrios is on the fence about where he goes from here.




Ben Nicholson-Smith
@bnicholsonsmith
·
2m
Nathan Lukes set to run the bases tomorrow and begin a rehab assignment at rookie ball Monday

Ben Nicholson-Smith
@bnicholsonsmith
·
7m
Alejandro Kirk’s thumb is responding well as he ramps up catching per John Schneider. Kirk also throwing and hitting.




Ben Nicholson-Smith
@bnicholsonsmith
·
24s
More Blue Jays notes:
• Addison Barger “doing better” per John Schneider. Hope is he’s hitting and throwing again by next week and that he can be “pretty quick” after that.
• Max Scherzer is back to throwing and feeling better
• Yimi Garcia throwing a bullpen Tuesday

Need Bieber update

Apple TV.

Weird bullpen management.

Apple TV.

Never want to see it  again

This season is just a mean joke on us all, isn’t it.

Maybe if the manager didn't bring in Hoffman with the score tied and the game on the line...

I wonder if Hoffman now has a mental block about tied games or save situations.

I'm aggrieved by Hoffman sure, but there's nine innings worth of BS to answer for before he ever comes out of the gate.

If you can't do better than 2 runs against a Tigers bullpen day, WTF are you gonna do in New York against that rotation?

"Need Bieber update"

Wilner (or one of them) reported that Bieber and Garcia will throw Tuesday - but not in a game.

Feel like Bieber ought to be about ready for at least see work on the complex but I'm sure they are thinking about that 30 day limit

so if Scherzer is throwing, how long does he need to get back in the rotation (best case)?

Mason Fluharty to start tomorrow.

The offensive funk seems to mostly be how inefficient it is. Look at the lineup, Springer the worst OPS at 588, then 6 guys in the 700's, Gimenez 693 (after his 1 for 3 tonight, a double), and Valenzuela at 746 now (1 for 2 with a walk tonight - kid seems to be figuring it out, I suspect Heineman knows his days are numbered now but might accept a AAA assignment). Logically that lineup should be fine. No one doing 'WOW' but only Springer skunking up the place.

Can't really fault the manager on the lineup - Pinango is a rookie and has been hitting so he moved him to the 2 hole and he still got a hit (got picked off though). Maybe move Springer down until he gets going, but they resist that as there isn't a logical lead off guy on the roster (high OBP) - Pinango and Straw both are over 360 but no one really thinks that will keep going. Vlad is at 378, but making him leadoff outside of in a video game ain't happening. In truth we just need the baseball gods to stop being mean and let the Jays get a rally going more often instead of a couple of guys getting on then nothing every inning. Some power from someone other than Okamoto would be nice though.

With Lukes and Barger close one wonders how the Jays will handle it. I'm guessing Pinango goes back down again despite being one of the teams best hitters lately, I keep hoping Sosa goes away but that seems a lost cause, Schneider could be the odd man out, would be shocked if they traded Sanchez or anyone else. Who else could be sent down? That is about it. Pitching always seems to work itself out somehow. Hard to say on the pitching side - probably Yariel goes back down first, but after that who knows?

This felt like the infamous Leafs EBUG game. All we have to do is run up some pitch counts against a bullpen that could barely cover 9 innings when Madden got hurt, and what do we do? Let a guy get 11-12 outs on 40 pitches.

Guerrero was the biggest turning point, IMHO. Weak popup on a 3-0 pitch inside. If the "team leader" can't be bothered to play for the good of the team and take a walk there while he's scuffling, no wonder Pinango got distracted and got picked off.. If Vlad takes the walk, Pinango is at 2nd and doesn't get picked off.. Kaz swinging at a 3-0 pitch right after - did he get a text from Hillenbrand??

And of course, once I saw Hoffie warming up in the pen, I knew that if we didn't score in the top of the 9th, we'd be losing this game. He needs to be restricted to innings 5-7 at this point.
We always figured the last 5 years of Vladdy's contract would be a write-off. I'm worried we'll be writing off 2/3 of it or more at this rate.
(yes, this is a "hot take", and blowing off a bit of steam, but it's looking so bad right now - hard to find any positives).

The offense is just awful right now and most of that is down to Springer and Vlad just not being good. There are worse hitters, but these are your team leaders and they can't hit and have consistently awful abs. The rest of the team was never going to be great offensively. It's understandable after going to game 7, Jays would largely stick with same players but it's pretty clear that this offensive group isn't good enough and cycling through sort of league average corner OFs isn't going to move the needle. I don't think there's much to be done unfortunately except hope that Barger and Kirk give you a lift but I'm not optimistic.

Yeah, it feels like the Jays could survive if their top couple of offensive guys struggle OR the Jays could survive if they suffered a lot of injuries, but both at the same time is too much.

That said, for a team struggling as much as they are, the pitching is pretty great and they are hanging around, so if people get healthy and get good again, the season isn't over by any means.

Adam Macko in Detroit

Jose Berrios will have surgery on Wednesday. It seems it is to fix his stress fracture but they will examine his ligament at the same time.

Too bad that Mason couldn't start tomorrow to get the coveted Fluharty vs. Flaherty pitching match-up.  Mick Doherty would have approved.

The evidence that Lenyn Sosa is a better choice to play second base and face Casey Mize than Davis Schneider is very hard to find.  Mize's fastball is averaging under 94 mph this year, so there isn't even that.  

the coveted Fluharty vs. Flaherty pitching match-up

With Joe Carter doing the colour commentary, pronouncing the names exactly the same... but not either of the actual pronunciations.

That Vlad and Springer switch in the line up suggestion is brilliant. Remember last year Springer took off when hitting lower in the line up. I'd keep Pinango up and move him to #2 after Luke's then Vlad at #3 then Kirk#4 then Okamoto # 5 then Springer. Against LHP remove Luke's and move everyone up.

Springer just looks like a mess at the plate. Bad timing, bad mechanics, bad balance and no real stride with his lower body (probably an effect of the toe). I’m really, really worried.

Truly it is a special level of hell following a baseball team this punchless offensively.

As I mentioned before the season started that I was apprehensive about the jays season because teams that snatch defeat from the jaws of victory (both the Jays and Hoffman) on the big stage have historically had a carryover effect to the next season - I was hoping the Jays would have made significant changes to their roster to maybe help negate this precedent. Of course, my suspicions were confirmed when erudite poster Mike Green gave such a rave review of the Jays roster and a superlative prediction for the 2026 season.

I think the only chance the jays have for a recovery this season is for Mike Green to withdraw that rosy analysis and instead predict doom and gloom for the Jays going forward.

Spencer Miles continues to be a real bright spot at least. For somebody with basically el zilcho professional pitching experience coming into this year, his ability to execute pitches at this level is real darn impressive. He’s thrown some dandy curveballs in this outing.

I can certainly see a case for optimism about this season still because the pitching has, in general, been pretty darn good. A frustrating shame because with how things are going at the moment, it feels like this lineup could find a way to score -3 runs in a game somehow.

It's like every other ab is an attempt to have the worst at bat possible. Just feeble. Hard to exaggerate how bad Sosa has been and really just is as a player. Zips has him improving enormously and hitting 11 HR's ROS and still being a negative WAR player. I couldn't see what Jays were doing with him 15 games ago but now, it's just offensive.

Wonder if Greg Maddux could out-hit Heineman.

And I mean Greg Maddux now, the 60 year old version. There’s struggling and then there’s whatever this is.

1-0 Tigers. Game over time to change the channel.

(I so wish I was joking)

Matt Vierling for whatever reason has been a low key Blue Jays killer over the years. The game winning run (and stolen base) last night, think he had a five hit game against Toronto as a Phillie, probably another walkoff thrown in there also.

Naturally I was typing a “I’m sick of watching a team struggle to hit a ball out of the infield” rant when Pinango crushes his first career homer. Appreciate you saving the egg from my face, kid.

pinch hitting for gimenez vs the lefty. thank you coach.

i approve no matter the result.

attaboy louie.

not pretty but great win in a bullpen game.

please win this series tomorrow.

one of my low-key frustrations when they're not dominating:

You go into a game like this thinking "You gotta worry about McGonigle and Greene, if they mess you up at least it was a good player" and seemingly inevitably you handle the good hitters and take damage from weak hitters like McKinstry or Taylor Walls.

If you're gonna get beat don't get beat be the crappy guys

(I'm sure other teams feel the same way when Sosa or Schneider hurts them)

I find myself wondering what the asking price would be for Otto Lopez

When they say don't get beat by this guy, they mean pitch around him. There's no pitching around the bottom of a lineup.

With Pinango's HR off Finnegan, 10 of the 13 current position players have at least 1 HR off a RHP this season. Who doesn't? Hint: one of those 3 is Heineman.

I'm going to guess Vlad. I don't remember his HR's since but he's hit only 2 so... The other one, not sure? I think Ernie did but maybe Schneider or Sosa?

It's Vlad and Sosa.

As far as I can tell, the record for most PAs without a BB is Craig Robinson who went 148 PAs without one for Phillies in 1973. Sosa is at 98 so still a long way to go but if anyone can make it, he can.

As good a reason as any to keep him around!

Adam Macko activated.

Tommy Nance to the IL.

It's not enough they keep playing Sosa, he's hitting fifth every game. This is one thing that feels unique for the Jays. Can you imagine the Yankees picking up some bad waiver wire guy and then hitting them fifth every other game for a month?

Well, today the fifth hitter in the Yankees lineup is Chisholm who is hitting .222.
6. McMahon .190
7. Jones .188
8. Volpe .000
9. Escara .182
 
Chisholm has a .639 OPS. 
Sosa is hitting .214 with a .532 OPS for Toronto--very similar to his White Sox numbers.

guerrero moved to the 2hole today.

it;s where he should be tbh.

Yesavage Career Season + Postseason:

13gms, 4.7ip/gm, 30.2k%, 10.3bb%, .303babip, 69era-, 69fip-, 82xfip-


gave up 4hr in the postseason but hasn't given up a regular season hr yet.

vladdy!

I guess we can keep him at #2 then.

After my post, Vlad hits his 1st off a RHP

Timely hits, how I missed thee.

dodgers sign lauer.

"dodgers sign lauer."

"Great trade! Who'd we get?"

Hah, they announced the details on the radio: Lauer + cash for a PTBNL + cash.

good test for mantiply her in a pretty high lev spot.

he's been really good....deserves this chance ...but please man get it done.

far from perfect but pretty good in a tough spot against the top of the lineup.

so we've only lost 2 series in the last month, both to the friggin rays.

I wonder if it was a deliberate move to have Vladdy DH on the day he bats 2nd. The thinking may have been to bat him earlier and let him feel involved earlier since he's not in field. Of course, they batted first so that's probably moot.

I always wonder about these types of trade.
Does the PTBNL or the money depends on the player performance?
Or is it that the team is offered a choice between  some players and want some time to evaluate them?
There's always the case of trading an injured player later, once he's off the IL.

Da Yankees lose!

As I understand it the teams have some agreement that the team can pick from a list of guys with cash being a backup option. There might be an issue with injuries or something else that prevents the one team from picking that player right away, but circumstances require the one guy to go (Lauer only has so long in DFA limbo) so the Dodgers just give the Jays a choice and tell them to take their time picking. There can be conditions that if Lauer does xyz or is used x amount then player A is available as well.

Yanks are suddenly on an 3-8 skid.


Sweep the yanks now and we're only 2.5gms back of them and back at .500 at the same time.

make it so.

I'll take a series split tbh. Yesavage vs. Schlittler sounds like a fun one.

Heh. Manager responds to Sosa's struggles by....moving him into the cleanup spot.

Pinango sits.

Eventually Sosa is going to pop a HR or two and the Jays will just never sit him again. He's a career 97 WRC+ guy vs LHP. I've definitely disagreed with how Jays giving playing time before but not like this in a very long time. It's not like Sosa is having good abs or giving a lot of value on D or something. It's just the team forcing a bad player into the middle of the lineup for no reason at all.

Yeah but Vladdy hitting 2nd! That's good.

I agree 100% with the anti-Sosa crowd. Heck, Sammy might hit better right now. OPS+ here is now lower than in Chicago at 40. Yes, 40. This is like Springer in 2024, except Springer had a track record of success. Sosa's peak was last year with a 100 OPS+. A 727 OPS is his best ML one. If you skip winterball the only time he hit enough to be of note was 2022 with a 881 OPS (AAA/AA). In '23 and '24 he also cracked an 800 OPS in AAA but it says a LOT about him that even though the ChiSox were losing 100+ (121 in '24) they didn't feel a need to call him up from AAA until well into the season. They gave in in '25, left him in, and he was OK (22 HR) but that isn't much of an endorsement.

There just isn't a reason to keep him around. He has lots of raw power but he isn't showing it in games. Keeping him up when Charles McAdoo is hitting 260/370/432 as a RH IF in Buffalo seems wasteful. Of course, McAdoo is a 3B not a 2B, but he has 75 innings there lifetime so maybe he could handle it as well - hard to do much worse. Or Josh Kasevich who is a SS (good fielding one by rep) hitting 293/362/389. Yeah, neither has the potential power Sosa has, but both should out hit him thanks to an acceptable OBP easily.

I'd really like to hear the pro-Sosa argument (beyond 'he has power, he just hasn't shown it yet')

Looking at the season OPS of the two lineups does show quite some difference.

Jays:

566 - 754 - 767 - 513 - 766 - 694 - 766 - 732 - 563

Yankees:

936 - 1077 - 999 - 833 - 803 - 670 - 896 - 817 - 507

So only Chisholm Jr and Escarra have an OPS lower than the highest Jay's OPS. The other 7 are all at least 50 OPS better than the best Jays OPS!