Batter's Box Interactive Magazine

After four bad losses on Wednesday, the affiliates rebounded for five wins on Thursday. Buffalo scored fifteen runs. New Hampshire only scored two but Gage Stanifer dominated so that was enough. Dunedin also had a big offensive game scoring 12 runs.

Buffalo 15 Iowa 1

Somerset 1 New Hampshire 2

Vancouver 7 Hillsboro 2 - 7 innings

Tampa 6 Dunedin 12

FCL Blue Jays 2 FCL Tigers o

Three Stars

Third Star - Jevon Ward

Second Star - Dariel Ramon

First Star - Gage Stanifer

Boxes

NOTES

Buffalo scored 15 runs on Thursday. They did have 14 hits but also walked 12 times. The two hitters with an OPS over 1.000 hit home runs. Sean Keys hit his seventh in AAA, Jay Harry hit his third and also walked three times. Charles McAdoo hit his ninth and added a single. Jevon Ward had three hits and drove in four runs. Everybody hit!

Chad Dallas started and did not allow a run in 4.1 innings.

Gage Stanifer walked 33 hitters over his first 12 starts, totaling 52 innings. Too many walks were his big issue and it also prevented him from going deeper than five innings in a game. That has changed over his last two starts. In his last start he didn't issue a walk while striking out eight in 4.2 innings. He did better on Thursday, nine strikeouts, one walk and six innings pitched. If he does this for a few more starts he could be ready for a new challenge.

In addition to Stanifer's nine K's, Mason Olson and Javen Coleman struck out six in three innings for a total strikeout tally of fifteen.

Both NH runs came in the second inning with a double from Jackson Hornung.

Vancouver scored seven runs with nine hits and no home runs. JR Freethy, Maddox Latta and Alex Stone had two hits each.

Dylan Watts had a strange start. The Hops scored two runs off him in the first inning but then he settled down to go five innings without allowing another run. He did walk five but he had zero strikeouts. The game was shortened to seven innings.

Dunedin scored 12 runs with 15 hits and, like Vancouver, no home runs. Dariel Ramon had a big game, two doubles and two singles. Jake Cook had two hits and walked three times. Giaconino Lasaracina had three hits as he gets settled into A ball. Blaine Bullard had two hits, Jojo Parker walked four times.

Silvano Hechavarria did go 5.2 innings and Tampa scored five runs off him but only two were earned.

The FCL Jays shutout the Tigers over seven innings. Four pitchers combined on the shutout. Miguel Pantoja started and just went 1.2 innings. Victor Espiritu, 21 years old, was just promoted from the DSL. He threw 2.2 innings. Alex Arias had two hits and drove in the first run.

Posted by Gerry on Friday, June 26 2026 @ 07:13 AM EDT.

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Mike Green - Friday, June 26 2026 @ 09:57 AM EDT (#479474) #

Keys led the Eastern League in OPS during his time there and would lead the International League in OPS (by a significant margin) if he had enough PAs. The batted ball metrics indicate that it is not a fluke. I'd rather see him at DH in Toronto and Springer in RF most of the time.

92-93 - Friday, June 26 2026 @ 10:23 AM EDT (#479479) #

The Jays continue to start LHBs vs. LHPs. There has been zero indication they are willing to play Springer in the OF, despite some comments from the manager a couple of weeks ago suggesting they would.

Glevin - Friday, June 26 2026 @ 10:37 AM EDT (#479480) #

Keys just isn't a great fit right now because of how LH heavy the Jays are and how 1B/3B/DH are all settled. Jays have the same issue they've largely had for a few years but even worse is that they are OK almost everywhere but not very good anywhere. That makes it hard to upgrade. if you look at the Jays, how many guys project for 100-110 WRC+ rest of season? Kirk, Clement, Varsho, Barger, Lukes, Sanchez, Schneider, Springer? You can make an argument about a couple not being in that range but I think they all are. You have to hope Vlad finds his way back to being better than that and Okamoto seems likely to be better and Gimenez worse. How do you improve offense? You need to get someone elite to really make a difference.

scottt - Friday, June 26 2026 @ 12:01 PM EDT (#479482) #

The Jays are not LH heavy. The only LH power bat they have is Barger who has missed most of the year.
The obvious area to improve is DH where Springer is hitting at replacement level.
Springer's splits are .640/794, so they could platoon him.
I would give him a month to improve.

bpoz - Friday, June 26 2026 @ 12:27 PM EDT (#479483) #

Nimmala playing DH for the FCL Jays.

hypobole - Friday, June 26 2026 @ 12:51 PM EDT (#479484) #

Great news on Nimmala

Gerry - Friday, June 26 2026 @ 01:10 PM EDT (#479485) #

Nimmala was hit by a pitch in his first at bat. He stayed in the game to run but was removed when he next came to bat.

hypobole - Friday, June 26 2026 @ 01:35 PM EDT (#479486) #

Not great news on Nimmala.

June Northey - Friday, June 26 2026 @ 02:33 PM EDT (#479491) #

Springer has been doing better - 114 wRC+ in June. wRC+ by month for Springer 95-74-114 his May sucked. June has been acceptable, April was a disappointment for a DH. 124 wRC+ vs LHP, 80 vs RHP. The problem is as a near HOF level veteran on the club who is seen as a leader it is damn hard to put him into a platoon. On a computer game, easy, but in real life, not so much.

As to meh - 8 Jays have a wRC+ between 100 and 120 (includes Pinango), Springer at 93, Straw 84, Gimenez 78, Schneider 69 (mostly earlier - in June he is a 'meh' at 107). Urias is at an unsustainable 194 as the standout right now (like Pinango earlier). The Jays are buried in 'meh' right now when it comes to hitting. Good, but not great. Nice as a base but you need 1 or 2 'WOW' which is what Vlad was supposed to be, what Springer was last year, Okamoto might be going forward (120 right now is above meh imo). But yeah, no question, it is a nightmare to upgrade a club buried in meh.

Next year with Springer gone (most likely) DH opens up for Pinango and Keys to fight over. Straw is on team options, so might be gone after 2026. Gausman a FA, Bieber a FA, Garcia a FA (frees up $7.5 mil), Scherzer a FA, Varsho a FA. Lots of slots opening up, tons of cash freed up - few FA's to spend on. I could imagine them going nuts after Tarik Skubal, Jazz Chisholm Jr. for CF or 2B is tempting too. Not a lot of depth out there though, so it is chase one of the very best available hard and fast or hunt for teams willing to trade. It'll be messy with the CBA too.

TamRa - Friday, June 26 2026 @ 04:44 PM EDT (#479498) #

Springer's rebound, such as it is, actually goes back to May 18. From there through the end of the month his line was .259/.322/.481/.804 in 13 games (that is, a bit better than June but I don't know how to get the WRC+ or whatever for that period - probably on Fangraphs if I was familiar enough with the features.

From May 18 through Monday, in 29 games, his line was .265/.359/.478/.837 which yes, is an AEP (but so is sorting by months) but going 1-13 in the last three games kind of obscures the point. And that includes a pace that would yield 33 doubles and 33 homers over a full season.

When I was predicting how a good '26 would look, what I supposed was that Vlad and George reverse outcomes - that is George would drop back to something like what Vlad did in '25 (.848 OPS) and Vlad would step up to something similar to what George did in '25 (.959 OPS)

If George is "fixed" and continues this level of production then he would be basically upholding his end of that supposition, the first 7 weeks excepted). It's reasonable to hope that this might be what he can do from here on out (the toe issue resolved?) but no one really knows.

Which leaves Vlad.

Anyway, as far as the lineup discussion, if Springer is producing at something similar to this level then he's fine leading off. The downside risk is that being pretty good for more than a month, he has renewd John's confidence in him and if he does fall back to below average John won't want to move him, he'll just hang on and wait for the (hoped for) next rebound. TL,DR: he's not going to get moved down. Whatever happens happens.

GabrielSyme - Friday, June 26 2026 @ 07:10 PM EDT (#479511) #

Franklin Rojas is starting to look interesting, hitting over .300 and showing power in the FCL, currently with a 135 wRC+. He was fine offensively in the DSL for two, but mostly due to a high walk rate, never really living up to his big bonus. He's a young 19, so he's not old for the FCL. I think he was supposed to be a decent defender when he came into the organization, and the Jays are still playing him at catcher, so hopefully his defence is respectable.

hypobole - Friday, June 26 2026 @ 07:26 PM EDT (#479513) #

FG on Rojas prior to the start of the season.

Rojas signed for just shy of $1 million in the 2024 international class. Back for a second spin in the DSL, he posted nearly identical numbers at the plate, hitting .255/.407/.330 with as many walks as strikeouts, in line with the competitive but not special offensive forecast we’ve had for him since he signed. If he’s to profile, the glove will be a big part of why. He’s a strong receiver with a good arm and the physicality we like to see in a catcher. He’s probably close to physical maturity, so he isn’t likely to grow into much more power. As was the case last year, his upside will be determined in large part by whether he’s able to continue making contact at a plus rate as he faces better pitching.

Mike Green - Saturday, June 27 2026 @ 07:03 AM EDT (#479525) #

I had never heard of Giacomo Taschin before last night. He threw 5 innings for Dunedin, giving up a run on 2 hits and no walks while striking out 6. So I looked him up. He is a 19 year old lefty signed in the international signing period from Team Italy last year. I could find nothing about his stuff, so let's guess he doesn't possess a blazing fastballl and success will look more like Jimmy Key than like Randy Johnson. Can anybody flesh out more about what he throws?

If he makes it Toronto, I'm sure that he'll have a fan base.

Gerry - Saturday, June 27 2026 @ 08:32 AM EDT (#479528) #

Mike,

Taschin pitched well for the FCL team before his promotion so he has been highlighted several times in the minor league updates. Unfortunately the FCL does not have much information on pitches or velocity. However the FSL does.

Taschin is listed at 6 feet tall, although when you see him on the mound he doesn't look quite that tall.

Last night his FB averaged just 89 mph but he did throw it 66% of the time and he got 11 whiffs on it. He also threw a slider and a changeup. In total last night he had 16 whiffs which is a great number.

With his size, his left handedness, and his velocity, he could be headed for a bullpen role sometime in his future.

GabrielSyme - Saturday, June 27 2026 @ 09:11 AM EDT (#479530) #

My impression is that, outside of really top draft prospects, pitcher development these days is all about getting guys with good pitch qualities and then trying to increase their velocity to where it plays at the major league level. Traditional development still happens, of course, but I think the increasing emphasis on velocity is pretty evident. Even if Tashin's frame isn't that projectable, he's only 19 and might still have some velocity to gain, especially if the Jays have yet to really put him through a velocity programme.

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