Bieber to the IL with "right teres major inflammation" according to MLB trade rumors. Chad Dallas up.

Bieber to the IL. On the bright side, he'll likely be back cheap next year.

Sheesh. At least it's not his elbow i guess.

Rub some dirt on it and walk it off. Come on...

That's a killer. Rotation is now Cease, Soriano, and pray.

The Jays have been able to withstand a ton of rotation injuries and arguably the worst offense in the league to stick around in a mediocre WC race, but Bieber's injury might be the end. The rotation aside from two starters likely isn't good enough to keep an average hitting team in the game most nights. Having to keep the 2026 Jays offense in games is asking a lot of Dylan Cease, let alone Scherzer, Arrighetti, and SWR.

Straw in LF tonight with Bateman in CF. I’d love to hear their reasoning behind the recent defensive positioning. Do they just not like Straw in RF?

Tomorrow is now a bullpen day and on Thursday Arrighetti starts.

No throwing for two weeks for Bieber so we probably wont see him until mid September.

I can’t understand the OF positional decisions (not sure it matters a great deal). I don’t think Straw has a strong arm so that would be my guess for leaning away from him in RF. I’m not sure that’s a great reason if that’s the one.

if you are willing to start the rest of them on 4 days rest whenever possible, you can do a SWR game (I'm assuming) four more times through the end of the season - IF neither Talion or Yesavage come back.

But that's a BIG gamble on Scherzer. Best case he'll go on "regular" rest the next three turns.

That said, all the time he's missed means he's not in typical August/September fatigue presumably. Arreghetti is not worn down either.

But one more and you're looking at either the AAAA squad (Dallas, who's shortened up lately, Van Eck, Klien, Estrada, etc) OR you be really bold and reach down for Nolan Perry

Which, I admit, would be fascinating.

Ben Nicholson-Smith
@bnicholsonsmith
Further Blue Jays updates:
• Trey Yesavage is playing catch up to 75-90 ft in Fla.
• Jays not currently planning to use off days to go to a 4-man rotation
• Josh Smith running bases & hitting today … AAA rehab possible this wknd
• Andrés Giménez doing better & back in lineup

BNS reports Tallion will start in AAA Friday and they hope he'll need only one. If that works out then you have:

the bullpen day (SWR)
Arrighetti on 5
Cease on 5
Soriano on 5
Scherzer on 4
off
Arreghetti on 4
Tallion on 4
Cease on 5
Soriano on 5
Scherzer on 5
Arreghetti on 4
Tallion on 4
Cease on 4
Soriano on 4
off
Scherzer on 5
Arreghetti on 5
Tallion on 5
Cease on 5
Soriano on 5
the last game in the Detroit series might be a target date for Yesavage or Bieber to come back for, otherwise it's Scherzer on 4

Of course, the question remains whether Tallion will be better than the bullpen day.

Bateman has played mostly CF in the minors.
Lukes has mostly played RF this year.
Springer maybe available off the bench.

You guys are overthinking this. Since Bateman arrived he and Miles do rock paper scissors before each game to decide, typically while looking for uncrustables in the clubhouse fridge together.

Straw starting in general is a more of an issue than which position he plays.

Scherzer has a Little type of inning to start it.

Now Max is looking mad.
Good sign?

Great challenge by Brandon.

Unfortunately Valenzuela followed that *obvious challenge with a completely unnecessary one.

Straw has a 73 WRC+ over the last 5 years, his career is 79, so this is just who he is. Seems like a great guy, useful in some cases, but just can't be someone getting regular abs and should never be playing corner OF. Play Straw in CF against some lefties. Put McAdoo or Cameron in LF everyday now and Smith some when he comes back. Jays really seem to be split between guys who can't field at all and guys who can't hit at all.

Since June 1st, there are 157 qualified players in Fangraphs. Vladdy is ranked 154th in WAR and 154th in WRC+. That's almost 3 months of being just about the worst player in baseball. Incomprehensible.

But you'd probably do the exact same thing and keep running him out there if you were the manager and had thousands of AB's of historical data, right? Or would you bench him?

Lol nice way to end.

Very fitting way to lose that game.

that game featured a lot of what has been wrong with the offense this year.

The future gets slightly harder.

It doesn't matter if Straw is in LF or CF.
Bateman deserves to be in center.
Is Cameron a better choice to play LF?
Sanchez sucks in left and Lukes has been given right.

Yeah, Vlad is doing nothing.
He's just not swinging properly.

Why don't they bring up Perry or Stanifer?

"Why don't they bring up Perry or Stanifer?"

Stanifer is pitching in relief and Perry has pitched 18 innings above A+ ball and they haven't been good innings. Perry is a long-term excellent prospect but he also missed all of 2024 and 2025 with serious injuries. He's not someone you want to be pushing super aggressively.

I think it's fair to say that this season from Vlad's is the least valuable (not the worst) season in Blue Jays history. Someone on a contending team with previous excellent stats being paid a ton of money whose performance is inexplicably putrid. Like 2017 Bautista was worse than Vlad but Jays weren't in it, he was 36 and in serious decline and he was on a 1/$18M contract. Alfredo Griffin had like five of the worst Jays season ever but Jays were terrible at all and Griffin wasn't expected to do much better. (Incredible that he got 7,330 PAs and -1 total WAR. Was really a different era). Late career Joe Carter was a terrible player and Jays kept playing him everyday which is insane. His last 3 years with the Jays he had a total -2.5 WAR and he got 1,953 PAs!!!

Cito really loved his guys which was good when his guys were really good but his managing after the Jays were contenders was disastrous. His 1997 managing probably the single worst managed year in Jays history. He gave tons of PAs to negative WAR players. Jays had 2,388 PAs from negative WAR players. That is around 39% of all their total PAs came from negative WAR players. The worst part of it is that Green, Cruz, and Stewart were all already good but combined for only 908 PAs.

Some other LVP seasons.
2015 Jose Reyes was awful and had a massive contract. Tulo wasn't very good with the Jays and had an even worse contract but just getting a league average SS felt like a massive upgrade and helped the Jays turn the corner.
Grichuk 2021-Just was never very good and Jays barely missed playoffs with an amazing team and Grichuk had an 85 WRC+.
Kikuchi 2022-Jays signed him as a FA and then he went and had a 5.19 ERA and 5.62 FIP.

None of these are even close to Vlad. I can't think of any season that would be but maybe I am missing someone.

With the lockout looming 40 man roster additions take on an extra burden. Players on the 40 man roster cannot play minor league baseball under a lockout.

Perry and Stanifer were drafted in 2022. I am not sure if 2022 counts in their five seasons before being eligible for the rule 5 draft.

If players will not be rule 5 eligible this off season the club will be very hesitant to add them to the 40 man roster.

Thanks Gerry. What do you think their plan is with Ricky?

Ricky is already on the 40 man. I think he is a reliever full time now.

The Jays have interesting decisions to make around the expanded rosters. One position player and one pitcher can be added.

For the pitcher they could call up Tiedemann but Mantiply is also on the way back. They could also bump Little. Yesavage and Taillon are also on the way back. If they need length they have Dallas or Van Eyk.

For position players they could add Keys, Pinango or Schneider. Plus Smith and Urias are on the IL.

I think results this week will make a difference. If they lose a few more games and are say 5-6 games back then you pick someone for development such as Tiedemann and Keys. If they win games and are just two back then its who can help you win now. That might be Mantiply and Smith plus Urias, or maybe even Cameron if he keeps hitting.

The AAA season now goes into mid September so they can mix and match as needed.

I checked roster resource. Perry and Stanifer are rule 5 eligible this December. I would expect them to be added. Daniel Guerra will be interesting, he has been promoted to Buffalo to probably see if he should be added.

Jay Harry will be an interesting case. Josh Kasevich was available last December but wasn't selected and the Jays haven't given him a look this year so he probably wont be added again. I think you have to add Harry based on his 2026 hitting. He is also very positionally flexible, those kinds of players are easier to carry on a roster for a full season.

Even though Perry and Stanifer will be rule 5 eligible I dont see them being called up this year. Neither are finished products and probably won't even be ready on opening day 2027, whenever that will be.

Since his last callup:


Little: 15gms, 15.1ip, 0.97gmli, 36.9k%, 18.5b%, 71era-, 96fip-, 76xfip-, 0.4awar65


Not screaming for high leverage usage but pretty useful still.

Little's always going to be a high-wire act with a potential for spectacular implosion, but when he's on it's amazing. The pitch Carter Jensen struck out on is barely even visible on the Gameday screen. And he's been able to throw his fastball for strikes lately, so batters can't just wait him out; if he can get ahead of hitters, the curve becomes devastating.

Since his call-up Brett Bateman has the 23rd highest WAR at 0.7, tied essentially with Bo Bichetter at #20. I actually wonder if Bo could be a great August trade candidate as he probably would clear waivers.

I believe August waiver trades are no longer a thing.

The newer tactic has been teams like the Angels in years past simply loading pricy rental veterans on to the waiver wire prior to the Sept 1st deadline for players to be in their new organization to be postseason eligible.

Then teams can simply claim the pricy vet off of waivers (with no compensation for the firesale team other than prorated salary relief & perhaps a small waiver wire fee).

A problem of course is the waiver wire selection priority for teams, meaning it's first-come, first-serve and no guarantee that any given team will have a chance to claim the salary.

I suppose it's also possible for rebuilding teams to simply release a player outright prior to Sept 1st, giving them an opportunity to sign a new league minimum FA deal with a contending club. Of course, this option provides no salary relief for the cutting team other than a prorated league minimum.

I'll have to look up how IKF joined the Jays last year well after the July trade deadline and was still postseason eligible.

According to BBRef, the Jays picked up IKF and his remaining salary off waivers from the Pirates last year on Aug 31st, 2025 - the last day to add players to the org making them postseason eligible.

So my memory was partially correct, that IKF was neither acquired by Aug waiver trade (waiver claim, but no waiver trade) nor was he a release & sign.

Bichette stays put and wait out the lockout with the Mets.
Technically he could opt out after 27 if he has a fantastic year but staying healthy will be a challenge.

His trade value is limited because there's better ways to blow money.

I imagine for Bo it would be $16M is salary + luxary tax relief plus 84 million in future payroll obligations. Not that the Mets care that much about that I guess.

Since the deadline:

C Alejandro 78pa, 176wrc+, 10.8war650
CF Bateman 70pa, 117wrc+, 6.5war650
SS Gimenez 71pa, 108wrc+, 6.4war650
3B Okamoto 80pa, 87wrc+, 0.8war650
LF Straw 64pa, 81wrc+, 2.0war650
1B Guerrero 51pa, 73wrc+, 0.0war650
RF Lukes 79pa, 64wrc+, 0.8war650
DH Springer 64pa, 64wrc+, -2.0war650
2B Clement 77pa, 63wrc+, -0.8war650

UT McAdoo 44pa, 125wrc+, 4.4war650
OF Sanchez 45pa, 112wrc+, 0.0war650
IF Smith 33pa, 121wrc+, 5.9war650
C Valenzuela 30pa, 40wrc+, 0.0war650

UT Schneider 8pa, 125wrc+, 0.0war650
OF Cameron 18pa, 113wrc+, 0.0war650
IF Urias 4pa, 102wrc+, 0.0war650
C


Maybe it's time to ride the "bench" players.





SP Cease 4gms, 6.3ip/gm, 52era-, 69fip-, 77xfip-, 6.8awar32
SP Bieber 4gms, 6.1ip/gm, 72era-, 87fip-, 95xfip-, 4.8awar32
SP Soriano 4gms, 5.3ip/gm, 102era-, 86fip-, 100xfip-, 2.4awar32
SP Yesavage 1gms, 2.0ip/gm, 0era-, 110fip-, 183xfip-, 1.6awar32
SP Scherzer 4gms, 4.8ip/gm, 135era-, 127fip-, 138xfip-, 0.0awar32

SP Taillon 2gms, 4.0ip/gm, 82era-, 115fip-, 118xfip-, 2.4awar32
SP Arrighetti 1gms, 3.3ip/gm, 196era-, 152fip-, 125xfip-, -4.8awar32
SP Dallas 1gms, 3.0ip/gm, 435era-, 225fip-, 159xfip-, -8.0awar32

just two killer killer late season injuries here. really too bad. not much to do but hope and pray here that we can get through the next couple weeks and both yesavage and bieber come back asap.


RP Varland 9gms, 1.1ip/gm, 45era-, 76fip-, 78xfip-, 1.8awar65
RP Rogers 11gms, 1.0ip/gm, 77era-, 124fip-, 133xfip-, 0.0awar65
RP Miles 9gms, 0.9ip/gm, 52era-, 60fip-, 99xfip-, 1.8awar65
RP Fluharty 12gms, 0.8ip/gm, 0era-, 79fip-, 136xfip-, 2.9awar65
RP Fisher 13gms, 1.0ip/gm, 17era-, 118fip-, 134xfip-, 1.0awar65
RP Little 11gms, 0.9ip/gm, 70era-, 97fip-, 80xfip-, 0.3awar65
RP Sewald 4gms, 1.0ip/gm, 0era-, 62fip-, 117xfip-, 1.2awar65
RP SWR 4gms, 1.8ip/gm, 59era-, 93fip-, 86xfip-, 0.4awar65

RP Tiedemann 1gms, 1.7ip/gm, 131era-, 17fip-, 60xfip-, 3.3awar65
RP Waldron 4gms, 1.1ip/gm, 251era-, 74fip-, 150xfip-, -1.6awar65
RP Estrada 4gms, 0.9ip/gm, 178era-, 152fip-, 203xfip-, -3.3awar65
RP Lee 4gms, 1.2ip/gm, 187era-, 191fip-, 173xfip-, -4.9awar65


We actually probably have the right 8 relievers up with the team right now, and they've been pitching very very well. (as long as we consider Dallas a fill in SP/bulk guy rather than an actual RP).

The next guy up should probably be Ricky, but tbh the 8 guys here deserve to be up here at the moment.

For me, it just comes down to Vlad. I remain optimistic. Many of us (not me, but the majority of the fan base) thought it wasn't realistic they'd make a run at the final wildcard spot (it was, and they remain firmly in the race). It's not too late, and he's turned on a dime before. What changed between May-June of '24 when he went from a .681 OPS to .812?

I don't buy the narrative the staff and Vlad will wait until the off-season to try and fix him. This is professional sports and it's kind of ridiculous that the parties involved would just punt and stop trying to unlock whatever it is. The looks, the body langauge and the outward appearance show a guy looking for answers. I doubt behind the scenes he's telling the manager, the hitting coaches and the front office he doesn't want help.

I also was thinking about August waiver claims today. You can bet they're trying to add a pitcher more than a bat, as crazy as that is.

Jesus Sanchez might have one or two more starts at DH before Smith comes off the DL to avoid a DFA. For his own sake, he'd better run into a couple balls.

The team needs to severely limit losses over the next month. With 30 games to go entering last night, they probably needed to only lose around 12 or 13 to make the postseason. They immediately used up one of those losses (in ignominious fashion). Time is running out to get hot and stay hot, and the team is a bit threadbare at the moment.

Scary that Sanchez is in LF today - safe to say the pitchers will all be holding their breath on any fly balls out there, or even singles out there. Bateman will be getting lots of exercise trying to get over there in time to protect things.

I predict a Vladdy home run tonight.

I predict a Vladdy home run tonight.

Might as well, I think I have predicted one about ten times in the last month.

It would be shocking to see Sanchez in LF with Scherzer on the mound. He's got 38 games in LF this year, so not really shocking otherwise, but the results are not great.

Cal Raleigh who was struggling immensely like Vlad has turned it around. It can happen. The references to Vlad's contract or frivolous. His contract is one of the worst in baseball and will be for the next few years until the next wave of generational talents hit free agency and sign crazy deals. It is not an anchor for the team and it doesn't matter if he's being paid minimum wage or 500,000,000 relative to the fact that he controls the direction of the team's offense as set.

greenfrog - do you think they sneak into the playoffs and which player not named Kirk, McAdoo or Bateman in the line up do you think is the catalyst to make it happen?

I still for the life of me after success of Bateman and McAdoo why we aren’t giving Keys another shot.

Geez, Sanchez is starting in the outfield? I didn't think they'd do it again.
I stand by my statement though. He's got two more starts to hit a couple bombs, or he's gone.
After all, he can't be the next Jose Bautista. Bautista played a damn good outfield for many years. Sanchez is the worst outfielder I've seen since Jose Canseco in '98 or Colabello in '15.

And by that I mean, journeyman, untapped potential, goes from occasional slugger to all-star, etc, etc.

I’d give Keys a shot because - what have they got to lose? He wouldn’t be taking ABs away from anyone hitting well right now. You might catch lightning in a bottle. Having said that, it’s not unreasonable to leave him down - he literally couldn’t touch anything with a wiggle in it the last time he was up. It wasn’t pretty.

Shoeless, there's too many guys clogging up Utility/corner starts at 1B, DH, OF with McAdoo, Sanchez, Vlad and Springer all penciled in.

I’d cut Sanchez to give Keys a shot, McAdoo can play 2B/LF.

This is one of the reasons I wanted the Jays to be a bit more aggressive with the selling at the deadline. There's no reason to be running Springer, Straw, and Sanchez out there on a regular basis. This would have been a great time to get extended looks like McAdoo, Cameron, Keys, Pinango, Clase (if he were healthy), etc, and honestly, in that scenario, are the Jays any worse over this recent good stretch prior to last night?

Mantiply is on the 60 day IL so when he's activated someone (Cellucci probably?) is gonna get DFA'd. And Dallas might get into a game today or tomorrow and then go back down to make room for him.

If Tallion is activated (probably Wednesday) and there are no other injuries something has to give. As much as I've been assuming Tiedemann was the pending extra man - Tallion probably gets that spot. Otherwise you demote Little or cut someone like Sewald or SWR which I assume are not options they prefer.

But if Bieber and/or Yesavage come back in time, that's still a choice they might have to make.


As for the hitters, logically it seems likely Smith gets the extra-man spot on Tuesday. There's certainly an argument that Sanchez is blocking Keys and between Smith, Cameron and McAdoo you have enough OF options that you can do without him ... I have no idea whether they'll cut bait or not though. It just looks to *US* like they should.

SK I thought the consensus was guys like Sanchez, Straw and Springer were not traded because the returns did not warrant it.

Not much question that was the #1 issue - but at this point dumping Sanchez for nothing would be A-OK. For guys with 30+ PA he is #5 (Urias is #1 at 122, then Smith at 121, Bateman 117, Kirk 116, Sanchez 107, Okamoto 106, Springer 100 covers the guys at 100+ wRC+. Yikes. For 100+ PA only Kirk is ahead of Sanchez. By month Sanchez wRC+ is 97-140-81-112 (M/A-M-J-A didn't play in July) His walk% in August is higher than the other 3 months combined (13.3% if you added M/A-M-J, 15.6% in August) so maybe something changed.

Grr. Was hoping to find proof the Jays should dump him but instead I'm thinking he is useful as a PH/DH who goes in the OF only when necessary.

Reading between the lines of what the front office said (something like "we needed Springer"), Springer almost for sure exercised his 5-and-10 rights. (He just welcomed a new child into his family, so a bit of stability is probably what he needs.)

It’s possible Springer refused a trade. I probably would have just sent him wherever he said he was willing to go (Boston?) and take whatever Dub Gleed type I could get back but if he said no to any deal, then obviously that’s out of the team’s hands. Straw and Sanchez would have been more about just getting them off the roster.

Excellent challenge by Kirk there even though he was wrong. Take notes, Vali.

Teams rarely trade everybody.
The 2024 Jays were quite exceptional.

Springer has all kinds of ads running between innings.
I would think he's committed to playing his full contract.

Use the force, Lukes.

Some redemption for him for last night’s baserunning mistake..

I know that Little hasn’t got hit much since his return but a 20% BB% isn’t going to cut it. As I said a while ago though, he’s provided some needed innings in desperate times so kudos to him.

In late August, Vladdy has the lowest slugging percentage of anyone in the Blue Jays starting lineup. Pretty unreal.

Nice bounceback from Dallas after i jinxed him before the appearance that got him sent down.

I still like him tho.

I’ll allow that challenge, Alejandro, because the ball was firmly in the strike zone. Still not the greatest time for it.

I like what I see from Dallas too. He strikes out just enough that I think he’s got a shot at a multi inning reliever role in the show.

Sewald has replaced Hoffman's mid leverage role just fine too.

Is it too late to change my prediction to “multiple ineffectual groundouts” by Vladdy tonight?

Just win the series tomorrow.

And keep winning series.

Definitely going to have to win the Sept 1-3 Cleveland series.

Sanchez 2 for 3 and no ball hit to him.
Win.

Yeah, that's the one that worries me (Cleveland)

If they fumble away their shot by losing to teams who are out of it, oh well, they just weren't good enough.

But if they take care of the rest of their business and don't take care Cleveland it's going to be hard to get past them. Of all the other contenders, they're the only one that's hot right now.

Or Baltimore.

The Jays need to get back to .500.
The playoffs odds remain in the 10-25% range.
They have to increase those odds before the season is over.

Winning a series isn’t enough anymore. They need an extended win streak. Going to be difficult to do with the current rotation.

Now that the Jays are finished with the over 500 teams

This was true, but not anymore! Now just 3 games against teams that are over .500.

speculating about the remaining games, it looks to me like between Cleveland and Toronto, one of them will get that wild card spot and the other will be the closest miss. Complete toss-up which is which.

The others fall back but Baltimore probably enters the last week with some hope.

If the Jays get in, I'm hoping the Astros win the west because it would be reasonable to think that's a series they could win. After that you should catch the White Sox (unless Cleveland chases them down but in that case Chicago probably got the third wild card) and that wouldn't be an impossible challenge either.

If they don't get in ...well...there's always hoping for the best in the lottery

interesting coincidence.

From here, the Jays have 28 games left and need to go 17-11 (.607) to finish over .500

In their last 28 games they have gone ... 17-11

I read on the SN ticker yesterday that Sean Keys is changing positions to OF to try to get to the majors quicker.

Although I very much want it to be the Jays, Seattle is my dark horse for the WC spot.

Cleveland took over the WC spot by going 6-0 vs the Rockies and Angels. Seattle still has 3 vs the Rockies and 7 vs the Angels plus another 7 vs the A's.

Bad teams often play better against division rivals.

Interesting. I would have assumed that one reason why bad teams are at the bottom of the standings in their division is that they lose more often than they win within the division.

The Jays are signing Michael Lorenzen.

He has been a decent pitcher except in Colorado.

Called the Lorenzen signing as soon as I saw the DFA notice..

At this point, some teams are just tanking, but they still like to beat their hated rivals.

There are 10 series left, including this one.
They are 4 games under.
Winning every series would put them 5 games over and most likely in.

I really have no idea why McAdoo hasn’t been getting every day ABs.

I’m hoping that this is the injured Arrighetti. Otherwise, the stuff he has right now isn’t really major league quality.

This team doesn’t feel legitimate at the moment, especially with Vladdy’s second half 78 wRC+ and Bieber injured. They might be able to play .500 or so ball over the last month, but that isn’t going to get them into the playoffs.

The team hasn't really felt legitimate all year to me.

The team hasn't been legitimate all season. If the AL wasn't so bad then the Jays would have been out of it months ago. This is the worst offense in baseball. There's no deodorant strong enough to mask that. Certainly not with a depleted rotation.

But what about the “projections” that still say Vlad is a 130 wRC+ hitter to come?

He’s a joke honestly… smiling as he gets booed tonight.

The Vlad extension should be a clue to Rogers to never let fan reaction or potential fan reaction dictate decision making. This is a player they gave $500M to in order to avoid potential fan backlash had they lost him. Now those same fans are booing him out of the building one year into a contract so long that it will probably outlive all of us. Maybe this is a minor blip in Vlad's career, a poor season that we will look back on fondly if it leads to him seeking out a change in his swing, but it's further proof that fans are going to cheer the laundry more than the player.

I guess the Royals are a good breaking ball hitting club.

They just don't score more than 3 runs in a game. 

He’s a joke honestly… smiling as he gets booed tonight.

I pray I’ll never be this type of fan. Vlad just gave us the greatest post season performance of our lives. I hope he figures this out and all these type of fans come crawling back.

That money is spent.
But maybe the manager will now consider dropping Guerrero in the order as he as done with Springer during slumps.

It’s not about giving up on players… it’s a really bad look for a player to be smiling and laughing while getting booed…

That’s the travesty in it all.

Switching topics for a second…how about Chris Sale?

The 37-year-old pitched a complete game shutout today to beat LAD 1-0, allowing 5 hits, walking none and striking out 11. He now has a 2.06 ERA on the season with 177:28 K:BB. He has a 99th percentile Pitching Run Value, per Baseball Savant, and he’s posted 15+ WAR across almost three seasons for Atlanta since the trade with Boston.

AA’s acquisition and extension of Sale is arguably as impressive as the Josh Donaldson trade.

The Jays do well in bullpen games, but not sell well the next day.

Genuinely JB… what’s wrong with me saying that it’s disappointing Vlad is smiling while getting booed? Do I hope he gets better? Of course… but laughing and smiling while you’re having an atrocious season and fans who paid a lot of money are booing you, isn’t a great look at all on him…

If he doesn't get booed, maybe he breaks his bat.
What's the difference?

The problem is the results, not the behavior.
Marte no showed for a game recently and was put on the restricted list. That's a problem.
Most of the people in the stadium can't see his facial expression.

Yeah, personally I like Vlad's personality and generally smiling disposition.

The problem is the hitting results (and maybe sometimes hustling to first on ground balls). But the other parts of his personality/attitude I think are a serious plus, not a minus.

I have lost faith in the team now for this season, they made it close but couldn't; keep it up. I will join the rest of the mob and blame Vladdy for his sub-par performance. Although the overall pitching gap compared to day 1 expectations is pretty significant as well.

I'd be more concerned if vladdy lost his joie de vivre tbh.

but it's definitely sad that even with all the injuries and stuff, a normal vladdy would have us in a playoff spot right now.

Schneider should be taking a lot more heat, a lot more heat. He's going to go an entire year with this version of Vlad in premium spots and probably is actually making it worse for the player at this point.

Blaming Schneider is insane. Vladdy is the one with the 80/80 scouting grade for his hit tools. He’s the 8 year vet. He’s the one making the big bucks. He is 100% to blame. Him and him alone

I'm with BlueJaysWay here in that blaming Schneider is insane for Vlad's struggles.

Vlad has literally a plethora of coaches and resources available. He also has a massive contract and a manager who is fully supportive of him.
At some point, it's on the players to succeed. Even your suggestion Dalimon that Vlad "needs" Bo back to succeed is wild for a star player.

Chris Black wrote a really insightful article here on Vlad's struggles this year:

https://downtoblack.substack.com/p/vladimir-guerrero-jr-a-full-report

Not sure how you can blame Schneider. Team just isn't very good. Move this 92 WRC+ down in the lineup so we can put this 94 WRC+ guy instead just doesn't really matter. Jays were killed by injuries to Springer and Kirk which kept them out but more importantly, kept them ineffective for long periods. Combine that with Vladdy turning into a AAA player out of nowhere, what can a manager do? The Jays have not had a single good season out of an offensive player this season. Gimenez leads them in team WAR with a 79 WRC+! Kirk would be easily leading if he were healthy but he missed a lot of time. Like, what's the Jays optimal lineup right vs RHP now? Maybe something like? Bateman, Lukes, Kirk, Sanchez, Springer, Okamoto, Vlad, Gimenez, Clement? Does any mixing of these players in a different order make any difference?

Eh, manager got a lot of credit last year - don't see why he shouldn't receive criticism this year. Lord knows there's been plenty of questionable decisions.

personally i felt from the start that the org was kinda resting on their laurels coming into the year and showed a lack of urgency right from the start. That goes for management, coaching, and players. Schneider is a sizeable part of that.

The team's complete lack of power this late in the year is both incredulous & mostly unforeseen.

Heard Kevin Barker talking on the radio post-game last night that there were big questions about the holes in Okamoto's swing going back to ST. And that Schneider never intended for him to hit in the middle of the order.

But as flawed as Kaz is, where would the Jays offense be without him?

Without his 26 dingers, this team would be hitting like a deadball era club.

Springer isn't having a good year, but is comfortably in 2nd on the team in HR after hitting his 13th in garbage time last night.

No one else on the team is in double digits.

Nathan Lukes is now 3rd on the team in HR with 9 after running into a few lately.

I don’t think Schneider is managing one iota differently this year than last. I don’t think he was smarter last year and dumber this. It’s mostly luck and player performance. One of the elements of good fortune last year (among many) was that Schneider went on one of the all time managerial heaters from about June 1 on last year. I noted it ant the time. Almost every decision he made, objectively defensible or not, worked out. Many of those same kinds of decisions this year have blown up in his face. I don’t think the “true talent” (to the extent there is such a thing) of this year’s team is much different than last. The difference is bad luck and poor player performance versus good luck and good player performance. That’s why I’m optimistic for next year. I’d guess the true talent of the team this year and last is a mid to upper 80’s win team (ie a wild card team). Reversion to the mean can be your friend as well as your enemy.

I think the manager's job is more than just playcalling tho.

Of course it is. On that front we will never really know the good from the bad. My view (subjective of course) is that the team has generally played fairly hard and more smart than not through Schneider’s tenure. As the losses have piled up this year, the team has appeared to both quit (to some degree) and play bad baseball. So you can criticize Schneider for that and compliment him for how razor sharp they were last year. Contrary to the more common view, I tend to think those things follow rather than lead to results but I may be totally wrong about that.

I definitely think there's some magic sauce involved in getting a team to fire on all cylinders. But that can be as much luck as skilled people and player management.

I'd say there are probably some managers that are better at doing this consistently than others, but it's hard to measure for sure.

I don't think the manager has a lot to do with it.
The manager decides the batting order and when to change pitchers.

It takes years to develop those players.
They don't just drop from the sky.

Emphasis on "should" take "more" heat. He's taking no heat at all. Nowhere did I write that Schneider is the main person to blame. Basically I'd just like to see Schneider move one of his worst performing hitters down in the line up, just once. It reminds me of his insistence earlier in the year to use Hoffman as closer no matter the circumstances.

A bit of an overreaction here.

The Blue Jays front office did well to sign Cease, Ponce, Okamoto, Rogers in the offseason instead of Tucker, Bo, Diaz (all of whom are having bad-to-dreadful seasons while being paid enormous sums of money).

Coupled with some trades like Varland, Valenzuela, and Bateman, the front office has upped their game, in my opinion. The team’s poor performance this season is due to Vladdy cratering and a slew of injuries happening, which is not the FO’s fault.