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The unlikely three-game sweep of the M’s concluded Sunday, with a convincing 7-0 win against an offensively challenged Seattle squad. The Jays’ 68^th win was keyed by homers from Alejandro Kirk and Kaz Okamoto, with another solid table-setting job from rookie centre fielder and leadoff man, Brett Bateman.

But the eye-opener was provided by 42-year-old starter, Max Scherzer, who tossed seven shutout innings, allowing one hit with a walk and 10 strikeouts, passing Hall-of-Famer Gaylord Perry into ninth place on the all-time strikeouts list.

Scherzer, at 57 innings, also moved to within eight frames of his first $1M bonus which kicks in, according to terms of his unique one-year contract, at 65 IP and repeats itself with another cool mill’ every 10 innings thereafter. Mad Max has become the clear No. 3 starter behind Dylan Cease and Jose Soriano.

The Jays on Monday enjoy an off day before a three-game set in Cleveland, then on to Kansas City (3) and Sacramento (3). The Jays are chasing the Guardians, sitting 1.5 games out of the AL’s third wildcard spot, but still in a mix of seven teams that believe they have a chance in this watered down race to be dancing in October.

The O’s are a half game ahead of the Jays, with the Rangers, Twins, M’s and Tigers all within 5.5 games of Cleveland. The Jays remaining schedule of 24 games includes 15 intramural tilts within that competing group of seven.

Buck’s Hall-of-Excellence Ceremony

There is a certain irony to the construct of the Buck Martinez bobblehead, distributed on Sunday at Rogers Centre, as the franchise icon was ushered into the stadium’s glitzy new Hall-of-Excellence, located in the stadium’s right-field corner. All of the names from the existing Level of Excellence have been transferred to the new museum on Level 100 and all the living members were on hand to fete Buck.

The unique, three-tiered bobblehead handed out to fans included images of Martinez as player, manager and broadcaster. The irony is that among the invited guests and previous Hall members who had gathered on the field to help in the celebration, plus the spiritual presence of the late Tony Fernandez, Tom Cheek and Roy Halladay, Buck was not any of the best player, the best manager, or the best broadcaster, but his combination of excellence at all three was definitely unmatched. He’s unique.

“I never really thought that I was that important…and I still don’t think that I was that important, but to hear the fans…” Martinez offered at his in-game press conference.

“I went down to the lobby of the hotel and I just couldn’t move. It’s interesting about Canadian fans. The first thing they tell you is where they’re from. They say I’m from New Brunswick; I’m from Calgary; I came here from Winnipeg. They’re so proud that they came this far to watch the Blue Jays. For people that never played here, they don’t realize what a great place it is to play. I didn’t realize in 1981 and realized it by the time I left in 1986.”

Martinez has always worn his heart on his sleeve and is one of the most genuinely empathetic people I have met over 54 years in and around the major-league game. Every time he walked across the field or stepped into an elevator or sat down in a restaurant, he was available to speak to fans. Never did he use a cellphone as a prop, in fact I don’t ever recall seeing him on a cellphone. He was a fan of the people.

“It’s very, very humbling to be considered …” Buck said of Saturday’s honour. “Today blew me away. I just didn’t have any grasp of the magnitude of today, but it was awesome. The Blue Jays did a hell of a job. The best part of today was having my wife (Arlene) with me. Having (my son) Casey and my granddaughters with me. I didn’t realize that everyone (on the Wall of Excellence) was going to come back. Everybody that was able to.”

Buck’s memories of the past and advice for the future

The younger generation of Blue Jays fans simply know Buck as a TV personality. He began that important part of his career immediately after retirement in the post-season of 1986, sitting in the radio booth as a rookie with Tom Cheek for parts of the post-season. Tom’s wife Shirley was on hand for the ceremony. Since then, Buck has witnessed 40 years of MLB highlights. The one that stands out as a broadcaster, that did not involve the Jays, was as analyst in the ESPN booth for the Cal Ripken game in Baltimore in which he broke Lou Gehrig’s record for consecutive games played and dragged MLB back from the brink as it emerged from the devastating strike of 1994. Fans were disillusioned and many had sworn off MLB, with a pox on both houses.

“Chris (Berman) and I did Wednesday Night baseball for ESPN for several years,” Buck explained. “That game happened to come up on Wednesday night because they had a rainout. When it got time to decide who was going to broadcast the game, ESPN wanted Joe Morgan. But Boomer wouldn’t allow that. He said ‘This is our game.’ Uncle Bucky, as he always called me, ‘Uncle Bucky and I are doing the game.’

“People remember me for two things, that sort of sums up my whole career. Breaking my leg in Seattle (while making both outs of a double play) and not talking for 22 minutes in the Cal Ripken game. There was nothing to say. He had just broken a record that was unbreakable.

“Brooks Robinson was sitting between Chris and me and we all had tears in our eyes because we just saw something we thought would never happen. Boomer looked at me. I looked at him and we didn’t say anything for 22 minutes. Now that’s impossible for Chris Berman not to talk.”

That broadcast was awarded a sports Emmy. Of course also in Buck’s top three broadcast memories is the 2025 post season, capped by the Jays/Dodgers World Series, considered by many as one of the most exciting Fall Classics in history.

“We got the chance to do post-seasons before, but never Game 7 of the World Series,” he explained. “And Sportsnet allowed us to do the game as if it was a very special regular season game. We had all the bells and whistles. We had all the support. They flew us back and forth on charters. It was phenomenal. To do that game, not knowing it was the last game in my broadcasting career, was very, very special.”

Above all else, as a thread throughout his three-pronged career as player, manager and broadcaster, is the fact that Buck Martinez is a fan of the sport and wants to see what is best for the loyal fans that support it. As such, Buck was asked what advice he might have for owners and for players, with another work stoppage looming on Dec. 1.

“Look around and see how popular the game is,” the 77-year-old Sacramento native said, simply. “This has been the history of the (players) association. I was one of those that signed the (Collective Bargaining Agreement) in 1985. I went to New York, to the players association that had Don Fehr, Marvin Miller, (Dick Moss), all those great players. We had a cadre of wonderful lawyers that knew the business. Unfortunately, the Players’ Association (recently) had too many ballplayers involved and not enough lawyers.

“This (salary cap issue) has always been the case. Marvin Miller told us early in the ‘70s, owners want (players) to control owners (and their spending). You’ve got the Dodgers and the Yankees and the Mets and they can spend whatever they want. But then you have the Tampa Bay Rays and the Milwaukee Brewers and those teams, surviving and winning championships.

“There’s nothing wrong with the game. Step away and leave the game alone. I mean, look at the crowds (at Rogers Centre). People love baseball. Don’t take that away from them and I think that’s probably going to happen, because (owners) have already admitted it.

“But that’s what I would do. Recognize how popular the game is and in so many different places. Bud Selig did a great job in expanding the playoffs. It has kept so many teams involved in the playoffs for so long in all these cities, as we get close to September. I think you have to recognize there’s nothing wrong with the game. It’s not broke. Don’t try to fix it.”

Hopefully, both sides pay attention to a message of compromise from a man who has been involved since the early days of the players’ union. In the meantime, after that emotional weekend in the city that he admits long ago became his second home, Martinez, who was recently declared cancer-free by his doctors, will head back to Florida to plan a quiet life of fishing, golf, world travel with wife Arlene and enjoying quality time with his three grandchildren.

Congratulation Buck and all of this well deserved.

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Lorenzen did not know it yet, but he would be making his Toronto debut in less than six hours. Things move fast in MLB in times of crisis.

The 34-year-old righthander, released by the Rockies just a week ago, stopped briefly to introduce himself to new teammate Spencer Arrighetti, who was slouched on the sofa, watching TV, preparing for that night’s start. That’s the way the season has gone for the Jays. It is no wonder, as Kevin Gausman pointed out before he departed, the Jays’ former World Series chemistry is not the same. There is no way it could be. Thirty-eight pitchers used with still 27 games left.

The Jays did nothing to impress their newest player on this Thursday night, dropping a 13-2 decision in the rubber-game of the series vs. the Royals. Lorenzen was even asked to pitch, despite not having been in anyone’s uniform for the previous nine days, arriving straight from his home and strapping it on following a six-run sixth inning by the Royals vs. Simeon Woods-Richardson.

Pressed into action, Lorenzen reached the mound to warm up for the seventh and seemed to tip his cap to his catcher Alejandro Kirk, who would have been a complete stranger until the pre-game pitchers’ meeting.

“He was ready to go,” manager John Schneider said in a subdued post-game media session. “He said ‘I’ll throw every single day.’ I kind of said thanks for doing that, his first day, 40-ish pitches. The impression? He’s a veteran guy. He knows how to pitch. He’s got a good feel for what he’s trying to do.

“He said after his second inning, that’s kind of been the story of his year, with a cutter to the lefty that kind of sneaks through (the infield). Some of the batted-ball luck has not been great, but overall he knows how to pitch and he’s going to be available for us every single day in a variety of roles. It’s nice having another veteran presence out there.”

Lorenzen’s role on the Jays seems to be changing from his Rockies experience. He has mostly been a starter since 2022, with just eight relief appearances in 126 total appearances. He will be available to start, but right now that’s not on his dance card.

Arriving directly from his home in Southern California, Lorenzen, with his eighth different major-league team, got a call from his agent several days ago saying the Jays had called and needed pitching and was he interested. He has a backyard mound at the house and on Tuesday threw an 80-pitch bullpen on his own, claiming he is ready for another 80 at any time. That time became sooner rather than later.

A former first round pick of the Reds in 2013, Lorenzen has had some good success over the course of his 12 major-league seasons … but not in his four-months in Denver. It was mostly rocky. He was 3-11 in 26 games, with a 7.08 ERA, allowing 168 hits in 115.2 innings.

“Colorado was tough, but you learn from your failures,” Lorenzen said in a dugout media session during batting practice. “You learn a lot from hardship. To get released and then have this opportunity come up, yeah, it’s exciting for sure. I learned a lot about myself, perseverance. I put my faith in Jesus, so I learned how to lean on him more and more.”

“It’s not fun to lose your job,” he continued. “For you to work hard and not see results. You work hard and want to see results, but in this game it doesn’t always happen.”

For those unfamiliar with the disadvantages pitchers face at that mile-high elevation in Denver, Lorenzen spoke about both the major environmental issues and how they had affected his disappointing season. Consider the ball goes three feet farther for every 100 feet traveled, meaning outfields play deeper opening more grass to hitters. Second, there’s the loss of movement for pitchers that rely on finesse and command.

“It’s the green grass,” Lorenzen said, when asked whether it’s the home runs or extra real estate. “So, if you’re allowing guys to put the ball in play it’s tough. It’s like my sinker coming back (into the strike zone), it just doesn’t come back (at altitude). My pitch profile doesn’t play well there. Not trying to make an excuse, but I tried to figure it out, everything I could.

“A lot of my strengths were taken from me there. It was tough to try and figure it out, so you’re changing the use of your (repertoire) ‘cause you’re trying to appease altitude, then when you’re going on the road, it affects you. I went into Colorado confident that I was going to put in the work and there would be some type of improvement there. There wasn’t so that was frustrating. I learned how to lean on God, more and more.”

Hopefully his faith will not be shaken when he sees this Jays team’s Jesus (Sanchez) roaming left field behind him.

The Jays rotation now and seemingly for the immediate future would likely be Dylan Cease, Jose Soriano, Max Scherzer, Arrighetti and a returning Jameson Taillon, who is making a rehab start at AAA-Buffalo on Friday (50 pitches). Taillon is expected to start in Cleveland next week.

How tough has this season been for the Jays’ rotation as they have gone from spring training riches to Dog Days rags? Consider this current active roster has accumulated just 58 Jays starts out of the team’s 135 games, while the departed group, plus pitchers now at Triple-A and others on the IL have made 77 starts led by Gausman (23), Trey Yesavage (18), Patrick Corbin (15), Shane Bieber (11), Eric Lauer (6) and Taillon (2).

The Jays host the Mariners for three games on the weekend, highlighted by Buck Martinez bobblehead day and the opening of the Hall-of-Excellence, both on Saturday.

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But in Game 1 of the series vs. Kansas City, the Jays stumbled and fell in their return to Rogers Centre, playing sloppy ball, defensively, running the bases poorly and pitching with not enough command and control.

It gets tougher. The Jays have a bullpen game to be started by Spencer Miles on Wednesday, with a smattering of Chad Dallas and perhaps Simeon Woods-Richardson, then trot out Spencer Arrighetti vs. the Royals in the series finale. This season and schedule was supposed to be getting easier for the Jays.

“It’s been ‘go-time’ for a while, but by no means do you say, okay, now’s the time where you make up ground,” manager John Schneider said of the perception the schedule was in his favour. “They’ve been playing really well. They always play us really well. They’ve just been having a weird year. But you can’t rely on (turning things around by) who you’re playing.

“We just came out of a really tough stretch playing really good teams that are above .500. I believe we were 11-6 over those 17. We’re just worrying about us and not about who we’re playing. It’s major-league baseball. Everyone’s good. To me it’s not a light part of the schedule. Everyone’s in the race. We’re one of those teams under .500.”

Game 1 of the Royals series ended ignominiously on an ill-advised decision by the usually wise Nathan Lukes, trying to stretch a single into a double and being tagged out, even though his run, should he have scored, was not a difference maker.

Earlier in the game, Vlad fielded a bunt and made a terrible side-armed throw into the path of the baserunner hustling down the line. The ball sailed past Ernie Clement who was covering but unwilling to reach into the baserunner’s path. To add injury to insult, Clement in the eighth, fouled a ball off his own crotch, writhing in the dirt around home plate finally able to continue after his gonads descended back to their rightful place akin to that Times Square apple on New Year’s Eve.

By the way, did we say the Royals have won nine in a row and are playing loose.

“Any team is dangerous,” Schneider opined. “There’s some freedom to that, probably. There’s some urgency to that, probably. We’re kind of in the same category where it’s like, hey, you’ve got to do what you’ve got to do to win every night. (The Royals) have got a pretty talented roster, but I think you’ve got to worry about yourself ahead of everything.”

And, you can see it. The Jays have plenty of reason to worry. There’s the thin starting pitching. Overworked relievers to the point of their leverage guys already reaching career numbers in innings and appearances, defensively we’ve seen more bad routes than given you by the GPS you bought on Temu and, oh yeah, there’s that all-too familiar pox the Jays often have with runners in scoring position.

“It’s like when a guy’s playing 14-15-16 days in a row, they’re going to get a little bit tired,” Schneider said. “Starters need to do their part. There are times when you push starters a little bit more than you want to, because of the workload.

“you don’t want to say that you forgive (the relievers for any failures) but you’re definitely aware that mistakes are going to happen because of the workload, probably a little bit more than if they were fully rested. Some guys are good when they’re pitching more, without a long layoff, but we’ve definitely pushed that envelope as to where they’re not getting that much of a layoff. Starters need to do their part. We know that.”

The Blue Jays talent and sometimes lack of it are visible on a nightly basis. This is not the World Series team of 2025. They are simply one of eight teams competing for the third and final AL wildcard berth. There remains no mystique left over from their exciting World Series run a year ago. Opponents see this team far differently from the one that MGR John Schneider guided to within one out of a title against the Dodgers.

They were buyers/sellers on Aug. 3, thinking they could still compete in ’26, but the loss of Trey Yesavage immediately after that trade deadline, then the loss of Shane Bieber throwing his bullpen on Sunday (teres major inflammation), the trade of Kevin Gausman at the deadline, the dispatch of former closer Jeff Hoffman to the Twins and the off-season departure of Chris Bassitt to the Orioles has changed the pitching outlook.

As far as changes in the offence from the excitement last October, you can begin and end with Vlad Guerrero Jr. and the difference from his dominating playoff performance a year ago and his punchless presence this year, still with no homers at Rogers Centre in ’26.

The Jays are still alive, but they cannot afford many more games like they played on Tuesday if they want to remain in the hunt for a spot on the October dance floor. Following is a summary of the seven wildcard contenders and my ranking of their chances.

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Ranking AL contenders for 3^rd Wild Card (games through Aug. 25)

1 – Guardians 67-66, 45.6% post-season

Rotation: RH Gavin Williams, LH Parker Messick, LH Foster Griffin, RH Tanner Bibee.

Bullpen: RH Cade Smith, RH Hunter Gaddis; LH Erik Sabrowski.

Manager: Stephen Vogt

Schedule (28): @Angels 1, Royals 3, Blue Jays 3, Tigers 3, @Orioles 3, @Twins 3, White Sox 3, A’s 3, @Red Sox 3, @Royals 3.

To Dance in October: The Guardians have a two-time AL Manager-of-the-Year, so they will know how to handle any pressure down the stretch. They have a top three rotation that sets up well for any short series, with built-in off-days and the bullpen with Smith as the closer is reliable and deep. Guardians are 8-2 in the past 10 games and are chasing the White Sox to win the division, as well as being favourites for that third wildcard.

2 – Mariners 64-69, 22.0% post-season

Rotation: RH Logan Gilbert, RH George Kirby, RH Bryan Woo, LH Kade Anderson.

Bullpen: RH Andres Munoz, LH Jose Ferrer, RH Eduard Bazardo.

Manager: Dan Wilson

Schedule (29): Phillies 1, @Blue Jays 3, @Red Sox 3, A’s 4, Rangers 3, @A’s 3, @Angels 3, @Rockies 3, Astros 2, Angels 4.

To Dance in October: The M’s are energized by C Cal Raleigh and he seems to be turning his season around. His 18 home runs, including three in a game vs. the Phils and another on Tuesday, are good signs. Their final 22 games include 7 A’s, 7 Angels and 3 Rockies. The M’s called up Kade Anderson, the top ranked pitching prospect on MLB Pipeline. They are 8-4 in the last 12 and are could even factor into the AL West race with Astros and Rangers.

3a – Rangers 66-67, 42.2% post-season

Rotation: RH Jacob deGrom, LH MacKenzie Gore, LH Cody Bradford, RH Cal Quantrill.

Bullpen: LH Jacob Latz, RH Jakob Junis, RH Chase Silseth.

Manager: Skip Schumaker.

Schedule (29): @White Sox 1, @Brewers 3, A’s 3, Rays 4, @Mariners 3, @Diamondbacks 3, Red Sox 3, Blue Jays 3, Mets 3, @Twins 3.

To Dance in October: The Rangers have long been included among the seven teams in the wildcard hunt for the final spot but now find themselves with an alternate route to the post-season, battling the Astros for the seemingly unwanted AL West crown. That explains their high Statcast percentage for making the playoffs. Both teams need to be wary of the M’s.

3b – Astros, 66-66, 46.0% post-season

Rotation: RH Hunter Brown, RH Cristian Javier, RH Peter Lambert, RH Hayden Wesneski.

Bullpen: LH Josh Hader, LH Steven Okert, RH Bryan Abreu.

Manager: Joe Espada.

Schedule (30): @Yankees 2, @Mets 3, White Sox 4, Diamondbacks 3, @Phillies 3, @Rays 3, Royals 3, Braves 3, @Mariners 2, @A’s 4.

To Dance in October: The Astros are in this wacky wildcard mix because of injuries and a slumping team that led to a sudden parting of ways with GM Dana Brown. The Astros began the year slowly, then went on a run that may, in fact, have peaked too early, streaking at 11-1 into Aug. Since then, they are 8-11 and may be more likely for the wild-card.

4 – Orioles 64-68, 8.8% post-season

Rotation: LH Trevor Rogers, RH Brandon Young, RH Shane Baz, RH Chris Bassitt.

Bullpen: RH Andrew Kittredge, RH Rico Garcia, RH Yennier Cano.

Manager: Craig Albernaz

Schedule (30): @Cardinals 2, @A’s 3, @Rockies 3, Red Sox 4, Guardians 3, @Blue Jays 3, @Mets 3, Brewers 3, Blue Jays 3, @Yankees 3.

To Dance in October: The O’s face a remaining schedule with 17 road games and just 13 at home. If they do, they are going to make the post-season on the shoulders of an offence that lost C Adley Rutschman at the trade deadline but now has 1B Pete Alonso and SS Gunnar Henderson in high gear. O’s are 22-17 since July 9 in the toughest, deepest division in MLB, with 13 remaining inside the AL East. Their inexperienced manager is a handicap.

5 – Twins 64-69, 12.7% post-season

Rotation: RH Taj Bradley, LH Connor Prielipp, RH Bailey Ober, RH Zebby Matthews.

Bullpen: RH Yoendrys Gomez, RH Jeff Hoffman, RH Andrew Morris.

Manager: Derek Shelton

Schedule (29): @A’s 1, White Sox 3, Tigers 3, @White Sox 3, @Tigers 3, Guardians 3, Yankees 3, @Angels 4, @Giants 3, Rangers 3.

To Dance in October: The Twins have been plodding along in a very winnable AL Central race, but are 32-29 since June 13, gaining just 1 game on the White Sox in 75 days. However, a key stretch is arriving shortly when the Twins face two huge division rivals, the Chisox and Tigers for 12 straight games between Aug. 28 and Sept. 9.

6 - Blue Jays 64-69, 25.2% post-season

Rotation: RH Dylan Cease, RH Jose Soriano, RH Max Scherzer, RH Spencer Arrighetti.

Bullpen: RH Louis Varland, RH Tyler Rogers, RH Braydon Fisher.

Manager: John Schneider

Schedule (29): Royals 2, Mariners 3, @Guardians 3, @Royals 3, @A’s 3, Orioles 3, Tigers 3, @Rangers 3, @Orioles 3, Reds 3.

To Dance in October: That is a tough task for a team that just lost a resurgent Shane Bieber and is still getting nothing from team leader 1B Vlad Guerrero Jr. The Jays are counting on the return of Arrighetti and RH Jameson Taillon to fill out the rotation. The bullpen is loaded with high leverage guys that are reaching career highs in innings and appearances. Fumes.

7 – Tigers 62-70, 6.2% post-season

Rotation: LH Framber Valdez, RH Keider Montero, RH Casey Mize, RH Jackson Jobe.

Bullpen: RH Kenley Jansen, LH Tyler Holten, RH Kyle Finnegan.

Manager: A.J. Hinch

Schedule (29): Rays 1, Dodgers 3, @Twins 3, @Guardians 3, Twins 3, Rockies 3, @Blue Jays 3, @White Sox 4, Nationals 3, Pirates 3.

To Dance in October: The Tigers went on a mirage run after trading ace LH Tarik Skubal. It brought back memories of two years ago when they were sellers at the deadline and made an unlikely run to the playoffs. Not this time, even though they aren’t mathematically eliminated yet. The Tigers on Aug. 11 were a game under .500, climbing to within 2.5 of the White Sox. Since then, they are 3-10 and welcome Skubal and his Dodgers this weekend.

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In fact, the Jays For one brief moment, late on Saturday afternoon, held sole possession of the third AL wild-card position by the narrowest of margins, a .0002 advantage over three others. But with seven teams within three games of a playoff spot, this race is sure to be day-to-day for the next 42 days. So, hold on tight.

You can’t take anything away from what the Jays have accomplished, when many had written them off on Aug. 4 and then when further injuries kept happening. What the Jays have done in closing what had been a 6.5 game gap, to that razor-thin lead for five hours on Saturday begs several questions that need to be answered. Fact is the Jays are like the marathon runner who has trailed all race, then sprints at Mile 20 to catch the Kenyan favourite. There is a brief celebration then reality sets in with five miles to go.

The MLB reality in this particular horsehide marathon is that the Jays since the deadline, have lost, from the rotation, Kevin Gausman via trade, plus Trey Yesavage and Spencer Arrighetti to injury, being replaced only by one Jose Soriano.

The Jays bullpen, for its part, relies on five trusted pitchers in high leverage, but with internal guidelines of not working three days in a row or, on most nights, more than one inning. One of the key leverage guys, Jeff Hoffman, was dealt to the Twins.

Which brings us to Sunday’s tense, extra-inning 4-3 loss to the damn Yankees. It seems like every day is “must win” for the Jays when there are that many teams in the hunt. That’s unsustainable.

Closing out the Yankees series, after winning the first two games, the Jays battled back from a one-run deficit, twice, to send the game to extras. But one of the team’s trusted relievers, Braydon Fisher, one of four Jays overworked pitchers with 58-plus appearances with still a month to go, was asked to pitch the 10^th inning and promptly gave up a two-run homer to Ben Rice, the first batter he faced. Working on fumes and hitting a wall will affect the entire bullpen. It’s unavoidable.

“I mean it was a tough 17-game grind for everyone,” manager John Schneider said after the game. “But to come out 11-6 is really impressive. The travel and facing the teams we’re facing. Just continue to play as hard as we’re playing and pitch the way we’re pitching. We have to find a way to get some more runs so we can get (the bullpen) a little bit of a break.

“It’s a tough part of the schedule and they’ve responded. Adverse times and saying goodbye to some teammates (at the trade deadline) and that kind of stuff. They’re going to enjoy (Monday’s off day in Florida) for sure. They deserve it. But they’ve got to come out ready to play against a really good (Rays) team.”

It was pointed out to the manager the Jays have lost the finale of four straight series they have had a chance to sweep and are 6-13 overall in finales of the last 19 series. Maybe a need for change in preparation for those final games, but more likely the biggest factor is that Schneider has been using those series finales to rest some regular position players and to take the opportunity for bullpen guys that need work and to rest others that are overworked. But these are desperate times.

If the Jays do not make it onto the October dance floor, but do manage to end the year at or above .500, it would have to be considered a post-deadline success.

So how can the Jays looking towards ‘27 sell a .500 finish to fans, after having, a year ago, come within one pitch of capturing the World Series? The answer is by never promising their fans a full rebuild, one that will take, even, one full year.

The Jays are one of the Big Boys in major-league baseball now in terms of payroll, stadium and broadcast revenues. The Jays, with Canada as their TV market, regularly draw more viewers than the Yankees. The Jays front office long ago as soon as they renovated the pleasure palace at the Rogers Centre, realized the “reload don’t rebuild” philosophy. Thus, after trading Gausman to the Cubs, a full-on sellers move, the next Jays deal was to bring in Soriano looking ahead to the next two seasons of control.

Looking back through history for models to show Mark Shapiro and Ross Atkins, one only need go back to the 2016-17 Yankees and see how what seemed like the end of their 23-year streak of seasons with a winning record, turned into an important transition between Alex Rodriguez (released Aug. 12) and Aaron Judge (first game Aug. 13). With rookie catcher Gary Sanchez taking over behind the plate, the Yankees won 84 games and the fans have not looked back. They won 91 the next year. The Yankee brand dictates any year-to-year strategy.

In Jay-Z’s classic, Empire State of Mind, the hip-hop legend brags, “I made the Yankee cap more famous than a Yankee can.” Perhaps he did, at one time, but the difference between Shawn Carter and the iconic MLB team from the Bronx is that while Jay-Z can afford to release a clunker of an album every now and then, the Yankees must keep putting competitive baseball teams on the field, or suffer a ripple effect of lost revenues. Thus the quick rebuild in 2016-17. The Jays have become like that since they put themselves in the MLB Top half dozen of payrolls and revenues.

Fans can trust that the Blue Jays will have no long-term, multi-year rebuilds in the foreseeable future. Of course, all bets are off if the Collective Bargaining process rears its ugly head on Dec. 1 and changes the MLB landscape of what has become a win-win for all involved, both owners and players. But for now, the Jays are building a future for 2027 encouraged by ownership and not burdened by what might happen.

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The Jays began the final 39 games with a 3-1 win over Gerrit Cole and the Bronx Bombers to move to 60-64 with a firm hold on nothing but their hopes and dreams. It was the Yankees second visit to Rogers Centre since losing Game 2 of the ALDS on October 5 last year. They visited in June under less pressure. The Jays trailed 1-0 into the sixth inning on a solo homer off Shane Bieber by Trent Grisham. But the Yankees fundamentals and defence betrayed them in the sixth as it has so many times before.

With a chance to escape the sixth, still holding the 1-0 lead, with one out, Ryan McMahon fielded a grounder stepped on third then threw the ball across the diamond into the dirt. The one hopper tore the glove out of Luis Garcia Jr.’s hand spinning high above him in a Charlie Brown moment.

With Vlad Guerrero Jr. heading for third on the errant throw, Garcia barehanded the ball off the turf, spun and made a wild toss past George Lombard Jr. covering third. As Vlad scrambled to his feet, Lombard’s knee struck him in the head and neck area. He did score the go-ahead run but is now in concussion protocol, with Charles McAdoo taking over for the final six outs. Results will be known prior to the next game.

Familiar sights in that inning included manager Aaron Boone being tossed by the home plate umpire for arguing strikes even though the Bombers had challenges remaining and then Cole being irritated by the men in blue at home and first for mis-counting his disengagements with a runner on first. Has nobody told the Yankees that New York whines have been banned in Ontario?

In any case, it’s been eight seasons since the moment back in 2019 that John Schneider first joined the Blue Jays major-league coaching staff under then-manager Charlie Montoyo. The question was asked if Schneider has noticed an evolution into a more heated rivalry between the Jays and Yankees. Recall Vlad and David Ortiz having fun with hijacking John Sterling’s call into “Da Yankees Lose” after the ALDS.

But back in ‘19, the Yankees and Red Sox were too busy hating on one another to worry about the Blue Jays as any threat to their longer and more traditional rivalry in the AL East.

This previous big brother pat-on-the-head apathy from the Bronx had been obvious to anyone paying attention, even though the Jays organization and fans tried to promote every series using that rivalry angle. But truth is only Red Sox-Yankees made MLB all tingly.

Fast forward to today and Schneider appreciates that his Jays have pushed back hard against traditional Yankees big brother apathy towards his team, but he is also aware that they will never catch up to the Red Sox in terms of being traditional hated rivals.

“Yeah, it’s definitely changed,” Schneider began in describing the evolution of the organizations’ mutual dislike. “And I think whenever you get a postseason series involved, it definitely changes.”

Schneider disagreed when it was suggested that back in those days the Yankees and Red Sox set up their rotations focused on each other and whoever was left over would face teams like the Jays.

“To my recollection, it feels like there’s always a good starter on the mound against us,” Schneider said. “But yeah, it’s, I think we’re in a different spot as an organization than we were in 2019, obviously, and expectations being different.

“I think that it’s cool to kind of watch that unfold a little bit. It’s definitely like we’re taking our best shot, and they’re taking their best shot. I know their guys have said that last year pissed them off the way it ended. We were the team that ended their season, but it’s different. There’s always a little bit of a different vibe with the Yanks.”

What are the Jays chasing in terms of tradition and hate?

Just a small sample of the annual Yankees vs. Red Sox rivalry that makes it special. We don’t have to go all the way back to Babe Ruth being sold to the Yankees to pay off the Sox owner’s debt on a bad investment in a failed Broadway play. But even as the Babe went on to become the most important player of that era, the hate has been palpable ever since. More recently, think of Bucky “F-ing” Dent and the Sox epic comeback from three games down in the 2004 ALCS. The hate between fanbases is reciprocal and well-earned.

“No, there’s nothing that compares to the Red Sox and Yankees rivalry,” said current Jays bench coach Demarlo Hale, who was part of manager Terry Francona’s staff in Boston in those early 2000’s showdowns. “I don’t know about other famous rivalries like the Cubs and Cardinals, but I was right there and I believe Boston-New York is at the top.

“We would play them on a Thursday on TBS, then Friday, maybe on ESPN, Saturday on Fox and Sunday again on ESPN. Every game seemed to be more than four hours and by the time you finished the series, you were exhausted. I have never experienced anything like it. This division is a grind, but this (right now) is not that.”

Think about some of the huge brawls over the course of that heated rivalry. In the last 50 years, you can start with the infamous on-field melee on May 20, 1976. It began with Lou Piniella aggressively taking out Sox catcher Carlton Fisk, which led to images of Bill Lee dislocating his shoulder in a dustup with third-baseman Graig Nettles.

Add to that the ALCS brawl, Oct. 11, 2003, in which Pedro Martinez shockingly threw aging Yankees coach Don Zimmer to the ground by his ears, with no apology offered. The bad blood has always been there, as it was on July 24, 2004, when Alex Rodriguez running out a groundball swatted at the glove of pitcher Bronson Arroyo. The ball was dislodged but A-Rod was correctly called out and more bad blood ensued.

The Jays care little about the past, although they enjoy being pesky and relentless in the present. The next two days they will try to ratchet up the rivalry, in what needs to become a sprint to the finish line for Schneider’s suddenly competitive bunch.

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Yes, we understand that Hoffman was having a disappointing 2026 season, losing the bullpen closer’s role in May to Louis Varland, with lingering memories of his World Series Game 7 failure still fresh in the minds of Blue Jays fans, many of whom have long, unforgiving memories.

But look where the Jays are right now, as they have regrouped from a rock-bottom 10-games-under-.500, behind some fresh faces to make what will likely be a futile run at the third wildcard spot. But it’s fun to go to the ballpark again.

Sure there’s hope. But the reason that dancing in October remains unlikely for the Jays is that with 39 games left they will need to put together at least two winning streaks, or at least one stretch of 20 games at 15-5 or better.

Let’s say 84 wins is the bare minimum for that third wild-card. The Jays heading into the Yankees, need to go 24-14 with six other teams all within 3.5 games of that final spot. And to accomplish that, the Jays need a circle of trust in the bullpen that embraces more than just four pitchers. The other four seem to be either lefty specialists or roll of the dice righthanders. And the Jays seem to be in a close game in later innings, every day right now.

The Fab Four of relievers in the minds of MGR John Schneider and pitching coach Pete Walker seems limited to Varland, Tyler Rogers, Braydon Fisher and Spencer Miles. How, then, will they be able to put together the necessary winning streak with starters averaging five innings, when six of the eight relievers are one-inning guys and when an unofficial policy is that nobody goes three games in a row – EVER.

EXAMPLE 1: On Wednesday, the Jays are locked in a 1-1 tie through seven, vs. the Red Sox, but break it wide open with five runs in the eighth. That seemingly allows Varland to sit down in favour of waiver claim knuckleballer Matt Waldron, who is asked simply to end the game nursing a 5-run lead. After one out, Waldron allows walk, double, single, double and Varland is forced to finish.

EXAMPLE 2: On Thursday, the Jays trail 1-0 through seven innings, vs. the Sox. Trailing and with two of their trusted guys, Miles and Fisher, already having been used, the Jays had Rogers up and warming next to Chase Lee in case they tied the game. They went with Lee and he allowed a grand slam to 3B Chad Durbin to break the game open. Laz Estrada, called up earlier on Thursday, then allowed two more in the ninth for the 7-0 Sox win, salvaging the series finale. Bullpen feast or famine.

“I think it’s realistic,” Schneider said of his team’s post-season dream. “I always look at how you’re playing in certain spurts, in certain weeks, when it is you’re catching other teams. We know who we’re playing. We know how we have to play. Wish we were scoring more to give the bullpen a break. The guys are playing their asses off right now. I think (getting back to .500) is realistic. I still think we’re a good team.”

If they want to sprint home, they cannot maintain the current parameters of bullpen usage. Shots on TV of Varland and Rogers leaning back on chairs with their feet up in a tight game in the eighth inning because they’ve been in two in a row is not what fans want to see. When does the sprint start?

The bottom line should be that players who are ready, willing and able should go that second inning if they are effective and if they are on a low pitch count and should be available on that third day if a win is on the line.

“I’m in no position to tell the coaches what I should do,” Varland said, Wednesday. “I just pitch when I’m told. It would be (pre-game) communication (with Pete) about how I feel, what they’re thinking. But at the end of the day, it’s their decision. They just know I’m ready always.

“Typically, if we want to be smart about it, for the longevity of everyone’s career, this would seem like the way to go. I pitched three days in a row multiple times. Uncommon though.”

As for Rogers with his unique, submarine delivery and sub-90 velocity, it might seem like he’s the best candidate for breaking the Jays’ unwritten rules of bullpen usage. Three days in a row? Two-plus innings in one outing? Rogers, signed for another two years, is quite a useful and trusted bullpen piece.

“I think in today’s game you see more complete pitching staffs,” the veteran Rogers said. “I think that’s why you don’t see a lot of starters go four time through (the batting order), because every reliever down there (in MLB ‘pens) has incredible stuff.”

Does Rogers think the Blue Jays have enough left in the tank to be making a 39-game playoff push?

“I think everyone’s pretty locked in with what they do,” Rogers insisted. “It’s time to keep your head down and go out there and empty the tank, really. That’s really all we’re focused on. It’s not trying to look too much at usages and stuff.”

But within those thus-far strictly enforced Jays parameters, Hoffman is clearly being missed. He would be a fifth reliever in the bullpen’s circle of trust. He has closer’s stuff. He’s better than Estrada, Lee, Simeon Woods-Richardson, Waldron and anyone else on the AAA-Buffalo shuttle. But the move for the future was made and it is what it is.

However, even Schneider seems itchy to shed the shackles of his bullpen rules and start to sprint to the finish. He didn’t come right out and say it on Wednesday but the clues were there between his lines.

“Those reins are off,” he began, when asked about the unofficial 3-day, 2-inning relief bans. “We threw those rules in the shitter in Philly. We’re at the point now where it’s kind of like, ‘Hey, if you feel good, we’re going to trust you and you’re going to get up. There’ll be fewer yellow lights (on the internal red-yellow-green pre-game reports).

“There’s a lot that goes into it, between Pete, (bullpen coach) Graham (Johnson), medical. We track everything. Okay, where is a quote-unquote danger zone for some guys. At the end of the day we’re at the point where if a guy says he’s good, okay, we’re going to make sure we’re not going to put him in harm’s way and if you’re good, you’re good … and you take the risk that it may not be the best version of themself, but there’s a lot that goes into it.

“We track it every single day. We’re trying to cut down on some of the guys throwing before the game. Even starters we’re at the point where you’ve got to kind of manage it. There’s a big group of people that talk about it every day.”

The question remains, will this discussion lead to more of a smart, desperate mindset.

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The outrageous example of Mike Marshall

I am trying not to be the old guy shaking his fist, yelling at clouds, but in my first year with the Expos, back in 1973 at Jarry Park, there was a righthanded closer named Mike Marhsall. For Marshall, three straight days and one-inning limits were simply a starting off point.

His outrageous ’73 numbers, all in relief, showed 92 appearances and 179 innings, with a 14-11 record and 31 saves. Marshall, a totally unpleasant and abrasive personality, worked both ends of an Expos doubleheader eight times, threw four days in a row four times, plus three in a row four more and worked 2+ innings in 41 of his outings.

On Sept. 7, Marshall worked 3-innings in a 1-0 loss in Game 1 of a twinbill then in Game 2, Iron Mike went 8.1 more innings, allowing three runs on 11 hits. His next appearance was just two days later.

If you think all that apparent abuse must have burned Marshall out, it should be noted Mike was traded to the Dodgers for Willie Davis that winter and in 1974, he threw 208.1 innings in relief in 106 games, pitched 8 days in a row from May 17-24, won the Cy Young and threw 12 more innings in the post season, including the last five games of the World Series vs. the A’s, allowing one run.

Here’s an amusing aside. When I got to the Expos as a summer intern in 1973, there was only one trainer, Joe Liscio. The way he handled his pitchers was a pre-game rub with hot sauce, post-game routine with a bucket of ice and a pitching-arm rubdown with kale. For that ’73 season the Expos used a total of 15 pitchers for 162 games.

I recall in 1975, my first trip to the West Coast with the Expos, Liscio, a native New Yorker, took me after a Dodger Stadium game, for an evening at his beautiful ranch-style bungalow in the Hollywood Hills … where he explained to me about kale.

All I know is this game has really changed.

The Toronto Blue Jays are entering a critical stretch of the MLB season, and Griff and Mal break down everything surrounding the Jays’ playoff push. After a controversial “fourth out” play against the Boston Red Sox, the guys explain one of baseball’s most confusing rules, why the umpires got the call right, and how the Blue Jays’ defense ultimately cost them a run in an important game.

Exit Philosophy also takes an in-depth look at the Blue Jays’ MLB Trade Deadline moves, including the impact those additions have on Toronto’s luxury tax situation, the current Wild Card race, and the team’s plans for 2027 and beyond.

With Toronto chasing the third American League Wild Card spot, Griff and Mal examine how realistic a Blue Jays playoff run really is. The Jays would need to put together a 42-game stretch at a winning pace they have yet to match at any point this season. Can Toronto make the push, and what would it take to get there?

Plus, the guys wrap up the episode with a look at the Niagara Ironbacks’ successful second season, as the team narrowly missed the playoffs after overcoming a difficult inaugural year.

Topics include: Toronto Blue Jays, Blue Jays playoff push, MLB Trade Deadline, Blue Jays trade deadline, American League Wild Card, MLB luxury tax, fourth out rule, Blue Jays vs Red Sox, Blue Jays defense, Toronto Blue Jays 2027, Blue Jays roster, MLB playoffs, Niagara Ironbacks and Exit Philosophy.

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In that light as the 6:00 p.m. deadline approached, it surely must have seemed with the departure of Gausman that the Jays were in the process of dumping expiring contracts, replacing those familiar names with bargain-basement talent. That would be clearly waving the white towel, while adding just enough in terms of cheaper MLB bodies to get them through the final 49 of a disappointing 2026 schedule. Could have been headed towards a complete rebuild. But the Jays are not small-market.

Less than nine hours after Gausman’s departure, that “rebuild” perception immediately changed with the acquisition of righthander Jose Soriano from the Angels. Soriano was one of the prime starters available to all legit contenders at the deadline. The 27-year-old Dominican had been AL Pitcher-of-the-Month for March-April and is under team control for two more seasons through 2028.

The Jays, to clinch the deal, included 20-year-old SS Arjun Nimmala along with two more lesser prospects for Soriano. It was a package the Angels couldn’t refuse. It reminded observers of the Jays’ important mid-season trade in 2021 with the Twins for Jose Berrios when they included their top prospect IF Austin Martin for one of the AL’s most durable and reliable starters. In the case of Martin, chosen fifth overall in 2020, they had soured on his potential as an elite player, while with Nimmala, second ranked prospect in 2026, 19-year-old JoJo Parker had passed him internally.

Nevertheless, if the Jays were truly in full rebuild mode ready to sacrifice a couple of years to get back to where they had been, Nimmala for Soriano made no sense.

Here’s a summary of the rest of the Jays deadline-day action from Monday at 6:00 p.m. The transactions started with the already discussed trades, followed by: 1 – CF Daulton Varsho to Houston for RH Spencer Arrighetti; 2 – LH Adam Macko to the Rangers for UT Josh Smith and RH Josh Stephan; 3 - RH Jeff Hoffman to the Twins for LH Dasan Hill, RH John Klein and IF-OF Dameury Pena. The two brightest hopes among the eight players they acquired in those six deadline deals were the 20-year-old flamethrower Hill (Twins) who reported to A-Vancouver and 24-year-old centre-fielder Brett Bateman, who reported to AAA-Buffalo.

Here is a breakdown of the three factors that likely defined Jays’ strategy.

Factor 1: Team Payroll with Jays battling the ’26 Luxury Tax

The Competitive Balance Tax used to be commonly known as the Luxury Tax and is meant to act as a soft salary cap. The designation is the equivalent of calling your garbageman a sanitary engineer. Nevertheless, CBT was a factor for the Jays front office at the deadline. They were not able to accomplish what they needed to do to reduce payroll.

As July turned to August, the payroll stood at a CBT number of $321.7M, ranking fourth overall to the Dodgers, Mets and Yankees. As background, there are four levels of penalty in the current Collective Bargaining Agreement imposed for MLB’s biggest spenders. The first tier of financial penalty begins at $244M, followed by $264M, $284M and $304M. The Jays were able to shed around $7M and continue to be locked in at the top penalty grouping, rendered more onerous because they are cap offenders for the second year in a row. Hopefully they put some Fall Classic money aside.

Basically, it was always going to be difficult for GM Ross Atkins to cut enough payroll to get below the $304M level. Anything above that is taxed at 60% with lesser percentage rates for the lower three tiers of salary misbehaviour. It should be noted that there is at last some glimmer of good news before the Jays off-season. Using the more traditional, current-year calculation for team payroll, the Jays will be shedding about $97M from this season’s opening day total. Some room to work with.

Factor 2: The need to remain competitive for final two months:

Ever since Blue Jays management went “all-in” four years ago with renovations of the Rogers Centre, transforming it from a faceless stadium into a Pleasure Palace for fans, with restaurants, bars and other distractions for the family around every corner, ownership has always known that announcing a roster rebuild of 2-3 years could never be an option. That’s good for Jays fans, despite $14 beer.

The worst thing this team could have done at the deadline is shrug their shoulders, point to the World Series as recent success that fans should be happy with and then turn around and sell off their most expensive assets (not including Vlad or Dylan Cease), starting with Gausman, George Springer, Shane Bieber, Varsho, Jeff Hoffman and others, then play out the final months in non-competitive mode.

No, this ownership could not stomach that. They had earned a ton of money from their World Series run, not just for the team, but for the mothership. They are aware they are locked into their golden-goose baseball product because of a demanding fanbase and the potential of two months of a half-full stadium and plummeting TV and streaming numbers that the loss of interest across the country would bring.

Thus, Atkins balanced the exits of Gausman, Varsho and Hoffman with the acquisitions of Soriano, Arrighetti and, to some extent, Taillon. Breaking News Update: On Thursday night in AAA-Buffalo, Arrighetti was removed from his rehab start, but don’t be overly concerned. That Arrighetti setback matters very little to the Jays as their goal is not the ’26 playoffs. Then what is it? If the Jays could claw back to .500 that would be a success. To finish at .500, is still not good enough for the playoffs. The Jays would need to go 27-19, as they head to Philly.

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Factor 3: The true Jays goal is competing again in 2027:

The biggest fan complaint about the Blue Jays actual moves at the deadline is the fact they did nothing to address the paucity of clutch and power bats in the lineup. But upon further review, this Jays deadline and those major-league acquisitions were never meant to be about the final two months of ’26. Soriano, Arrighetti and a little bit of IF Josh Smith has been looking ahead to ’27.

Instead of trading for short term assets and praying over results for the final two months, Mark Shapiro and Atkins are clearly conceding they will not be contenders for a wildcard in ‘26 and that the longer-term goal is returning to the upper echelon of the AL East in ’27 That’s what this exercise was all about.

The Jays mistake off a successful run last October is they may have been too sentimental and soft in building the ’26 roster and too focused on bringing back the players that were part of the obvious chemistry in that clubhouse. Gausman before he was dealt, speaking on Mike Wilner’s podcast, clearly admitted the chemistry in the clubhouse is not the same this year, which answers the eternal question, “Does chemistry lead to winning or does winning lead to chemistry?”

Those of a certain age recall that between consecutive World Series wins in 1992-93, the Jays turned over 14 players. Compare that to last November up to opening day this season, this Jays front office group moved on and jettisoned just five players.

Fast forward to where they are eight games below .500 and the Jays ’26 deadline plan seems to have been to keep fans on board for the next two months by remaining as competitive as possible, … while gaining a head start on the potentially nuclear winter MLB off-season by putting together an onboard under control pitching staff, then focussing on their offence whenever they see where they stand in December with their injured hitters, with trades and free agency.

At this point in time, after the ‘26 season mercifully ends, heading to spring training ’27 in Dunedin, the Jays starting rotation, given successful recoveries from injury and continuing good health, features a list of candidates led by: RH Dylan Cease, RH Jose Soriano, RH Trey Yesavage, RH Cody Ponce, RH Spencer Arrighetti, RH Jake Bloss and perhaps a lefthander to be named later. No guarantees, but it’s a start.

The American League may, in fact, suck more than do the Blue Jays, in 2026, so the conundrum was there for GM Ross Atkins of what to do at the deadline. Should they be buyers or sellers? In a decision worthy of Solomon, he decided to do a little of both.

Sitting an uncomfortable eight games below .500 as deadline day dawned in Texas, the Jays, counterintuitively, found themselves less than a half-dozen games out of the final wildcard spot, but with a half dozen teams in the way. The playoff odds by those annoying gambling sites were down to single-digits.

Following up, with all that info in mind, Atkins and the Jays effected five trades on the final day of MLB roster building, acquiring nine players highlighted by two starters RH Jose Soriano from the Angels and RH Spencer Arrighetti from the Astros. In return, the Jays dispatched seven players of their own.

The three biggest names Atkins traded away were RH Kevin Gausman, CF Daulton Varsho and RH Jeff Hoffman. The previous day, Atkins had secured starter Jameson Taillon from the Cubs for cash or a player to be named later.

JAYS TRADES: 1 – Taillon from Cubs for PTBNL or cash … 2 – RH Gausman to Cubs for two prospects, OF Brett Bateman and IF Ty Southisene … 3 - RH Soriano from Angels for SS Arjun Nimmala, OF Eddie Micheletti and RH Angel Rivero … 4 – IF Josh Smith and RH Josh Stephan from Rangers for LH Adam Macko … 5 – CF Varsho to Astros for RH Arrighetti … 6 – RH Jeff Hoffman to Twins for LH Dasan Hill, RH John Klein and 2B-LF Dameury Pena.

Other possibilities to be traded but not traded from Toronto, prior to the deadline, were expiring contracts of OF George Springer and RH Shane Bieber, plus OF Jesus Sanchez, with one year of arbitration remaining. There was really no market for RH Max Scherzer or LH Patrick Corbin. Springer had teams show interest, but he had a full no-trade clause, and the suspicion is that he exercised it.

WHAT IT MEANS FOR THIS YEAR: The Blue Jays are not a better baseball team now than they were on Sunday. To make the playoffs would be a long and grinding road. They lost a reliable veteran starter in Gausman. They lost a talented setup man in Hoffman, who is likely to earn the Twins closer role. They lost a Gold Glove centre fielder in Varsho. The talented Soriano replaces Gausman, but Taillon and Arrighetti are not October-type starting arms, although they can help keep the ’26 Jays competitive.

Here’s the bottom line of why this did not become a rebuild. When the Jays and president Mark Shapiro transformed the Rogers Centre into the pleasure palace it has become, with restaurants, private clubs, standing bars and family areas around every corner and then advanced to the World Series, jamming 41,000+ every night, they were locked-in, never to try and present a rebuild situation to Blue Jays Nation. They must always try to win, must always spend money on payroll, must always sell hope and a competitive 26-man roster for the sake of attendance and the millions of streamers and viewers.

To get themselves back into a legitimate hunt for a spot on the October dance floor this year, the Jays need to find a hot streak comprised of at least 15 wins in 20 games. Through 113 games, manager John Schneider’s group has not shown any glimmer of that hope.

WHAT IT MEANS FOR NEXT YEAR: The Jays now have a head start on what they needed to do in the upcoming off-season, a process that could, of course, be disrupted by upcoming labour negotiations. With the simple acquisition of Soriano from the Angels, it has lent clarity to the potential starting rotation for 2027. That’s a great place to start.

Recall, the Jays entered 2026 spring training with an over-abundance of names for the five-man rotation, but perhaps loyalty and running back World Series contributors had not been the best answer. Back in February/March in Dunedin, they had boasted Gausman, Trey Yesavage, Jose Berrios bouncing back from a mystery injury and left off the playoff rosters, Bieber via a player option that he chose to pick up, Eric Lauer and Max Scherzer.

That’s not all. During the off-season, Atkins added Dylan Cease and Cody Ponce, coming off the best pitching season in Korean baseball history. That’s eight legitimate candidates. The eight somehow became three or four for most of the summer. With Gausman and Lauer traded; with Bieber and Scherzer soon to become free agents and with Berrios owning a pair of $24M player options, a settled 2027 rotation seemed far, far away.

Then came Monday’s surprise acquisition of Soriano from the Angels, one of the most sought after starting pitchers on the market and chased by many contenders. But the Jays, with the Dominican righthander under club control through 2028, won the day by agreeing to include one of Toronto’s top two prospects, shortstop Arjun Nimmala to seal the deal. It’s the same type of trade they made back in 2021 when they snagged Berrios from the Twins by including 2020 fifth overall pick, Austin Martin along with RH Simeon Woods-Richardson. In this case, losing Nimmala is a controlled gamble, with 19-year-old shortstop JoJo Parker seeming to have passed the 20-year-old Nimmala on the depth chart.

From a position of uncertainty, the Jays 2027 starting rotation has taken form: RH Dylan Cease; RH Jose Soriano; RH Trey Yesavage; RH Cody Ponce; RH Spencer Arrighetti. That does not include Berrios or any possible free agent signing or trade the Jays may make.

COMPETITIVE BALANCE TAX: One of the goals for Atkins at the deadline was to shed enough salary, mostly via expiring contracts to drop at least one tier in what is commonly known as baseball’s Luxury Tax, which acts as a soft salary cap.

The Jays entered the day with an estimated total payroll under a convoluted CBT formula of $321.7M. The penalty levels for the tax begin at $244M with the highest tax charged to any team over $304M. If they had been able to trade all the expiring contracts they could have reduced payroll by $33M.

Atkins summarized why it seemed like adding pitching was his priority at the deadline. “Talent is going to trump all,” he said as the Jays prepared for the final 49 games in what realistically seems like a lost season. Don’t call it a rebuild.

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Not even that they were inclined to, or, in fact, were even capable, of putting together a solid win streak over the next 15-20 games, one that would get them back in the hunt in a longshot attempt to defend their AL crown.

It was against this depressing backdrop on Sunday evening, following another bats-silent 5-1 loss to the Cardinals, that I sought out Gausman, walking the length of a near-empty home clubhouse at Rogers Centre to speak, perhaps for the last time, to the classy 35-year-old Colorado native before he headed to the team bus, for the charter flight to Houston for a series vs. the Astros.

During this chat, there were no questions about a potential trade, whether he thought he would be gone, but, nevertheless, his future was an unavoidable elephant in the room. The conversation was mostly about family, friends, his adopted city and his childhood hero, Roy Halladay. Like all pro athletes who have experienced the angst of a trade deadline week and have been traded at least once in his career, Gausman demonstrated no anger, no regrets. It’s a business and there is salary to be saved.

The first order of business was about family and the importance of being a dad to his two girls, Sadie (7) and Sutton (5). I reminded him of a sweet clubhouse incident in 2022, following a tough Game 1 loss to the Mariners. Gausman was to be the next night’s scheduled starter for Game 2, so, as is the custom, he was in the process of exiting the clubhouse quickly following the game, for some quality rest at home. Walking with him towards the clubhouse back door was then-three-year-old Sadie.

Off to their left was Alek Manoah, slumped in a chair in front of his locker, unmoving, head held in his hands. As starter in Game 1, Manoah had not pitched well. Sadie stopped on her own, left her father, went over and silently wrapped her tiny arms around Manoah’s head and held him close. Alek emerged from his trance, looked up for the first time at Sadie as she returned to her father’s side. As Jays’ P.R. man, that became my favourite memory of a lost series. Gausman remembered the moment.

“Oh man, she’s a lot like my wife (Taylor) and she really cares about the happiness of everyone around her … almost to a fault, at times,” Gausman recalled proudly. “But, gosh, she’s just like my wife. She really cares and she wants everyone to be happy when she’s around them. And if they’re sad, she wants to make them feel a little bit better.”

He was asked what his two girls and Taylor would likely take with them from their almost five years in Toronto.

“I think my seven-year-old (Sadie) – she’ll be eight in January – she’s experienced a little bit more of it. My almost-five-year-old (Sutton), all she’s known is Toronto. All she’s ever worn is blue, so it’s really cool, but it’s also kind of a little sad to think about the possible ending of that.

“At the same time, I think my five-year-old grew up here. She had her first birthday party in our backyard here. We took a picture today (Sunday). We had a picture that we took of our girls on our front step the first week that we bought our house here. We took (the same) picture today. It’s just surreal to see how big they now are and how much they’ve turned into people, you know.

“They love Toronto just about as much as us. They ask about when they’re home (in Louisiana), they can’t wait to come back. It’s moreso the relationships that they have with all the other kids on the team in the kids’ room, you know. They’re as close as they could be with the Hoffmans and the Scherzers. They’re all just great people.”

The Gausman signing as a free agent on Dec. 1, 2021 has been one of the best additions in the tenure of GM Ross Atkins. He had provided exactly 31 starts in each of his four full seasons and was a key member of one of the, consistently, most durable rotations in MLB. The fans in the city and across the country adopted him as an honourary Canadian and he had been clearly emotional as he walked off the Rogers Centre mound for what turned out to be the final time on Saturday.

“I think the Blue Jays when they signed me showed a lot of trust and belief in me and I felt the same way in the organization,” Gausman explained. “I’ve watched them grow as an organization, (John Schneider) as a manager, guys grow as players, humans, husbands, fathers now -- a lot of them. It’s just been really cool and I’ve been really lucky to have been in a place long enough that it’s sad to think about leaving.”

If pundits were to put together a list of the Top 5 Blue Jays starters of the 21^st Century, there is no doubt that Roy Halladay would be at the top, but Gausman would definitely be Top 5. When asked about being on the list with Halladay, his childhood hero, a Hall-of-Fame righthander and fellow Colorado-native, he smiled.

“I think anytime you’re in any sentence or even a paragraph as that guy, you’re doing something right,” Gausman said. My time here has been great. I really see myself as a Blue Jay because I’ve been so consistent here. And I think part of the reason that is because of my family.”

Gausman never had the chance to meet Halladay and discuss their mutual experiences, but when the younger man was going to high school in Colorado and then to college at LSU, he observed from a distance with admiration. It’s why he started wearing No. 34, which was Doc’s number in Philly.

“If you’re from my area, you knew Roy was from that area,” Kevin explained. “There’s not many. And if you’re a baseball guy like I was my entire life, I knew the guys … even (reliever) Brad Lidge was from a high school near me. You just don’t forget those guys and Roy was a guy who was, obviously, among the best of the best. You’re not just watching some guy that happened to be in the big leagues. He was one of the best.

“So, for me being a guy from Colorado, I could watch somebody who came from the same environment with the same problems. Having to throw a bullpen indoors, not being able to play outside like when you play teams from Texas and California. It’s pretty eye-opening when you’re young. Watching a guy who was the best of the best do that and be from 30 minutes away was just really cool.”

Also really cool was Jays fans being able to watch Gausman take the ball every fifth or sixth day and lead by example. He wasn’t the vocal clubhouse/dugout philosopher like Max Scherzer or Chris Bassitt, but his leadership came in the form of having younger pitchers watch him prepare on a daily basis and see how he handled success and failure, treating those impostors just the same. In that way he was like Halladay and Jays fans can consider themselves lucky to have seen both men at their best for extended periods of their impressive careers.

Kevin, good luck with the Cubs and good health to Taylor and your family. The Jays were lucky to have had you.

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It may surprise many casual followers in a Jays’ nation-wide fanbase that Ross Atkins is presiding over his 11^th trade deadline as general manager. Only Hall-of-Famer Pat Gillick has accumulated more seasons as Jays GM, a total of 17 year from 1978 through 1994. Following Gillick as GM, in chronological order, have been Gord Ash (1995-2002), J.P. Ricciardi (2002-09), Alex Anthopoulos (2010-15) and Atkins.

Following is a very subjective list of the five best Atkins trades that were made in the final week before trade deadlines through his 10 previous years at the helm.

1 - July 31, 2017 … OF Teoscar Hernandez and OF Nori Aoki from the Astros for LHP Francisco Liriano.

I remember interviewing a wide-eyed and grateful-to-be-here Teoscar on his first day at Rogers Centre. He shyly pointed out that he had his entire family there, parents and siblings, and was thrilled at the new opportunity. He was an unknown 24-year-old, at the time, blocked in the Houston outfield by George Springer, Josh Reddick, Marwin Gonzalez, Derek Fisher and Jake Marisnick.

While the cheating Astros went on to beat the Dodgers in the ’17 World Series, with Springer as Fall Classic MVP, Teoscar continued to develop as an everyday outfielder in Toronto, becoming a key piece of the Jays offence through 2022 and a friend and mentor to Vlad Guerrero Jr. Liriano, going the other way, had been obtained from the Pirates at the 2016 deadline and had been useful but not important.

2 – August 31, 2020 … LHP Robbie Ray from the Diamondbacks for LHP Travis Bergen.

What looked like a roll of the dice as the Jays toiled away at their temporary home in Buffalo, this move paid off with Ray re-signing for one year as a free agent after the ’20 season, responding to his new environment and to pitching coach Pete Walker.

Arriving to the Jays with a reputation as a scatter-armed lefty with a great arm, Ray learned and earned the 2021 Cy Young Award with a 13-7 record and a 2.84 ERA in 32 starts, leading the AL in strikeouts. The Jays won 91 games in ‘21, with a rotation of Ray, Hyun Jin Ryu, Steven Matz, Alek Manoah and Ross Stripling/Jose Berrios. Bergen was reacquired in ’21.

3 – July 30, 2021 … RHP Jose Berrios from the Twins for IF Austin Martin and RHP Simeon Woods-Richardson.

The Jays at the ’21 deadline reached out for Berrios, one of the top starters in the game, already a two-time Twins pitcher-of-the-year. He responded down the stretch, as advertised and re-signed a significant long-term deal in the off-season. Berrios for the next four years continued his consistent workload, but the relationship has soured and with two player option years left, at 32-years-old, his future is uncertain.

The Jays had drafted the highly-touted Martin fifth overall the year before out of the baseball factory that is Vanderbilt U., but he was disappointing up close and personal when given a chance to participate at the ’20 summer camp prior to the shortened season. Woods-Richardson had been obtained in the Marcus Stroman deal with the Mets along with LHP Anthony Kay.

4 – July 31, 2025 … RHP Louis Varland and 1B Ty France from the Twins for OF Alan Roden and RH Kendry Rojas.

This trade has a chance to quickly move up the list over the next few years. Observers wondered about the sagacity of the Twins trading Varland, a homegrown Minnesota native with five more years of control who throws 100 m.p.h.

But after a half season and a playoff run, following the initial shock of adjusting to his new home, working in middle relief with mixed results, but taking the ball from his manager every time he was called upon, the 28-year-old has emerged as one of the top closers in baseball, allowing former ace, Jeff Hoffman, to find a comfort level in a setup role.

France was an important bench player on the way to the World Series, moving on as a free agent in the off-season. Roden and Rojas have yet to make a significant impact.

5 – July 31, 2025 … C Brandon Valenzuela from the Padres for IF Will Wagner.

In a somewhat roundabout way, the World Baseball Classic played an important role in Valenzuela’s emergence as an increasingly relied upon backup for the major-league Jays. Paired with Alejandro Kirk as the first all-Mexican primary catching duo in major-league history, the 25-year-old Valenzuela took advantage of Kirk’s spring training absence with Team Mexico to show John Schneider and the coaching staff what he could do in his extended look in Grapefruit League action.

When there was an opening early in the season, Valenzuela stepped up and in the end clearly beat out the incumbent backup, veteran Tyler Heineman. With Kirk signed to a multi-year contract, this duo could remain together for years to come.

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In 2024 at the trade deadline, the Jays traded eight veteran players and received 13 prospects in return, none of whom contributed significantly in 2025 to the World Series run, even given that fact, the Jays went from 74 to 94 wins. The Jays know they cannot sell a rebuild to their fans, so what happens now is setting up what they can do in the off-season to get back to contending. An empty upper deck and bad TV and streaming numbers are unacceptable to ownership. Just win, baby.

With that in mind, if all such Jays deals were made by deadline day, these are the approximate amounts remaining on the contracts of the pending free agents. OF/DH George Springer $6.7M … SP Kevin Gausman $6.8M … SP Shane Bieber $4.8M … OF Daulton Varsho $3.2M … SP Max Scherzer $0.9M … SP Patrick Corbin $0.3M.

Certainly, there are others with value.

Many fans cannot forgive RP Jeff Hoffman for the way World Series Game 7 ended and the first half of this season unfolded. He has tremendous stuff and is on a dominant roll, that would be attractive to a contender. He has $3.3M remaining this year and a ’27 closer-level contract in place for a reasonable $11M. Hoffman’s is a fascinating possibility since he has already been replaced as the Jays’ ninth inning man by Louis Varland.

In addition, OF Myles Straw has $2.7M remaining in 2026, but has club-friendly options for 2027-28, totaling $16.5M. That seems like good value and, perhaps, they would be wise to keep him. OF Jesus Sanchez has $2.0M left in ’26 and is eligible for arbitration at the end of the season but could easily be non-tendered. He has proven to be a twitchy, smiling fourth outfielder with bad internal GPS when it comes to the best routes to flyballs.

Then comes the elephant in the room. What do you do with a problem like Berrios? The invisible man of 2026, Jose Berrios was at spring training attempting to come back, both from injury and also his perceived abandonment of the team when he was left off 2025 post-season rosters. He is owed $5.4M in the final year of what had once been a brilliant signing by the Jays following his acquisition from the Twins.

But now, with an uncertain future on the field, the classy 32-year-old Puerto Rican is dangerously (for the Jays) armed with player options of $24M for each of 2027-28. In the current climate of labour issues, he is likely to opt-in for 2027 and try to re-establish his credentials at which point he can decide on 2028. But what does he have left? His name has not been mentioned, essentially, since Opening Day. They would love him to opt out. Perhaps they are trying to piss him off to the point he wants a fresh start elsewhere.

Who else on the Jays might be a trade target?

For me, the contract that the Jays should be pushing to other teams is SS Andres Gimenez. When they acquired him from the Guardians, prior to the World Series season, he was a Gold Glove second-baseman who was locked in through 2029, plus an option. Bo Bichette was at short, with Ernie Clement at third base. He was invaluable in October, shifting to short for an injured Bichette and contributing strongly to the World Series run.

But now, with Bo’s departure to the Mets, with the signing of Japanese rookie 3B Kaz Okamoto and with Clement’s versatility and popularity with the fanbase, how much do the Jays really need Gimenez as a well-paid, middle-of-the-defensive-pack shortstop? Consider that two of the Jays top prospects are shortstops – JoJo Parker and Arjun Nimmala. They are each a couple of years away from helping at the major-league level, but if Gimenez moved on, Clement would move to shortstop and a veteran Bisons prospect like Josh Kasevich could step in a second base in the final two months of a lost season.

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The spectre over the Jays of the Competitive Balance Tax (CBT)

Even with potential movement at the deadline of those aforementioned expiring contracts of pending free agents, the Jays remain stuck in the upper echelon of Competitive Balance Tax penalties. What had previously been popularly known as the Luxury Tax was changed by some high-forehead MLB official to soften the concept. But it’s like the change to “Sanitation Engineer” replacing the age-old “Garbageman”. The CBT is an industry-imposed penalty for overspending meant to act like a salary cap. Neither owners nor players are fans of the concept. But for now, it will penalize heavily the ’26 Jays.

In any case, using projected numbers from the reliable website, Cot’s Baseball Contracts, the research staff lists the Blue Jays’ pre-deadline CBT payroll at $321.7M, which ranks fourth among 30 in MLB. Of the three teams with higher CBT payrolls, the Dodgers (1) and the Yankees (3) are headed to the post-season and are likely to make up for their penalties with any sort of a playoff run. Meanwhile the Jays and Mets (2) are forced to eat it, at least for this year.

The way the Competitive Balance Tax (nee Luxury Tax) works is this. The penalty baseline as per the current Collective Bargaining Agreement is $244M. Under that, teams pay no tax. A second tier begins at $264M, then $284M with the final level starting at $304M. The Jays last season finished at $286M and were penalized.

There are various penalties for your year-end totals that include fines, plus implications in the amateur draft and to international signing pools.

In real life, you can drown in your bathtub or drown in the Mariana Trench. The result is the same. In 2025, the Jays found themselves in the second circle of CBT hell but, no matter. They made that penalty amount back, and more, by advancing to the World Series. This year, with no playoff in sight and with only about $35M maximum capable of being pared from their $321.7M CBT payroll, they are spiralling towards the bottom of that Pacific trench.

If the Jays are unable to shed any payroll at this deadline, the penalty for being at their current level would be approx. $28M, as consecutive offenders. If the Jays can pare $19M or more off their current total salary, they would save an additional $10.6M.

The listed penalties for the ’26 Jays under the current CBT agreement include, as happened earlier this month, the team’s top draft pick being pushed back 10 spots, unless it is a Top 6 pick and then the penalty applies to the next highest pick. Somehow this smacks of an invitation to tanking.

Of course, all that mathematical manipulation may change once the next CBA goes into effect. Hopefully for Rogers ownership, they had put some of those huge October profits from last year into a separate account, because that rainy day has arrived.

Yes, Bichette had been back to Rogers Centre to pack his gear in the clubhouse, a day after that devastating Nov. 1, 2025 loss, a winner-take-all for the title, a game which for a time looked like it would end with Bo’s career highlight cemented as a Canadian sports hero, his three-run homer in the third. It would have been that roundtripper, if it remained a Game 7 winning blast that would be remembered by Jays fans forever.

But that didn’t happen and on Monday, as he jogged up the steps from the clubhouse with his familiar pre-game cutoff sleeves, emerging into the dugout for a scheduled pre-game presser, he scanned the field for the first time in a Mets uniform. Then he tried to hold it together. He failed.

“I didn’t expect that (emotion), to be honest,” Bichette said, eyes glistening with honest feelings as he surveyed the field upon which he and Vlad used to roam and rule together. “But this was also the first time that I had been out here and the first time that I had talked to any of you (media) guys. So, I mean, I’m sure a lot of things just came out of me at one time.”

Bichette’s honest reaction to returning to the only major-league home he had known was nice to see for normal human beings. But in the world of macho athletes, in a faux-tough social media world, in which showing real emotion in public as an elite athlete must mean you are soft, there are those that will choose to believe Bo Bichette is soft. Manager John Schneider is not one of those.

“Bo was kind of playing on one leg,” Schneider described the Fall Classic grit he witnessed from his shortstop turned second-baseman, activated for the final round of playoffs following a long stint on the IL. “The fact that he did what he did and played a new position was pretty remarkable for missing six weeks. Then asking him to go hit fourth in your first World Series. It’s just kind of telling for who he is as a competitor. He tried to ramp it up earlier in the post-season and kind of had a setback. He easily could have said, I’m not gonna…but it was, no, I’m going to keep going. So, yeah, he was playing hurt.”

But two hours before his Jays scoreboard tribute was cheered loudly by the fans, he found himself talking to a familiar Blue Jays media group, Bo tried his best to answer a series of friendly-fire questions to explain, among other things, his relationship with Vlad Guerrero Jr, with the city and its fans.

“Baseball life is crazy and we’re all caught up in our own world,” Bichette started. “I think (awkward pause) I gave it everything I had (long glistening pause) that’s for sure.”

Then he regrouped.

“I think this is an opportunity for me to reflect on good times. You dream of getting in the situation, getting that opportunity. I’m so grateful that (Vlad and me) had that experience, got there with a dream of winning it. I don’t know how many times I’ve replayed (Game 7), but it comes to mind, every once in a while.”

Recall it was the third inning of Game 7 and, Shohei Ohtani had just issued an intentional pass to a red-hot Guerrero Jr. to get to Bichette. That’s a slap-in-the-face challenge and an insult to many proud players. Bo responded in kind with a first-pitch 3-run bomb to deep right centre for a 3-0 lead.

“It was pretty fitting it was the first pitch, after they walked Vlad,” Schneider said. “I haven’t even asked Bo this, but I have a feeling that what was going in his head was, ‘You’re going to walk this guy to get to me?’ It was probably in his brain a little bit.

“But I remember that swing, watching how far the ball went. I’ll always remember him and Vlad, like Vlad waiting for him at home plate. It’s like, oh shit, if this is ever going to be what it should be for those two guys, it’s Game 7 of the World Series and you felt pretty good about it. I remember taking a little snapshot in my head of that.”

But history will show there was too much time left in the game and the Dodgers had their own secret weapon, the tireless Yosh Yamamoto combined with a devastating piece of scared baserunning by the Jays, with Isiah Kiner Falefa on third, with the bases loaded and a chance to walk it off. But Bo on this Monday was only asked about the return from injury and his dramatic home run.

There was a moment in Monday’s 2-1 Jays win over the Mets when Schneider walked another Dominican slugger, Juan Soto, to get to Bichette. Did the Jays skipper have a flashback moment with a little fear of what happens when you make Bo mad?

“For sure,” Schneider admitted. “We talked about it before the game. “Soto’s an unbelievable hitter and Bo’s right there with him. So I thought about what we talked about before the game. It doesn’t feel great for a dude (Bichette) that has the numbers he does with runners in scoring position, no matter who he’s facing. But it just made sense to try and get him on the ground.”

Prior to the game, Bo had talked about his hard work to get back to the active roster for the Series, even at a new position, with Andres Gimenez taking over at short.

“It was a difficult time for me leading up to that World Series,” Bo said. “Going through the injury. Working really hard to get to a point with that team where we were making a run. That’s a part of it, then having to go out to play the World Series, not at full strength.

“Just a lot going on for me at that time that I knew I was capable of and I knew that if I went out there and competed and gave what I had, I could do something special. Honestly, when I hit that home run, I had a moment by myself kind of down in the tunnel where I just was thinking, couldn’t have drew it up better. I hoped we would have won, but for me, just what I was going through up to that point, it was cool for me.”

The two Jays stars were joined at the hip for nine years. Bichette was drafted in 2016 and Vlad was signed a year earlier as an international free agent. The two future stars came through the minors in seeming lockstep, from 2016 on, each making his MLB debut in 2019. That’s nine seasons of sharing a World Series dream.

“We went through it all together,” Bo explained with tears welling up once again. “The one goal we had together, we didn’t accomplish here. I’ve seen him at his lowest. He’s seen me at mine. And vice-versa. We went from teammates as kids to …”

He could not continue the thought because of secret thoughts racing through his head and so this cathartic moment, his, uncomfortable, dugout press conference was over … the same way it had started, with real, unbridled emotion.

Welcome back, Bo.

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Griff and Mal also discuss George Springer’s role moving forward, whether Toronto needs another high-leverage bullpen arm, Yimi Garcia’s potential return, the catching situation among Alejandro Kirk, Tyler Heineman, and Brandon Valenzuela and what the Blue Jays need to do to stay in the playoff race.

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MLB DIVISION RANKINGS (through May 28): Overall the National League is a surprising 33 games above the break-even mark in inter-league play. 1-NL Central + 26 (to .500) … 2-AL East +12 … 3-NL East +7 … 4-NL West +1 … 5-AL Central -18 … 6-AL West -28.

BLUE JAYS: Through the first 57 games, the Jays have been forced to use 24 pitchers, including catcher Tyler Heineman twice and including a dozen of those Jays hurlers who were not part of the ’25 AL Championship.

The Jays need to solve some fundamental issues that have prevented them from winning games against lower-payroll teams, one that they were expected to beat. In building this Jays roster, the front office has had a recent history of focusing on run-prevention, combining pitchers that pound the strike zone and defenders who minimizes the damage on balls in play. But the best laid plans…

The first third of the season has seen the Jays in a perplexing no-man’s-land of unable to defend small-ball and rein in a lesser opponent’s speed game, while, at the same time, unable to match the traditional power-game of the big-boy opponents. The Jays offence needs to step it up in terms of power, extra-base hits and clutch, while the defence needs to return to fundamentals. Those mistakes don’t show up on the stat sheet.

Consider outfielder Yohendick Pinango has zero errors on his record, but every fan remembers the double at Yankee Stadium that dropped on the foul line as three players stood by. Fresh, also, are the memories vs. the Marlins, first time as he gave way to Andres Gimenez then realized it was his ball, dove feet first and kicked an RBI double to centre field and finally a line drive in that same inning where his route to the ball seemed inspired by a Picasso sketch book. Clearly, stats don’t tell the entire story in baseball.

With all that in mind, the Jays can be perceived as underachievers and, even though there are 13 players currently on the major-league IL, it can be argued that every team has injuries with which to deal. The Jays list of walking wounded shows a total missing individual payroll, at the moment, of just under $100-million, including six starting pitchers – Dylan Cease, Jose Berrios, Shane Bieber, Max Scherzer, Cody Ponce and Bowden Francis.

Here are some injury updates: Alejandro Kirk (fractured left thumb) was with the team on the recent homestand. He has caught bullpens and is now swinging the bat vs. live pitching in Florida. They will be better when he returns, likely with Brandon Valenzuela as backup.

Shane Bieber (forearm fatigue, two years removed from Tommy John) threw two innings in a Florida Complex League game on Monday and will throw three innings next time. He will continue to ramp up and is at least a month away.

Max Scherzer (forearm and ankle) threw 30 pitches vs. live hitting, the equivalent of two innings, on the field at Rogers Centre on Wednesday morning. He continues to remain with the team on the road as unofficial advisor to younger players in the dugout during games. He is chomping at the bit to return to the mound. At 55 innings, he receives a $1M bonus and then another mill for every 10 innings after that. He is now at 18.2 innings.

Addison Barger (right elbow inflammation) is hitting but has not yet started a throwing rehab program. His arm, of course, is a huge part of his arsenal. They miss him as a deterrent against opposing runners and miss his power potential.

Make the call – Sauced or Smoked

With the 2026 hockey playoffs in full swing, here’s a chance to show your puck loyalty in a decidedly delicious and unmistakeable way, courtesy of BetMGM Canada. Check out the showdown in the east and tell us your personal choice – Carolina or Montreal – by choosing Carolina BBQ or Montreal Smoked Meat, with a chance for a grand prize that will pay off in a delicious way. To enter the draw go to

SaucedOrSmoked.com/griff

Here are the GriffsthePitch.com power rankings, with huge changes from opening day, which was largely based on the previous season and traditional spring mirages. Number in parentheses is the end of April power rank.

1-Dodgers (1)

’26 Opening Payroll: $390.5M (1)

Manager: Dave Roberts

SUMMARY: One can argue at any moment they are not the best team, but they will be there when it counts and have purchased the depth to withstand injuries.

PLAYERS AT $15M-PLUS AAV: (9) Kyle Tucker, Tyler Glasnow, Shohei Ohtani, Blake Snell, Mookie Betts, Freddie Freeman, Yosh Yamamoto, Teoscar Hernandez, Edwin Diaz.

2-Braves (4)

’26 Opening Payroll: $246.5 (8)

Manager: Walt Weiss

SUMMARY: After a down year in 2025, the Braves are back with a different manager, trending up with legitimate Cy Young and MVP candidates.

PLAYERS AT $15M-PLUS AAV: (7) Matt Olson, Austin Riley, Ha-Seong Kim, Ronald Acuna Jr, Chris Sale, Raisel Iglesias, Robert Suarez.

3-Rays (12)

’26 Opening Payroll: $105.2M (27)

Manager: Kevin Cash

SUMMARY: Every time you feel this is it for the Rays way that their luck has run out, they come up with an answer. This time it’s home at the Trop with OF Chandler Simpson and a healthy LHP Shane McLanahan.

PLAYERS AT $15M-PLUS AAV: Zero

4-Brewers (7)

’26 Opening Payroll: $129.1M (21)

Manager: Pat Murphy

SUMMARY: The Rays and Brewers are the MLB players union’s

Choice, the argument against ownership linking payroll and contending.

PLAYERS AT $15M-PLUS AAV: (2) Christian Yelich, Brandon Woodruff.

5-Yankees (3)

’26 Opening Payroll: $333.2M (3)

Manager: Aaron Boone

SUMMARY: Bronx Bombers live up to their name, but need to straighten the bullpen before they can be elite. Can David Bednar hold up for 162 games plus October?

PLAYERS AT $15M-PLUS AAV: (7) Cody Bellinger, Aaron Judge, Gerrit Cole, Giancarlo Stanton, Carlos Rodon, Trent Grisham, Max Fried.

6-Padres (2)

’26 Opening Payroll: $262.1 (6)

Manager: Craig Stammen (R)

SUMMARY: The Padres will make a couple of blockbuster moves before the deadline that have people scratching their head. But they remain forever interesting.

PLAYERS AT $15M-PLUS AAV: (7) Xander Bogaerts, Manny Machado, Michael King, Fernando Tatis Jr, Nick Castellanos, Joe Musgrove, Yu Darvish.

7-Guardians (13)

’26 Opening Payroll: $97.7M (29)

Manager: Stephen Vogt

SUMMARY: The Guardians have sprinted to the lead in a division that has been surprisingly gettable with Skubal out and the Twins and Royals disappointing.

PLAYERS AT $15M-PLUS AAV: (1) Jose Ramirez.

8-Diamondbacks (11)

’26 Opening Payroll: $186.3M (16)

Manager: Torey Lovullo

SUMMARY: Ketel Marte has started to crush again and this team is only going to get better as the season progresses. Imagine if Corbin Burnes was healthy.

PLAYERS AT $15M-PLUS AAV: (7) Corbin Burnes, Nolan Arenado, Eduardo Rodriguez, Merrill KJelly, Zac Gallen, Ketel Marte, Corbin Carroll.

9-Cardinals (10)

’26 Opening Payroll: $118.6 (24)

Manager: Oliver Marmol

SUMMARY: The city and the region are always going to support their Cardinals, so planning a rebuild wasn’t a gamble. But they are winning and competitive already. Bonus.

PLAYERS AT $15M-PLUS AAV: Zero

10-Phillies (20)

’26 Opening Payroll: $311.2M (4)

Manager: Don Mattingly

SUMMARY: This team was always going to rebound, with the rotation they have and talent in the lineup. Rob Thomson isn’t as dumb, nor Don Mattingly as smart as we think.

PLAYERS AT $15M-PLUS AAV: (6) Zack Wheeler, Trea Turner, Aaron Nola, Bryce Harper, Kyle Schwarber, J.T. Realmuto.

11-Reds (6)

’26 Opening Payroll: $146.7M (19)

Manager: Terry Francona

SUMMARY: With Hunter Greene on the verge of a return to the mound, the Reds are a trendy choice to battle for a wild-card through the summer..

PLAYERS AT $15M-PLUS AAV: (1) Eugenio Suarez.

12-Cubs (5)

’26 Opening Payroll: $240.09M (9)

Manager: Craig Counsell

SUMMARY: The Cubs are like a rollercoaster covered in ivy. So much talent yet a 10-game losing streak. Even the Billy Goat curse is making a comeback.

PLAYERS AT $15M-PLUS AAV: (7) Dansby Swanson, Alex Bregman, Shota Imanaga, Ian Happ, Seiya Suzuki, Jameson Taillon, Nico Hoerner.

13-White Sox (29)

’26 Opening Payroll: $105.2M (26)

Manager: Will Venable

SUMMARY: Just south of the Cubs, both geographically and in power rankings, you will find the White Sox. Their Japanese import is early choice for rookie-of-the-year.

PLAYERS AT $15M-PLUS AAV: (1) Andrew Benintendi.

14-Nationals (27)

’26 Opening Payroll: $102.4M (28)

Manager: Blake Butera (R)

SUMMARY: The youngest front office in baseball is leaning on its young offence to lead them into the future. Better than the Mets and much cheaper.

PLAYERS AT $15M-PLUS AAV: Zero

15-Mariners (17)

’26 Opening Payroll: $181.2M (18)

Manager: Dan Wilson

SUMMARY: M’s rotation is the best young foursome in majors. They need to create more offence to pull away in what has been a bad AL West.

PLAYERS AT $15M-PLUS AAV: (5) Luis Castillo, Julio Rodriguez, Randy Arozarena, Cal Raleigh, Josh Naylor.

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16-Blue Jays (19)

’26 Opening Payroll: $300.3M (5)

Manager: John Schneider

SUMMARY: Once the NHL playoffs are over, a lot of Canadians will shift attention back to the Jays and wonder what the hell is happening top the AL defending champs.

PLAYERS AT $15M-PLUS AAV: (8) Vlad Guerrero Jr, George Springer, Kevin Gausman, Dylan Cease, Jose Berrios, Andres Gimenez, Anthony Santander, Kaz Okamoto.

17-Athletics (16)

’26 Opening Payroll: $131.9M (20)

Manager: Mark Kotsay

SUMMARY: The A’s are like the Indians in the early ’90s when they were readying to move into Jacobs Field. A’s want to be good now but prefer to win in new Vegas digs.

PLAYERS AT $15M-PLUS AAV: (1) Luis Severino.

18-Pirates (9)

’26 Opening Payroll: $120.7M (22)

Manager: Don Kelly

SUMMARY: Paul Skenes, Konnor Griffin and a great stadium are a good start, but unless they keep Skenes it’ll be a tough sell to quality free agents.

PLAYERS AT $15M-PLUS AAV: (2) Mitch Keller, Konnor Griffin

19-Marlins (23)

’26 Opening Payroll: $78.1M (30)

Manager: Clayton McCullough

SUMMARY: Speed and youth and three key Canadians make this an interesting team to watch. They are finding ways to compete but still have a distance to go.

PLAYERS AT $15M-PLUS AAV: (1) Sandy Alcantara

20-Orioles (15)

’26 Opening Payroll: $201.5M (13)

Manager: Craig Albernaz (R)

SUMMARY: When the O’s jumped up to 101 and 91 wins in 2023-24 they tried to accelerate the winning process given an abundance of young position player talent. It has failed.

PLAYERS AT $15M-PLUS AAV: (3) Pete Alonso, Chris Bassitt, Tyler O’Neill.

21-Astros (25)

’26 Opening Payroll: $228.2M (11)

Manager: Joe Espada

SUMMARY: The Astros window of post-season opportunity has lasted since 2017, but that window may be closing thanks to key injuries and a team ERA over five..

PLAYERS AT $15M-PLUS AAV: (7) Jose Altuve, Yordan Alvarez, Carlos Correa, Christian Walker, Josh Hader, Tatsuya Imai, Lance McCullers.

22-Twins (18)

’26 Opening Payroll: $119.2M (23)

Manager: Derek Shelton

SUMMARY: They looked at a division that seemed wide-open but replacing key bullpen pieces they traded off last summer has not been easy. Plus, the loss of Pablo Lopez.

PLAYERS AT $15M-PLUS AAV: (2) Pablo Lopez, Buron Buxton.

23-Red Sox (21)

’26 Opening Payroll: $256.1M (7)

Manager: Chad Tracy (R)

SUMMARY: The Red Sox identity has always been about scoring runs and ruling at Fenway. Firing Alex Cora was the latest in what seems like dysfunctional relationship among players, fans and front office.

PLAYERS AT $15M-PLUS AAV: (5) Sonny Gray, Trevor Story, Garrett Crochet, Masataka Yoshida, Willson Contreras.

24-Rangers (14)

’26 Opening Payroll: $200.1M (14)

Manager: Skip Schumaker

SUMMARY: The Rangers are struggling in a very winnable decision. They have solid names in the starting rotation but the three youngsters are still finding themselves.

PLAYERS AT $15M-PLUS AAV: (5) Jacob deGrom, Corey Seager, Nate Eovaldi, Brandon Nimmo, Joc Pederson.

25-Giants (22)

’26 Opening Payroll: $223.6M (12)

Manager: Tony Vitello (R)

SUMMARY: Sure Buster Posey is one of the good guys in baseball, but the move to a college-background manager and some questionable personnel moves add up to this.

PLAYERS AT $15M-PLUS AAV: (6) Matt Chapman, Robbie Ray, Rafael Devers, Jung Hoo Lee, Logan Webb, Willy Adames.

26-Royals (28)

’26 Opening Payroll: $181.7M (17)

Manager: Matt Quatraro

SUMMARY: The Royals were a trendy picks to take the next step. Sal Perez is nearing the end of his road and Vinnie Pasquantino has struggled coming off heady WBC success.

PLAYERS AT $15M-PLUS AAV: (3) Seth Lugo, Michael Wacha, Bobby Witt Jr.

27-Mets (26)

’26 Opening Payroll: $368.7M (2)

Manager: Carlos Mendoza

SUMMARY: The Mets have an owner with the deepest pockets in baseball who has yet to figure it out when it comes to building a winning roster. Bo is not a Big Apple sort of guy.

PLAYERS AT $15M-PLUS AAV: (8) Juan Soto, Bo Bichette, Francisco Lindor, Marcus Semien, Sean Manaea, Devin Williams, Jorge Polanco, Kodai Senga.

28-Tigers (8)

’26 Opening Payroll: $236.7M (10)

Manager: A.J. Hinch

SUMMARY: Even if Tarik Skubal manages to fast-track back to health and to the rotation, it may be too late in terms of contending. Look for them to explore trade talks in July.

PLAYERS AT $15M-PLUS AAV: (5) Tarik Skubal, Javier Baez, Gleyber Torres, Framber Valdez, Jack Flaherty.

29-Angels (24)

’26 Opening Payroll: $187.0M (15)

Manager: Kurt Suzuki (R)

SUMMARY: The Angels are benefitting from a Mike Trout power resurgence, but, elsewhere, Jose Soriano’s numbers have levelled off and Yusei Kikuchi is on 60-day IL.

PLAYERS AT $15M-PLUS AAV: (3) Mike Trout, Anthony Rendon. Yusei Kikuchi.

30-Rockies (30)

’26 Opening Payroll: $105.3M (25)

Manager: Warren Schaefer

SUMMARY: The Rockies have been slightly more competitive in ‘26 but there is no reason to move them out of the Mile-High basement.

PLAYERS AT $15M-PLUS AAV: (1) Kris Bryant.

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