The playoff hopes of the Blue Jays are hanging by a thread. They no longer control their own destiny. At one point Toronto briefly held a .003 lead over the WC3 competition, but after games that same night, that singular moment of “in our own hands” was gone. Now they must rely on unlikely permutation and combinations.
Following Thursday’s off-day in Texas, the Jays have just three series of three games each remaining – at the Rangers, in Baltimore and, finally, at home vs. the Reds.
In addition, with the final wild card spot changing hands from the Guardians to the White Sox, the Jays no longer have the key tie-breaker, leading manager John Schneider to perhaps give up on his scoreboard watching and just focus on his own team. A tie with the Guardians and they were in. A tie with the Chisox they’re out. And don’t forget about the Rangers. They could be WC3 or even win the AL West.
“I’ve been scoreboard watching for a while,” Schneider admitted following the Jays’ 5-1 win over the Tigers in the series finale on Wednesday. “I may take a break and just try to focus on going 1-0 every day with the Blue Jays and whatever’s going to happen is going to happen. There’s a lot of moving pieces and there’s going to continue to be a lot of moving pieces and if we can just worry about us, that’s the best thing to do. The most important thing is to think about Friday. That’s it really.”
Schneider, as has been the case every day of his tenure with the Jays, has been critiqued, sometimes unfairly, on social media, mostly for his handling of the Jays’ bullpen, which has become even more liquid, overworked and unpredictable since the Jays have been forced into a three-man rotation – Dylan Cease, Jose Soriano and Max Scherzer. It shows what they truly thiunk of Spencer Arrighetti and Michael Lorenzen. Sprinkled in to the current five-game rotation, out of necessity, are two bullpen days that necessarily affect the way Schneider’s relievers are deployed.
Two examples of bullpen-inspired fan anger, that resulted in defeat, from the past week have been when the manager called upon lefthander Joe Mantiply in the eighth inning with a one-run lead vs. the Tigers on Monday and then, the following day, when Rockies-released righthander Lorenzen entered in the fourth inning of a 0-0 game allowing four runs. Two key losses in a row not managing for the moment.
“It’s tough,” Schneider said. “Each one of those (bullpen starts) affects the day before and the day after. Each day there’s certain options that are best for that day. They may not be the best in the world, in a global picture, but in a vacuum that day, those are your options. I always say, too, you have to score. It’s always easier when you score.
“But it puts pressure on starters Max, Dylan (Cease) and Jose (Soriano) to kind of get some length and when the guys are throwing that much, the workload catches up to them a little bit. You can kind of see that over the past week or so, with some of the bullpen guys. It definitely has its effects on bullpens.
“It’s delicate, but it puts some guys in spots where they may not be accustomed to. It puts some guys trying to get a little bit more length. The score may not dictate them being that lengthy, but, yeah, it’s a puzzle to solve every day.”
It’s easy to forget that when the trade deadline came and went on August 3, many in Blue Jays Nation were ready to write off any reality of competing in 2026, looking ahead, instead to 2027. The Jays had replaced RHP Kevin Gausman, CF Daulton Varsho and RHP Jeff Hoffman, with RHP Jose Soriano, then-injured Arrighetti, UT Josh Smith and a Triple-A outfielder sent to Buffalo, named Brett Bateman.
Now, 45 days later, the fanbase is bemoaning the cautious strategies. What they are clamouring for would be like a NASCAR pit crew not making one last pit stop to refuel with six laps to go, praying they can finish and win the race on fumes.
Schneider was asked if with nine desperate games remaining, he might, in fact, go rogue on the front office analytics crew and break some of the usage rules for relievers seemingly already working on fumes. After all, it’s “pedal-to-the-metal” time.
“First of all, we’re all in this together,” Schneider said of the Jays’ stats nerds. “But I think it’s always trying to do what’s right for the player. They know how they feel and we’ve pushed them to a point, up until now, where they’ve done a lot, we’ve asked a lot. Trying to be mindful of what we’ve already asked of them and knowing that there’s (nine) games left, (we tell them) we’re going to need you to keep going. So, we’re being mindful and every single day they can have off is important. But I wouldn’t say I would go rogue.”
Schneider smiled at his own final comment.
The question becomes, taking a step back, how are the Jays even being mentioned in the race for the third wildcard spot. The answer is in the contributions, some season-long, some more recent, of a Jays rookie group that has been arguably better than any since 2019 when Vlad Guerrero Jr. and Bo Bichette burst onto the scene.
“You always want to just keep talent and ability coming,” Schneider said, while mentioning a list of 2026 rookie contributors – Miles Spencer, Brandon Valenzuela, Charles McAdoo, Kaz Okamoto, Trey Yesavage, Brett Bateman, leaving off others that have been back-and-forth on the annual QEW Buffalo Express.
“You evaluate what you have and what you need to add externally, every single year or every single deadline. It is nice that young guys have contributed. We’ve missed some relatively young guys this year, too, whether it’s (Addison Barger), or, I don’t want to call Cody Ponce young, but there’s some guys that we were expecting to be here, that were relatively new, that aren’t here. Getting them back will help as well.”
But for now, heading to the back nine of the season, it’s all about the cliches – backs to the wall, one day at a time, etc. While Schneider understands that not all of the same 28-man parts are available that took them to the World Series last year are still here or performing at the same level, the experience of being in the heat of a real pennant race and post-season run a year ago will help, as the Jays enter the final week.
“Yeah, we’ve been through it at really high stakes where your backs are against the wall and you have to win a game,” the fifth-year manager opined. “I think we can have that mentality of, just, you have to win a game tonight, no matter what the outcome (the day before) and then do it again the next day. It’s really important, so I think there is value to (last year’s pressure cooker). There’s guys that have been through it really, really at the highest stakes of the game. That’s the message. Just come ready to play and just try to win that night.”
For Schneider’s crew, “that night” followed by eight more “that nights” begins on Friday in Arlington with Dylan Cease being consulted and moved up a day to pitch on his fifth instead of sixth day. Cease knows. Soriano knows. Desperate times…