Blue Jays splashed with dose of reality by Rockies

Ponce injured after 10 batters in anticipated Jays debut

Good news for the Blue Jays in a 14-5 shellacking by the Rockies at Rogers Centre on Monday night is that the 10 strikeouts recorded by their pitchers meant that this group has established a MLB record with 60 Ks in the opening four games of a season, since 1900. The bad news was, well, the bad news was everything else.

The Rockies came into the night winless, while the Jays entered the first of this three-game series undefeated. The whole tone of Jays early-season optimism ended painfully in the third inning, as newcomer Cody Ponce sprinted off the mound to field a chopper off the bat of Jake McCarthy. He braced awkwardly against his right leg, hopalonged out to the infield dirt and collapsed without making a play, as the batter raced safely to first and a run scored.

The MRI that Ponce was undergoing post-game had not yet been completed, but a stint on the IL for Ponce, in his first year back in the majors after posting, in 2025, what was arguably the greatest season in Korean professional baseball history, is highly likely no matter the degree of the current diagnosis.

“I think that going back a month-and-a-half ago, you talk about our starting depth and you can never have enough,” Schneider said in his post-game session. “You never know what you’re going to face and there’s always going to be challenges you think you’re ready for and something else pops up. If it’s not great news, we’ll have to look at the best possible outcome for the time being and see who’s going to be ready when. Right now we’re just focused on Cody, hoping that he’s alright.”

Whether it’s a right knee that is hyperextended, or something worse than that with a ligament, the odds are very good that Ponce is going to have a stint on the IL, joining current walking-wounded starters, Jose Berrios, Trey Yesavage and Shane Bieber.

The projected order of return among that trio of injured Jays pitchers would seem to be: Berrios first (stress fracture of the right elbow), Yesavage (right shoulder impingement) and then Bieber (Tommyt John hangover), who is throwing from a mound for the first time on Tuesday.

Berrios and Yimi Garcia had been scheduled for bullpens in Dunedin on Tuesday. Yesavage had already been scheduled for three innings, 45 pitches on Friday.

Using that timeline, there is a possibility that the Jays could improvise and tap-dance their way through this crisis, making a few alterations to the game plan with regard to their rotation and not be hurt as much as it seems.

Using the off days on the schedule and with the four healthy starters performing on, at least, regular rest, the Ponce spot in the rotation would be needed next on April 8, with a total of three assignments before the end of the month, including April 18-28. That would give one of the injured starters time to re-join the Jays’s five-man mix.

The Ponce injury meant that the Jays relief corps on Monday was asked to get 20 outs. It did not work out for Spencer Miles and lefthander Brendon Little, who was booed lustily after a second straight head-scratching failure.

The one-night embarrassment for the Jays ended with six outs on the mound from catcher Tyler Heineman, who allowed five runs, seven hit and a base-on-balls on just 27 pitches. Efficiency thy name is Heineman. Hey, it’s just Game 4 of the season.

“Hats off to Heinie,” Schneider said. “You know it’s not easy. At that point, you’re trying to just survive. With Tyler coming in, you don’t really want that. You figure he’s going to be pretty efficient, which he was. We’re looking at what we’re going to do going forward.”

The Little failure looks like the sky is falling on a nice man who has lost his mojo and likely needs to be optioned to AAA-Buffalo as soon as possible. Stuff? Yes. Confidence? No.

“Curveball was in the zone more,” Schneider explained of Little’s 30 pitches and four runs in two-thirds of an inning. “It was Castro the flare down the line. The walk is always going to come back and hurt you. That kind of unraveled on him a little bit. You feel for him. He hears the crowd. He’s been so good for us and he’s got amazing stuff. He just has to harness it and get outs. I was kind of kicking myself for not bringing him in for the Johnston at bat when he hit the home run off (Spencer) Miles.

“You want to put him in spots to succeed. He’s been really, really good for us. We really like what we saw at spring training in terms of (repertoire) adjustments that he made and he can be a big part of our bullpen. It’s two outings and they haven’t gone great. We want him to be at his best and we want to do everything we can to help him. Brendon Little’s got electric stuff and we have to figure out a way to help him.”

That sure sounds like an option is in his future. And if Ponce goes on the IL, it will mean the need to promote two pitchers to replace them. If Schneider uses the off-days and the fact that with the right adjustments they don’t need a fifth-starter until April 8, then they could utilize a bullpen day vs. the Dodgers in the series finale with a bulk starter. Then, by the next turn for that rotatiopn spot on April 18, either Berrios or Yesavage could likely be ready.