Jays should consider four-man-plus rotation through the trade deadline

Sans Manoah and using off-days, four starters can be temporary band-aid

The Blue Jays, as they emerged from Saturday’s 9-4 loss to the Twins, had at least learned an important future lesson about the starting rotation. It involved “who’s got next” and the potential need for adding to the rotation beyond the five men that had handled the season’s first 65 games, the only rotation in baseball to do that.

Righthander Bowden Francis, although he didn’t start the game, was Saturday’s bulk guy and his 2-2/3 innings on 33 pitches were eye-opening. He earned a future look. 

Going into that Saturday game, fans and media that observe the team every day, had separated into two camps -- glass half empty/glass half full, with the half-empty crowd pessimistically believing that there’s absolutely zero starting depth in the minor-leagues. They feel the team is already toast, given Manoah’s first 13 starts of failure. When the decision was then made to take the befuddled righthander out of the mix, optioned to the Florida Complex League, away from the MLB firing line, repo…