BOSTON - The Blue Jays are carrying plenty of weight right now, and Max Scherzer says the trade deadline is just one more piece of it.
Toronto’s 6-4 loss to the Boston Red Sox on Friday dropped the club to 10 games under .500, with the deadline now eight games away. Even if the Jays win out before Aug. 3, they’d still be two games below .500 on deadline day, which makes them look like a team headed toward selling. That reality hangs over everyone in the clubhouse, from players trying to keep their jobs to veterans with contract questions ahead.
“There are so many different things,” Scherzer said. “You can be in a contract year, you can be in the playoffs, there’s so many different ways the game challenges you, and you have to win every single day.
… No matter what is going on around us, we always have the pressure to perform and win. And right now is no different.”
Scherzer said players don’t get to treat this like ordinary baseball, because the consequences are always there.
“You don’t just get to run in between the lines like, ‘Oh we’re just playing baseball,’” Scherzer said. “If you don’t win at this level, you’re gone.
Hey, we signed up for that. We love it like that.
We don’t want it any other way. I’m not complaining about it one bit; that’s just the reality we live.
That’s our challenge.”
He did not want to get deep into how his no-trade clause might factor into any deadline move. If Toronto decides to sell, Scherzer said, that’s the time to talk about it. For now, he sees no point in spending energy on what-ifs.
Kevin Gausman took a different approach. He was willing to talk about the emotional side of the deadline, including the effect of his eight-team no-trade list on him and his family.
He described the Blue Jays’ situation as being under a “big magnifying glass.” Neither approach is wrong, and both reflect the same pressure facing all 26 players and the coaching staff.
For some, the deadline could even sharpen the focus. Scherzer said Friday that he feels good enough to come off the injured list next week, and a strong stretch could help him land with a contender.
George Springer could also improve his market by driving balls over the Green Monster. Shane Bieber has already helped himself, allowing one earned run across 13 innings in his last two starts.
For others, the pressure is more draining than energizing. Toronto has spent weeks, really months, trying to turn the season around, and Gausman said the group has been pressing for the big moment that changes everything.
“It’s like everyone’s trying to fix our season in one at-bat or one outing,” Gausman said earlier this week. “When you’re chasing results up here, it’s just not going to happen. You’re kind of fighting an uphill battle if you’re trying to push the envelope.”
As the deadline nears, that tension is not likely to ease.
Gausman said there used to be a different feel around the 2025 Jays, a looseness that came from believing someone else would pick up the slack if one player stumbled. That kind of trust builds when wins pile up.
“Letting the cards fall where they may,” Gausman said, “there’s a hidden belief in that. We just don’t have that right now.”
The night also brought a milestone for Kazuma Okamoto, who broke Shohei Ohtani’s rookie home run record for Japanese players in MLB.
Okamoto had tied Ohtani before the All-Star break, but he brushed off the significance at the time.
“I don’t read too much into those numbers,” Okamoto said through team interpreter Yusuke Oshima.
On Friday, though, he moved ahead for good. In the seventh inning, Okamoto turned on a misplaced sinker and sent it over Fenway Park’s deep centre-field wall, giving Toronto its first three runs in the loss and pushing his total to 23 homers. Ohtani had hit 22 in his first season with the Angels in 2018.
Maybe Munetaki Murakami, who has 20 homers in 66 games with the White Sox, will chase down the mark later this year. Maybe someone else will come along and pass them both. For now, Okamoto owns the record, and that matters because of who he passed.
Ohtani has already built a résumé that includes four MVPs, two World Series and six All-Star selections in his first nine MLB seasons. Even so, Okamoto’s pace stands out.
Toronto’s offense entered Friday ranked 30th in runs scored, but Okamoto has been one of the few steady bright spots, leading the Jays with 23 homers and 65 RBIs while adjusting to new pitches and new parks almost every night. Even for Ohtani, the power did not come this fast.
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Gausmans status as a free agent after the season gives Toronto a real decision to make, especially if the club wants to turn an impending departure into assets. The market around him is expected to be active, with several contenders in the mix, and for the Blue Jays it could become one of the more consequential calls of the deadline. [Read more 🡒]