The Blue Jays are heading into a weekend series in Kansas City with their playoff push still very much alive, and John Schneider is lining up a familiar arm for the opener.
According to Ben Nicholson-Smith of SportsNet on X, Toronto is tentatively expecting Jameson Taillon to start against the Royals on Friday, per Schneider. It’s a notable development for a club that has been getting strong work from its rotation lately, including a sweep of the Seattle Mariners before the current series against Cleveland.
Taillon has been working his way back after landing on the 15-day IL on Aug. 11 with right forearm tendinitis. He recently got through a bullpen session, which appears to have given the staff enough confidence to send him back to a major league mound.
The right-hander has made just two starts for Toronto since being traded to the team after being designated for assignment by the Chicago Cubs this summer. In those outings, he posted a 3.38 ERA across eight innings, with seven strikeouts and five walks.
For the season overall, Taillon owns a 5.68 ERA with a 2-6 record, a 1.37 WHIP and 75 strikeouts. But Toronto doesn’t need him to be a stopper in every sense right now - just enough to hold things together while the offense keeps rolling.
That’s been the value of Taillon in this stretch. He may not be built to carry a game deep into the night, but he did enough in those eight innings to keep the Blue Jays in position. For a club trying to bank wins in September, that kind of stability matters.
There’s also the bigger picture with Taillon, a veteran who has a strong track record in the season’s final months. Over his career, he has put up a 2.53 ERA in 224 innings during September and October, his best numbers in those months, according to Baseball Savant.
He may not be the kind of starter who blows the doors off a game, but he’s exactly the sort of arm that can help a team like Toronto keep pushing toward October.
In Other News...
Blue Jays Deadline Call Looks Even Better For One Big Reason
When the Blue Jays moved Kevin Gausman to the Cubs at the trade deadline, it looked like the kind of decision that would be judged mostly on return and timing. But the deal has taken on a little more weight because reports say the Yankees were also in the mix for Gausman before Toronto sent him to Chicago, a wrinkle that adds some extra significance to a trade that already shaped the rest of the season.
For Toronto, the bigger picture now includes what has happened since. Prospect Brett Bateman has brought useful production on both sides of the ball since arriving, giving the Blue Jays a more immediate reminder that deadline deals are not just about subtracting a veteran arm, but about what comes back and how quickly it can matter. [Read more 🡒]
Blue Jays Castoff Suddenly Has A New Chance Fans Will Notice
Simeon Woods Richardson is getting another reset, this time with the Seattle Mariners, who signed the right-hander to a minor league deal and sent him to Triple-A Tacoma. For Toronto fans, it is the latest turn in a season that has already taken him through three organizations, after he opened the year with Minnesota, was designated for assignment and then landed with the Blue Jays before being waived.
Woods Richardson chose free agency after Toronto let him go, and now the Mariners will see if they can get something back from a pitcher whose talent has kept him on the move even as the results have lagged. It is a reminder of how quickly a promising arm can slip into roster churn, and why a stint in Tacoma can still matter for a player trying to get back on track. [Read more 🡒]
Blue Jays Make A Telling Lineup Change With Wild Card Stakes Rising
With playoff positioning tightening, the Blue Jays made a small but revealing adjustment for the final game of their series against the Guardians, dropping Ernie Clement into the eighth spot in the batting order. It is the kind of move that says plenty about where Toronto is right now: still leaning on Clement as an important part of the roster, but also looking for a spark after a rough stretch at the plate.
Clement has hit just .097 over his last nine games, a slide that has come at an inconvenient time for a club trying to lock down its place in the postseason picture. The hope is that a lighter spot in the order can take some pressure off him and help get him back to the version of himself the Blue Jays have counted on for much of the season. [Read more 🡒]