The Toronto Blue Jays have reached the point where the rotation is less a plan than a survival exercise.
Jameson Taillon’s elbow issue, which landed him on the injured list Saturday, pushed an already thin group even closer to the edge. Toronto is now dealing with seven starters on the IL and one more who was traded away, leaving John Schneider to keep stitching together innings as the playoff race tightens.
“You have to take it as a challenge,” Schneider said, “and I think we’ve done a pretty good job of doing that.”
That challenge is now front and center with 19 games left.
Toronto’s 4-3 win over the Kansas City Royals on Saturday did more than keep the momentum going. It moved the Blue Jays back above .500 for the first time since early April and put them back in a playoff spot.
In a season where the pitching staff has been battered from the start, the timing matters. The Jays control their own October path now, and they’ve put themselves in position to make noise if they can just get there.
The problem is getting there with what’s left.
Dylan Cease and José Soriano remain the anchors. Max Scherzer, who has spent months moving on and off the injured list, has become a critical piece instead of a bonus.
Spencer Arrighetti is likely to be stretched out, and Toronto still has to sort out the final rotation spot. That last decision may be the hardest one on the board.
The Blue Jays have already been here over and over. They’ve put nine big-league starters on the injured list this season and used 15 different pitchers to start games.
A few more could still be added to that list, but the issue is no longer just who is hurt. It’s who is left.
CJ Van Eyk is the only regular starter in Toronto’s Triple-A rotation with an ERA under 4.50. He owns a 4.05 ERA in 6 2/3 innings with Toronto, though his expected ERA sits at 5.88 and he has struck out just 1.4 batters per nine innings. Chad Dallas would make sense as another option, but the Blue Jays have already optioned him five times this season, which means sending him down again would require him to clear waivers.
So Toronto may be headed right back to the approach that has carried it this far: improvise and keep moving.
The bullpen has already been dragged into the fight. Spencer Miles has thrown the second-most innings of anyone on the active roster.
Braydon Fisher has started eight games. Mason Fluharty has started four.
Bullpen games have become a normal part of the operation, and they’ve worked often enough to keep the Blue Jays alive.
“It’s allowed us to be a little bit out of our comfort zone,” Schneider said, “to be creative at least one time through the rotation, seems like, almost the whole year.”
There’s only so much creativity a team can ask of its relief corps, though, especially when that group has already pitched the fourth-most innings in baseball. Toronto may have to lean even harder on tired relievers, stretch Michael Lorenzen back out despite his 6.00 ERA since joining the club, or turn again to a discarded arm such as Patrick Corbin for meaningful innings.
None of those paths is clean. At this stage, clean may not exist.
“It’s tough when you think about no (José) Berríos, no (Cody) Ponce, no (Shane) Bieber, no Max, no Bowden (Francis), no a lot of people for a long time,” Schneider said.
That leaves a lot on the shoulders of the healthy names still standing. Cease and Soriano have to keep dealing.
Scherzer has to keep working deep, like he did Saturday after giving up two runs in the first inning. Arrighetti, who was a September hero with the Houston Astros in 2024, may have to be more than a long reliever.
And none of them can afford to go down.
“We gotta pitch deep into games, and we gotta stay healthy,” Scherzer said. “You gotta know how your body’s doing and really work at your body.
Really gotta recover well. Gotta do everything you can so that we can turn these starts.”
Toronto’s offense has started to help carry that load, which matters even more now. Over the last eight games, the Blue Jays have averaged 6.25 runs per game, and that surge has fueled a 7-1 stretch. On Saturday, Scherzer allowed three runs, Kazuma Okamoto had four hits, and the bullpen shut down Kansas City the rest of the way.
For most of the year, pitching kept the Blue Jays afloat. Now the equation may be flipping. With the rotation stripped down and the relief group piling up innings, the offense could be the part that makes the whole thing work.
That’s a big shift, but it’s also why Toronto is suddenly in a very different place than it was entering deadline day. The Blue Jays traded away a core starting pitcher, a late-inning reliever and a starting center fielder.
They bought some pieces, too, but the moves looked more like a bet on 2027 than a push for right now. At that point, Toronto was eight games under .500 and carrying just a 4.4 percent playoff probability, according to FanGraphs.
Since then, they’ve gone 20-11. Their playoff odds have climbed to 49.2 percent. They’re above .500 for the first time since April 3 and sitting in the third wild-card spot in the American League.
Late-season surges happen. Every year, somebody gets hot and rewrites the script.
Last year it was the Cleveland Guardians. In 2024 it was the Detroit Tigers.
This year, it’s the buy-and-sell Blue Jays, who still have plenty of work ahead of them and several important series left against other teams in the race.
For now, though, they’ve done the part that mattered most: they’ve gotten themselves back in the hunt.
In Other News...
Blue Jays Add Catching Depth With One Intriguing Upside
The Blue Jays made a quiet catching move, claiming Shawn Ross off waivers from the Mets and sending him to Triple-A Buffalo. It is the kind of depth add that can matter over a long season, especially for a club that keeps one eye on the big-league roster and another on keeping Triple-A stocked with options that can move quickly if needed.
Ross brings a little intrigue with the bat, having shown notable power in the minors even as the strikeouts have remained part of the package. He reached the majors with Pittsburgh before landing in the Mets organization, and now he gets another reset in Toronto as a depth catcher with enough upside to keep him interesting if the contact comes around. [Read more 🡒]
Blue Jays Face A Bigger Pitching Question After Latest Roster Shuffle
Jameson Taillon landing back on the injured list with right elbow inflammation adds another layer to a Blue Jays staff that has already had to keep adjusting on the fly. Toronto answered by recalling Ricky Tiedemann from Buffalo, giving the club another arm to plug into the mix after he has already appeared in two games for the Blue Jays. The move at least gives the team a fresh option while it sorts through a rotation picture that keeps shifting.
Shawn Ross also came into the organization on Tuesday after Toronto claimed the catcher off waivers from the Mets, though he will head to Buffalo for now. It is the sort of roster shuffle that can look routine from the outside, but for the Blue Jays it underscores how much of the present is tied to managing the staff day by day. The bigger concern is whether Taillons return to the injured list is an isolated setback or the latest sign that the pitching depth is about to be tested again. [Read more 🡒]
Blue Jays Just Created Another 40-Man Roster Question
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Cameron does have the option to reject the assignment and test free agency, but he is expected to stay with Buffalo for now. For Toronto, the move is another reminder of how quickly the 40-man picture can shift, especially with fringe depth pieces who are trying to hold onto a spot. Cameron has already shown a willingness to keep moving, including time in Korea with the Doosan Bears, and this latest turn leaves the Blue Jays with one more roster question to manage. [Read more 🡒]