The Toronto Blue Jays’ rotation keeps taking body blows, and the latest ones hit fast.
Tuesday afternoon, the team announced Jameson Taillon was headed to the injured list with forearm tendinitis. He left Monday night’s start against the Boston Red Sox after four scoreless innings and just 60 pitches, which immediately raised alarms.
That wasn’t the only setback. The Blue Jays also revealed that Trey Yesavage had surgery on his meniscus, according to John Schneider. Yesavage is considered week to week and could still pitch again this season.
Yesavage had exited after the second inning against the Houston Astros a week ago, and while the surgery is a major development, his season is not necessarily over.
Toronto’s pitching situation has already been stretched to the limit. Going into Monday night’s game with Boston, the Blue Jays had used 33 different pitchers this season, a number that doesn’t even include position players such as Myles Straw and Tyler Heineman, who have also taken the mound.
The attrition has reached the rotation in a big way. At the trade deadline, Toronto brought in both Taillon and Spencer Arrighetti, but Arrighetti is still on the injured list, and now Taillon has joined him. Yesavage is back in the injury picture as well.
The Blue Jays do have some help at the top. AL Cy Young frontrunner Cease missed only one of his scheduled starts before returning, and he remains the best arm the club has. Max Scherzer is also in the mix, and after a rocky start to his season, he has been really solid in his last two outings.
Even with that, Toronto needs innings in the worst way. The bullpen is already severely overworked, and there’s no sign of that easing up soon.
Right now, the rotation is down to Scherzer, Bieber, Cease, and Jose Soriano, and it would not be surprising to see Simeon Woods-Richardson move into a starting role. The next few weeks should tell the story of how John Schneider handles the wave of injuries.
At this point, Toronto looks headed for one of two outcomes: it will be within spitting distance of the bottom wild card, or the season will be entirely lost.
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Myles Straw Is Giving The Blue Jays Life At The Perfect Time
Torontos outfield picture looked much different after the trade deadline, and the Blue Jays have needed someone to steady things in the middle of it. Myles Straw has done exactly that, helping at a time when the club could have been rattled by the departure of one of its best defensive players. Instead, Straw has become part of the push that has kept Toronto moving in the right direction and given the team a reason to believe the race is still very much alive.
The Blue Jays have climbed in the wild card picture, but the margin for error is still thin with other contenders hanging around. Straws value has shown up in ways that matter most over the course of a long stretch, both with his glove and in the lineup, and Toronto has clearly benefited from the energy he has brought since the deadline. Whether that holds over the final weeks is the bigger question, but for now he has helped give this team some life at exactly the right moment. [Read more 🡒]
Blue Jays Suddenly Look Like A Team Nobody Wants To Face
The roster shuffle that sent Kevin Gausman to the Cubs and Dalton Varsho to the Astros looked, at least on paper, like the kind of deal that would leave Toronto leaning on patience more than momentum. Instead, the Blue Jays brought in right-hander Jose Soriano from the Angels and added Brett Bateman from the Cubs, and the group has responded by winning five straight series. In a race that had been slipping away, the timing of the surge has changed the tone around a club that suddenly looks a lot less comfortable to line up against.
Toronto has worked its way back into the mix in the American League wild-card chase, and the gap now feels small enough to matter every day. The bigger question is what has fueled the turnaround inside the clubhouse, because the results suggest this is more than a short burst of good fortune, and the next stretch will show whether the Blue Jays have truly turned a corner or simply bought themselves a little more time. [Read more 🡒]
Blue Jays Shake Things Up With Sweep Chance And Scherzer Pressure
The Blue Jays head into the finale of their four-game set against the Red Sox with a chance to complete a sweep after winning the first three, and John Schneider is using the day to shuffle things around. Charles McAdoo is moving to left field, George Springer is back in the designated hitter spot, and the club is trying to keep its momentum going while sitting at 59-63 and still searching for something that can steady the stretch run.
Max Scherzer gets the ball for Toronto, bringing added attention to a start that carries some weight given how uneven his season has been so far. The Blue Jays also adjusted their pitching depth for the game, adding Lazaro Estrada into the mix for the finale while Brendon Little was unavailable after landing on the paternity list, leaving Schneider to piece together the last game of the series with a few moving parts. [Read more 🡒]