The Blue Jays have hit another rotation snag, placing right-hander Jameson Taillon on the 15-day injured list with right forearm tendinitis and bringing up fellow righty Chase Lee to take his roster spot.
Taillon’s IL move comes barely a week after Toronto acquired him from the Cubs. In his second start since the trade, he lasted four innings before exiting.
His velocity tailed off late in that outing, and the Blue Jays later said he left with forearm discomfort. There’s no official timetable yet, but the team appears to be bracing for at least a couple of weeks without him.
If this turns into a longer absence, it would matter more for Taillon than for Toronto, since he’s an impending free agent.
For now, the bigger issue is simply filling innings. Toronto came out of the deadline with a strange mix of buying and selling, moving Kevin Gausman while adding José Soriano, Spencer Arrighetti and Taillon.
Even with a rough record, the club is still 3.5 games out of a playoff spot in a weak American League field. The original plan was a six-man rotation featuring Soriano, Dylan Cease, Trey Yesavage, Shane Bieber, Max Scherzer and Taillon, but Yesavage went on the IL with a meniscus injury, and now Taillon is out too.
Arrighetti is another name the Jays are managing carefully. He was on the IL with nerve irritation in his right foot when Toronto got him, then recently made a rehab start while still dealing with the issue.
Per Mitch Bannon of The Athletic, the Blue Jays have diagnosed him with Morton’s neuroma and believe he can pitch through it with treatment. His next step isn’t set in stone, but another rehab outing seems likely before he joins the active roster.
In the meantime, Simeon Woods Richardson was added to the roster yesterday to give Toronto a long reliever after the team had gone to extra innings in four of its previous five games. He wound up getting called on right away because of Taillon’s injury. Woods Richardson threw three innings of relief, which would have been scoreless if not for the unusual “fourth out” play that came into play.
He could be the one who holds a rotation job until Taillon, Arrighetti or Yesavage is ready again. Matt Waldron and Spencer Miles are also on the active roster, though both have recently been used in shorter stints.
Toronto also has John Klein, Chad Dallas, CJ Van Eyk and Lazaro Estrada on the 40-man roster as possible alternatives. Dallas, Van Eyk and Estrada have all been optioned within the last 15 days, though they could have been brought back as the corresponding move for Taillon.
The Jays chose Lee instead. Klein, Van Eyk and Estrada all pitched fairly recently, so they may not have been available immediately.
Van Eyk’s 15-day limit will be up Thursday, and he could be ready to pitch on normal rest by Friday. Toronto has Cease, Soriano, Scherzer and Bieber lined up to start the next four games, so another starter won’t be needed until Saturday.
Woods Richardson’s numbers this season have been rough, with a 6.23 ERA and matching 11.9% walk and strikeout rates. Still, he has shown he can handle a back-end role before.
Over the 2024 and 2025 seasons with Minnesota, he worked 245 innings and posted a 4.11 ERA, a 21.5% strikeout rate and a 9% walk rate. His struggles this year eventually led to him being placed on waivers, claimed by the Jays and later outrighted.
After that, he was solid enough in Triple-A, where he logged 24 1/3 innings with a 4.07 ERA, a 21.5% strikeout rate and a 9% walk rate.
In Other News...
Blue Jays Just Got An Unexpected Cody Ponce Rehab Look
Cody Ponces road back from ACL surgery has already taken an unusual turn, and it says a lot about where the Blue Jays right-hander is in his recovery. After suffering the injury in his first start of the 2026 season, Ponce has been working through rehab with a longer view in mind, one that still leaves Toronto expecting him to matter in a big way once he gets back on the mound.
The latest wrinkle is the kind of cross-sport detour that can catch a fans attention, with Ponce spending part of his rehab around NFL tight ends rather than a mound. For a pitcher who is still aiming to be a factor in the Blue Jays rotation, the timing matters most, and the club is looking ahead to a full return by spring training in 2027. [Read more 🡒]
Blue Jays Roster Shuffle Puts One Struggling Player On Notice
The Blue Jays kept turning over the bottom of their roster, sending Davis Schneider and Lazaro Estrada to Triple-A Buffalo while bringing up Charles McAdoo and Simeon Woods Richardson. It is the kind of move Toronto has made before this season, trying to get a better rhythm from a group that has not settled in cleanly, especially as Schneider continues to search for consistency after a rough run.
McAdoo and Woods Richardson are back for their second stints with the club this year, giving Toronto two familiar options as it reshuffles again. For Schneider, the latest trip to Buffalo only adds to the pressure surrounding his place on the roster, while Estradas mixed results left the Blue Jays willing to look elsewhere for a different look. [Read more 🡒]
Charles McAdoo Just Forced His Way Back Into Torontos Plans
Charles McAdoo has spent the last week making the kind of noise that gets a front offices attention. The 24-year-old rookie crushed four home runs in four days for the Buffalo Bisons, good enough to earn International League Player of the Week honors, and now hes back in the Blue Jays orbit after a brief earlier look in the majors this season.
For Toronto, the recall gives McAdoo another chance to turn a hot stretch into something more lasting. He is expected to get more playing time during this second stint, which makes this a meaningful moment for a player who has already shown he can force the issue from Triple-A and now has a path to prove it at the big-league level. [Read more 🡒]