The Toronto Blue Jays are playing their best baseball of the season at exactly the wrong time for two players who were shipped out at the deadline.
Since parting with some key veterans, including Kevin Gausman and Daulton Varsho, Toronto has caught fire. The club is 10-5 after the deadline and sits just half a game back of a playoff spot.
For Varsho, the move to the Houston Astros has not gone well at all. He’s hitting .125 with only three RBIs across 54 plate appearances, a brutal stretch that has done nothing to help a pending free agent already dealing with a rough run before the trade.
Gausman’s story hasn’t improved much either. He was already struggling in Toronto, posting a 4.38 ERA over 23 starts before being dealt to the Chicago Cubs. His new stop has been rocky, too: through three starts and 16 innings, he owns a 6.19 ERA.
His latest outing was even shorter than usual. Gausman was lifted after 4.1 innings because of a left hand cramp, though he’s not expected to miss additional time. Still, if the results don’t turn around soon, he could wind up outside the Cubs’ starting rotation when the playoffs begin.
Meanwhile, the Blue Jays’ outlook keeps brightening. Fangraphs now gives them a 22 per cent chance to reach the postseason, a notable jump from the 5.8 per cent they had on Aug. 3.
And the schedule is doing Toronto a favor, too. Nine of the Blue Jays’ final 10 series will come against teams currently outside the playoff race.
In Other News...
Padres Have A New Late-Inning Weapon Drawing Serious All-MLB Buzz
The All-MLB conversation is already starting to take shape, and for clubs around the league, it is a useful snapshot of which pitchers are forcing their way into the seasons biggest honors discussion. The projections lean heavily on current performance, with names like Jacob Misiorowski, Cristopher Snchez and Dylan Cease headlining the starting group while high-impact relievers such as Mason Miller and Louis Varland have also pushed their way into the picture.
For a Blue Jays team that knows how quickly late-inning arms can change the feel of a series, the reliever debate is the most interesting part of the board. Miller and Varland are drawing serious buzz as the kind of weapons that can reshape October expectations, but these All-MLB predictions remain just that for now, a snapshot of where the season stands before anything is officially handed out. [Read more 🡒]
Blue Jays Broadcast Crew Still Earned Respect During A Tough Transition
Awful Announcings latest local MLB broadcast rankings offered a small reminder that the Blue Jays television crew still carries real weight with viewers, even through change. In a vote based on more than 85,000 ballots, Torontos Dan Shulman, Joe Siddall and Hazel Mae finished eighth, sliding from fourth a year ago but still holding a spot among the sports more respected booths.
The drop was tied in part to Buck Martinezs retirement, a shift that naturally altered the familiar rhythm for Blue Jays fans. Even so, the result shows the audience has not drifted far from the crew, and it also places Toronto in a category that included the Padres Don Orsillo and Mark Grant at No. 1 for a second straight year, a useful benchmark for how strong the competition remains. [Read more 🡒]
Blue Jays May Have Found A Serious Bat Far Later Than Expected
Jake Bennett has made an early impression in Dunedin, and it is not hard to see why the Blue Jays were drawn to him in the draft. The club took him in the eighth round largely because of the bat, and through his first 12 games with Single-A Dunedin, he has given that evaluation some real traction with four home runs and a .940 OPS. The extra-base damage has been the headline, even if the approach still comes with a fair amount of swing-and-miss.
What makes Bennett especially interesting is how much room there still is for the Blue Jays to sort out the rest of the profile. His defensive home is not settled yet, with catcher, first base and designated hitter all in the mix, which leaves Toronto with a pretty straightforward question: how much of his value will come from the bat alone? For now, the organization can at least feel encouraged that a late-round pick is already forcing a closer look. [Read more 🡒]