Atkins Speaks to MLB Network!

Injury updates on Ryu, Bichette, Romano, Green, plus comments on DeJong, Davis Schneider Mania, the playoff race, and more!

I had been in the middle of working on my upcoming mail bag this afternoon, dragging my feet as usual, when this short clip of a portion of Ross Atkins’ appearance on MLB Network’s High Heat earlier today crossed my Twitter feed. Later, Sportsnet posted a different part of the interview, with even more comments from the GM. Normally I wouldn’t make a full post out of such a relatively brief amount of audio, but with the disappointment of the trade deadline now firmly in the rearview, the vibes trending in the right direction, the status of a bunch of injured players up in the air, and Davis Schneider Mania not quite yet having waned, it actually seems like a great time for a brief check-in with the Blue Jays GM.

So let’s do a quick one. It’s Ross Atkins live from his bathroom or something! You can start by checking out the clip of the second half of his chat with Alanna Rizzo below. You can see the additional footage from earlier in the chat by heading to this link at Sportsnet. Or you can jump straight to my transcriptions and comments after the bit where I ask you to consider becoming a paid subscriber if you aren’t one already…

(Clip via MLB Network/@MLBNetwork)

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On Hyun Jin Ryu…

There were good signs on Tuesday that Hyun Jin Ryu had avoided any sort of major injury after an obviously very painful incident in Monday’s game. The fact that he was able and allowed to walk off the field in Cleveland under his own power after taking a comebacker off the inside of his right knee seemed like a very good sign, as did the fact that the club called the problem a contusion, called the X-rays he was sent for “precautionary,” and had him speak with reporters afterwards.

The liner “got me on the knee and left a bruise,” Ryu told reporters such as Sportsnet's Arden Zwelling, presumably through interpreter Jun Sung Park. “I didn't hurt it running or making the play.”

Also a good sign? The Jays made some roster moves prior to Tuesday’s game, and Ryu going on the IL wasn’t one of them. Instead, Kevin Kiermaier is hitting the 10-day IL due to the laceration that required stitches when he crashed into the “cheese grater” fence back in Boston over the weekend. Nathan Lukes is up to take his spot.

But the best news of all came from Atkins’ comments.

The X-rays were negative, fortunately. But he got hit in a very sensitive area. So we really won't know until today, when he gets some weight on it again, and what that means for him. But expect it not to be too serious. Certainly hopeful that's the case.

Asked later about the club’s current six-man rotation, Atkins added more hopeful notes on Ryu.

It's an unusual stretch for us with 17 out of 17, so the six-man makes some sense. It's a way for us to hold some depth. You know, we'll see. We'll see how that goes. We're hopeful that he can make his next turn. Or, with that, maybe there's some adaptability within the rotation. Have some pitching depth right now that we feel very good about. I think there's a lot of different ways that we could go with it.

Atkins wasn’t only encouraged by the medical stuff after the game.

It looked like the Hyun Jin Ryu of old. I mean, he was masterful for those four innings. The command, it's just so special to watch how he's putting the ball exactly where he wants to put it in every pitch. You could see that momentum and confidence coming. So, unfortunate that it happened, but hopefully we're past it in the coming days.

I adore watching Ryu pitch when he’s at his best, so I’m choosing to be hopeful here. I’m not sure that a Cleveland lineup that has been as bad as any club in baseball against left-handed pitching this season is the right one to judge this kind of thing on though…

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On Jordan Romano and Chad Green…

Closer Jordan Romano is, of course, anther banged-up member of this Blue Jays team, though according to Atkins things are going well on that front too.

Great day for him [Monday]. He was pain free, didn't feel any symptoms. And a very aggressive bullpen [session]. Really encouraged by those steps. And I think, as he just gets built back up here, it will be a matter of days.

A matter of days sounds good! Especially after we all finally got the full Jordan Hicks Experience during that nervy ninth on Monday in Cleveland. Otherwise, though, the bullpen has mostly looked great lately — as Atkins correctly points out.

Our bullpen has been very effective. Looking forward to adding to the bullpen as well, with Jordan Romano and hopefully Chad Green coming. So, there's been a lot of good pitching stories over the last couple of months. Our staff's worked really hard and the players obviously deserve all of the credit. But they've really been holding up their end of their bargain, doing an incredible job of keeping us in games.

I can think of an aspect of the roster than hasn’t been holding up its end of the bargain, can you???

Anyway, MLB.com’s Keegan Matheson tweeted on Monday that “Green will throw 1-2 innings [Tuesday] in AAA Buffalo.” Atkins sounded slightly more cautious about him in the comment above, so maybe he’ll get another rehab start even if all goes well. But it feels like his arrival is probably only a matter of days away as well.

Might want to knock Hicks back a couple spots after Monday night. Woof!

On Bo Bichette…

Moving on to Bo, here’s what Atkins was saying:

Great day for him, as well, [Monday], where he was moving around with very few symptoms, if almost none at all. We're obviously going to progress him cautiously, and be careful with how we're loading that knee. But he had a really, really encouraging day, where he felt much better [Monday]. So I think we're still day-to-day as we progress out of this. But really good day for him [Monday].

Atkins almost always tilts toward positivity when it comes to his players, so we can’t exactly take any of this like we’re hearing the internal medical opinions ourselves. But it seems good, right? In baseball injury-speak day-to-day is better than week-to-week, and “almost” no symptoms sounds “almost” ideal.

Let’s not get too ahead of ourselves here though. Bo will be eligible to come off of the IL on Friday, but he’s got some tests to pass before then, meaning that a stint beyond the 10-day minimum is very much still in play.

Back on Sunday morning, Arden reported that Bo had done some throwing at Rogers Centre on Saturday and that there was "a possibility he begins hitting Sunday if the patellar tendonitis continues responding well to treatment."

However, as of Monday, Keegan explained that Bo was still not at the hitting stage yet — the activities Atkins described in the clip above were being called “strengthening exercises” — and that the hope was that he'd be ready to start in a day or two.

“Eventually,” Keegan added, “running the bases will be the big test.”

I’m certainly not going to start banging the drum for him to be rushed back — it’s important they get this right. I’m just pointing out that, great day on Monday or not, the timeline still seems a bit murky and there are some steps yet to be taken before we can start dreaming on having him back.

On Paul DeJong…

Ross was then asked what Bichette's return will mean for temporary shortstop Paul DeJong, who it was made all but clear last week had been acquired only because Bo hurt his knee on the day before the trade deadline.

He's been awesome. He really has played — he's been really steady. Obviously a very, very reliable defender. He's fit right in. Extremely professional. We feel good about him on this team, complementing us. Obviously he'll have to potentially play some different positions and be ready to go when shortstop is needed, if at all. But he's been really steady for us and glad he's a part of the team for sure.

Hitting isn't exactly DeJong's calling card, but it’s noticeable that Atkins seemed to make a point of not bringing it up. He's had a thoroughly abysmal first 23 plate appearances with the Blue Jays, managing just two singles, no walks, and eight strikeouts. Frankly, even DeJong’s typically excellent defence hasn’t really manifested itself for the Jays just yet. A 1.5 fWAR player at the time of the trade, he's now down to 1.0 on the season.

Obviously that’s not what you want out of a guy who is ideally only here to help for a couple of weeks, and is going to be rooted to the bench most of the time once Bichette returns. But it is what it is. Despite having enough name recognition to get asked about in a national interview, DeJong is more of a backup player at this point in his career.

Sure, a good glove and an almost league average bat is nothing to scoff at. But the ideas I’ve seen people kicking around about working DeJong into the lineup a bunch after Bo comes back seemed fanciful even before he stumbled a bit out of the gate. According to Derrick Goold of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, as part of the trade the Cardinals agreed to pay for half of DeJong’s remaining 2023 salary and the option buyouts in his contract. I’m not saying he can’t very quickly turn things around somewhat — we’re talking about a scant number of plate appearances so far — just… maybe… don’t get too used to his presence.

On potentially making the playoffs…

I think it's day at a time. We're focussed on what we can control each day. Thinking about putting our best team out there and our best efforts, and they've done a really, really good job.

Let me stop right here and say that I feel like some fans, after seeing the lineup on Tuesday, may have some question about that “putting our best team out there” bit. *COUGH*

Atkins continued…

We had a tough start to our season, with the schedule. Not just the competition we were playing, but how much travel we had early. And I think now, with our schedule having a lot of home games towards the end, hopefully we'll benefit from.

But I feel so good about this team. There's been some really good stories recently, obviously with Davis Schneider coming in and giving us a bit of a spark. But George and Vladdy look good. I can't wait to get Bo back into that lineup. So many good things happening around how consistent Matt Chapman and Whit Merrifield have been for us. Alejandro Kirk, he's looking like Alejandro Kirk that can do some damage. It's an exciting team that I feel like has a really good chance to get hot and have a good run.

Again, the GM is obviously not going to run down his team. Nor should he! But there's some interesting stuff going on here, I think.

• Springer and Vlad look good? George has had some nice games after that awful hitless streak, and his recent four games in a row with a walk was the longest such stretch of his season, which hopefully indicates he's finally getting back on track, but we're still talking about a guy with a wRC+ that's not yet back over 100. And Vlad? He could start looking like the player we all expect him to be tomorrow and it wouldn't surprise me, but until then he's the number 12 first baseman in MLB by wRC+ this year. You don't need to mention these guys, Ross. You certainly didn't mention Varsho!

• Merrifield has absolutely been consistent, and continues to be a nice surprise after spending the previous two years with a wRC+ below 90. Chapman, though? While a consistent defender he has hardly been consistent at the plate. His wRC+ marks by month this year have been: 216, 63, 75, 150, and he's now at 80 through the first week or so of August. He's also one of the club's worst culprits in terms of the RISP thing. Chapman has had the most RISP plate appearances on the team, but has produced just an 87 wRC+ in such situations, compared to a 137 mark with the bases empty. These numbers were reversed last year (121 with RISP, 105 with the bases empty) so it's not like this is some terminally un-clutch player. He's a very good player! Consistent though? Man, he's been so frustrating.

• Kirk on the other hand, who has slashed .353/.450/.569 over 60 plate appearances since the All-Star break, I will give you. More of this please, Alejandro!

On Davis Schneider...

He's one of the most well-liked players in our organization. There's so many good stories around the organization, when he got his debut, people were watching his first at-bat on cell phones throughout our entire affiliate system. He's a great story, not only for obviously Davis and his family, but he's an incredible story for the Blue Jays' development, performance system, and scouting efforts that have occurred. Because it's an unusual one, such a late drafted high school pick that was somewhat undersized, and just kept getting stronger, kept getting stronger every year. And every year was opening up more and more eyes. We were talking a lot about him in spring training, about what an incredible story he's been for us, because of the power of resources and leaning into them, and what he was able to do to maximize his potential. And the year he's had in Triple-A is undeniable. The best decisions that you make are the ones that the players make for you, and he just forced himself into the mix and obviously had some really good success early on.

Just before I published this post the Blue Jays announced their lineup for Tuesday’s game in Cleveland, and for the first time since Schneider debuted with a home run back on Friday in Boston, he'll be starting this one from the bench. An 0-for-4 with a pair of strikeouts on Monday took his slash line down to a paltry .529/.579/.882 (307 wRC+), so it's a bit difficult to understand the move in the sense of how desperate this team ought to be to ride some hot hands. But with respect to all the attention and the whirlwind start to his big league career, I do sort of get it.

Schneider's debut has been one of the stories of the year for the Blue Jays. Maybe even in all of baseball, when you consider how little-regarded this player was when entering pro ball, how he's had to keep improving and keep performing just to even get a look at higher levels, and how difficult and rare a path it is for a player to take just to even get to the show, let alone get there and have a record-breaking debut. Jays fans in Cleveland on Monday were wearing fake moustaches! For a rookie with three games under his belt! For a player who toiled mostly in anonymity for six minor league seasons after being picked in a round — the 28th — that doesn't even exist in the draft anymore! And then there was the whole glove thing. All of this stuff all at once just... doesn't happen. And while I know we all know this, it's worth taking a step back and appreciating it as much as we can before we even think about starting to worry what comes next.

Schneider slashed just .233/.350/.376 in Rookie ball in Bluefield back in 2019, certainly didn't end up at the Blue Jays' alternate site in Rochester when the minor league season was cancelled in 2020, and basically hasn't stopped hitting since. Nine homers and an .812 OPS across two levels in 2021. Sixteen homers and an .823 OPS across three levels in 2022. Twenty-one homers and a .969 OPS in Triple-A in 2023 and an utterly explosive MLB debut.

There will be plenty of time in the future to discuss flaws and questions and concerns about where he fits this roster. For now, this just rips. Great story indeed.

Quickly…

• Relax, perhaps he’ll bring some pinch hit magic in a big spot tonight.

• Worth a look if you don’t want to just bask in what Schneider has done so far is this piece from my Blue Jays Happy Hour cohost Nick Ashbourne, as he takes a deep dive into some numbers for Yahoo Sports, and finds “a guy who compensates for mediocrity in pure ball-striking by regularly getting his barrel on the ball with solid juice and a launch angle likely to yield strong results.”

• You think the Jays have been hit hard by injuries? Here on Tuesday, Rays manager Kevin Cash announced that surgery was a possibility for one of his top arms. It is "highly unlikely" that All-Star starter Shane McClanahan will pitch again this season, he says. The Jays, who hold the third spot, currently trail the Rays by four games in the AL wild card race.

• There’s less-than-great injury news elsewhere in the Jays organization though, as Sportsnet’s Shi Davidi reports, as part of an excellent look around the farm, that 2022’s top draft pick Brandon Barriera has been once again shut down with biceps soreness. Ugh.

• Speaking of prospects, on Monday Matt Trueblood tweeted something worth considering before you start demanding to see more of those high-flying Buffalo bats in the coming weeks: “The International League, *as a league*, is hitting .263./.358/.443. The *league’s* walk rate is 11.8%. The robot strike zone is a postage stamp. Please, please account for this when calling for (say) Keston Hiura to come up because he has a .900 OPS.”

• Lastly, the Pirates claimed Thomas Hatch on waivers from the Jays over the weekend. We’ll always have 2020, I guess. Rebuilding is dumb.

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