Opening Day Eve Roster Updates and Linkstravaganza!
We’ve done it! We’ve finally reached the day before Opening Day, which means that right now we are at the absolute peak of the onslaught of pre-Opening Day gimmick posts. So here’s my contribution to the madness: some thoughts and a whole bunch of links!
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Roster news
• The Jays may not be playing here on Wednesday, but that didn’t stop manager Charlie Montoyo from having a session with the media to reveal a few more details about where his club’s Opening Day roster is headed, and how the rotation is shaping up. Most significantly, he announced that outfielder George Springer (oblique strain) and left-hander Robbie Ray (bruised elbow) will both begin the season on the Injured List.
The team is right to be cautious with the pair, and the news is hardly unexpected given the reports we’ve heard throughout the week so far, but it is undoubtedly a blow to the club and to expectant fans to have neither ready for the first week or two of the season.
If that’s all the time they end up missing, I imagine we’ll look back at the end of the season and hardly remember this blip at all. Still, it’s certainly not ideal to have three of the four free agents the Jays paid the most money to this winter (Springer, Ray, and Kirby Yates) start the season on the shelf. Someone find Marcus Semien some bubble wrap, stat!
• The real tough one to swallow here is, surprisingly, the loss of Ray. That’s a testament to both how well he pitched this spring, and to how thin the Jays have become in terms of starting pitching depth at the moment.
Had everyone been healthy, Ray’s place in the rotation would have been taken by Ross Stripling, but he’s already there taking the place of Nate Pearson (and slated for the start in Saturday’s second game of the season).
Trent Thornton is healthy now, but wasn’t able to get as stretched out this spring as the Blue Jays would have liked, so doesn’t seem to be a candidate to open as a proper starter. Thomas Hatch would have been a candidate as well, but he’s currently on the shelf (though progressing better than it was first feared, fortunately). Ditto Patrick Murphy (minus the parenthetical). And Julian Merryweather could have factored in but seems in line for the same kind of hybrid role he had last year — that is, provided he’s healthy and ready to go to start the year, which remains up in the air because of back issues.
The Jays’ remaining options, then, are T.J. Zeuch and Anthony Kay. We already know that Zeuch has made the club. We also know that the left-handed Kay is probably not the ideal guy to send up against the heavily right-handed Yankees lineup. And so, according to Montoyo on Wedesday, there’s a “good chance” Zeuch gets the ball on Sunday in the Bronx. (“We’ll see,” Montoyo also said.)
If it does happen to be Zeuch, hopefully he goes out there on an incredibly short leash, with someone like Thornton rested and ready to swoop in. As cool as it is that the Jays have really liked what they’ve seen from the former first-round pick this spring, and as nice as it is for him to be in the big leagues on Opening Day, I still just don’t see how giving up a ton of contact to the Yankees lineup is going to work. Even if most of it is on the ground.
This isn’t just about Sunday’s outing, either. Though that did not exactly go swimmingly for Zeuch.
Beyond just the nine hits and five earned runs in three innings of work, Sunday saw some of the velocity gains we’ve heard about this spring disappear. Back on March 15, in his previous Grapefruit League outing, Zeuch’s sinker averaged 93.8 mph. In that outing he threw 11 of 25 sinkers at 94.0 or better, topping out at 95.9. On Sunday he topped out at just 94.0, with his average velocity slumping to 92.8.
On the 15th he managed to get opposing batters to swing and miss just four times in 41 total pitches. That's not great. However, on Sunday the numbers were even worse: just one whiff on 60 total pitches.
That’s who he is, though. And, I’m sorry, that simply is not going to work. Not over the long haul in a contending team’s rotation, at least. Maybe next Sunday can be one of the good ones for him. Hopefully it is. But the Jays need to be prepared to get creative with their bullpen just in case the inevitable happens.
• As mentioned, Ross Stripling will get the ball for the second game of the series in the Bronx, which takes place on Saturday (after Friday’s always annoying, but I suppose necessary, post-Opening Day off-day). Steven Matz is lined up to take the ball in Texas on Monday.
• As Keegan Matheson notes, there were no new updates from Montoyo on top prospect Nate Pearson, which has been the case for several days now. Not ideal.
• Montoyo told reporters on Wednesday afternoon that Riley Adams has travelled with the Jays to New York and will begin the season serving as their taxi squad catcher. He will likely be back in Buffalo eventually, however, as the Jays have added a catcher to serve that purpose.
• Indeed, it seems all but certain now that Reese McGuire is going to end up on waivers. The same goes for Breyvic Valera.
• The news about Springer’s MRI was at least good, and it’s worth noting that he’ll be eligible to come off of the IL for April 8, which is the Blue Jays’ “home” opener in Dunedin. The Jays are cautiously optimistic he’ll be able to go by then.
• This bit of speculation from Arden seems about right to me. Castro is certainly an interesting option given he’s right-handed (unlike Kay and Milone), can go multiple innings, and pitched very well throughout camp despite being thrown into a lot of different situations. But Kay makes sense too, if the Jays need innings and care a little less about handedness. Cole also has a chance if they feel they can get some length from elsewhere.
• One name you haven’t seen mentioned here yet is Francisco Liriano. That’s because the Jays granted him his unconditional release on Tuesday after determining that he would not be making the club. Tim Mayza straight up out-pitched him this spring, and it’s nice to see the team reward that even though, because Mayza had minor league options still remaining, they really didn’t have to. (It’s weird to be patting a team on the back for simply putting it’s best players on the big league roster, but here we are!)
• Montoyo said that the final roster decisions will be made following Wednesday’s workout. When the club makes an official announcement, I’ll be sure to update it here (assuming they don’t do anything so weird it requires a new post).
• While we’re here, I should also note that on Tuesday the Jays made it official that they will be staying in Dunedin until the end of May. That news was completely expected, of course. The bigger question is what happens after that: If it looks possible in two months that they could return to Toronto sooner than later, they may choose to wait it out in Dunedin until that time. If that’s not the case — and based on a quick and terrifying look at the third COVID wave that’s about to come crashing down on Ontario and our dumb-as-rocks provincial government, I wouldn’t call it likely at this point — they’re going to end up spending some time in Buffalo.
That random dude from Joe Carter’s World Series home run
Here’s a fun one. See the guy in the top image on this post? The interloper who jumped on the field after Joe Carter’s walk-off home run and went unnoticed in the pandemonium as he celebrated with the team?
Back when I was in high school, rumour had it that this guy had actually been one of our science teachers, Mr. Astrom. I don’t think I had ever had a class with him, save maybe for a couple times that he was covering for our regular teacher, or maybe I would have heard it attested to by the man himself. But as far as I knew it was just an urban legend.
I’ve obviously seen the footage in the years since, and couldn’t help but always remember the rumour whenever I did, because the guy captured on video sure did look quite a bit like him. Or, at least, what he looked like then.
Was it really him? Or was that just something people said because he looked like the guy? I honestly didn’t know for sure. But it turns out it was true!
I really want to believe he was expecting some kind of Chris Chambliss level chaos to take place and ended up out there basically all on his own. LOL.
Anyway, a neat story to begin the season with, and an answer to the decades-old question of “who the hell was that guy???”
Radio, someone still loves you
Are you ready for a year of baseball without a dedicated radio broadcast? Well noted radio-head Geddy Lee sure isn’t. A quote from the Rush singer and bassist about Sportsnet’s decision to turf their radio booth was making the rounds on Twitter here on Wednesday, though it actually came from a Globe and Mail piece that ran earlier in the month.
Some of my most memorable baseball memories were not from sitting in the stands or watching the game on the tube, but listening to the radio. Driving home from the cottage, I heard Dave Stieb’s heartbreaking first one-hitter.
There are nuances and descriptors that radio broadcasters share with their audiences that are simply not the same as a cabal of TV announcers, no matter how good they are. It’s a time-honoured craft that requires a special ability to bring to life what we at home simply cannot see. This is a bad and regrettable decision.
Well now you’ve done it, Sportsnet. You’ve upset Geddy!
The premise of the Globe’s piece was to ask several notable Jays fans about the decision. The consensus seems to be that Dan Shulman is such a top tier broadcaster that he’ll be able to make it all work, but while that’s undoubtedly true, the man himself admits that it’s not going to be perfect.
Speaking to the Athletic for a 20 Questions piece with Sean Fitz-Gerald, Shulman explained: “On radio, obviously you’re providing a lot more information more often — the score, the count, the inning, the baserunners, the outs. You need that when you’re listening on radio. On television, what we call the ‘bug’ — the scoreboard at the bottom — does that work for you. So you don’t really need to do it much at all. The second one is the whole “painting the picture” aspect of radio. There are two big differences. And as you and I speak, I have yet to do a game. So what I can say now is, I’m going to try to find the best balance I can to please both audiences. It can’t be entirely a TV call, and it can’t be entirely a radio call. It’s got to be a mix, and I want the radio listeners to know that I am going to try to keep them involved more by giving them the information they need more often than I normally would.”
A broadcaster’s job is challenging enough with just one audience in mind, so this is a big ask of Dan. It’s also an ask I’m not even sure Sportsnet is making. If the broadcasts produced this spring were any indication, Buck Martinez and Pat Tabler were not being prodded to serve radio viewers very much, if at all.
This reached the point of absurdity on Sunday, when Jays GM Ross Atkins, who had joined the booth for an inning, interrupted himself during an answer to allow Martinez to call a Tigers double. “Yeah, it's just a double down the left field line,” Martinez responded. “Zach Short, the third baseman, has made it second and third, but your information is more important than a spring training game.”
Buck’s not wrong that there’s probably no better time for a broadcaster to stop providing information than during a meaningless game when the GM is in the booth, but that was far from the only time radio listeners were left in the dark about what was happening on the field.
Thing is, I don’t think it’s fair to expect Buck and Pat, after decades of working exclusively on TV, to completely transform what they do. And even though I have no doubts that he can do it, I don’t think it should be left to Dan to have to carry all the weight for management’s poor decision here either.
I know he’ll do his best, and we’re tremendously lucky to have him, but it’s just not right.
Oh right, the Astros and Dodgers don’t like each other very much
Indulge me in just a little more media navel gazing for a moment. According to my email inbox, the Jays sent Ross Stripling out for four Zoom sessions over the course of this spring. Stripling, of course, was acquired by the club from the Dodgers last summer, and was a member L.A.’s 2017 team — the one that lost the World Series to the Houston Astros and their now infamous garbage can, and that were understandably quite upset about all that.
George Springer, you may be aware, was the MVP of that World Series. Seems like there's a story there, right?
Well, there turned out to be, but only because Stripling himself brought it up.
Here’s an exchange from Stripling’s most recent virtual scrum featuring him and my friend and former colleague, Kaitlyn McGrath of the Athletic. You can hear this at the 21 minute mark of Sunday’s edition of Blue Jays Talk on the Fan 590.
McGRATH: Hey Ross, I wanted to ask you — I've been meaning to ask you and kept forgetting — about George Springer, because I think that you maybe previously, or he previously worked out at the same facility as you in Houston. So I just wanted to ask you how you've seen him transition to the Blue Jays in camp so far.
STRIPLING: Yeah, definitely. Thought this was going to be an Astros question. We went all spring without it, and, uh anyways…
Stripling answered Kaitlyn, and only when she asked the natural follow-up about the “Astros question” did he reveal that he and Springer had indeed had a conversation about 2017.
"That was a private conversation between me and George,” he explained. “Certainly nothing we'd want to share out in the open, but it was a good, productive conversation. We put it behind us, and now we're teammates, and we're Blue Jays, and we're looking to win games here.”
That kind of drama is not really the kind of stuff I get up for, so I’m actually very OK with our excellent crew of local reporters being more focused on other things this spring, rather than trying to stir controversy. But I’m honestly kind of astonished that it took Stripling himself to bring it up.
Quickly
• David Laurila of FanGraphs has a great interview up with Blue Jays youngster Simeon Woods Richardson on a variety of topics, such as the art of pitching, making use of analytics, mound presence, falling in love with pitching, and modelling himself after Marcus Stroman and Satchel Paige. The Jays have themselves a pretty special prospect here.
• Is the Major League Baseball season about to get underway? Is your favourite team stuck playing in a minor league launching pad in Florida, then likely to follow a couple months there up with a spell at Buffalo’s launching pad? Well then you’d better get ready for some home runs, because contrary to popular belief, according to Ben Lindberg and Rob Arthur of the Ringer, Rob Manfred’s balls are still juiced.
• Not great!
• A pair this week from the great Nick Ashbourne, who looks at the Jays’ road to contention for Yahoo! Sports, and has another on the bets the Jays are making on established players bouncing back over at Sportsnet.
• Scott Mitchell of TSN goes deep on lineup construction, examining the different ways the Jays can optimize their batting order this season.
• Mark Shapiro spoke to Keegan Matheson of BlueJays.com about building a sustainable contender here in Toronto — something he’s a long way from doing yet, but a project that certainly seems to be very much headed in the right direction.
• One Jays player who doesn’t need to bounce back is Teoscar Hernández. He simply needs to keep on doing what he did in 2020, and the always excellent Rob Longley of the Toronto Sun takes a look how he’s preparing to do just that.
• Elsewhere at the Sun, in a pre-Opening Day piece, Steve Simmons continues to try desperately to will his mind’s disfigured caricatures of Mark Shapiro and Ross Atkins into existence. “It’s all led up front with a distant and distinct coldness by Mark Shapiro and Ross Atkins who, all these years later, have never grasped the history of those who came before them or any of the joy they left behind,” he says at one point, describing a Blue Jays president and GM he very obviously decided from day one he would never let into the precious club he’s laughably pronounced himself gatekeeper of. And all this after beginning the piece with a paean to Dave Winfield for playing through extreme pain in early April 1993 because evidently Opening Day is just that special and that’s what newly acquired leaders do, followed eventually, inevitably, by a casual mention of George Springer’s uncertain status. What a sad little man.
• There has been a ton of great content from the Toronto Star all spring, and it has continued here in the lead-up to Opening Day. I particularly liked Laura Armstrong’s look at the Jays’ top prospects based on how close they are to actually being able to help the club.
• Elsewhere at the Star, Gregor Chisholm has a mail bag (in which he discusses the ever-delicious David Price question), and offers some bold predictions for the season.
• It is bold prediction season all over the place, apparently, and Eno Sarris of the Athletic has one that will make Jays fans sit up and take notice. He thinks that Vladimir Guerrero Jr. will hit 30+ home runs this season. Better still, he finds a pair of very exciting comps for Vladito in 2016 Ryan Braun and 2018 Christian Yelich.
• Over at Daily Hive Toronto, Ian Hunter has even more bold predictions for us to enjoy.
• The Marlins have a new name for their ballpark, and I assure you, if you haven’t seen it already, it’s even dumber than you think.
• Shea Hillenbrand is an intense and interesting guy, and on this week’s episode of Jays podcast The Walk Off he opens up quite a bit about his tenure with the Jays in the mid-2000s which, you may recall did not go so well!
• Over at Sportsnet, Dante Bichette sat down with Jeff Blair and Kevin Barker on Wednesday’s edition of Baseball Central. It is always fascinating to hear at least one of those guys talk about hitting.
• At CBC Sports, Jesse Campigotto has a nice refresher on the team for anyone who has gotten a bit casual with their Jays fandom over the winter. And Scott Stinson does something similar over at the National Post.
• Paul Berthelot of Blue Jays Nation continues a series of pieces looking at the Jays’ ZiPS projections and considering whether to take the over or under on them.
• Lastly, I know I’ve been slow on getting a podcast going — it’s still going to happen, I assure you — but in the meantime, you can have a listen to my take on the state of the Jays and the upcoming season in a couple of places this week.
First up, on Tuesday, I spent some time looking at the league as a whole on the Lowdown with Lowetide on TSN 1260 Edmonton.
And then from here on Wednesday, you can listen to my hour-long conversation on the latest edition of Tall Can Audio.
• And that’s about it! Next stop: Opening Day!
Take a bow after the Simmons content! There is no place today for such negativity. Happy New Year!
So, regarding Arden's prediction of one of Kay, Milone, Castro or Cole making the club... *And the winner is*: Joel Payamps !! I did not see that coming.