Submit your questions for my next mailbag!
PLUS: Have a listen to my recent appearance on Tall Can Audio!
Your paid support makes independent, thoughtful, grass-fed, naturally raised, free-range coverage of Toronto Blue Jays baseball possible. Thank you.
The Blue Jays have completed just over 20% of their 2025 schedule and… well… it hasn’t exactly gone great, but it hasn’t collapsed yet into disaster. Maybe that moment is coming—and maybe it’s coming soon. The club is getting set for some of that always difficult west coast baseball this week, with a trio of games in Anaheim—a trap series if there ever was one—with three against the maddeningly good Mariners looming after that.
Tough Blue Jays losses in Seattle seem practically inevitable at this point, so a rough patch against the Angels—who will be starting Yusei Kikuchi on Wednesday night!—could be the catalyst for a very bad turn of the vibes.
But we’re not there yet. We’ve also got Vlad locked up for the next decade-and-a-half. We’ve got the same record as the Rays (16-18), we’ve got the Orioles playing just as poorly as the Angels (13-20), and we’ve got the Yankees and Red Sox still far from having run away with the division. It could be a whole lot worse, in other words. Especially for a team that’s barely seen Max Scherzer and Daulton Varsho, and has seen nothing close to the best from Bo, Santander, or even Vlad himself.
So… there’s plenty to chew on when it comes to these Blue Jays right now. And that being the case—and it also being the case that we haven’t done one of these in a while—it feels like a good time to crack open the ol’ mail bag and throw things over to all of you.
Or, at least, to those of you who have been generous enough to become paid subscribers to the site. Because, as always, mail bag questions are open only to paid subscribers.
So leave me your best thoughts and questions about any and all things Jays in the comments on this post!
Hey, and if you’re struggling to come up with a topic to ask something about, maybe have a listen to my appearance on the latest episode of Tall Can Audio with my pal Matt Robinson.
You can do so in any number of ways, including at his site, or at all the usual podcasts sites, like Spotify…
…as well as Apple Podcasts, etc.
Give Matt a follow on Twitter or on Bluesky while you’re at it!
Twitter âš¾ Bluesky âš¾ Podcast âš¾ Facebook
⚾ Want to support without going through Substack? You could always send cash to stoeten@gmail.com on Paypal or via Interac e-Transfer. I assure you I won’t say no. ⚾
You may not get to write up responses before it happens, but any predictions on attendance for the Seattle series? Cutting down on cross border shopping is one thing but paying to cancel flights and hotels on top of the cost of unused tickets would be some real commitment to the US/Trump boycott.
Stoeten, I love your level headed approach to most things Jays. Can you get mad and ragey about something for a change though? Just something baseball you've always thought was kinda dumb and didn't make sense that you've avoided making a comment on for the sake of being "sensible" and having a "brain". Robot umps, benches clearing conversations that result in Brett Cecil finishing the year on the IL, extra runner, STATISTICS, low hanging fruit, whatever. Can you please get angry about a thing(s) and let us feel your frustration?