Toronto finally gets to watch the masterful Ryu (Plus: Monday's loss, Biggio to the IL, links, and more!)
The Blue Jays continue to play actual games of major league baseball in Toronto. So let’s talk about it!
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The Jays have split their first two games of a four-game set with Cleveland. Time for a little three up, three down…
Monday (Jays 2 - Cleveland 5)
Not ideal!
▲ Vladimir Guerrero Jr.
There weren’t a ton of Jays highlights in this one, but Vladimir Guerrero Jr. hitting his first home run at Rogers Centre since August 16, 2019, was absolutely one of them.
An absolute bullet off the bat at 115.7 mph, it was a game-tying home run that sure felt like it mattered at the time.
Vlad now has 58 home runs in his career. Remarkably, this was only the sixth one he’s ever hit in Toronto.
▲ The 7th, 8th, and 9th inning
The Jays needed three innings from their bullpen to get from Robbie Ray to the end of the ninth — a scary premise lately. And while the bullpen did ultimately falter (and we'll get to that), the Jays got exactly what they needed out of Adam Cimber, Joakim Soria, and Jordan Romano, with a hit off Cimber and a walk from Romano the only blemishes.
I could get used to this.
▲ Not using Cleveland’s soon-to-be former team name
The Jays haven’t hosted Cleveland since July of 2019 and I honestly don’t remember if they were doing this then or not, but either way, good on them. (Though, as many people noted when I retweeted that, the change has very much not extended to the TV booth.)
Of course, one wonders whether the team will still be nameless by the time the Jays face them next season, given the extremely funny trademark dispute that has arisen between the Cleveland club and a roller derby team that was already using their announced name, the Cleveland Guardians.
▼ Brad Hand
I’m not about to already declare the Jays’ trade for Brad Hand last week a bad one. Frankly, I don’t think any trade where all you give up is Riley Adams could be bad. But the Jays’ newest lefty has made it clear he needs to be moved back in the bullpen pecking order. Hand rebounded nicely from a rough May — in which opposing batters slashed .308/.386/.564 against him — with a nice June and early July. Of late, however, he's been getting hit and giving up runs — 12 of them (nine earned) in his last eight appearances.
In the tenth inning on Monday he certainly wasn’t helped by Alejandro Kirk’s inability to get down to block his first pitch to Amed Rosario, which allowed the speedy Myles Straw to move up to third base…
…but Kirk can’t be blamed for Rosario then cashing Straw on a single smashed through the drawn-in infield, or for future Blue Jays José Ramirez crushing a pitch at the top of the zone for a pair of insurance runs.
Kirk also can’t be blamed for, uh, this.
The Jays don’t need to do anything drastic here, just dial back the leverage until he earns back some trust.
▼ Robbie Ray
This is the mildest of down arrows, because Robbie Ray has been excellent all year and was far from awful on Monday, he was just fighting it a bit. He walked a few too many (three in total) and couldn't muster the strikeouts he usually does, picking up four in six innings of work (compared to an average on the season of more than 11 per nine innings). Two runs over six innings is hardly a line to be admonished for, but he just didn’t seem quite as sharp as we’ve seen him.
They still should have found a way to get him the win, though.
▼ Not torching a pitcher who came into the game with a 7.47 ERA
I'm not big on absolutes in baseball, as in saying "you have to win this game" or "that just can't happen." Weird stuff happens! Teams recover from it! And yet with that said, getting a chance to face a homer-prone rookie with a bloated ERA is exactly the kind of thing a team that has ground to make up in the playoff race needs to take advantage of. Instead, the Jays were eaten up by Eli Morgan to the tune of nine strikeouts over six innings with just five hits and a walk to their credit. This guy had 22 strikeouts and 11 walks in his 21 2/3 innings at Triple-A earlier this season, so I don't even know what's up with his big strikeout totals in the majors. Whatever it is, the Jays could have done themselves a real favour by doing what every other team has managed to do against him this year.
Tuesday (Jays 7 - Cleveland 2)
Not going to give out a down arrow for this one. Here’s six up!
▲ Hyun Jin Ryu
Hyun Jin Ryu finally made his Rogers Centre debut, and while it wasn’t quite a perfect outing, it was certainly a great one. Two runs over seven innings on seven hits with eight strikeouts and no walks? Yeah, that’ll do.
Truthfully, though, it was even better than that makes it sound.
Better still, Ryu managed to not have his head taken off by a Brian Bradley comebacker in the sixth.
▲ George Springer
George Springer plays for the Toronto Blue Jays.
A lead-off homer. A double to lead off the fifth and a run scored. A sac fly in the sixth. Springer is up to a 160 wRC+ over 159 plate appearances. Coming into Tuesday's action only five hitters (min. 150 PA) have been better: Buster Posey (162), Max Muncy (162), Fernando Tatís Jr. (166), Shohei Ohtani (172), and Vladimir Guerrero Jr. (188). Ho hum.
▲ Teoscar Hernández
I wrote Springer's name first, but Teoscar's day was even better. Three-for-three with a two run homer, a third RBI, and a pair of runs scored. It was a good day at the office, but especially good was that first inning home run — which came with two outs, Bo Bichette on base, and the Jays already leading 1-0. It was a game-changing blast after and eight-pitch battle that featured Teoscar falling behind 0-2, laying off a couple of sliders he would never have laid off in years past, and fouling off three before turning around a 93 mph fastball from Zach Plesac.
▲ BUNT DOUBLE!
It wasn’t long ago that I didn’t think Reese McGuire would be on this team much longer. Credit where it’s due. He had another nice game tonight, with a pair of hits, including this extremely fun one that led to the Blue Jays’ seventh run of the night.
When asked about his club’s catching situation coming out of the trade deadline, GM Ross Atkins saved most of his praise for McGuire.
He's really been exceptional. He's done a great job with our pitching staff, he has had incredible at-bats. Obviously had really good results, but I think even more encouraging on Reese is to see the pitches he's not swinging at and the way that he's working the count, thinking about using the whole field, and thinking about opportunities that could present themselves offensively.
I think this counts!
▲ Rafael Dolis
I don’t want to go too heavily into pumping Dolis’s tires here, because we’ve all seen it go sideways on him plenty of times. But every time he’s pitched lately, Buck and Pat have been keen to note the fact that he spent a good part of the season pitching without feeling in his fingers. The implication hasn’t just been that this clearly affected his performance, but that he stepped up for the team when their bullpen was desperate and tried to pitch his way through an injury for them. It’s every hockey man’s favourite story! And yet Dolis is still the guy the fans want to see designated for assignment, it seems. I think he’s pretty good when he’s actually healthy, and he showed again why on Tuesday by picking up a couple of strikeouts over the course of a 1-2-3 eighth inning.
Time to up the leverage, I think. Though clearly there will continue to be detractors.
▲ Back in the win column
The Jays themselves can only control what's in front of them, but for fans it's fully scoreboard watching season. The Yankees and the Mariners also won their games tonight, so the Jays at least kept pace. The Red Sox and the Rays lost theirs, and as I write this the A's are in a big hole to the Padres. There could be worse outcomes for the Jays tonight. Now they need to go out and win again tomorrow. In that one they’re scheduled to face J.C. Mejia, who sports a 7.60 ERA over 45 IP this season so far. It’s all there for the taking.
Roster moves!
The Jays made a pair of interesting moves prior to Tuesday’s game, one good, the other a bit more unfortunate. We’ll go with the bad one first, as the club announced that centre fielder Jonathan Davis, a font of positivity who was designated for assignment following the trade deadline, did not pass through waivers and will therefore be leaving the organization. His destination? The New York Yankees.
There’s a chance that Davis will get a chance to play some with the Yankees, as they’re currently going with Brett Gardner (who turns 38 this month and is sporting an 80 wRC+) and Greg Allen in centre. Whether Davis will hit enough — and get enough of a chance to show what he can do — to ultimately take Allen’s place and hold off lower-end prospect Estevan Florial (who was demoted when Joey Gallo was added last week) remains to be seen. Both Allen and Florial have hit unexpectedly well in limited time in big leagues so far this year, and Davis generally hasn’t, but there’s at least more of an opportunity there than in the Jays’ crowded outfield.
It’ll be hard not to pull for him. Though, to be completely honest, the fact that he’ll be wearing pinstripes will make it significantly easier not to.
The second move that the Jays announced on Friday was the activation of Corey Dickerson from the injured list. The surprise reciprocal move there was Cavan Biggio being sent to the IL himself due to some neck and back trouble.
Biggio has had a confounding season, struggling early on (potentially due to a hand injury), busting out with a 159 wRC+ in June, then going into the absolute toilet since. He's slashed just .159/.225/.238 over 71 plate appearances since Canada Day (26 wRC+). His exit velocity has been below even his typically modest rate, too.
It’s certainly tempting to wonder if maybe the injury is what has brought his numbers crashing down, but while I certainly wouldn’t rule that out entirely, I’m not so sure. Biggio’s one elite skill has eluded him over this slump, as he has just an 8.5% walk rate since the start of July, compared to a career rate is 15.1%. He has also, as you can see from the fastball heat maps below (April through June on the left, July and August on the right), has been pitched to differently over this same span.
I know, I know, tales of Biggio’s demise have been written before, and he’s bounced back. He’s only like five weeks removed from a 159 wRC+ month, so there’s no need to go nuts here. But it’s hard to know what to do with him going forward — and I don’t think it’s trying to keep him as an everyday player. At least not with the Blue Jays.
Not a great sign when the fan base is relieved to see Dickerson assume the role of the lineup’s main left-handed hitter. (Dickerson has a 101 wRC+ against right-handed pitching since the start of 2020! Though worth noting that from 2017 to 2019 that number 120.)
Links!
• Eric Longenhagen of FanGraphs has ranked the prospects that were traded at this year’s deadline, and in the spirit of finding fault with guys the second they’re out the door, I feel a duty to point out that he has Austin Martin ranked fifth — behind Simeon Woods Richardson, even. “Martin is an on-base machine with contact skills,” he writes, “but questions about his power and defensive home persist.”
• Sticking with Martin, Ken Rosenthal of the Athletic writes that the Twins view Martin as a centre fielder, but “have told Martin they have a plan to build his arm strength, and they do not rule out eventually returning him to the infield.”
• More prospect stuff: the red hot Orelvis Martinez has finally been promoted to High-A Vancouver. It’s gone well so far. He’s got a home run in his first game at the level. That makes 11 homers in 19 games for the 19-year-old.
• People love Home Plate Lady — and why wouldn’t they?
• “The MLB Draft is an unnecessary relic of the past,” writes Marc Normandin of Baseball Prospectus. He’s right.
• Minor move alert!
• Speaking of minor deals, it was a terrible outcome for John Axford on Monday, who made his debut with the Milwaukee Brewers after being acquired in trade from a Jays organization that deemed him surplus to requirements. “Manager Craig Counsell said Axford experienced pain in the back of his right elbow while throwing the final handful of his 22 pitches and would undergo an MRI scan on Tuesday morning,” MLB.com’s Adam McCalvy reports. Fingers crossed that it isn’t as bad as it sounds and that his nice little comeback story can continue.
• Speaking of comebacks, José Bautista everybody!
• Lastly, do yourself a favour and give this behind the scenes video of the Jays’ return to Toronto 20 minutes of your time.
Top image screengrab and GIFs via MLB.tv/Sportsnet
I really want the Jays to do more behind the scenes video. Essentially their own version of the Raptors Open Gym. Make it happen Stoeten!