Weekend thoughts, Tuesday's win, suspensions, acquisitions, Springer returns, Pearson hurt, Atkins speaks!
The Blue Jays averted disaster in Baltimore over the weekend and are maybe, hopefully, finally starting to pick up some steam again. So let’s talk about it!
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Friday
A series-opening loss to the Orioles after being swept by the Yankees during the week was not what the Jays or their fans were hoping for. There’s not much to say about this one, and none of it good, so here’s a twist on my usual three up, three down format. Time for three down…
▼ Four hits in Baltimore
Baseball is hardly a sport that’s unaffected by emotion, but it’s unlike most other sports in that you can’t physically dominate your opponent. You can’t just want it more and make wins happen through sheer determination. It requires execution, and often a bit of luck. The bat has to strike the ball just so, and sometimes, for whatever reason, it doesn’t work out that way.
The Jays have a more talented roster than the Orioles, and certainly — even without Teoscar Hernández, who was on the paternity list for this one — should have had no trouble with O’s starter Thomas Eshelman, who took the ball in the majors for the first time this season on Friday while sporting a 6.41 ERA in Triple-A. But a 95-win team loses more than 40% of its games, and while I’m certainly not saying that’s what these Jays are, the reality was that they came out flat. It happens. It just feels considerably more disastrous when it happens after the kind of week the Blue Jays had just had.
Credit to Eshelman, I guess.
▼ Patrick Murphy
I don’t want to pick on Patrick Murphy here too much, because it’s great to see him back and healthy again, and I think he genuinely can be a very good bullpen option for these Jays. His stuff — a 97 mph sinker and a good curveball — should definitely work. But it didn’t on this day — at least not in Baltimore’s five-run eighth, which Murphy began after having faced the final three Orioles batters of the seventh.
In an ideal world a healthy Murphy would start pitching well enough to make his way up the bullpen pecking order. That could still happen, but this was a setback.
▼ No, seriously, they only got four hits
And one of them was in the ninth, after the Orioles had taken a 7-1 lead!
Woof.
Saturday
This one almost turned as disastrous the Jays’ five previous games. Fortunately, somehow, the Jays managed to pull it out with a huge rally in the ninth. Could this be the moment where the Jays’ season turned itself back around? Let’s fucking hope so. Let’s also not dwell on the negative. Here’s six up!
▲ Saving Alek Manoah from himself
The “bench-clearing incident” in the fourth inning, which I’m sure as hell not going to describe as a “brawl,” was dumb and unnecessary. So, too, was the ejection of Jays starter Alek Manoah.
Manoah has hit six batters in eight starts between Triple-A and the majors this season. He has been especially prone to missing his spot to the arm side — though, admittedly, not usually by nearly as much as he did on the pitch that hit Maikel Franco. He doesn’t need a reason to hit a guy, and I don’t think he would intentionally do so in order to prolong the misery of what had already been a miserable inning for him. But evidently the umpires, and the Orioles, disagreed. (And the league, too! More on that below!)
So why does this get an up arrow? Well, for one, the conceit of this section was to give six up arrows, so I had to shoehorn something about Manoah into here somehow. For two, losing your starting pitcher is obviously never good, particularly when you have a bullpen that’s been as awful as the Jays’ has been lately, but Manoah had already given up five runs on the day by that point, and was in the middle of unravelling pretty good. The ejection allowed Anthony Kay, who was already loosening up anyway, to take his time getting ready, and for a couple innings he was a reasonable solution.
▲ Freddy Galvis’s dad
OK, so you probably disagree that Manoah getting tossed was somehow a good thing. That’s fair! But I think we can all agree that at least one good thing came out of the “bench-clearing incident.”
▲ Marcus Semien
Though Semien wasn’t one of the major heroes of the ninth inning rally — he picked up an RBI with a bases loaded walk on six pitches, four of which were not particularly close to the zone — his contributions on the day as a whole can’t be overlooked. Two hits, both home runs, and the walk. Three runs scored, three RBIs.
Semien hasn't been nearly as good in June as he was in his 204 wRC+ May, but this game pushed his wRC+ for the month from 99 to 127 (though his 0-for-6 on Sunday dropped it back down to 109). The calls for the Blue Jays to extend him have died down a little bit, but he’s still on a pace for an fWAR above 6.0 (he’s at exactly 3.0 after 70 games), and is a big part of the reason to believe these Jays still have a huge rally in them at some point.
▲ Bo and Vlad in the ninth
Speaking of guys on pace to have great seasons according to fWAR:
What might be the most amazing thing about Bichette’s season is that it still feels like he’s only scratching the surface of his talent in a lot of ways. He’s been… fine. But he seems to be capable of better — and we’re seeing it at the moment. So far in June, Bichette’s strikeout rate is just 16.5%, which is down from 23.8% in May and 27.9% in April. His defence is improving. It's stopped feeling like he's immediately in a hole every time he comes to the plate. And he's just 23 years old.
There may have been a bit of luck involved in Bo’s ninth inning bloop single on Saturday, but he earned every ounce of it by fouling off seven pitches in an epic nine-pitch at-bat.
Vladdy only needed one pitch to do his thing.
▲ Jordan Romano
Big shouts to Romano, who went two innings to pick up the win. He didn’t make it entirely easy on himself, allowing a pair of singles to lead off the eighth, and a walk to start the ninth, but those were six huge outs, not only in just the game, but in the Jays’ season.
▲ Not losing two to the goddamn Orioles
Crisis averted! (Barely.)
Sunday
The Orioles made things a little too close for comfort at the end of this one, but the Jays never felt like they were going to lose — not even after they fell behind in the first. Here’s a regular old three up, three down…
▲ Hyun Jin Ryu
Everything positive that happens against the Orioles needs to be taken with a grain of salt, and it's worth noting that Ryu only struck out four batters on the day, but he also allowed just three hits, one walk, and one run over seven innings of work. A strong bounce-back start for a guy who had allowed 12 earned runs over his previous 17 2/3 innings and had uncharacteristically issued four walks in his previous start.
▲ Reese McGuire’s four hits (three doubles!)
Don't look now, but after two more hits on Tuesday, McGuire has got a pretty decent .290/.338/.435 line, albeit in just 75 plate appearances. The Jays' catcher of the future is in Double-A right now, but maybe not for a whole lot longer, so anyone who can get on a bit of a heater can be very useful to them. I can’t believe I’m saying this, because I still don’t believe in his bat, but you need to give McGuire more of a shot here, maybe even once Jansen gets healthy.
▲ Vlad’s the Gold Glove candidate?
“I felt like the reason we won today was because of how Ryu pitched, how Vladdy played at first base with those tough picks, and the way Espinal played at third base,” said manager Charlie Montoyo after the win. “He saved a lot of runs and the plays he made allowed Ryu to pitch into the seventh inning.”
He’s not wrong, though personally I might have suggested that Vlad’s contribution was equally important. You can’t be a third baseman for as long as Vlad was without having good hands, but some of the plays Vlad has been making this year at first have been way beyond anything I would have expected. I don’t really think he’s in the Gold Glove conversation — he’s in the middle of the pack by all the public metrics — but it’s impressive that I can even write those words and not be joking. He made me regret some of those words in the seventh inning on Tuesday night, but still! He’s come a long way in a pretty short time. Credit to the Vlad, and to the coaching staff for helping him get there.
▼ Trent Thornton
Yeahhhhhhhh, I’m still not convinced that Thornton is a reliever.
▼ Tyler Chatwood
This one isn’t so much a down arrow for his performance, but for the dread he caused when he started his outing by issuing a four-pitch walk to Anthony Santander. There was definitely a bit of “here we go again” at that point, even with the Jays holding a three-run lead. From there, though, Chatwood get the job done, retiring three Orioles in quick succession by working up in the zone and consistently catching the edge of it. Encouraging stuff. Eventually.
▼ Leaving Baltimore
Obviously the series could have gone very differently, but it was a positive few days for the the Jays, especially after the week they’d been through. I think it would have been nice to stick around and play the Orioles a few more times. Of course, the Jays will host them in Buffalo for four more games starting on Thursday, then they return to Baltimore on July 6th.
Tuesday
A very good win for the Blue Jays over the Marlins in the kind of game they’ve found extremely difficult to pull out in recent weeks. Let’s play one more game of three up, three down…
▲ Ross Stripling
Is Ross just on a break from being awful, or is this new version of Stripling for real? My suspicion remains that the league will probably eventually adjust to the recent adjustments he's made, at least a little bit, but for as long as this is going to last I will obviously take it. Stripling has been sublime of late, allowing just eight earned runs over four starts (29 1/3 innings) coming into this one, and kept the magic going on Tuesday night. Six innings pitched, one run, seven strikeouts, one walk, and just two hits. He wasn’t quite as efficient as his counterpart on the Marlins, Sandy Alcántara, but he went toe-to-toe for a long spell against an excellent starter.
▲ The Bullpen (and Reese McGuire’s arm!)
Tyler Chatwood took another good step toward becoming a guy the Jays can trust again, and even managed to get four outs in his inning, thanks to a weird Vladimir Guerrero Jr. error on a routine throw. Tim Mayza wobbled badly in mid-May, allowing 12 earned runs over seven appearances from the seventh to the 24th. Since then he's allowed just two runs (one earned) in ten outings. He's consistently, and correctly, been moving up the bullpen pecking order and showed why on Tuesday, recording three quick outs, including a pair of Ks (which haven't been his calling card so much of late).
Then there was Romano — and McGuire. An lead-off infield hit to Starling Marte felt very threatening, and clearly the Marlins had read the scouting report on Romano, who has tended to pay little attention to opposing baserunners. Marte went on the first pitch, and McGuire came up huge.
Romano took it from there, firing fastballs (including one that hit 100) to retire the final two batters and close out a really nice win for the Jays.
▲ George Springer
It was a fairly uneventful game for the Jays’ $150 million man, who was 0-for-4 with a pair of strikeouts in an unfamiliar spot in the lineup, but it was great to see George Springer back and healthy and playing centre field.
▼ Sandy Alcántara
There was nothing wrong with Alcántara’s performance, he just did it for the wrong team. The Marlins’ starter gave his team and incredibly efficient eight innings of one-run ball, exiting the game with just 86 pitches thrown. Probably should have left him in longer, Don!
▼ loanDepot Park
Lifeless, cavernous, and characterless — especially now that they’ve removed the wacky home run statue. I’ve attended enough baseball games in a tomb in my day to know one when I see one. Hard pass on loanDepot Park, and don’t even get me started about the lower case “L”.
▼ Spin watch!
Major League Baseball spent a good portion of Tuesday night embarrassing itself, with the league’s new crackdown on pitchers using illegal substances for grip beginning in full force. Former Cy Young winner, and future Blue Jay, Max Scherzer threatened to take his pants off on the field when he was checked by umpires for a fourth time, while the A’s Sergio Romo did take his pants down in exasperation. The Jays-Marlins game was not quite so eventful — or comical — but it’s clear that the league is serious about getting this stuff out of the game, consequences be damned.
Consequences like people rushing to Baseball Savant to suss out who had previously been “cheating” based on declining spin rates. And like players who were only doing what everyone else was doing — and that their teams, in many cases, likely encouraged, and certainly tacitly accepted — being hung out to dry in this mess.
Ross Stripling addressed the issue in his post-game Zoom session with reporters, admitting he has "made adjustments," but calling it "not a big change" and something he's not worried about going forward. Nor should he be! Stripling's fastball spin rate was actually up from his average for the year. His other pitches were either up or very minimally down.
Tim Mayza's rates were up across the board, while Tyler Chatwood's and Jordan Romano's were, um, not. Which is about all I want to say about this unseemly business. We have really precise, granular data on this stuff, which I suppose makes it different than 10 or 15 years ago when people would be trying to find indicators that a player was taking steroids in his numbers, but it sometimes doesn't feel all that far off from it!
Suspensions?!
Before Tuesday’s game it was announced that league has suspended Saturday’s starter, Alek Manoah, five games for “intentionally” throwing at Maikel Franco. Manager Charlie Montoyo was also handed a one-game suspension, which he served on Tuesday. Manoah has appealed his suspension.
So here’s the thing. Truthfully, I’d be entirely fine with stricter punishments for hitting batters, intentional or not, if it means helping to cut down on the stupid bean ball wars that games sometimes devolve into. Two bases for a hit-by-pitch? Let’s get weird. Treat a hit-by-pitch in a situation like this more like a high stick in hockey, where intent doesn’t matter, the pitcher just gets tossed? Sign me up. However, that’s not the world we live in. MLB is still out here trying to divine what a pitcher’s intent was, and in this case most likely getting it wrong.
As I said above, Manoah doesn’t need a reason to hit a batter. It happens to him quite a lot. And though the sinker to Franco, which I think I’ve rather elegantly highlighted below, stands out from his main cluster of them, there are plenty of sliders and four-seamers that he’s missed with just about as badly.
The timing of the slip was awfully suspicious, but you don’t have to watch Manoah for long before you see how often balls can get away from him. Plus, as I also said above, I’m not sure that was the moment he was going to add to his own misery.
Was getting ejected from the game not enough?
Transactions!
The Jays have made two small transactions involving relievers in recent days, one in which they actually gave up an asset to get a guy who was about to lose his spot on the Mets’ to former Blue Jay Sean Reid-Foley, and another that cost them nothing but gives another shot at the big leagues to an extremely likeable Canadian reliever. Guess which one some fans are mad about?
Now, don’t get me wrong, it’s a tiny number of very confused fans who have a problem with the Jays signing John Axford to a minor league contract. But even just one would still be incredibly weird. The Jays inked a no-risk deal with a pitcher who has some very good big league seasons on his resumé, experience as a closer, and was reportedly sitting 95-98 when pitching for Canada in the Olympic qualifiers just a few weeks ago. Signing him is not The Big Plan To Fix The Bullpen. He’s not being handed a job — he might not ever even crack the 40-man. They’re going to get him into some minor league games and see if he looks like he can help. Fans were happy to see the club give a shot to a Canadian guy who is extremely easy to cheer for, but no one — literally no one — is under any illusions as to what this move is, least of all the Jays.
The deal that caused less of a stir was the more significant one: the acquisition of right-hander Jacob Barnes from the Mets. Obviously “significant” is a relative term here. Barnes throws a fastball at 94-95 and a cutter in the upper 80s, occasionally mixing in a changeup. He's allowed six home runs in just 18 2/3 innings this season, which is obviously a problem, but gets some swing-and-miss, generates some ground balls, and (at least in the last two years) avoids giving up walks. It's hardly the sexiest profile, but Barnes was pretty good last season for the Angels — his 5.50 ERA belied the fact that he struck out 24 in 18 innings while walking just four and allowing only one home run, leading to a tidy 2.25 FIP — and it's not like the Jays have a bunch of world beaters down there at the moment.
Again, this isn’t The Fix For The Bullpen. But the cost was minimal — going the other way was 24-year-old right-hander Troy Miller, who had moved up from Single- to Double-A earlier this season, and in 20 innings over four appearances for New Hampshire had allowed 16 runs on 24 hits and 7 walks with 16 strikeouts — and if he can get back to where he was last season he may prove useful.
And if not? Barnes is out of options, so might not stick around very long. That the Jays would pay a price, even a small one, for a guy like that speaks a little bit to the urgency they’re feeling, I think. Of course, we’d all very much like to see them do more. And soon.
Pearson’s groin flares up again
The Jays announced on Tuesday afternoon that top prospect Nate Pearson, currently in Triple-A with Buffalo/Trenton, has landed on the minor league injured because of a right groin issue. That’s the same problem the flamethrower dealt with in early March, and then reaggravated a couple weeks later. A problem, Pearson and the Jays had hoped, was going to become a thing of the past.
“If there’s room for optimism in Pearson’s unfortunate situation,” wrote Sportsnet’s Arden Zwelling back in May, “it’s that the re-aggravation of his groin injury showed him he needed to change something in his mechanics. There had to be a reason it kept happening. So, off to the video room he went, slowing down his delivery frame by frame with Blue Jays developers, searching for clues in how he transitioned from one stage of his throwing motion to the next.”
Pearson spoke then about making subtle changes “to be more whippy and less violent finishing the delivery.”
An entirely reasonable idea, but one that’s also an admission that Pearson’s recurring injuries weren’t mere flukes, and that there are very real concerns about his body’s ability to withstand the rigors of a big league starter’s workload. Clearly those concerns were not unfounded.
So what does this mean? Well, I certainly don’t think it means the end of Pearson as a starter, but it’s maybe another quarter step in that direction. Or at least another reason to have doubts that he’ll ever get there. The Jays surely will do their damnedest to avoid that outcome — don’t forget, they were ready to stretch Julian Merryweather out as a starter this spring before he was once again beset by injuries — but with each successive injury the idea that Pearson may not become everything that Jays fans are hoping for becomes less shocking. It also wipes out another big chunk of another really important development season for him. It’s not great!
It’s also not the end of the world. The list of guys who appeared especially injury prone before going on to successful and mostly healthy big league careers isn’t long, but it’s not nonexistent. Patience and maybe some changes to his offseason training regimen could potentially go a long way. Come back next spring with some of that Aaron Sanchez “man ass,” Nate! Until then, a potential positive is that it maybe opens up a path to get him into the Jays’ big league bullpen once he’s healthy again. The Jays were in something of an awkward spot with Pearson before this latest setback, as there really isn’t room for him in their rotation at the moment. I have no idea how long he’s expected to be out, but if it’s something like a month or more, by the time he’s back there isn’t going to be a whole lot of minor league season left. Maybe you just let him loose in the big league bullpen and go back to the drawing board next season. I don’t know! Oof.
Atkins Speaks!
GM Ross Atkins had a long Zoom session with reporters back on Sunday. Here are some of the highlights.
• On fixing the bullpen
Obviously the big question hanging over the team — especially a couple days ago — was the bullpen and what on earth the Jays are going to do to prevent the problems there from killing their season. Atkins acknowledged that it’s “definitely is something that we're focused on,” though he also said that’s been the case for a long time, using his usual line about “constantly thinking about how we can make this organization better.”
The general rule is that trade talk doesn’t seem to heat up until after the draft — which usually takes place in early June. He was asked whether, with this year’s draft pushed back (it will take place July 11-13), the trade talks have also been pushed back.
It's interesting, I think it's pushed them up. I think there's been a lot of dialogue amongst the teams that maybe are proactively thinking about that time where we're going to be pulled in different directions. There's a lot of really constructive dialogue going on across the industry right now.
Good stuff! Though obviously it hasn’t led to anything beyond Jacob Barnes for the Blue Jays just yet. For the time being, the Jays continue to hope to find some internal help — guys like Patrick Murphy and Tayler Saucedo, who are already in the big leagues, as well as Thomas Hatch and (before the latest injury news) Nate Pearson.
We have to consider all of those guys as alternatives now, especially with our rotation stabilizing a bit. But we can't lose sight of the impact of a major league starting pitcher. So, that's a balance. But nothing's off the table, as we factor in those guys as potential relief options. We have to be open-minded and creative and thinking about how we can do a better job there.
As for Pearson specifically:
I think more, in an ideal world, he's pushing someone out of the rotation. That would be fantastic if that were a scenario that we could be considering at some point. That's not in the next start or two. But, again, we can't eliminate him from (being) someone that could help us get outs in some other way. But at this point we're focused on him just remaining a starter.
Really, though, he says that the team can’t be focused on just trades, or just converting some of their young starters to relief roles.
I think, especially with Hatch having done such a good job last year, we have to be open to that. That is on the table — something that we're talking about. But each individual is different and we'll consider all of our alternatives. I think the other thing that we're also focused on is how we can help guys improve that are currently here. We've gone from a more veteran bullpen to one of the youngest pitching teams in baseball very quickly because of injury. So, we're thinking about how we're putting guys in better positions, helping them improve, and then obviously open to external acquisitions. There needs to be some combination of those.
Asked what's stopping the team from pulling the trigger on some trades right now, he gave the obvious answer — and the answer that fans, who are understandably impatient, probably don’t want to hear.
It's not as simple as just hitting go. You want to make sure that you feel good about the alternatives, not only that you may have today, but that could present themselves in the future. And understanding the market and the cost. That's the only thing that ultimately would stop you. The combination of those things.
Still, he’s confident that the relief market will bear fruit.
There's going to be opportunities, I think, for teams to improve in that area. There's a little bit more depth to that area than there is the starting market. It's also, because I think teams — even teams that are in it — are oftentimes willing to trade from their bullpen to be creative ways to reshape their team. It does feel like there will be opportunities there.
• On Ryan Borucki, Julian Merryweather, and Rafael Dolis
Two guys who could very much help the ‘pen seem to be getting closer to a return to action.
I think it will be a little bit closer for Ryan Borucki, and Julian might be just behind him. Just now Ryan's throwing off a mound and will move to live batting practice. Julian Merryweather's going to start throwing off a mound here this week, and then will progress to live batting practice after that. Fortunately they don't need to be built up to three innings, so after they have a couple of outings they could be ready to go. So maybe closer to the end of the month for Ryan, and just thereafter for Julian, would be a great outcome.
You’d have to be pretty foolish to count on Merryweather remaining healthy for more than a few minutes, but he would be a fantastic addition to this bullpen right now. Getting Rafael Dolis back fairly quickly would also be pretty significant, and apparently that’s on the cards (or at least was as of Sunday).
Really good news with Rafael. He threw a bullpen (Saturday) and was feeling strong. His velocity was up, and hopefully the symptoms in his hand completely resolve. He's still having some very mild symptoms, but there's no concern for anything serious there.
• On the manager
Atkins hand-picked Charlie Montoyo, so it’s not likely you’re going to hear him be negative about the job he’s done — no matter how weirdly badly a whole lot of fans would like him to be. Unsurprisingly, when asked about Vlad’s visible frustrations last week, and the job Charlie is doing, Atkins elected not to throw his manager under the bus.
Not concerned to the point beyond needing it to be addressed. He's just human, right? It's been a tough couple of weeks, and I think that seeing that frustration and seeing those emotions is just a natural reaction and instinct. As it relates to Charlie, exceptionally encouraged by how he's handled everything and continues to. He has really done an incredible job, if you think about the start of season and how well he managed the pitching and worked through it. And then our injuries have just been really too much to overcome in the short term, but we'll work to improve that.
• On Steven Matz
It’s been a bit of an up and down season for Steven Matz, albeit with much more good than bad in it, I’d say. The left-hander is currently on the COVID-19 Injured List, and Atkins provided an update.
He's been able to play catch every day. He's been able to throw as many as 70 pitches to a screen, safely distanced and away from us, obviously. He will be eligible on the 23rd — has to go through a cardiac test per the MLB protocol — and then we can consider, based on what he's been able to do. He's been in very consistent communication with our medical staff and with Pete and Matt Buschmann, so over the next 24 or 48 hours we'll try to make a determination, obviously pending the results of that cardiac result, if he could join the team as early as in Miami or shortly thereafter. But working through that, and we need to get a better sense from not just phone calls and interactions and text messages of where he is physically.
We haven’t heard anything about this subject since, and with Robbie Ray scheduled to take the ball in Miami here on Wednesday, obviously Matz joining the club this week isn’t going to happen. They haven’t announced their starter Thursday’s game in Baltimore, though, and I’d have to think there’s a good chance Matz slots in there.
• On the catching situation
The Jays have an interesting situation behind the plate, with Reese McGuire and Riley Adams currently in the big leagues, Alejandro Kirk and Danny Jansen getting closer to being activated, and breakout Double-A star Gabriel Moreno looking like he’ll soon need to be moved up a level. As long as Reese McGuire’s bat stays hot the team is in good shape, but they’re rightly thinking about how things are going to shake out as the season progresses.
We're in a good situation as it relates to depth and need to see more performance from — not necessarily — we just need more time of Jano and Reese and get a better handle for where they are before we start making those decisions, or considering those alternatives more aggressively. It's also balancing — we're going to want Alejandro Kirk to play, we're going to want Riley Adams to play, and obviously we're going to want Moreno to play, so making sure that we're maximizing the minor league teams. But Gabriel has certainly earned that discussion, and we're having it. Just trying to balance it with the group.
Over the weekend Moreno, who was a shortstop until he turned pro, got his first career start at third base — a clear sign that the Jays are thinking about ways to get him to Triple-A without impacting the playing time of whoever else happens to be there at the moment. They may even be thinking about getting him to big leagues at some point. Or, if you really want to get crazy, perhaps it’s that his bat is so special that it would be a waste to have him grinding away behind the plate — something I discussed this week when I joined Tall Can Audio to talk all things Jays.
But let’s not get ahead of ourselves too much here. Jansen is the Jays’ guy, Kirk definitely needs a nice long big league run before we start fully looking past him to Moreno, and the rest of them will get sorted out one way or another.
As for Jansen, Atkins explained that they “just want to make sure that we're not pushing him quickly. He's getting his strength back, he has full range of motion, it will just be a matter of progressing him on the base paths and making sure he can get up to 100% of his speed.”
• An update on the border
The dialogue's good, it's consistent with our business leaders and the different bodies of government, and really optimistic that we will be back. You can look at the schedule and see the different opportunities of when that could be, and we're going to focus on doing everything in our power for that to be as soon as possible. Late July would be incredible. But a lot (unintelligible) for that to happen, and obviously not completely within our control.
Yes, late July would be incredible! Let’s get this team back already.
• On Kevin Smith and Samad Taylor
Lastly, some nice words here — though maybe a touch more so for Smith than for Taylor? — about a couple of less heralded prospects having great seasons.
They've been awesome. I think Kevin Smith, his plate discipline and using the whole field, everything that we're seeing in his approach is exceptionally encouraging. A very versatile player as well — could be an incredible complement for us this year. He's not on our 40-man right now, but we're talking about how he could potentially help us and fit. Samad Taylor has run into a ton of home runs and playing really well right now, really encouraged by that spike in power. It's interesting, as you know very well, it doesn't change how we view them, we're so focused on their work — they're two of the hardest working guys. Exceptionally hard working, both of those guys. So, really just happy for them and happy for their performance, because that means that they are becoming realistic alternatives for us. Different timelines and different potential contributions, but very happy for those two.
Top image: screengrab via Sportsnet
After all is said and done with the catcher position, I won't be terribly upset if Reese ends up as the backup catcher. I assume Kirk or Moreno end up as the long term solution as the starter and that would be awesome. But Reese is such a good defender (at least to my not particularly well trained eye) and being a left handed bat doesn't hurt his cause either. He just seems more suited to a backup role than any of the other catchers in the system. Plus, whomst among us hasn't been caught with our pants down in a dollar tree parking lot? Metaphorically I mean.