2026 Toronto Blue Jays Season Thread

[mile]

https://twitter.com/user/status/1996003987640787446

Will be interesting to see how it plays out - Scherzer in recent interviews also sounded like a guy who already knew he’d be coming back, but who knows

If I had to guess Berrios is the odd man out and gets moved after the FA starter market dries up. Scherzer stays in the Kershaw role and gets limited starts

[Jiri Hrdina]

Did this guy just suddenly figure it out last year or what’s the deal

[Jason14h]

Are we sure that isn’t Danny McBride and it’s really a new season of East bound and down

https://www.tsn.ca/mlb/article/repor...ith-rhp-ponce/

[mile]

https://lancebroz.substack.com/p/cod...n-moinelo-data

We last saw the now-31-year-old Cody Ponce with the Pirates in 2021, and he was not very good. He sat 93.3 on his four-seamer, had three glove-side shapes, and a bad changeup. He actually fared well against right-handed hitters but got demolished by left-handed hitters. Flash forward to 2025, and Ponce obliterated the KBO with a 1.89 ERA and a 30.3% K-BB in 180.2 innings. The two biggest changes are a velocity spike and a new changeup.


Ponce sat 95.5 mph in the KBO on his four-seamer, a notable increase from 2021. I have his max velocity up at 98.5 mph, routinely touching 97+ in outings.

Without even considering anything else, he becomes a viable starting pitching candidate for a team afraid to spend big money this offseason in an interesting starting pitcher market. Ponce’s new kick-changeup is intriguing.


I have confidence this changeup will send his poor lefty splits from past MLB years into oblivion. It’s a plus pitch and a key factor in why I think he’s an interesting candidate to impact MLB with his return.

Ponce feels like a great value for the price teams will pay… <$12m per year? The bet is that his fastball works at this higher level of velocity, and his changeup stymies lefites. Both are more than reasonable wagers to make given the cost involved in this decision. Mix in some projection that an MLB team makes him less four-seam reliant to right-handed hitters, and we could be looking at a strong combination of both stuff and mix.

[bluejays]

Interesting. A lot seems to hinge on Pete Walker working to maximize potential. Some worthwhile risk.

[flamingred89]

Jays are spending all the money. Love it.

I'm going to be fairly reserved on Ponce as its hard to evaluate between leagues. But you cant argue those stats.

[3thirty]

Low risk, high reward. If he even does 3/4 of what he does in Korea its a steal.

[Roof-Daddy]

Excellent gamble IMO.

Gausman
Cease
Bieber
Yesavage
Berrios
Ponce
Lauer

That is some ridiculous starting pitching depth.

[ben voyonsdonc]

Blaster has to be happy because this has to be the end of Berrios with the Jays. Even if they eat $6m of his contract, Ponce is still cheaper by a bundle.

[GirlySports]

KBO is a hitters league so those numbers are even more impressive

[Inferno]

It was destiny.

https://twitter.com/user/status/1944183062872445288