2026 Toronto Blue Jays Season Thread

[zukes]

I'm cynical, but this could just be value building for a trade. Thing is, this team can still use a healthy Berrios.

[ben voyonsdonc]

Originally Posted by zukes

I'm cynical, but this could just be value building for a trade. Thing is, this team can still use a healthy Berrios.

I agree that it is heading towards a trade. It’s really a win/win if he pitches for the Blue Jays at the start of the season. He gets the chance to build value as he heads into an option year and showcase himself and the Jays can fill the gap while they wait on Bieber’s ramp up.

[Blaster86]

Originally Posted by zukes

Thing is, this team can still use a healthy Berrios.

For ####'s sake.

[bizaro86]

Originally Posted by Blaster86

For ####'s sake.

I mean, if we get any version of Berrios other than the last 6 weeks of 2025 it's true. I think it's reasonable to say Clase and Gausman are better than him for sure.

Yesavage has a higher ceiling, but a very small sample size. Probably he's better than Berrios but people had the whole winter to look at hia film.

Ponce was a big success in Korea, not MLB, so he's a big maybe.

Bieber has higher upside but health is definitely a question there.

I think Lauer was really underappreciated last year but would also be good to have him as a lefty out of the pen.

Berrios could easily swap in for any of the last 4 in the rotation, and if they could rebuild his value so he could be traded when Bieber is ready without having to add prospect capital that'd be ideal.

[browna]

Rightly or wrongly, for whatever it’s worth, I don’t think Berrios likes/trusts/cares much for the leadership in the organization. That all originally stems from the decision made by the computer to pull him in the 3rd inning in that playoff games vs the Twins.
With finger pointing and no one really taking accountability for making that decision in the aftermath, publicly and possibly privately, made it worse.

Fast forward to last season and from the sounds of it, sounds again like those making the decisions from the Jays probably didn’t handle all the factors around his demotion very well either. It seems somewhat clunky and sudden from the outside, certainly with the goal of having Yasavage slot in and seemingly pushing him off to the side with some vauge reasoning.

One can’t let the success on the field last year mask the fact that this GM, President and even the manger don’t and haven’t in the the last few years, seem to endear themselves to too many players.

[bizaro86]

Originally Posted by browna

Rightly or wrongly, for whatever it’s worth, I don’t think Berrios likes/trusts/cares much for the leadership in the organization. That all originally stems from the decision made by the computer to pull him in the 3rd inning in that playoff games vs the Twins.
With finger pointing and no one really taking accountability for making that decision in the aftermath, publicly and possibly privately, made it worse.

Fast forward to last season and from the sounds of it, sounds again like those making the decisions from the Jays probably didn’t handle all the factors around his demotion very well either. It seems somewhat clunky and sudden from the outside, certainly with the goal of having Yasavage slot in and seemingly pushing him off to the side with some vauge reasoning.

One can’t let the success on the field last year mask the fact that this GM, President and even the manger don’t and haven’t in the the last few years, seem to endear themselves to too many players.

Yeah. I would say I'm not sure how much of the big improvement from 2024 to 2025 is from management. I think the clubhouse caught lightning in a bottle (mostly luck), Barger/Clement broke out, and Springer had an MVP-votes calibre season.

Big offseason additions of Santander/Gimenez/Scherzer were uninspiring at best.

Vladdy extension looks brilliant though after his playoff performance. Hard to know what would have happened without that.

It definitely seems like a management group that doesn't value relationships with the players very highly though. I get it's a business, and so that might be the correct choice.

[puffnstuff]

Saw my first commercial for a spring training game, Feb 21 vs the Phillies

[3thirty]

Loperfido traded to Houston for Jesus Sanchez

https://www.tsn.ca/mlb/article/blue-...for-loperfido/

[zukes]

Damn, I was looking forward to Loperfido getting a chance. Sanchez kind of is what he is at this point, a 4th outfielder with moderate power.

[ben voyonsdonc]

Pretty such that Houston made sure that the Jays read this article from 2024 to sell them on the trade:

Jesus Sanchez is a Budding Star
"A modest increase in his average launch angle - like the one Yelich had when he morphed into an MVP after being traded to Milwaukee - makes Sanchez a star, or perhaps even a superstar. Going to will this into existence - at the very least, Sanchez will finish 6th or better in the MVP voting someday. Take it to the bank."

Loperfido came from the Astros and I think the fans loved him there. Wish him the best.

[Jiggy_12]

I'm puzzled by this one. I was pretty high on Joey. Sanchez I suppose is a little more established, and hits RHP pretty well. Useless against LHP.

I guess this is one of those ones i'll just have to trust Atkins

[JTech780]

Confusing trade, but after Santander went down, it was pretty obvious that this team needed to add power to the roster. Wish they had added a right handed bat with power though. That outfield is really left handed.

Wonder about what this means for Davis Schneider's playing time. Also curious about Leo Jimenez, he is out of options and he would be great off the bench as an extra infielder as he can play anywhere on the infield.

[Jiggy_12]

Originally Posted by JTech780

Confusing trade, but after Santander went down, it was pretty obvious that this team needed to add power to the roster. Wish they had added a right handed bat with power though. That outfield is really left handed.

Wonder about what this means for Davis Schneider's playing time. Also curious about Leo Jimenez, he is out of options and he would be great off the bench as an extra infielder as he can play anywhere on the infield.

I think Schneider probably still goes up against LHP most likely. This will cut into Lukes playing time though quite a bit

[JTech780]

Just looking at Sanchez's statcast, and he has elite bat speed 93rd percentile. His exit velocity is in the 79th percentile and his arm in the outfield is in the 80th percentile.

It will be interesting to see what Popkins can do with the raw talent that's there.

[howard_the_duck]

Also looks to be a high contact guy so fits the mood of what they’re doing.

[bluejays]

I didn’t understand the Loperfido hype. Seemed like a guy destined for the bench with more or less some playing time here and there. Seems like a nothing for nothing trade. Or am I wrong. We’ll see.

[Parallex]

Originally Posted by Jiggy_12

I think Schneider probably still goes up against LHP most likely. This will cut into Lukes playing time though quite a bit

Yeah, RIP to Lukas's playing time. I'd be surprised if he isn't traded or penciled in for Buffalo honestly. Sanchez is for his career about what Lukas was last year (in X3 the playing time) and he's younger. So basically they traded Loperfido for a version of Lukas that will be less subject to variance.

Hard for me to see this as anything but a response to the news that Santander will (again) miss significant time. I kind of like the trade. Not sold on Loperfido being an average or better MLB'er which is basically what Sanchez is (albeit more expensive).

[Jiggy_12]

Originally Posted by bluejays

I didn’t understand the Loperfido hype. Seemed like a guy destined for the bench with more or less some playing time here and there. Seems like a nothing for nothing trade. Or am I wrong. We’ll see.

Joey was sheltered last year but his numbers were pretty eye-popping, so I think thats the basis for the hype.

I don't think he's a full time guy, but would have been great in the platoon role.

I'll keep an open mind on Sanchez. There are enough things to like.

[browna]

Originally Posted by bizaro86

Yeah. I would say I'm not sure how much of the big improvement from 2024 to 2025 is from management. I think the clubhouse caught lightning in a bottle (mostly luck), Barger/Clement broke out, and Springer had an MVP-votes calibre season.

Big offseason additions of Santander/Gimenez/Scherzer were uninspiring at best.

Vladdy extension looks brilliant though after his playoff performance. Hard to know what would have happened without that.

It definitely seems like a management group that doesn't value relationships with the players very highly though. I get it's a business, and so that might be the correct choice.

Fully agree. The team chemistry, that has to be organic, that Buck kept alluding too for much of the season was a major factor to the success. That’s all players, not managers and obviously not executive.

I’ll not give a whole lot of credit for the Vlad signing. It was really a nonbrainer for a lot of reasons, on and off the field. But first of all they played games with him over the offseason and last year and missed Vlad’s deadline.

Obviously though now emboldened by success it gives especially Atkins a lot more rope than he had going into the past couple years. However there were serious reservations about what he was really doing outside of the big game hunting of Soto and Ohtani, and the arrogance and talking without saying anything, that many in the Toronto media have noticed has always come to the forefront is likely to increase.

Playoffs, again, are the absolute minimum for this team with this payroll. Anything less is considered a significant failure, as it was before last season. A lot of changes this year, some positive for sure, because the organization was able to piggyback off the success and spotlight on Toronto, and sign those types of guys who hesitated to move to Canada before. We will see how it goes but I’m not giving Atkins any sort of special credit for last years success or the signings, as that’s more on ownership willing to spend some of the 10s of millions they made for the WS run then Atkins doing something special.

[Jiggy_12]

Digging in to some of the advanced stuff as mentioned by previous posters - has me a little more excited about Sanchez.

At the very least, I think it makes us better right now