Whoever had "Zack Collins starts at DH" on their Charlie Montoyo bingo card is a winner tonight. This is game #4, and we've only seen Jansen/Kirk start together at CA/DH once. That's not good, but I guess it should be largely expected with Montoyo managing.

It looks like Shaun Anderson has been recalled. Given he just started on Friday he could be a Ryu replacement.

I heard part of an interview with Jays bench coach John Schneider a few weeks ago and he hinted that most of these decisions are not made by Charlie Montoyo. I think fans underestimate the influence of the Analytics dept. and FO on the decisions Montoyo make.

I understand giving Collins work if he was going to be around after May 1.  I thought it was pretty clear that he wasn't. 

Apparently, Jansen might be unavailable tonight, so I guess Jansen/Kirk starting was not in the cards, but would much rather see Biggio out there than Collins in that case. If Biggio is hurt too, then I concede.

In Yankees Stadium, I'm totally fine with a left bat with some power.

Jansen, day-to-day, soreness in his left side. (Hit too many homeruns?)
Ryu, day-to-day, hamstring contusion.  Doesn't pitch until Friday against Oakland. A 6th pitcher wouldn't shock me.

Only team insiders knows who makes what decisions, but it sure seems on brand for Montoyo to get Collins in at DH tonight. For better or worse, playing every single player on the roster (even in less than favourable scenarios) is who he is. In tiny doses, it isn't that big a deal. In totality it can be damaging if left unchecked.

Jansen just hit the IL.

Heinman called up.

Heineman

Palacios DFA'd for Heineman. Also Saucedo optioned to Buffalo and Kay recalled.

Game 4 and the "C"/1B with an 80 wrc+ in the Majors is in at DH. Kind of annoying, just hope it doesn't last long.

If only we had a good defensive catcher available (one who knows the staff well) to start in place of Jansen while he’s on the IL.

Anderson is there as a member of the taxi squad, in case the Jays burn through more relievers.

Oblique strain for Jansen. Those can be tricky...

If there is a guy is on the roster that should never be played, then the problem is with the FO for having him on the major league team to begin with. If Collins can't even get a start at DH from time to time, then give me another reliever or something.

Outstanding first inning from Manoah. High heat to strike out LeMahieu, changeup to get Rizzo, sinker (?) to get Judge to ground out. Very good control and poise on the mound.

With Jansen hurt, I have no issue with Collins getting his turn as the C on days when Kirk doesn't start. That was the choice the team made when they traded McGuire. But, does Collins at DH make any sense when all of Biggio, Tapia and Zimmer are also available?

I think Charlie likes to get everyone into a game soon after the start of the season.

Big time D, Bo.

"If Collins can't even get a start at DH from time to time, then give me another reliever or something."

Eh a team's 3rd catcher should most likely never be a starting DH.

The team keeps acting like their offense is unstoppable and they dont even need a DH and well I sure hope they're right.

A few weeks ago I argued for keeping all three of Jansen, Kirk and McGuire on the big-league roster. I wish the team had done that.

It's Cavan Biggio's birthday. I hope Santiago gets him something nice.

Really annoyed with the sportsnet app I've been trying to watch the damn game live and it keeps putting me in the pregame blue jays central. No matter what I do just on repeat blue jays central, I can see the game happening . there's a boxscore. I just can't watch it. FFS.

I think Collins would hurt the team even more starting a game at C than he does at DH. And I don't think his bat gets any better being a career pinch hitter. So I don't know why he's on the major league roster at all.

same for me lexomatic. Very annoying that the radio app also won't play the Jays game. I found an alternative way to watch but very annoying especially with nothing on the app to click for complaints.

For the record the regular Rogers app works well.

Pretty bad call by the ump to ring up Bichette (outside FB not a strike) with Springer on second and Vladdy on deck.

Quite nice double play by Jays to end the 7th.

The way Santiago's playing, the gift he is trying to give Biggio is a nice long rest on the bench.

Hopefully Teoscar is okay and not just gritting it out through a hand injury.

I was just about to post something in the same vein. Espinal has been terrific. Obligatory mention that his ,556 BABIP isn't going to last.

Santiago being legit would really tighten up that infield D like a drum.

Excellent pitching by Cimber against some of the top Yankee hitters.

If Collins hurts this team more as the C rather than as DH (a thought I’m not sure I disagree with), then he serves zero function on the roster. He ain’t here for his bat.

Fantastic game for Espinal.

Yes — wonderful start to the season for Espinal. He looks very confident on both sides of the ball.

Forget Vlad and Bo, give Manoah a long term deal now.

Actually just kidding, pitchers are risky, but he is very impressive and could be the ace of the staff.

O's shut out the Brewers, A's clobbered the Rays. No team left winless or undefeated. BTW, Rays Patino left after 13 pitches with another injury.

Love that 4 OF defense holding a leadoff double to a single.

It looks like Patino and Jansen have the same injury.

Thought last nights game was one of the best defensive ones I can remember seeing from a Jays team. Enough hitting, no mistakes in the field, excellent starting pitching and good enough work from the bullpen. A few bats are MIA, including Bichette’s. Collins and Biggio also look lost at the dish.

Enjoy watching games, pitch by pitch. And it seems to my eye that Kirk does a good job behind the plate. Hope Montoyo lets him run as the starter for a while.

It was said half in jest, but I'd definitely have interest in signing Manoah to an extension if it was reasonably priced and bought out a free agent year or two.

Pitchers are risky, but getting some cost certainty and a longer commitment from Manoah would be nice.

I don't even think that's on Montoyo. Walker was talking with Kirk frequently and rubbing his shoulders.
They say he has improved his English significantly, so that's not a problem and the new signaling system speeds up game calling. Veteran starting pitchers will express their preferences, I'm sure.

I think it's mostly the umps who look lost at the plates. And the Yankees hitters.

Not sure what to expect from Kikuchi.

Shapiro has said that in Cleveland it was important to get guys to sign extensions, but in Toronto, they can go year to year and not care if someone becomes a free agent and walks away. The important thing in Toronto is keeping the attendance high so the payroll does not have to be cut. Try to extend key players and chase them in free agency but if they go somewhere else just sign an equivalent talent and move on.

Kikuchi and Ryu are both Boras clients.

This team is so fun to watch and they can win in so many differnt ways. I have to say that Bichette has looked better defensively at the end of last year and beginning of this one so maybe he's improving as a SS.

The one thing Bo has to stop doing is throwing the ball into the runner. 1st basemen hate that throw, because they can easily jam their wrist. Vlad has been excellent and lucky with those throws so far, but I cringe every time Bo does it.

With Jansen on the DL it's a no-brainer for the team to start Espinal at 2B and Biggio at DH.

Palacios is probably no big loss, but it was unnecessary to lose him just so Collins could DH last night. There is no good reason for them to be carrying 3 catchers now.

Good info from scottt about Shapiro's philosophy. This may mean extend Lindor or trade him if unable to extend. The same with J Ramirez. So high attendance is more important for Toronto than for Cleveland.

High attendance = high payroll in Toronto and winning = high attendance.

Teoscar was a win for sure. He did not get paid much until recently. Also his defense was poor when acquired. Liriano was a salary dump by Pittsburg ($13mil) then a salary dump by the Jays to Houston. If Houston paid the leftover Liriano salary then Toronto may have dumped more salary than the Aoki amount.

To win the Jays signed Ryu, Springer, Semien, Berrios and Gausman to big contracts. Only Gausman was an equal signing to cover the loss of Ray. Chapman covers the loss of Semien at a lower cost. Letting Ray and Semien walk got us 2 draft picks. We lost a pick for signing Springer. Ryu, Springer and Gausman not performing any year while under contract will hurt the Jay's payroll and the winning %.

Kikuchi & Chapman are getting Grichuk level money. IMO we lost money by trading Grichuk in the sense that we are paying him to play for Colorado. Getting Pinto most likely does not help. Trading for and extending Berrios needs more thought from me because his contract is in layers of some kind.

For Donaldson (AA) Lawrie, Franklin Barreto, and S Nolan were the 3 that I thought had the most value with Graveman having the least. My evaluation was very wrong because Graveman was drafted in 2013 and moved 4 minor league levels (167.1IP) and onto the Jays roster (4.2) in 2014. 172IP in 2014 with outstanding results deserved a WOW opinion from me.

Dan S lists Kikuchi as one of his breakout candidates for 2022: https://blogs.fangraphs.com/szymborskis-2022-breakout-candidates-pitchers/

It’s undeniable that Kikuchi had a rough second half of the 2021 season, especially in September, which featured some lapses in command. But to play devil’s advocate, who has ever looked good while giving up a .452 BABIP? Still, I’d argue he’s closer to the potential he showed in the early months of the season than his late swoon.

Kikuchi has quietly become one of the hardest throwing lefty starters in baseball, and he still has an impressive array of secondary pitches he can whiff batters with. To my eyes, the biggest culprit behind his rough second half was some late-season trouble with his slider. He’s changed how he throws the pitch in recent years, shifting into more of a slurvy — I don’t mean this in a negative way — accompaniment to his cutter, and both it and the cutter saw their whiffs-per-swing plummet starting in August. Unlike a lot of pitchers, Kikuchi uses his slider as much as his off-speed stuff (splitter) when facing the platoon disadvantage, and with the slider failing, right-handed hitters absolutely torched him the last two months.

Given his impressive velocity — and he threw harder the second and third times through the order in 2021 — and four solid pitches, I think Kikuchi will be able to adjust in the long run. I’m not sure Carlos Rodón is an obviously superior signing and I really liked that one, too. Indeed, I think three years and $36 million for Kikuchi may end up being one of the best bargains of this past winter.

It looks to me like Jordan Romano has tweaked his delivery. Last season he was very deliberate loading up on his back leg and then pushing off the rubber for maximum velocity. He looks a bit quicker and not going all out for velocity. It might cost him a couple of ticks on his average velocity, but if that is traded off for improved command and control it's likely to be well worth it as Romano has excellent carry on his fastball. It might also help him control the running game better as last year he felt like an automatic steal for any decent runner.

I do kind of miss his quirky pre-pitch windup though. It was amusing.

Also, how cool is it that someone from Markham now holds the Jays record for most consecutive saves?

I'm guessing Romano lost the pre-pitch quirks with an eye towards the possibility of a pitch clock coming in very soon. Better to make the adjustment now than be caught off guard later.

As I recall he got rid of the fun stuff last year mid-season as it was felt it affected his endurance a bit after a couple of shaky outings. Results have been great so hard to complain.

With Jansen on the DL it's a no-brainer for the team to start Espinal at 2B and Biggio at DH.

Unfortunately that’s not going to happen because it would leave a bench of 2 outfielders and 2 catchers. Which of course could have easily been avoided by recalling Katoh rather than Heineman, with the side benefit of not needing to DFA Palacios.

It’s the small moves that are the most perplexing. The only explanation I can think of for the 3-catcher nonsense is that they want to be able to DH Kirk without the fear of losing the DH if the starting catcher gets injured in-game. Which is not a good reason at all, the risk in the absolute worst-case scenario is like 2 plate appearances for a pitcher batting.

Jonny - I agree with all of that. Your explanation is the most likely but the next most likely is that they don't think Collins can actually catch (which isn't a crazy notion), in which case the McGuire deal was a real head scratcher. The idea of using Kirk as the semi regular DH isn't the best plan now. Its pretty clear that Kirk should get the bulk of the C duties until Jansen is healthy and should get his rest on his off days.

I agree, Nigel.  With Jansen hurt and no McGuire, it makes sense for Kirk to catch 5 games out of 7 and rest the other two. 

Kirk is DH today and Heinemann catching.

Sorry, but Charlie and the front office have lost the plot on this one. They are all small moves but they are most definitely the best use of the resources at hand.

definitely not. key word missing:)

Yep.  It's not good, but relatively minor now.  It becomes more significant when they enter the 20 games in a row stretch on April 19 if Jansen is still out and they don't adjust usage. 

Just watching Opening Day in Cincinnati. I support the old tradition of the Reds playing the first game of the MLB season.

The 1869 Cincinnati Red Stockings.

The 28 player roster is effective till Sunday, May 1st. To clarify: will there be 26 players on Sunday or Monday?

Therefore, the Blue Jays will play the final 7 or 8 games of the 30 games in 31 days with 26 players.

Monday, May 9th and Thursday, May 12th are currently scheduled off days.

I think with Kirk it's the fact that he likely needs a pinch runner which takes him out of the game.
That's what happened in game 2.

I love having Kirk's bat against a lefty.
Heineman hits from both side.

The 28 roster doesn't affect the position players, the Jays are already at 13.
They Yankees, on the other hand, are using 11 relievers.

Heineman was drafted by the Astros in 2012 and remained in their system until he was traded to the Brewers on April 2 2017. He elected free agency at the end of 2018 and signed with the Diamondbacks in 2019. From there he was traded to the Marlins on June 4 and called up in September. Signed with the Giants in 2020, was called up for 3 days and then again in September. Last year signed with the Cards, played for the Memphis Redbirds, was released on July 3, signed with the Phillies and finished the year with the Ironpigs, wasn't called up in September, presumably because of the 28 roster rule.

Heineman is also an accomplished magician... there's a very entertaining video of him performing card tricks for his ex Dbacks teammates, including Robbie Ray: https://youtu.be/pclSj4ex2uw

There was a lot of hard contact against Kikuchi.

These catcher moves are puzzling. I wouldn't have done it, but I understand why they traded McGuire for Collins. But, then the team keeps Collins on the roster as a third catcher, rather than someone like Katoh.

Except, it's not clear they trust Collins to catch except in emergencies. Which the stats may support, but if you don't trust Collins to catch, his utility goes way down.

Then, Jansen gets injured. And the front office decides they need a third catcher, still, presumably because Collins is a "catcher" in quotation marks. So they call-up Heineman, but then when you want Kirk catching when he's not resting, in order to keep Collins and Heineman on the bench when possible, Montoyo goes ahead and starts Kirk at DH. Which presumably means that we'll get Collins or Heineman behind the plate in one of the next two games, as well.

Bang on Thomas. If they didn't think Collins could actually catch then they should have ridden with McGuire until the roster cut down date. The chances of Jansen and Kirk getting injured was always pretty high.

That Kikuchi start looked an awful lot like his 2nd half starts from last year. Not pretty.

Heineman hasn’t looked very good behind the plate.

The thing I find confusing is that the Jays were an excellent team at the end of last season with Jansen/Kirk/McGuire as the catchers. Trading McGuire for a poor catcher right before the start of the 2022 season seems like a bad idea. Doing it to acquire a substandard player for his optionality reminds me of Atkins’s infamous “42 years of control!” comment.

Do this, Vladito.

Wait I was sure we got rid of Anthony Kay this year what the heck is he doing on the mound in Yankee stadium.

If they really felt it was necessary to get starts for our 3rd and 4th string catchers (wvwn at the expense of playing a DH!) I wish they had at least played them against Texas instead of the Yankees.

So we get Heineman for just 1 PA (0 for 1) so Collins can strike out (0-5 so far with 4 K's). This is weird to watch. It is like the Jays are just treading water behind the plate until Moreno is ready. Jansen/Kirk is a good combo, but Collins is clearly not good on defense and his bat so far has been about what I'd expect me to do in the majors (strike out every time unless I got lucky on a swing and grounded out or popped up). Like most here I don't get it - the Jays clearly saw something in Collins but the stats don't show anything, although in AAA in 2019 he did hit 282/403/548 so I could see keeping him there and hoping he hits enough to be useful but at 27 odds are low he'll show much now vs his previous 351 ML PA's (77 OPS+) where he hit worse than McGuire (2-7 so far in 2022 after a 2-3 game today). Clearly nothing more than a 'lets guarantee depth if we need to demote him' thing, which made sense but right now I'm not seeing any value.

It's difficult not to think that Atkins is still stuck in his 2018 and 2019 mindset of always trying to extract value. I mean they can't really think Collins is a better MLB player right now than McGuire. Even if their internal defensive metrics aren't as positive on McGuire as the publicly available ones, he's still obviously a better defensive catcher than Collins or Heineman. I'm sure they have reasoning for this move, but it's impossible to spot it just watching the games.

I really assumed they were sending him to AAA to put an end to his catching days and see if his bat improves away from the rigors of catching. The current situation is just bizarre.

Also, Kikuchi got crushed and was lucky to even make it as far as he did only giving up 3 runs. First turn through the rotation was very forgettable.

But regardless of the trade....we were supposed to be thinking of having the unusual 3 catchers on a roster because all 3 were good.

Now we're down to one actual MLB catcher and we're STILL carrying three catchers AND feeling the need to start the AAA catchers in Yankee stadium.

What is even happening?

As others have said if the plan was to always have 3 catchers on the roster, then they should have kept McGuire. Collins is not a good hitter so if they don’t trust him to catch outside of emergencies, then I’m not sure what he’s doing on the big league roster. The fact that he has an option remaining makes that even more puzzling. Whether the blame goes to Montoyo or the FO or the analytics team, or a combination of all of them, the fact is the lineup decisions so far have left a lot to be desired. The bench isn’t ideal in its construction to begin with, so if you’re going to DH 3rd string catchers and start minor league catchers in Yankee Stadium instead of playing someone like Biggio, then it just makes the issue worse.

They switched McGuire because he wasn't going to be around once Moreno comes knocking.
Which could be very soon now.

They dropped Palacios because they already have 2 left hitting outfielders who can both play CF which Palacios can't do.

Now yesterday, Kikuchi kept them in the game until his pitch count ran out. Too many breaking balls maybe, but that's not on the catcher. The defense was fine. The offense didn't produce and that's what they tried to boost by having Kirk at DH, except he kept hitting the ball on the ground. They also went with the switch hitting catcher, which made no difference. Bichette's timing is off and he keeps striking out. Guerrero is still fighting his tendency to hit balls into the ground towards third base. Springer and Hernandez has some hits, but with the 2 outs between them could not produce any runs. So, one of those nights, but it looks like they fielded the right guys.

For the rest of the series, Kirk shouldn't DH. I expect to see Tapia or Zimmer in there. Biggio has never been great against high heat and you got Cole and Severino coming up.

The front office has appeared to play service time games with their very best prospects - Guerrero and Pearson - but have also shown themselves willing to aggressively promote guys when there's a need - Kirk and Manoah.

It will be interesting to see what they do with Moreno given the current catching mess. On merit, they should probably have him join the team next Tuesday in Boston. And they can do that even if they want to manipulate his service time - just send him back to AAA when Jansen is healthy.

Also, if a player like Collins was available just prior to the season in exchange for McGuire, would a similar (or better) player have been equally, if not more, available a month or two into the season once injuries start to mount across baseball? Even assuming trading McGuire was a reasonable idea, why do it right before the start of the season? There was no obstacle to carry McGuire during the period of expanded rosters.

* carrying

I agree. Moreno doesn't even have to catch all that much. He could start some games at DH and get the occasional start at C against a weaker opponent (in a lower-pressure environment than Yankee Stadium). I imagine he's currently a better hitter and catcher than Collins and Heineman, and this is a year when every win counts for the Jays. Or do they want a repeat of 2021 when they wished they could have a do-over of just one of their botched games?

Precisely my reasoning, greenfrog.

And I'll still say that the bench isn't the real issue here.

Jays had maybe the easiest offensive hole to fill at DH this offseasln and they decided in this contending year that they just didn't need one.

And so here we are starting AAA catchers at DH in Yankee stadium in the 2nd series of the season because of just one single injury.

For me the big take away is that this FO is not behind Kirk at all. Looks to me like he is DH/ back up catcher they way the front office is using him.

Maybe they couldn't extract good trade value for him which seems, amazing considering his hit tool and the expanded DH into the NL. Moreno will be up after a month. They are likely allowing him some time to catch up considering he had little to no spring training and just arrived into the country a week ago.

sure you could mix and match and fill the DH spot with a good hitter most nights......WHEN the team is fully healthy.

or you could have added a legit good MLB bat and made the team better and deeper.

At this point I don't see why not call up Moreno and send down Collins - Moreno's option is already used so giving him a week in the majors isn't a bad idea. Give him the taste before his full course later this season so to speak. Of course, if he hits the crap out of the ball you might need to keep him up which screws the service time manipulation efforts which might delay him a bit more. We'll see what happens. If they are all-in for 2022 though then using Collins and Heineman over Moreno is very wrong indeed.

All good points above about the head scratching treatment of the catcher position, but lost in all this it seems to me is the fact that Alejandro Kirk isn't all that great a hitter to begin with. We're talking about a guy here who has a career OPS+ of 102. The sooner we get Moreno up here, the better.

The McGuire trade was definitely odd, and I agree with greenfrog that they likely could have done as well before the May bench reduction if they had carried him for at least a month. The FO has shown a willingness to cut bait quickly, however, so I suspect Collins will be demoted or DFA’d pretty quickly once Jansen is ready or Moreno comes up.

The Jansen injury is a double curse. If Moreno is the real deal, Jansen becomes expendable soon and with a big year could command some nice trade capital. But it will likely be a while not only to rejoin the team, but to start swinging with abandon.

Your point is valid UO that 1 injury has exposed a weak bench. Even 1 solid, experienced hitter would have helped.

This team really could have used Michael Brantley. Speaking of ships sailing. The lineup really needs a middle order LH bat and has done so for some time.

There was some logic to the Collins trade but the logic was swamped by the risk of injury. A case of cute asset management getting in the way of winning today. Montoyo has since made the problem worse. All relatively minor issues so far but the could add up over the next month.

I don't think Collins was plan B or even plan C. A lot of things must have fallen through before that.

They were on some the left bats available and came up empty.
Some guys got some big contracts but I don't think that was the problem.
Not everybody wants to come to Toronto.
That was true even before the pandemic. Now there's the border and the families as well.
And they still want to use the DH to load manage some guys who will probably need it.

They could still find a platoon DH at the deadline and that might be enough.
And the bar to make the playoffs is lower, so waiting to make the best move at the deadline might be best.

"We're talking about a guy here who has a career OPS+ of 102"

An ops+ of 102 in your first 240 career plate appearances at ages 21-22 is very good, of course.

"so waiting to make the best move at the deadline might be best."

Last year we waited until the deadline to make SP upgrades that were obvious needs before the season started and it cost us a playoffs spot.

Kirk was scheduled to catch the 4th starter, which he did and he was great.
He got a rest with the 5th starter and they still wanted him in the lineup at DH against a lefty.

He's not going to catch 7 days a week.
He might get pulled for a pitch runner regularly which doesn't mean they don't trust him.
He just can't run at all.

The real trouble will be to find playing time for Jansen, Kirk and Moreno.
In the meanwhile they might be missing Jansen's bat for a month but that was true as well last year and he was playing.

Is Moreno ready? Kirk basically skipped AAA, so something might happen but it's more about not rushing Moreno than worrying about his service time. Moreno could be one of the guys willing to sign a big extension anyway.

Alejandro Kirk hasn't been hitting the ball hard at all so far, as compared with the last 2 years (avg exit velocity 85 mph).  Jansen and Espinal have teamed up and stolen his mojo!  The playing time wars have gotten nasty. 

An ops+ of 102 in your first 240 career plate appearances at ages 21-22 is very good, of course. Sure, it portends a future as a plus bat, but I am suggesting that the machinations to get his bat in the lineup in the here and now are puzzling given that his contributions have been marginal. I agree with the broader point you have been making for some time here that the Jays ought to have been looking to add another impact bat, although you and I may disagree as to where the weak link is at the moment.

I know nobody liked him but Grichuk was at least a decent bench player, as was McGuire.

And even then I wouldn't have called the bench a strength - but the last two pre-season moves being to ditch those guys for AAAA fodder to make a weak bench even weaker is pretty puzzling, especially since they didn't even save any money doing it.

Grichuk generated 1.4 WAR in 1404 PA from 2019-2021. That is...not good. Especially given his 5/$52m contract.

Compare that to, say, Kiermaier, who posted 5.4 WAR in 1029 PA over that same timeframe.

But we need to compare him to Tapia, not Kiermaier.

Well they've succeeded in collecting a bunch of lefty bats to come off the bench. Unfortunately, they only ones that I want any of these lefties pinch hitting for are each other.

At the end of the day I can't get too worked up as to the quality of the 3rd and 4th catchers on the depth chart. Its the starting pitching that has me nervous so far, but even then it's way too early for panic yet.

I was comparing him to hypothetical "decent bench player." Hypothetical player came out significantly ahead.

I don't remember McGuire or Grichuk pinch hitting.
I think Zimmer should be fine in center. That's where the need was.
I'm not sold on Tapia. We'll see.

We had Tellez on the bench and he wasn't hitting.
Biggio hasn't looked right.

The Yankees have Marwin Gonzalez, Trevino and I'm not sure who the 3rd guy is. Torres? LeMahieu?

The stars have to produce for this team to win enough games to make the playoffs. I am not concerned about the bench costing this team wins.

Ahh man, I missed this, talking about third string catchers and such.  This team looks great, so no doubt only marginal improvements to be made at the moment unless we go nuts and promote Moreno.  I'm definitely okay with whatever they do with him as long as they have a good plan for his development.  If they think he's ready to contribute and develop in the bigs right now, make the move.
Guys like Palacios, Collins and McGuire are interchangeable depth to my mind.  So were several of the prospects we dealt for Chapman, making that deal even better. 

McGuire is going to regress offensively at some point and was out of options.  The team sees something in Collins bat - he has pedigree as a former first rounder - and he has an option left. 

the weird thing to my mind is the magician guy.  but that's a cool enough story to warrant a promotion to my mind.  that's both true and demonstrative of how significant I feel this sort of move to be.  At the moment, I trust what these guys are doing, and I was an early Shapiro / Atkins skeptic.  They have pretty much done what they said they were going to do.
Atkins has always been under Shapiro's shadow somewhat, but he seems to be an increasingly effective GM to me.  Is this the year he starts to get some respect as one of the better GMs in the game?

2war/yr is more than a decent bench player tho.

I think Atkins and Shapiro have done a good job generally, but I don’t think that’s a reason to give them a free pass on all recent or future moves. Collins and Heineman are o-fer so far with some poor catching (including an airmailed throw over first base to cash in a Yankees run last night).

If you’re interested in seeing what a broad swath of baseball fans think about McGuire versus Collins, check out the comments in the MLBTR trade thread:

https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2022/04/white-sox-trade-zack-collins-to-blue-jays-for-reese-mcguire.html

Raimel Tapia gets a start for Gurriel Jr.  who DHs today.  Gurriel Jr. has had a world of trouble against Gerrit Cole, but small sample alert.  We're still waiting on Zimmer's debut...

"Ahh man, I missed this, talking about third string catchers and such."

3rd string catchers that start at DH, you mean.

Yeah, for sure that's stupid on the surface.  But assuming there was some reason for the move, what's the impact?  A few poor ABs in one game?

Take a look at the Leafs.  Their third and forth string goalies have actually mattered this season. 

Depth matters, and I think this secondary tier of players - your Collins and McGuires - just don't really matter as much as org philosophy.  That's going to lead to weird decisions, but this is 162 games, 40+ players, a support staff ...

I mean, there are reasons things that seem dumb to us fans make sense to the team. 

All good opinions.

#3 catchers in the DH position is just wrong.

The stars have to perform!! Berrios is on tonight. Have a good game.

The bench most likely does not lose the playoff spot. I remember Goins in 2017 becoming a regular due to Travis and Tulo injuries. Not his fault. IMO he did great.

Looks like Clayton Kershaw is in mid-season form.

Vladdy seems to be in mid-season form, too!

That's a nice gritty inning by Berrios.

Another oblique strain. Can we blame the lockout?

Can't say i liked defensive OF Tapia's defense on that "double".

Can't say i liked defensive OF Tapia

There's generally a good reason when outfielders as fast as Tapia end up playing mostly LF.

Yep.

Ooh Buck is ITCHING to lay into this new pitcher tech. Biting his tongue something fierce.

I think both him and Pat have said they really like the system actually. I really liked it during spring but wondered if it would work as well with real crowds and it clearly isn't there yet.

That was yummy, yimi.

I notice the umpires are still checking the pitchers between innings, but they're not looking at caps and belts. It looks like they're just checking whether his throwing hand is sticky.

Good to hear.

He's a beautiful boy.

Wow.

Did we just pinch bunt again.

Heineman was already in the game. Biggio pinch ran for Kirk in the 7th.

Phew! Thanks....great bunt then!


P.s. remember when vladdy almost left the game with injury?

Vladdy might as well wear the jacket up to the plate.

Very, very strange to bunt with one out unless it's a pitcher hitting... oh, right. Heineman. Maybe even more important, they were already up by a couple.

Obviously Vladdy is having an unbelievable game. But in all seriousness — is his hand OK? I haven’t been able to watch the game and I just read that he got spiked.

Well, since he got spiked he's hit two enormous homers and lined a double.

That cameraman can go straight to hell.

Yeah I think his hand is OK.

Players are lining up and asking Aaron Hicks "please, stomp on my hand too."

That win is all sorts of satisfying. A lot of big clutch plays by our key players all game long.

And yes, thank Hicks and his blessed spikes.

Yankees fought the Vlad and the Vlad won.

https://twitter.com/JSterlingCalls/status/1514424180749455362

Vladdy hit this 427 feet.

Gausman on the mound for the potential series win tomorrow. Nice.

Fingers crossed that Teo’s injury is relatively mild.

Love that Stirling call.

Vladdy got two stiches in his finger after the game.

Gerrit Cole: "If you had a cap, you'd tip it too. My goodness."

John Sterling's call of the Stanton AB in the eighth is just classic:

The pitch. Here's the 1-0. SWUNG ON, THERE IT GOES! DEEP LEFT-CENTRE! THAT BALL IS HIGH! IT IS FAR! IT IS GONE.... but caught. At the wall, caught by Tapia. Boy, I thought that was gone.

The Jays made two contentious decisions about their bench in the waning days of spring - 3rd C and 4th OF. 6 games in and lo and behold those are the two positions that have come to the fore through injury. That’s the amazing thing about baseball. The ball always seems to find you. Over 162 - all decisions get tested.

I had no issue in the Jays trading McGuire or Grichuk but I feel like they got lesser players back in return. Collins has shown nothing and Tapia brings back memories of Derek Fisher. Gurriel gets ripped for his defense sometimes but I think he would have made that catch down the left field line that Tapia botched. Grichuk had passable defense and could rip some home runs. Tapia can barely get it out of the infield.

What a monster game for Vlad!

Quietly, Yimi Garcia has been really good.

So, maybe Katoh comes back?

Severino in his return gave up 2 runs on 5 hits in 3 innings and then was done.
That's better than was Berrios did.

"I had no issue in the Jays trading McGuire or Grichuk but I feel like they got lesser players back in return. Collins has shown nothing and Tapia brings back memories of Derek Fisher. Gurriel gets ripped for his defense sometimes but I think he would have made that catch down the left field line that Tapia botched. Grichuk had passable defense and could rip some home runs. Tapia can barely get it out of the infield."

Tapia is almost certainly a better fielder than Grichuk. McGuire is definitely a better player than Collins but also had no options so his actual value was almost zero. also, if you are complaining about your 5th OFer and 3rd catcher, you know things are going well.

@Ugly, I saw that picture and it's just insane. Vlad is a generational talent. I feel so lucky as a Jays fan.

I must definitely enjoy this window. There will be ups and downs but hopefully we will be flying high.

Grichuk is almost certainly a better fielder than Tapia, and he wasn't the 5th OF. He was essentially an everyday player on this roster and they traded him away for an inferior player who was supposedly a better fit. They followed that up with the actual trade they should have made all winter, acquiring a LH bat who could handle CF. Randal made a heck of a catch to rob a HR the other night, check it out. https://www.mlb.com/news/randal-grichuk-robs-a-home-run-from-rangers-corey-seager

Hopefully Teoscar doesn't miss too much time, because without him (and with Tapia in there every day) the lineup looks a lot weaker. Guerrero should bat #2 anyway, but with Hernandez out it's an even better time to protect him with Bichette.

Vladdy may have escaped serious injury this time, but eventually one of these errant Bichette throws is going to cost the team.

Underrated play of the game was espinal's over the shoulder catch to prevent the go ahead run.

I sure hope he can keep hitting because it's real nice having that kind of D.

On the hitting side (OPS+):
On fire:
Danny Jansen: 494
Vlad: 273
Springer: 209
Teo: 171

OK:
Espinal: 99
Chapman: 79

Bad:
Bo: 64 (plus all those bad throws)
Gurriel: 21

Really Bad:
Kirk: -20
Biggio: -36
Tapia: -43
Collins / Heineman / Zimmer are 0-for-8 combined, for -100 OPS+ each.  

Two of the 4 guys carrying the team so far are now hurt. And you can't really ask MORE of Vlad/Springer. Springer so far has been as good / better than advertised, IMHO. If he doesn't miss half the season last year, I think we make a strong run at winning it all.

REALLY need one of Bo/Gurriel/Biggio/Kirk to start swinging the bat more like their usual selves.

I'll mostly skip pitching, since only Manoah has more than 5.1 IP so far (and those are stellar 6 IP, as well as 4 great IP from Romano - 4 saves already??). Berrios' 2nd start was encouraging. I'm worried Ryu has fallen off a cliff..

The spiked (impaled?) hand just added to the mythic quality. 

So, his nickname is going to be Vlad the Impalee? Or Vlad the Impaled (not the same cadence as Impaler, though).

So far the Jays have shifted more than anybody else.
Lots of 4 men outfields too.

If Zimmer can just play good defense and get on base as the 9th guy, it might be just fine.

The long-awaited follow-up to Don't Fear The Reaper- Don’t Impale The Impaler.

Fingers crossed that Vladdy doesn’t wake up today and remember he got spiked on the hand.

I just don’t see any evidence that Tapia is actually a capable defender, regardless of the tools. While only likely a marginal upgrade, I hope Charlie rides Zimmer tonight and in other situations where OF defense should be the determinant.

If we need a ready impact bat from the farm then only Moreno qualifies.

Biggio platoon/bench, Jansen and Kirk Bench/DH/C will get a chance to make an impact.

It's worth remembering that the overall goal is to make the postseason (ideally by winning the division) and also to have a terrific team in October that can go far in the playoffs. There will likely be some upgrades at certain positions before the trade deadline. This could include another impact bat, a starting pitcher, and a dominant bullpen arm or two. The roster will look different six months from now.

Biggio is going to get a nice extended chance to show he can hit again, at least. here's hoping.

I agree - I'd like to see Biggio in the lineup every day while Teo is out, either in RF or at DH. Give him regular ABs and give him a chance to play his way into the lineup regularly for the rest of the season. Espinal becomes the regular at 2B (if not already), and Katoh can become the backup IF.

Good to see Berrios with 4 good innings before fading. We need the starters to step up to offset Teo and Jansen injuries as well as some of the hitters.

Tuesday was the first game in AAA with the ABS system, so I watched an inning and a half of the Charlotte/Memphis game. No issues. No complaining.

When it was first tried in the independent league, one problem was the delay between the pitch and the call, but I didn't see that Tuesday. Only once did I see the batter talk to the ump. Gorman struck out on an outside pitch and he turned back to the ump as he walked away, apparently asking whether the pitch he swung at was a strike. The PCL systems (I think about 10) will start later this season.

Atkins is definitely going to add reinforcements during the season. The question is going to be how this current roster holds up until then. The Hernandez injury really hurts, especially if he's out for a while, as there's no doubt in my mind Tapia is going to get the bulk of the playing time in Tesocar's absence. Grichuk is better than Tapia, but he's been a ~90 wRC+ and 0.5 WAR level talent for 3 years now. It's not a big loss. McGuire, in hindsight, hurts more since the catchers aside from Kirk/Jansen/Moreno either can't catch at the big league level or don't belong in the big leagues to begin with.

I'd start looking at tanking teams and seeing how early they are willing to offload some of their talent. Maybe Josh Bell from the Nats, Tyler Naquin from the Reds, etc. Combine that with a mid-season Moreno call up, and it would make a world of difference.

I wouldn’t expect much in the way of short-term reinforcements. The overwhelming majority of significant in-season trades happen around the trade deadline.

Good to see Berrios with 4 good innings before fading. I know exactly what you mean by this, grjas, but I must confess my initial reaction was "man, an average salary of $18.7 million just does not go as far as it used to."

It is good to plan for 8 SPs to get through the season. #6 is likely Stripling. Then who knows.

Katoh is in New York, presumably for Teoscar.

10 years ago the Marlins signed Mark Buehrle at 33 to a 4/58 deal coming off a season in which he went 13-9 with a 3.59era and 109 Ks in 205IP. If people are expecting Berrios to be a bona fide ace, they really need to temper their expectations. Those guys cost 40MM+ on the open market, and 35MM over longer deals.

bpoz - very true. Last year the Jays used 16 starting pitchers, 6 with 10+ starts, 4 more with 2-5 starts, and 6 with just 1 start each. In 2015 they used 12 starters to win the east. 6 with 10+, 5 with 2-5 starts, and 1 who started just once. 2016 went as smoothly as one coudl ever hope for starters, with just 7 used, 1 for 2 starts (Drew Hutchison), 1 for 8 (Liriano), and 5 with 29-32 starts (Stroman/Happ/Sanchez/Estrada/Dickey).

This year we have the core 5 (Berrios/Gausman/Ryu/Manoah/Kikuchi) then ready for immediate use Stripling, then Pearson/Kay/Allgeyer (2 starts, 11 IP, 3 H 2 BB 13 K 1 ER) then whoever is hot I suspect. I'd bet on Stripling getting 5 or so starts, then it'll depend on who is hot and healthy when opportunity strikes.

Would love to Berrios' numbers as a member of the Twins vs the Tigers, Royals, and White Sox three teams that until last years version of the Sox were bad, bad offensive teams. This is not to slander him, only to say that the success he had in Minnesota no doubt was affected.

So I agree with '92-93's point about expecting to see an ace and ending up with a mid-rotation guy. Maybe this means that instead of getting Jose Ramirez from the Guardians, we're looking to get Shane Bieber.

My way-to early question is this: If the Angels falter again this season, does Mike Trout and/or Ohtani get dealt?

Just watched the A's take 3 of 4 in the Trop.

Smith had his first hit and first walk and he's now 1 for 19.
McKinney also had a walk and he's now 2 for 19. He also moved to 1B at the end and couldn't find the base on a grounder to 2B.
Danny Jimenez pitched very well and grabbed his first save.
He was very accurate with his off-speed at the bottom of the zone and high fastballs.

A few guys having hot starts, but it looks like the Rays pitching wasn't that great.

McKinney also had the defensive play of the game. With Kiermaier at 1st, ran a long way into foul ground to make a catch, slid, spun around and threw a dart to 2nd to prevent the runner advancing. And that play at 1st was a terrible throw by the 2B.

Dany did look good though. Impressive for a guy returned twice in the Rule 5 and who couldn't crack the 38 pitchers we used last year.

Actually no, the problem was that McKinney went after the ball before retreating which led to the tentative throw.
He wasn't back fast enough to find the bag after the throw which would have been routine otherwise.
It took Guerrero a while to find out which ball to charge and which ball to leave alone.

[Berrios] as a member of the Twins vs the Tigers, Royals, and White Sox

vs Detroit: 5-2, 5.28 in 11 starts
vs Kansas City: 6-4, 4.54 in 18 starts
vs Chicago: 12-5, 3.12 in 21 starts

Your correct, scottt. The play I was thinking of happened an inning earlier, with Neuse at 1st.

Berrios is a lot like Manoah. Moving fastball. Great slider. So-so change.
So the value is for tons of innings with a decent floor.
He's not Cole.

Cole gives up too many homers, lol

I think Manoah’s stuff is more explosive than Berrios’. Also, he’s a lot bigger than Berrios (6 inches taller, 55 lbs. heavier).

Berrios was very good for Toronto last year (about a #2 starter level). His performance with the Jays was comparable to, if not slightly better than, his performance with the Twins in the first half. Unless something changes (such as an injury or decline in his stuff) I think he’ll do just fine this year.

Yeah I think we have two number 2’s in Berrios and Gausman. Manoah gives us a third guy with 2 potential and May be even #1. Ryu and Kikuchi…who knows.

I agree with earlier posts that Biggio should get a regular chance to perform between second (rarely), outfield and DH. Hopefully both he and Espinal are in the lineup almost everyday.

It will be interesting to see who hits behind VG. With Hernandez out, he may be walking a lot.

A staff of #2's would be wonderful depending on ones definition of a #2. Jays of the past. 20+ starts only (so no Price or Sanchez 2015 as both had 11 starts).  Using just playoff teams

• 2016:#1 Aaron Sanchez 142 ERA+, #2 J.A. Happ 134, #3 Marco Estrada 122, #4: Marcus Stroman 97, #5 R.A. Dickey 96 - no one at 'ace' level, but 3 doing very well (120's to 140's) and 2 at 'meh' level (90's).
• 2015: #1 Marco Estrada 131, #2 Mark Buehrle 108, #3 R.A. Dickey 105, #4 Drew Hutchison 74 (yikes), no #5 as David Price had just 11 starts (179), as did Aaron Sanchez (128). 
  
• 1993: #1 Pat Hentgen 112, #2 Juan Guzman 109, #3 Dave Stewart 98, #4 Todd Stottlemyre 90, #5 Jack Morris 70. Al Leiter had 12 starts and a 106 ERA+  The bullpen saved the season here with Duane Ward being the hero and blowing his arm apart.  Imagine if that trade for Randy Johnson had happened instead of the Rickey Henderson one...
• 1992: Juan Guzman 154, Jimmy Key 115, Jack Morris 101 (but won 20 so seen as an ace), Todd Stottlemyre 91.  Dave Stieb had 14 starts and a 81 ERA+ before it ended, David Wells a 76 over his 14 starts, David Cone just 7 starts but a 161 ERA+. 
  

I think the high performance team that Semien liked needs to go back to the drawing board to figure out off season regimens for obliques. Real shame losing 2 of the 3 hottest hitters…(and almost the third…though training doesn’t help with errant cleats.)

On the flip side, they are winning despite much of the lineup starting slowly. If the Bichettes, Gurriel, Kirks, and Chapmans get rolling they’ll keep the runs up.

For me Berrios 1st start was just one of those opening day things (saw Roy do that once too.)

His second start was just that the yanks have good hitters.

Personally I think the negativity regarding Ryu, both here and every other Jays site I check out, will look a little silly at the end of the season. He hasn't lost anything off his stuff, he just wasn't locating his pitches as well as he normally does at the end of last season, for whatever reason. Control and command are not usually what fades when a pitcher starts to decline, it's the velocity and stuff that fades and forces pitchers to try and command their pitches better to survive. I think he has a good chance to lead the staff in ERA.

Tapia batting 5th is ... jarring? I wonder who Charlie thinks they actually acquired in that deal?

Charlie...must...play...with...toys...

Having Tapia in the 5 slot has got to make the opposing pitcher feel pretty confident. Short offense today.

Tapia at 5th..I guess he is trying to break up the righties, but you’d think Biggio would be the better choice if that was the plan.

I think I would prefer Kirk hitting 5th in the lineup, even against a tough righty. Tapia did have an OK plate appearance in the first inning, though (line out to the third baseman).

Donaldson isn't lying. Gibbons had him lead off for 7 games in May 2015. He hit a couple of homers and never led off again.

An infield hit for Alejandro Kirk.

There are no words.

The Biggio walk looked encouraging.

But there is a number: 20 (Kirk’s speed on the 20-80 scale).

Maybe he can crank it up to 25 when he senses the possibility of an infield hit?

Oof. Two RBI singles by the 9 hitter with exit velo’s of 85 and 74mph. That’s some rough luck for Gausman, who has pitched well. Need some offense. Which is a big ask out of this lineup.

Kirk is having much better ABs tonight.

Genius hitting Tapia 4th.

5th I mean of course.

Chapman pitching funny.

Aroldis might be broken.

Well 5 pitches to two if the Jays best hitters makes quick work of a comeback. Ouch.

Gausman was solid tonight but that was a disappointing game. The Jays had some opportunities (bases loaded in the second and ninth innings) but couldn’t convert. Fielding mistakes (Gurriel, Espinal) and base running mistakes (Chapman) hurt the team. The home plate ump made some questionable calls against the Jays in key situations.

<div> <br></div><div><br></div><div><br></div>
That Hoye game is one of the worst I've seen for impact and low accuracy.have seen lower accuracy but also lower impact. I think that's the highest impact I've seen this season too.

While Severino was clearly nasty, 4 strikeouts for VG is still surprising and you have to wonder if his hand is now bothering him. Guess we’ll know shortly.

Time for the rest of the lineup to get the lead out. A lot of guys are having trouble hitting their weight.

I think Vladdy hit a couple of homers in game three that were outside the zone. Last night he was swinging a bit like his old man -- and seems to have temporarily lost the plate discipline that makes him actually a better hitter than his Pops. Let's hope it's temporary.

Stripling gets the start today.  It seemed a bit odd to me to give him a start right before the only off-day in a month.  While Ryu gets the extra day of rest, it means Berrios, Gausman and Kikuchi pitch on 6 days rest their next turn.  So I checked how they've done in that situation.  Berrios and Gausman have pitched very well on 6+ days of rest; Kikuchi not so much (a 5.83 ERA with a .506 slugging percentage against).  Kikuchi is scheduled to start the opening game of the Red Sox series in Boston on Tuesday and there's a pretty good chance that this one ends up as a bullpen game, which would not be ideal for the first game of 20 in a row.  Trade-offs. 

I'm not crazy about Stripling starting either, but I'm sure they have considered all the options carefully.
For this series, we get Stripling instead of Kikuchi and Manoah gets an extra day of rest which is probably fine since he hasn't had a regular start on 5 days yet and they have to limit his innings somewhat. Then of course, Ryu on 6 is way better.

I am not sure what you are suggesting here.
The bottom of the lineup has not been good.
Exception is Espinal and he's crashing down to earth plus, it might be better to have a good bat 9th then 5th or 6th.

Tapia is a career .700 OPS. He's having a slow start. Tellez was like that last year.

Kirk got a couple of hits, but the first one was an out if someone is on base.
Gurriel runs poorly and Kirk runs very poorly. It probably takes 3 singles in a row to score Kirk from first.
Key to scoring with guys like Zimmer, Tapia, Biggio is good baserunning.

Vlad was swinging on stuff outside because these balls were called strike earlier.
Everything within 8 inches of the plate against the top of the order was called a strike.
Severino threw almost exclusively outside and hit a batter or two. 

Tapia had a 700 OPS in Colorado.  He's a career 80 OPS+.  Champan is at 120, Biggio is at 106, Kirk is at 105,  Espinal is at 103.  Those 4 players, in some order, ought to be your 5-8 hitters on most nights with Hernandez out of the lineup.  Tapia ought to be hitting 8th or 9th when in the lineup. 

*Chapman.  Where is Blue Jay auto-correct when you need it?

Tapia is a career .242/.283/.319 on the road, and he shouldn't hit in front of anybody until he proves otherwise. Batting him 5th is absolutely ridiculous.

To quote Pat Tabler, Bradley Zimmer looks like a baseball player.

Gausman is off to a nice start, hindered by some poor fielding - 10.2ip 14h 5er 0bb 14k. Great job by Mayza getting a key out with 2 runners on to keep the game close.

These should be the Tapia Rules and enforced strictly against Charlie’s other instincts: a) Tapia is still only the 4th or 5th best corner OF option (Biggio is a better option in most ball parks) and should get playing time as such; b) Tapia is a break in case of emergency only CF; and c) should bat 8th or 9th as the others have said. Frankly, his primary role on the team should be pinch runner.

On the plus side, Gausman, Berrios and Manoah all look they should be mostly decent going forward. It was unfortunate for Kikuchi that Jansen got hurt because they had worked together in spring training a lot and Jansen was familiar with his pitches and how to use them best. I'm not confident in Ryu at all but maybe he'll have the odd good game.

Losing Marcus Semien is a big hole to fill. He played every day and had a great year hitting.

Semien is off to a slow start. Ray has had 1 good and 1 bad start. SSS.

The YES crew commented that they see this version of Chapman on occasion and were not surprised. If he has no fastball command he's not going to be effective. Too bad the Jays could not capitalize and the other Chapman was too aggressive on the bases. It is early but looks like we traded for the 2021 version of Chapman -- here's hoping that he looks better going forward.

*Chapman. Where is Blue Jay auto-correct when you need it?

At least Champan is close. I have been calling him Matt Williams all season.

I think Mike Green makes a great point about Vladdy feeling like he has to hit home runs last night. I think the entire team might feel that way when they see a manager/front office roll out a lineup as flawed as that. I've coached 17-20 year old competitive teams the last couple summers and if I've learned one thing to keep morale normal it's put the best team out there. If the team sees you mucked up the batting order one night, or played a guy out of position, etc, it definitely affects the mindset of the team. Of course they'll go out there and play hard regardless, but why make a hard game even harder by mailing in the lineup.

I've said this before but I think Montoyo is a good manager when circumstances are optimal: the SP goes 5-7 innings, the bullpen arms can be used appropriately for an inning at a time to hold a lead or keep the game close, the lineup is healthy and deep, etc. When things start to go off the rails with injuries or cratering performance, though, the decision-making can get a bit wonky.

Chapman hasn't hit well in 3 years. There's a reason he got the night off.
This is April and a bunch of guys have found their timing yet.
So, who hits where matters very little outside of the star players.
I think Montoyo is trying not to move folks up and down so they don't feel more pressure.

And the final Ump Scorecard for this series...


Clearly this ump has no idea where the bottom of the strike zone is.