Manager John Schneider spoke to reporters today about the club’s upcoming rotation plans. Mitch Bannon of The Athletic as well as Sportsnet’s Hazel Mae and Arden Zwelling relayed some of the details. Schneider said that Shane Bieber, José Berríos and Kevin Gausman will start the three games in Miami this weekend with lefty Eric Lauer available out of the bullpen.
Though Lauer will be in the ’pen this weekend, Schneider emphasized that it will be a temporary move. “This is not a move to the bullpen,” the skipper said. “It’s kind of an evolving thing as we go.” He continued: “It’s going to be a fluid situation. For that series he’ll be available out of the pen. It definitely doesn’t take him out of starting contention going forward.”
For the past few months, the Jays have had a stable rotation of Berríos, Gausman, Chris Bassitt, Max Scherzer and Lauer. That gave the club a pretty solid group for the regular season but they decided to chase upside for their playoff rotation by grabbing Bieber, a former Cy Young winner, from the Guardians at the deadline.
At the time of the deal, Bieber was still rehabbing from last year’s Tommy John surgery. That gave the Jays some time to decide on how they would handle their sudden rotation surplus. For now, Lauer is apparently going to miss a start but might still return to a rotation role going forward. They reportedly considered a six-man rotation but won’t be doing that right now.
The schedule might be playing a role. The Jays are off tomorrow and next Thursday as well, meaning they only play six times in the next eight days. After that, they play six more before another off-day September 4th, then three more before yet another off-day September 8th. Put together, that’s 15 games in 19 days. Going to a six-man rotation would mean each guy only throwing about once a week, or sometimes less. That could give the starters extra rest but perhaps also extra rust.
Time will tell how the Jays handle things in the longer term. Based on Schneider’s comments, it presumably depends on health, usage and other factors in the coming weeks. The Jays have a 13-game stretch in the middle of September with no off-days from September 9th to 21st, so perhaps a six-man rotation becomes more viable in that window.
It’s the proverbial good problem to have, as there are plenty of other clubs who would love to have to be making these kinds of tough calls. As Lauer himself put it, per Keegan Matheson of MLB.com, “It’s going to be interesting. I’m glad I’m not the one making the decisions.”
For Lauer, it’s a bit unfortunate, as he has arguably been the best of the bunch this summer. Signed to a minor league deal in the offseason, he has proven to be a tremendous help for the Jays this year. Thanks to Scherzer missing some time and Bowden Francis both struggling and getting hurt, Lauer was able to take over a rotation job and run with it. He has given the Jays 88 innings on the year overall with a 2.76 earned run average, 24.5% strikeout rate and 7% walk rate.
Despite the strong results, there are reasons the Jays likely picked him to dial things back. Last year, he was stuck in the minors and wasn’t throwing especially well. He was released by a few different clubs and only logged 75 1/3 innings, plus another 34 2/3 in Korea, a total of 110. In 2023, injuries limited him to 91 1/3 innings between the majors and minors.
This year, he logged 24 innings in Triple-A before getting called up. When combined with his 88 big league innings, he’s at 112 for the year. That’s fairly in line with his workload last year and the year prior. It’s conceivable he could have seen his effectiveness decline if he had stayed and continued logging rotation innings.
In addition to the workload, the Jays also might not be totally convinced his results are fully sustainable. As mentioned, he wasn’t especially good in the minors last year. He has bounced back tremendously in 2025 but with a .260 batting average on balls in play and 84.3% strand rate. His 3.54 FIP and 3.88 SIERA are still good but suggest regression is a distinct possibility. Since Lauer averages less than 92 miles per hour on his fastball, it’s fair to wonder how long he can walk the tightrope.
As mentioned, the situation is quite fluid and could change rapidly. One injury would obviously change things in a hurry. Scherzer has been battling thumb issues for years now and missed most of the first half of 2025, though he has been quite sharp lately. Over his past seven starts, he has gone at least five innings in all of them and at least six frames in all but one. In that time, he has a 3.14 ERA, 23.5% strikeout rate and 5.3% walk rate. Gausman, Bassitt and Berríos have been quite stable but pitching injuries can often pop up out of nowhere these days. Bumping Lauer to the bullpen is a bit tough for him but a nice safety net for the club as they push towards the final month of the regular season.
As for the roster machinations, the Jays announced after today’s game that right-hander Braydon Fisher has been optioned to Triple-A Buffalo. That opens an active roster spot for Bieber’s reinstatement on Friday.
Similar to Lauer, it’s a tough development for Fisher, as he has been pitching well. In 38 1/3 innings for the Jays this year, he has a 3.05 ERA, 31.2% strikeout rate and 7.8% walk rate. However, a lot of his best results were earlier in the season. Through July 1st, he had a 1.90 ERA, 37.1% strikeout rate and 5.6% walk rate. Since then, it’s been a 4.91 ERA, 23.5% strikeout rate and 10.5% walk rate.
The shuffles speak to the deep pitching staff the Jays have built since by multiple arms at the deadline. Rosters expand from 26 to 28 in September, with the pitcher limit going from 13 to 14. Fisher could return next month though likely not at the beginning. Optional assignments for pitchers come with a 15-day minimum unless someone else is going on the injured list.
Bieber will also need a 40-man spot but the Jays opened a spot there a week ago when infielder Buddy Kennedy was designated for assignment as the corresponding move for Andrés Giménez being activated from the 10-day IL.
Photo courtesy of John E. Sokolowski, Imagn Images
Francis has to be the biggest disappointment of the season, dude was lights out before this season.
He wasn’t lights out last year. He was bad in the first half his second half he was unhittable.
Ya he had like 3 near no hitters last year then this year couldn’t get outta the 3rd
The Lauer surprise made up for it.
Gausman, Scherzer, Moses, Noah and pray for a flood….
And now Manoah has to be addressed. Decent rehab game today and my understanding is his 30-day rehab clock runs out on Friday.
I can’t see him recalled to the Jays without more evidence of him being healthy. Rehab can be extended (with Alek’s agreement) but, as things stand, it seems more likely he gets optioned to the minors, or returned to the injured list if he suffers a setback.
@kodion
Yep. The interesting thing is who gets bumped off the 40/26 when he gets reinstated.
That’s easy Robinson Pina DFA or one of Sandlin or Yimi goes to 60 day IL.
.
It’s pretty common knowledge in blue jay land that he’s staying down rest of the season. Guys got options and unless he’s starting he’s not valuable. He’s still probably 3-4 weeks away even if they were gonna call him this year
Lauer was their only good pitcher aside from Scherzer lately…
Now he will go to the pen where their wonderful manger will use him like a toddler with a new toy until he breaks him.
Varsho has a 196 wRC+ since he came off the IL so I don’t know what more you want from him. Ty France has a 135 wRC+ since joining the Jays. Again, no idea how people can expect more.
Gimenez’s value comes from his glove and unfortunately people have a hard time conceptualizing defensive runs saved because they’re not reflected in the scores. But regardless, if the don’t start Gimenez that means Clement plays second which is fine but that puts Barger at third and he is not a great third baseman. That opens a hole in RF where Barger has a cannon. Which means more starts for Straw and at that point you might as well just keep Gimenez where he is.
@MuleorAstroMule
Barger is about Neutral at 3B with both DRS and OAA either a tick above or below zero. In right however he has been really bad with DRS and OAA having him south of -5 in both metrics in about 300 innings. Barger is a liability in the OF and meh at third. In a perfect world, Giminez would be sitting on the bench. In a more perfect world he would be eating into Cleveland’s payroll instead of the Jays.
FWIW 10 DRS is about 1 fWAR
Benching Gimenez doesn’t solve who you replace him with though. Who is the better option on that bench? Schneider doesn’t hit righties and he’s the only other guy who can play the infield.
Again you could put Barger at 3B but that means either Straw or Schneider is starting against righties and they hit just as poorly as Gimenez with worse defense.
I guess your forgetting about clement
@MuleorAstroMule
Straw has 12 DRS and 8 OAA in just under 600 innings in the OF with an 89 wRC+. Schneider in the OF has a -2 DRS/0 OAA with a 136 wRC+. Both Straw and Schneider are better defenders than Barger in the OF.
Gimenez has a 78 wRC+. His good glove is the only reason that he has a job in the majors because his bat has him hitting 10th or 11th in a line up.
Schneider doesn’t hit righties? He has an .814 OPS against righties this year. For his career, he’s only slightly worse against righties than lefties. In most of his minor league career he was actually better against righties.
That said, Schneider’s defense isn’t in the same ballpark as Gimenez so I’d rather play Gimenez.
Its not Varsho France and Ginenez that is the problem Losing Loperfido was a mistake because he is a better version of Lukes that is younger and has more upside.
We didn’t lose Loperfido. We sent him down because he has options and will get more playing time in Buffalo.
Just like we have a logjam of pitchers we have a logjam of position players. Not bad problems to have.
Understandably the team is a bit gutted because of losing Vladdy and we were due for some regression. No reason to panic
They could use Lauer in a tandem starter role, perhaps with Max.
I don’t get this at all. Lauer has been one of our best pitchers if not top 3. Berrios was the one who was open to move to the bullpen and given his terrible starts would have been a more acceptable move. Bieber hasn’t even pitched yet. Would have been better to upgrade the 5. Moving Berrios would have dropped the starter ERAs down. Not just swap one good pitcher for another. Manager of the year or Mistake of the Century I’m leaning to the latter. Why do a bad temporary experimental decision now? Especially right after a bad start by Berrios??? I thought we wanted to win