The Blue Jays have announced the 26 players who will be part of their American League Championship Series roster against the Mariners. As in the ALDS, the Jays will be using 13 pitchers and 13 position players, though a couple of new arms will be joining the pitching staff. The full list…
Catchers: Alejandro Kirk, Tyler Heineman
Infielders: Addison Barger, Ernie Clement, Andres Gimenez, Vladimir Guerrero Jr., Isiah Kiner-Falefa
Outfielders: Nathan Lukes, Anthony Santander, Davis Schneider, George Springer, Myles Straw, Daulton Varsho
Left-handed pitchers: Mason Fluharty, Eric Lauer, Brendon Little
Right-handed pitchers: Chris Bassitt, Shane Bieber, Seranthony Dominguez, Braydon Fisher, Kevin Gausman, Jeff Hoffman, Yariel Rodriguez, Max Scherzer, Louis Varland, Trey Yesavage
Beginning with the most notable omission from the roster, Bo Bichette remains unavailable, as the shortstop has yet to fully recover from a left knee sprain that has kept him out of action since September 6. Bichette didn’t start any running work until this past Wednesday, but a move to a bit more high-intensity running on the bases yesterday didn’t yield much progress. Bichette clearly looked to be in discomfort following even this brief session, which created doubt that he would indeed be healthy enough to be activated.
Since Bichette has been able to take batting practice and face live hitting, there had been some speculation that the Jays might use Bichette just in a DH role or even as a pinch-hitting specialist. Even that limited capacity would involve Bichette having to run in some form if he ended up getting hits, of course, and yesterday’s footage implies that Bichette’s knee is still far from 100 percent.
Technically, the Jays could still activate Bichette at some point during the ALCS if another injury arose. But the far likelier scenario is that Bichette won’t see any action until the World Series should Toronto advance, and it remains unclear if even 12 more days of rest and rehab will be enough for Bichette to return at all during the Jays’ postseason run.
By this point the Blue Jays have gotten used to playing without Bichette to some extent. Gimenez has settled in as the glove-first option at shortstop, and the Jays were will able to both win the AL East and defeat the Yankees in the ALDS without Bichette available. That said, obviously Toronto’s roster is better with Bichette than without, and the Jays figure to miss his bat against the Mariners’ deep pitching staff.
Speaking of rotations, Bassitt and Scherzer return after being left out of the ALCS picture. Scherzer was omitted since manager John Schneider felt the veteran didn’t match up well against the Yankees in particular, while Bassitt wasn’t fully recovered from a bout of back tightness that sent him to the 15-day injured list on September 19. The Jays felt they could navigate the five-game ALDS with only three starters (Gausman, Yesavage, Bieber) on the roster, and that proved to be the case, as the relief corps stepped up with a big bullpen-game performance in the clinching Game 4.
Gausman is set to start Game 1, and in all likelihood rookie sensation Yesavage will start Game 2 and Bieber will go in Game 3. Still, Gausman is the only announced starter to date, so the Blue Jays might still yet creative with their exact deployment of their starters. Not all five starters will actually start, of course, leaving some question with how Bassitt or Scherzer will be used. Bassitt has a little more career experience as a reliever, yet Scherzer struggled so much down the stretch that that recent form is a bigger factor for the Jays than Scherzer’s distinguished postseason track record.
Bassitt and Scherzer will be taking the places of relievers Tommy Nance and Justin Bruihl. Nance was inching his way into higher-leverage work after delivering a 1.99 ERA over 30 1/3 innings in the regular season, but he didn’t look sharp in posting a 13.50 ERA over 1 1/3 innings in the ALDS. Bruihl was charged for two earned runs in his lone one-third of an inning of ALDS work, and the southpaw was something of a 26th man for much of Toronto’s season, as he logged 13 2/3 innings with a 5.27 ERA.
It’s too bad Bichette isn’t healthy enough to go, but as a Mariner fan, I’ll get past it.
BJ’s seem to be firing on all cylinders just as well without him, and they definitely won’t miss his defense. So at least we can be spared any deja-vu moments of Springer-Bichette full speed collisions like in ’22 Wild Card game.
LET’S EFFIN GO!!!!!!! I’m pumped!
That’s a really nice roster. Obviously would be great if Bo was healthy so all of the biggest stars got to play on the big stage.
Halos – They added a 41-year-old pitcher with a 7.55 ERA since August 15th.
If I were a Jays fan, that “Noooooooooooo” you’d be hearing throughout North America would be coming from me.
I’d imagine Max is there as an emergency option and no more.
I’d be very surprised if Scherzer is asked to get any meaningful outs. He will be used just to save the bullpen innings.
jd – I’d agree if we were talking regular season.
How many cleanup opportunities do you think there will be in this series? I’d be willing to wager he will need to be used in at least one medium or high leverage situation, probably more than one.
There’s a good chance at least one of the games will involve extra innings. Do you really want Scherzer pitching in extra innings?
Red Sox fans are having flashbacks of 2008 Timlin, who also was added to an ALCS roster out of “respect” for an accomplished veteran. You can probably guess how that turned out.
Then the question turns to whether there is a better option.
There’s usually one blowout in a 7 game series and 1 extra inning affair.
Halos – Only 46% of 7 game series goes the full 7 games.
This postseason, 16 of the 24 games were decided by 3 runs or less.
7 games decided by 1 run
5 games decided by 2 runs
4 games decided by 3 runs
Even if there’s one blowout in 7 games like you say, do you really want to use a roster spot for just one relief appearance in the entire series?
FPG you dont even have to go that far back. Last year Stroman was pretty much the same thing. I dont think he even got a pitch in. Heck they turned to a just off a fairly long IL return of Cortez over him.
@jdgoat
Heinemann just put on his mask so you wouldn’t see him crying. He’s muttering something about that being his job.
The question that is never addressed by these posts is, “What are the Jays’ better options?”
Mason Fluharty is on this roster. There’s no plethora of live and exciting arms that got bumped because of Scherzer.
I get what you’re saying but I don’t know if Toronto has a better option.
Mule – That’s a loaded question because there’s no guarantees with anyone, but taking a chance on an unproven kid is better than going with a veteran who has been horrible and on the verge of retirement.
Red Sox were in a similar situation a month ago fighting for a playoff berth. They gave 2 very raw inexperienced kids a chance. One didn’t work out, the other was great.
I know whomever I suggest for the Jays will be shot down, so I won’t make suggestions.
Halos – We will never know if they aren’t given the opportunity.
It’s not a loaded question. It’s a simple baseball question. Which pitcher do the Jays have that would be better on that roster? The answer is no one. Yes Scherzer sucks. But every other option also sucks. The difference is Scherzer is a veteran who has seen it all and brings that experience. So given there is no one with more skill or experience the answer is Scherzer was the best option even though he’s not a good option.
Mule – What about Lazaro Estrada?
Adam Macko?
Don’t tell me those guys aren’t better options, they both finished strong in September too.
You’re forgetting the element of surprise, quite often rookie pitchers do well in the majors because opponents haven’t seen them and don’t have a book on them.
You’re really pulling teeth here. Macko had a 5 ERA in AAA and came from Seattle’s system. If there was a prospect they knew about—-it was him.
I’d bet on Scherzer over those 2 for an effective inning.
The Jays did pull up their young gun—it’s Yesavage. He was the guy to step in. They don’t have another one sitting down there.
Jbig – As I said, he pitched great the last month of the season.
22 IP
2.45 ERA
71% Strike Percentage
.546 OPS Against
He hasn’t been in the Seattle organization for 3 years, he’s a totally different pitcher now.
Let’s see how Scherzer does, time will tell.
Sucks to be without Bo again our best run producer
No Jose Berrios as I haven’t heard he’s even started throwing again yet.
There’s a long history of high end sp’s that don’t miss a start for 5 years and are suddenly washed at 31 — I’ve been worried for over a year now!
I’d love to know if Bo is really hurt that bad or doesnt want to risk a more serious injury heading into free agency by playing hurt.
I think him having a healthy showing in the playoffs would do better for his free agent outlook, personally.
But hes not healthy so is this a pipe dream? Guess my question went over your head
His answer has validity. Teams are paying attention to the fact that a sprain has taken this long to heal. Teams willing to go as far as giving Bo 9 years for $30+ million now seeing he can’t answer the bell for the ALCS? Yeah, your question did not go over Meow’s head one bit.
Such a boneheaded injury by Bichette. Up by like 5 runs and out at home by 20ft.
I don’t think it was a bad send. I think an average runner would have scored easily. I think Febles just underestimated how slow Bo actually is.
People like hustle until a player gets hurt. Then hustle is bad.
Ack- this reminds me of when Team Canada gathered for the Summit Series and talk was maybe Bobby GOAT Orr would be OK’d to join the team as the series went on. His knee was just too sore, he travelled with the squad but never played v Russia in that series, but Canada’s team still pulled it out…
Bo is soft lol obviously doesn’t want to compromise earning potential by playing poorly if he’s unhealthy or chance making it worse.
He doesn’t look to be in the best physical condition this year. He needs to get leaner to prevent his chubby body from breaking down.
He looked like he forced that wincing in pain moment rounding 2nd base at batting practice yesterday. Notice how he sat down right away and not one coach or trainer or doctor ran over to help? He doesnt want to play hurt and risk injury
Agreed. Not saying he’s not hurt but I’m thinking he doesn’t want to play through it and risk his FA value
Guys like Bo Bichette want to be playing in these sort of games. It’s sorta the reason they play baseball. He also seems like a team player to me who wants to show up for his boys. So this is probably killing him that he can’t play. Chances to get this close to the World Series don’t happen every year. He may never be on a team again that gets this close.
Or, applying Occam’s razor, he’s hurt and that’s why the team doctor diagnosed him with an injury and he was put on the IL.
Let me tell you what nobody except the other team wants: Max Scherzer in place of a reliever in the playoffs.
He was dealing to start the year.
Maybe the downtime will find him rejuvenated for 2 more starts?