- Blue Jays closer Jordan Romano exited the All-Star game last week due to lower back tightness and has since undergone an MRI, as relayed by SportsCentre’s Scott Mitchell. Manager John Schneider told reporters, including Mitchell, that the imaging came back clean and Romano is currently considered day-to-day. Romano has established himself as one of the league’s best closers over the past four seasons, pitching to a 2.21 ERA (190 ERA+) and a 3.01 FIP while racking up 87 saves. In the event the right-hander is unavailable, Erik Swanson and Yimi Garcia appear to be the most likely candidates to handle the ninth.
Blue Jays Rumors
Kevin Gausman Day-To-Day With Side Discomfort
- Blue Jays righty Kevin Gausman was scratched from his scheduled start today due to soreness in his left side, with Chris Bassitt instead taking the hill against the Diamondbacks. Jays manager John Schneider told The Athletic’s Kaitlyn McGrath (Twitter links) and other reporters that Gausman first felt the discomfort after his last start before the All-Star break, but an MRI didn’t reveal any injury. As such, Gausman might be able to return as early as Tuesday when the Blue Jays begin a series with the Padres. It’s no surprise that Toronto is being cautious with their ace, as a healthy Gausman (who leads all MLB pitchers with 4.0 fWAR) is critical to the Jays’ chances of reaching the postseason.
Blue Jays Have Shown Interest In Nelson Cruz
Designated hitter Nelson Cruz is now a free agent after being released by the Padres earlier this week. The Blue Jays are looking for some more offense and have shown some interest in him, reports Ben Nicholson-Smith of Sportsnet.
Cruz, 43, has a long track record of success in his lengthy career, having launched 464 home runs while playing for the Brewers, Rangers, Orioles, Mariners, Twins, Rays, Nationals and Padres. However, his results have tapered off in recent years. He was still hitting well as recently as the first half of 2021, when he slashed .294/.370/.537 for a wRC+ of 142 with the Twins. But after he was dealt to the Rays, he hit just .226/.283/.442 for a wRC+ of 95 and hasn’t bounced back since. Between the Nationals last year and the Padres this year, he hit .237/.306/.352, 85 wRC+.
Despite that diminished production of late, it’s understandable why the Jays might be willing to take a shot on a bounceback. The right-handed hitter has generally fared better with the platoon advantage in his career, hitting .292/.378/.550 against lefties compared to .266/.329/.499 otherwise. He hasn’t hit well against either side here in 2023 but was fairly effective against southpaws last year, batting .248/.345/.383 for a wRC+ of 106.
The Blue Jays have been an above-average offensive club overall this year, with their collective batting line at .259/.326/.415, 107 wRC+. But against lefties, that line drops to .257/.325/.375 and a 96 wRC+. If the club feels Cruz can still contribute in that capacity, perhaps he could take the short side of a platoon. Cruz hasn’t played the outfield since since 2018 and only has eight career innings at first base, so he’s essentially only an option for the DH slot at this point of his career.
The Jays’ primary designated hitter is lefty Brandon Belt, who is hitting just .167/.250/.167 against southpaws this year. When the club has faced a lefty, they’ve generally given the start to either Alejandro Kirk or Danny Jansen, depending on who’s catching. Neither is an ideal platoon made for Belt right now. Jansen has reverse splits for his career, hitting just .189/.285/.391 against lefties, with an even worse showing this year. Kirk has hit southpaws well in his career but is struggling this year, batting just .208/.316/.229 against them.
Cruz is making a salary of $1MM this year, which the Padres remain on the hook for now that he’s been released. That means that the Blue Jays, or any club, could sign him and pay him only the prorated league minimum salary with that amount subtracted from what the Padres pay. With the trade deadline now two weeks away, Cruz could be given a bit of a window to see how he fares. If he can get back to anywhere near his previous form, it would be a nice buy-low move. If he can’t, he can be easily jettisoned at no financial cost and replaced with a deadline pickup of some kind.
Poll: Who Will Win The 2023 Home Run Derby?
The 2023 All-Star festivities have already kicked off, with this past weekend featuring the Futures Game and the start of the MLB Draft. The draft continued today and tonight will feature the Home Run Derby, followed by more drafting and the All-Star game tomorrow. The derby is mostly about entertainment, though there’s also a $1MM prize on the line. That’s chump change to a lot of these players, but not all. The runner-up gets $500K and each other participant gets $150K. The player who hits the longest home run will get an extra $100K. It kicks off at 7pm Central time tonight.
The competition will proceed with head-to-head matchups in a bracket with these eight players, proceeding in order of their seeding: Luis Robert Jr., Pete Alonso, Mookie Betts, Adolis García, Randy Arozarena, Vladimir Guerrero Jr., Julio Rodríguez and Adley Rutschman. Defending champion Juan Soto isn’t participating this year, leaving the throne open for the taking. Let’s take a look at the matchups and some of their stats.
- Luis Robert Jr. OF, White Sox: Robert is having his best season in many ways, including in the power department. He came into the year with 36 home runs in 222 games but already has 26 this season in just 89 contests. He’s hitting .271/.330/.569 overall for a wRC+ of 143. He has an average exit velocity of 89 mph, max of 113.6 mph and a 15.9% barrel rate. This is his first time participating in the home run derby.
- Adley Rutschman, C, Orioles: Rutschman debuted last year and hit 13 home runs in 113 games but is already up to 12 this year after just 86 contests. He’s hitting .273/.376/.423 on the season for a wRC+ of 125. He has an average exit velocity of 87.9 mph, max of 111.1 mph and a 6.7% barrel rate. This is his first time participating in the home run derby.
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- Adolis García, OF, Rangers: García broke out in 2021 with a 31-homer campaign, added another 27 last year and already has 23 here in 2023. Financially, he’s probably the player with the most to gain from the prize money. He’s yet to reach arbitration and that $1MM total is more than his annual salary. He got a $2.5MM bonus when signing with the Cardinals, but that was way back in 2017. Rutschman is the only other player in the field that is both pre-arb and hasn’t signed an extension, but he got a signing bonus of $8.1MM when signing in 2019. Garcia is hitting .261/.331/.517 this year for a wRC+ of 131. He’s hitting .273/.376/.423 on the whole for a wRC+ of 125. He has an average exit velocity of 92.2 mph, max of 115.1 mph and a 16.4% barrel rate. This is his first time participating in the derby.
- Randy Arozarena, OF, Rays: Arozarena vaulted himself onto the national stage with 10 home runs in the 2020 postseason. He followed that up by hitting 20 in each of the past two seasons and has another 16 here in 2023. He’s hitting .279/.388/.467 on the year for a wRC+ of 147. He has an average exit velocity of 92.9 mph, max of 114.3 mph and a 14.6% barrel rate. This is his first time participating in the derby.
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- Pete Alonso, 1B, Mets: Alonso is the most successful derby participant of the group, winning the competition back-to-back in 2019 and 2021. There was no derby in 2020 due to the pandemic. He attempted to win a third consecutive title last year but was defeated by J-Rod in the semis. He has 172 career home runs and is at 26 this year. He’s slashing .211/.310/.497 for a wRC+ of 123. He has an average exit velocity of 89.2 mph, max of 113.7 mph and a 14.8% barrel rate.
- Julio Rodríguez, OF, Mariners: Rodríguez will be the hometown favorite with the festivities taking place in Seattle this year. As mentioned, he took out Alonso a year ago but fell to Juan Soto in the finals. He hit 28 home runs as a rookie last year and has added 13 more this year. He’s hitting .249/.310/.411 for a wRC+ of 105. He has an average exit velocity of 92.8 mph, max of 115.5 mph and a 9.8% barrel rate.
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- Mookie Betts, IF/OF, Dodgers: Betts is 30 years old and this is his seventh time in the All-Star game but this will be his first derby. He has 239 career home runs, including 26 this year. He’s batting .276/.379/.586 overall for a wRC+ of 157. He has an average exit velocity of 92.5 mph, max of 110.1 mph and a 12.8% barrel rate.
- Vladimir Guerrero Jr., 1B, Blue Jays: Guerrero put on a show in the 2019 contest, hitting 91 home runs overall but falling just short of Alonso in the final round. He has 117 homers in his career and 13 here in 2023. He’s slashing .274/.344/.443 for a wRC+ of 120. He has an average exit velocity of 94.3 mph, max of 116.7 mph and a 13.6% barrel rate.
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The winner of Robert/Rutschman will square off against the winner of García/Arozarena in the semis, while the winner of Alonso/Rodríguez will face the winner of Betts/Guerrero. Before we get to who you think will win, let’s start with who you want to win. (Link to poll for app users)
And who do you think will win the 2021 Home Run Derby? (Link to poll for app users)
Latest On Hyun-Jin Ryu
- Blue Jays left-hander Hyun-Jin Ryu is poised to take the mound for Toronto’s Single-A affiliate in Dunedin today, per an announcement by the minor league club. Ryu, 36, is rehabbing after undergoing Tommy John surgery last season and, per MLB.com, was sitting 87-88 with his fastball during his previous rehab outing in the Florida Complex League. That velocity isn’t far from where he’s expected to be at the big league level, and MLB.com indicates that Ryu could return “within the month” after building up to take on a starter’s workload. Ryu’s return could help shore up Toronto’s rotation depth down the stretch, an area that GM Ross Atkins highlighted as a focus ahead of the trade deadline on August 1.
Rockies Sign Wynton Bernard To Minor League Deal
In a move that eluded MLBTR last week, the Rockies recently signed outfielder Wynton Bernard to a minor league contract. He was assigned to Triple-A Albuquerque and has already appeared in six games there.
It’s a familiar setting for the minor league journeyman. Bernard spent most of the 2021-22 campaigns in Albuquerque as well. After more than a decade in the minors, he reached the majors last August when Colorado selected his contract. The Niagara product appeared in 12 big league contests, hitting .286/.286/.310 through 42 trips to the dish.
The Rockies outrighted Bernard off their 40-man roster at season’s end. He signed a non-roster pact with the Blue Jays in January and spent the bulk of the year with their top affiliate in Buffalo. Through 264 plate appearances, the right-handed hitter put together a solid .271/.360/.393 batting line. He walked at a strong 11.4% clip, kept his strikeout rate a tad below 20%, and stole 15 bases in 18 tries.
Toronto released Bernard a week ago. He signed back with Colorado a day later to again offer non-roster depth at all three outfield spots. The Rockies could look to move impending free agents Jurickson Profar and Randal Grichuk at this summer’s trade deadline, which might open a late-season opportunity for Bernard to get another look at the highest level.
Blue Jays To Recall Alek Manoah For Friday Start
The Blue Jays will recall Alek Manoah to start Friday’s game, manager John Schneider tells reporters, including Shi Davidi of Sportsnet.
The Manoah storyline has been one of the more unusual ones in baseball this season. He broke out in 2021 with a 3.22 ERA over 20 starts in his rookie season. He then took things to another level in 2022 with a 2.24 ERA over 31 starts, logging 196 2/3 innings on the year. He finished third in American League Cy Young voting last year, trailing only Justin Verlander and Dylan Cease.
But he followed that up with immense struggles here in 2023. Through 13 starts, he was tagged for a 6.36 ERA. His strikeout rate dropped from last year’s 22.9% figure to just 17% this year. His walk rate climbed from 6.5% to 14.9%. The situation finally became untenable after a start against the Astros in which he recorded just one out but allowed six earned runs.
It was at that point that the club made the decision to option Manoah, but they didn’t just send him to Triple-A. They sent him to Dunedin, where their Single-A and Complex League clubs play and the club also houses various resources to help pitchers with their mechanics and other fine points of pitching.
It was about three weeks later that he actually pitched in a minor league game, allowing 11 earned runs in a Complex League contest at the end of June. That was followed up with a more encouraging Double-A start on Sunday wherein he allowed just one run in five innings, striking out 10 while walking three. Schneider tells Keegan Matheson of MLB.com that Manoah was able to make a small tweak to get his mechanics to where they were during his successful 2022 season and the club has decided to give him another shot facing big league hitters.
With Manoah gone, the club didn’t fill his rotation spot with a fixed solution. Alongside the four consistent rotation members of Kevin Gausman, Chris Bassitt, José Berríos and Yusei Kikuchi, they frequently deployed bullpen games that leaned heavily on pitchers like Trevor Richards and Bowden Francis. If Manoah can make a successful return, it would help the club stabilize the rotation and avoid further taxing the relief corps. Though if it doesn’t work out, Hyun Jin Ryu has begun a rehab assignment and could perhaps step up in a few weeks’ time.
The progression of both Manoah and Ryu will be an interesting storyline to watch, with less than a month remaining until this year’s August 1 trade deadline. General manager Ross Atkins recently spoke about how the rotation was an “obvious” target for the club, though he also mentioned that the status of both Manoah and Ryu were going to be factors in their approach. The Jays are currently 45-40, which places them 2.5 games out of a playoff spot.
Even if Manoah is now up for good, it’s possible that his time in the minors has pushed back his ability to qualify for arbitration by a year. He came into this season with his service time at one year and 130 days, meaning the highest he could get here in 2023 would be 2.130. That would have left him shy of three years and automatic qualification, though he would have been in decent position to qualify as a Super Two player, but the missed time will now hurt his chances in that regard.
Hyun Jin Ryu To Begin Rehab Assignment
Blue Jays left-hander Hyun Jin Ryu will begin a rehab assignment on July 4, reports Scott Mitchell of TSN. Mitchell adds that Ryu is apparently in great shape, having lost about 30 pounds.
The lefty underwent Tommy John surgery in June of last year and has long maintained he’s targeting a return in July of this year. He’ll likely need a few weeks of rehab to build back up to a starter’s workload but the July target still seems within reach. Rehab assignments for pitchers come with a 30-day maximum length.
The return of Ryu figures to be a key storyline for the Jays in the coming weeks. General manager Ross Atkins spoke this week about how the rotation was an “obvious area” for the club to address at the upcoming deadline but that the club would “balance” that against the status of Ryu and Alek Manoah.
Manoah is in a very different situation to Ryu, as he doesn’t have an injury but merely suffered immense struggles to start the season. After posting a 2.24 ERA last year and finishing third in Cy Young voting, he was shelled for a disastrous 6.36 ERA through 13 starts this year and optioned down to the lower levels of the Jays’ system. He was recently tagged for 11 earned runs in 2 2/3 innings in a Complex League start.
With Manoah getting bumped from the rotation, the Jays are down to four regular starters in Kevin Gausman, Chris Bassitt, José Berríos and Yusei Kikuchi. Thankfully, all four of those hurlers have been pitching well to varying degrees, with Bassitt’s 4.06 ERA the highest of the bunch, and the club has been able to buttress that group with the occasional bullpen game featuring Bowden Francis and Trevor Richards in bulk roles.
That group has helped the club stay afloat in the tight American League race, as their 45-37 record gives them possession of the final Wild Card spot for the moment. However, they are only half a game up on the Astros with the Angels and other clubs not too far behind. Going into the postseason run with a shorthanded rotation would obviously be less than ideal.
If Ryu can get back into peak form, that would be a tremendous boost for the Jays, but that’s not a guarantee for a 36-year-old coming off a long layoff. He signed a four-year, $80MM deal with the Jays after 2019 and was brilliant in the first season. He posted a 2.69 ERA in the shortened 2020 season and finished third in Cy Young voting that year. His ERA climbed to 4.37 the year after, but still had strong peripherals and a 4.02 FIP. His ERA climbed even further to 5.67 last year before the surgery, but that was in just seven starts and his diminished velocity suggests the elbow may have already been hampering him.
The trade deadline is on August 1 this year, giving the Jays roughly a month to evaluate their overall rotation picture and decide how aggressively to pursue starting pitching upgrades. That will make the progress of Ryu and Manoah an interesting storyline to watch in the weeks to come. It will also be important for Ryu from a personal perspective, as he’s now in the final season of his contract and slated to return to the open market in a few months.
Rotation Remains Potential Deadline Focus For Blue Jays
Blue Jays general manager Ross Atkins met with reporters this afternoon. With the deadline in a little over a month, Toronto’s front office leader called the starting rotation the “obvious area” for the team to address (relayed by Keegan Matheson of MLB.com).
Atkins noted the team would “balance” the desire for an external upgrade with potential MLB returns of Hyun Jin Ryu and Alek Manoah. Those pitchers are in dramatically different spots but both high-variance options at this point. Ryu is working back from last June’s Tommy John procedure. He has been targeting a return shortly after the All-Star Break.
Manoah is healthy but in the minor leagues. Toronto optioned last year’s AL Cy Young third-place finisher to their Florida organizational complex three weeks back. He’d posted a stunning 6.36 ERA through his first 13 starts, leading the club to try to get him back on track in a lower-pressure environment.
He returned to game action this week but was tagged for 11 runs in 2 2/3 innings by the Yankees’ rookie ball affiliate. Atkins said today he still “absolutely” expects Manoah to return to the MLB level in 2023 (via Ben Nicholson-Smith of Sportsnet). He’ll throw a bullpen session on Friday before the Jays decide their next steps.
For the moment, the Jays are rolling with a starting group of Kevin Gausman, José Berríos, Chris Bassitt and Yusei Kikuchi. They don’t have a set fifth starter since sending Manoah down. Trevor Richards has kicked off three bullpen games in that spot and pitched well, but he’s only working three-inning stints. It’s obviously not an ideal setup, even with the likes of Mitch White and Bowden Francis capable of taking multiple innings of relief behind him.
Gausman is one of the best pitchers in the game. Berríos has bounced back from a rough 2022 campaign. While Bassitt’s first season in Toronto has been inconsistent, the club isn’t going to bump him from the rotation in year one of a three-year free agent deal. Kikuchi has a 3.75 ERA and quality strikeout and walk numbers over 16 starts, but he has surrendered an MLB-leading 20 homers.
Getting either Ryu or Manoah back would theoretically fill the rotation. Yet neither player is a lock to perform well and everyone aside from Gausman has been shaky at times in the not too distant past. Toronto lacks reliable depth beyond the top four — hence the Richards bullpen games — and they’ve been fortunate to avoid an injury to any of their starters (Ryu’s surgery rehab aside).
Adding another starter indeed looks like an obvious goal for the front office. Atkins acknowledged a few weeks back the club was scouring the market. They’re firmly in a win-now window and would be justified in targeting either impending free agents (i.e. Lucas Giolito or Jordan Montgomery) or players with multiple seasons of club control. Even at 44-37, Toronto is in fourth place in the loaded AL East. They’re tied with the Angels and mere percentage points back of the Yankees for the final two Wild Card spots in the Junior Circuit.
Blue Jays Place Alejandro Kirk On Injured List
The Blue Jays placed catcher/designated hitter Alejandro Kirk on the 10-day injured list in advance of tonight’s game in Miami. He’s dealing with a laceration on his left hand. Toronto also optioned Bowden Francis to Triple-A Buffalo, recalling reliever Trent Thornton and backstop Tyler Heineman to take the active roster spots.
Kirk took a Jon Gray fastball off his hand during yesterday’s loss to the Rangers. He came out of the game, with Danny Jansen hopping in behind the plate. While postgame x-rays fortunately didn’t reveal any fractures, Kirk will still need at least a week and a half to recuperate. It halts what has been an uncharacteristically middling offensive season for the right-handed hitter. Kirk is hitting .253/.337/.331 over 202 trips to the plate.
He started the season well, putting up a .274/.418/.387 line through the end of April. Over the past month and a half, he’s managed only a .241/.285/.302 showing. Jansen, who’ll get the bulk of the catching reps while Kirk is out, has been on an opposite trajectory. He had a .179/.246/.375 slash through the season’s first month-plus but has found his power stroke with a .235/.286/.506 mark going back to May 1.
Heineman is the only other catcher on the 40-man roster. He’ll get the nod as Jansen’s backup for now. He’s made six MLB appearances since Toronto acquired him from the Pirates at the end of April.
