Chapter 1: What recent roster moves have the Blue Jays made?
Welcome to At The Letters for Thursday, May 28th, 2026. The Blue Jays are on the road and Arden Swelling is with them in Baltimore after a 4-2 homestand. Blue Jays putting together a little bit of momentum. I am Ben Nicholson-Smith, joined by Arden Swelling. Arden, how's Baltimore?
uh not bad so far we uh we just got here it's gonna be four games uh in a small ballpark between uh two teams i think you could say are our rivals i don't know if you'd say like bitter rivals i don't know if there's a ton of recent history of these teams having uh spirited backs back and forth but just by uh just by playing each other as often as as they do there's a lot of familiarity there a lot of good young players a lot of power uh could be a lot of runs scored we'll see
Yeah, it's not quite like the Blue Jays-Marlins rivalry that we saw this week with hit batters left and right. John Schneider chirping Uri Perez. That, you know, got a little bit heated at least. But no, seriously, I do think that the Orioles-Blue Jays rivalry is real. I'd say the Blue Jays-Yankees one is probably their biggest one right now. Dodgers, I guess. Blue Dodgers-Yankees.
Those are probably up there. But Orioles definitely in that conversation and they're not playing great. So even after a big win on Wednesday, Orioles struggling. So as the Blue Jays face them, both these teams looking at this series as a chance to get to 500. This isn't a chance to, you know, really build on a strong start. It's more to kind of right the ship, so to speak.
Chapter 2: How has Charles McAdoo performed in the minor leagues?
And we are going to talk about a lot of pending roster shuffles and roster decisions here as we record this on the morning of May 28th. And front and center in that, Charles McAdoo on his way to the major leagues for the first time.
Yeah, this is going to be pretty interesting. He's had a really, he's had a cool year at AAA because this guy who's always had a lot of power, he's always like had big bat speed and a ton of exit velo. But the big difference this year is he's really cut down on his width.
swing and miss and he's really upped his contact ability without sacrificing too much power so it's a little bit of a best of both worlds situation there and it's a credit to the work that he did and you know my understanding is this began last year when he went on the development list I think it was in May or June that he went out there and did some work in the hitting lab and
Dunedin I think he had just gotten way too closed off to the pitcher at the plate and maybe that was limiting his ability just to recognize pitches and to see them deep and you know I was told that he was just flying open too often which obviously is going to impact your ability to to make solid contact so sounds like he really dove into some of that work and made some meaningful adjustments and we're really seeing it show up this year and it's not like he's
As far as I know, it's not like he's coming up to replace an injured player. It seems like he's just earned this call up and the Blue Jays are calling him up because he's going to be better than what they currently have, not because someone's gone on the IL and they need to replace them.
Yeah, exactly. We record this now, seemingly just a promotion on Merritt with a 792 OPS at AAA. He has eight home runs at AAA. He's stolen six bases, strikeouts 40, walks 28. So he's doing a good job of controlling the strike zone, again, against AAA competition. But this is someone with some power, some strike zone judgment. A little bit of base running ability there, too.
And he can play a little bit of first base, third base. He's been playing some second base. So you do get some versatility there. Right-handed bat. So those are some of the key things that you would want to know about Charles McAdoo. Now, I want to get to where he fits on this roster and who...
I will replace on this roster, of course, but also just want to note that very interesting to see the 2024 trade deadline now just coming back full circle and impacting the roster for the Blue Jays because McAdoo was acquired for IKF at the trade deadline when the Blue Jays took over.
traded ikf away before he came back um so that was one of those pickups they also ended up getting uh joey loperfito for use a kikuchi then loperfito became jesus sanchez who also had a huge huge game uh this week and then they traded nate pearson away to the chicago cubs get johendrick pinango back in that trade so quietly i mean it was a very dark dismal time for the blue jays uh that that 2024 summer it was such a disappointing year
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Chapter 3: What impact does the Blue Jays' pitching staff have on their performance?
Will Wagner later became Brandon Valenzuela. So that's a helpful player. And Justin Turner was traded away. They got RJ Schreck, an outfielder who probably will play in the major leagues at some point. So all of that, uh, is, is very interesting. And of course that happened in Baltimore. I remember being there as those trades were happening and, uh,
as those players were all filtering out of the clubhouse in Camden Yards. A couple of years later, they return and are prepared to make an impact. But naturally, if you're adding Charles McAdoo to the major league roster, someone's coming off.
And to me, when I look at a team that's adding a right-handed hitter, someone who can play first base, second base, I mean, I start looking at Lenin Sosa when you look at his performance. So My guess, as we record this this morning, is that it might be Lenny Sosa off the roster for McAdoo.
This is my assumption. And if you're a Blue Jays fan, you better hope that that's what it is. Because the other options are Ernie Clement injury or Vladimir Guerrero Jr. injury. I can't imagine. Or perhaps Kazuma Okamoto injury. And you don't want any of those things.
So presuming those guys are all healthy and have, because we have no reason to assume otherwise, presuming they all made it to Baltimore intact. I don't see any other option other than Lenine Sosa being DFA'd.
Right. We should know Kazuma Okamoto has been hit by a couple pitches by the Marlins in recent days. Seemed to be okay after each of those hit by pitches. And Vlad Guerrero Jr., of course, took one off the elbow. We discussed that last weekend. He has since returned to action and was able to play and get a couple hits, steal a base in the Wednesday game against the Marlins. But you never know.
So we can't fully rule those possibilities out either.
Right. But yeah, those would be the options. So I think the most likely one is that it's Lenny and Sosa hitting waivers. And look, you understood what the Blue Jays were doing at the time that they acquired him from the White Sox. They knew what they were getting themselves into. He's always been a free swinger. He's always been a guy that chased a lot. But, you know, so has Ernie Clement.
And everybody loves Ernie Clement. It's a similar approach from him. The results just haven't been there for Sosa. The power hasn't been there that you saw last season. The Blue Jays were hoping that he was going to run into a few. He wasn't able to. The chase rate elevated to 50% this season from 41% last year. That's a massive number. Very hard to be successful.
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Chapter 4: What challenges are the Blue Jays facing with their outfielders?
So I feel like this is perhaps a similar situation, and I wouldn't be surprised if you see Lenin Sosa go on to look more like the guy who he was with Chicago last year with another organization.
Yeah, Brad Hand comes to mind when you talk about players who just didn't really put it together in Toronto. But like you said, it wouldn't be that shocking if we see Lenin Sosa hitting two home runs in a game next week for the Royals. Now, look, I don't want to get too far ahead of things because we don't know the counter move.
So let's switch over to the pitching side where we can maybe speculate on the counter moves there. And again, we don't want to get too far ahead of things, but we do know that Connor Seabold will be joining the Blue Jays added to the major league roster ahead of Thursday's game. That comes after the addition of Austin Voth to the Major League roster.
Spencer Miles, of course, still in the rotation. And a lot of moving pieces here happening as the Blue Jays try to fill in that Dylan Cease spot in the rotation with Cease now on the IL with the hamstring issue that the Blue Jays continue to describe as mild. But they're trying to fit those pitching pieces together and Seabold will be a part of those plans.
Yeah, he doesn't have options. So he's coming here to be on the big league roster. The Blue Jays didn't trade an asset for him just to then go and DFA him. So he's somebody who we know that they like. They really brought him into spring training as basically starting depth slash bulk relief depth. He was ticketed to...
be a part of Buffalo's rotation or possibly just like a multi-inning reliever for them during spring training. But then he showed up and he was throwing 96. And that's just not something he's done in the past. He's been more so like 92, 93, 94.
And part of this is, you know, I got to know him a bit during spring and he really dove in on his strength program this offseason and really just got after it with that. He also worked with a private pitching coach, Ryan Chapman. This guy's a former Mets minor leaguer, got a player development facility in Irvine, California.
And so working through some movement inefficiencies with with Ryan and just like ironing some things out in his delivery, he was able to.
find some velo and so he showed up in spring throwing 96 and really put himself on on the radar like if you'd ask people around jays during spring who's standing out like who's impressing like seabold's name kept coming up ultimately they get to the end of spring and they just didn't have a roster spot for him um so seabold had an out in his deal and he had not only shown the jay something he'd shown the rest of mlb something so he triggered that out and uh asked for his release got it and then the tigers signed a new split contract so it was like a great result for him as this
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Chapter 5: How are the Blue Jays managing injuries among their players?
And I would think the first of those moves when it comes to adding Seabold to the roster, probably Chase Lee. He has options. And yeah, he just hasn't been missing bats. It hasn't been great for Chase Lee. So I would think that's the first counter move for Seabold.
Take this for what it's worth, but the Buffalo Bisons have announced Josh Fleming as their starter here on Thursday morning. This morning, they're starting at 11 a.m. And so for as much as like a social media graphic can be trusted, he is on the graphic starting for an 11 a.m. start. For an 11 a.m. start. So we'll actually go find out. I mean, we'll find out like during the course.
It's 1030 right now. So we'll find out during the course of recording this whether or not he throws a pitch. But he's on the graphic. So surely that I don't think they would put him on the graphic if he wasn't starting. So. Don't think we're going to see Josh Fleming.
I, for one, trust all social media graphics that I see. So I'm going to take that at full face value. No, I actually do believe this one. And we'll follow up. So stay tuned. We'll update you if... if Josh Fleming does indeed start because, of course, that would rule him out and might mean that, man, that would be two bullpen games then.
And maybe Seabold, Voth, either one of those guys, probably in particular Voth, would be a candidate to give you four or five innings at a time because he has pitched substantial innings in AAA Buffalo. So that's someone who could give you the length that John Schneider was talking about and kind of prevent them from
from having to rely too much on bullpen games, two and five, in the midst of this stretch, Arden, that we've talked about, where they're still in this 17 of 17 stretch. There has not been a lot of rest for this pitching staff.
So this was like maybe a week ago. Now this is pre-cease injury, but I was told that, um, look, if we needed somebody to make a spot start, if we need somebody to be like one and done in the rotation, Austin Voth would be that guy because we could just throw him in and he could give us 85 pitches right now. And, uh,
they'd be capable big league pitches so I don't know like that was pre-cease injury right so I don't know if that means that Voth is just here to make a spot start and then the Blue Jays will see what they're doing going forward I don't know if because Cease is hurt he's going to be here for a while but I know Voth was like on you know he was up there on on the depth chart for the Blue Jays in terms of starting depth so I'm not surprised to see him I'm just curious to
what it'll look like on Saturday. Like, is he thrown behind an opener? Is Siebold the opener? Since, you know, you mentioned the lefty troubles that the Orioles have had, does that mean, like, Adam Macko has a big role to play on Saturday? It's all very, like, up in the air just with the Blue Jays' rotation right now because the only true starters in the rotation are
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Chapter 6: What are the implications of the upcoming trade deadline for the Blue Jays?
but if it's uh middle innings at camden yards and uh you've got a one run or a two run lead and austin vose about to see like a hitter for a third time uh that is a precarious scenario uh so like to your point over the last eight games the blue jays have allowed 2.4 runs to their opponents on average like that is remarkable And they're six and two in these last eight.
I mean, it's really the sole reason why. Like over that stretch, I mean, the only team in the AL that's allowed fewer runs per game are the Yankees, who are somehow allowing 1.7. The Yankees is juggernaut all year long, no matter what happens. But like just the Blue Jays pitching, if it hadn't been going as well as it has been over the last month, really,
we're having some pretty dire conversations, some pretty grim conversations right now, Ben.
Yeah, absolutely. Now, guys like Corbin have been a huge part of that. Spencer Miles has been a huge part of that. So many pitchers in the bullpen. You look at Jeff Hoffman going an inning and a third, and then Varlin for the middle of the order, Rogers to close it out. Those guys have been huge for them. Braden Fisher and Mason Fluharty last I checked.
We're leading, co-leading the American League in appearances by relievers. So then you have guys like Adam Mako coming up. And, yeah, it's been a total team effort. Now, it's not without a toll on these pitchers. And I just want to make a quick note here on Spencer Miles because he's been so good and continued to be good against the Marlins.
They've won the last three games that Spencer Miles has pitched. So that turn in the rotation is really working. But... Just to note, his workload continues to go into uncharted territory. And the swing and miss wasn't really there in that appearance against the Marlins. Five swinging strikes, three strikeouts. And that's fine, but five swinging strikes on 66 pitches is pretty low.
And he was saying afterwards that he wants to... Use his legs more and get a bit more power from the legs. And he's going to have to do that on Sunday on just four days rest. And so as good as he has been, it's not necessarily pure acceleration where it's like 66 pitches last time. Okay, he can go to 80 and just build from there.
There's maybe he needs to plateau for a little bit, stay around 60, 65 pitches and then build later. And I'm not saying that that's definitive. I'm just saying that as you're looking at his health and his buildup, it doesn't have. I mean, people say this all the time when it comes to baseball players. It's not always linear. So that's probably something to keep in mind here with Spencer Miles.
Yeah, season low four seam and sinker velocity his last time out, to your point. The stuff was not the same as we've seen. And you don't want to overreact to just one outing when a guy didn't have his primo stuff. with Spencer miles and the sun charted territory that, uh, you know, this is honestly like grand experiment.
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Chapter 7: How does the Blue Jays' pitching depth affect their game strategy?
And, uh, you know just liners in the worst possible places and uh all of a sudden like the run total is kind of creeping up on him there just because the luck on on balls in play so uh and even just like the home run luck as well like this is a guy who hasn't allowed a homer since early april um Excuse me, since, yeah, since early April. My goodness. Like there's a home run coming.
It's going to happen. Pitchers give up homers, especially when you're on the plate as often as he's been. So as a full credit and full marks to him for what he's done to this point. But yeah, eventually like baseball is going to baseball against Spencer Miles. We just don't know when that's going to happen.
Right. ATL, for the record, extremely impressed by Spencer Miles. But yeah, we're just we're just looking at what's what's happening here. Before we step away, I do want to just note the progress of a few other pitchers here. Tommy Nance and Joe Mantaply throwing and potentially progressing back. That wouldn't take a huge amount of time when it comes to a potential buildup toward a return.
Max Scherzer threw a live sim game at Rogers Center on Wednesday. That went well, according to John Schneider. So Max Scherzer now will figure out next steps, but that could involve a rehab stint before too, too long. Shane Bieber will continue to build up in his second rehab outing on Sunday, but he's not close, close to a return.
My read here, Arden, is probably the relievers might be the closest to getting back. How do you see things?
Yeah, with pitchers, you just never know until they're actually in games. So with Nance and Nantiply, like, how does the throwing go? Like, how do they feel the next day? Right. I mean, Jimmy Garcia was we've we've kind of tracked how things have gone with him. Right. And the fluctuations in his recovery. So. I'm always hesitant to say anything too certain when it comes to pitchers.
At least Bieber's in games. At least we have a plan for him, and we know that the clock is ticking, and we know how the Blue Jays are trying to build him up, and he's making his next rehab start after he made his last one. Uh, that's really encouraging progress. And it seems like by the end of June, you're going to be seeing Bieber in this rotation, which is going to be huge for the blue Jays.
Um, and when it comes to the bullpen guys, we'll see. Uh, but to your point earlier, like Farland Hoffman, Rogers flew already Fisher. These guys have all been used a ton and they are on track for like mid to high 70s appearances this year.
It's completely unsustainable and it does make you somewhat trepidatious or somewhat worried that maybe somebody's shoulder, elbow, arm, hips, legs, neck, whatever is going to start barking at some point because these guys have just thrown so much.
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Chapter 8: What are the latest updates on the Blue Jays' prospects and player development?
Yeah, if you'd asked people in recent years after the Blue Jays acquired Pignongo what his future defensive home is, they would have told you DH. Now he's at least playable in a corner, but you're going to have games like those when you see just some of the indecisiveness and perhaps timidity
at times um you would much more prefer that he's aggressive and assertive and if uh a mistake gets made okay but at least you went for it like at least you you know if you if it's a lack of athleticism or a lack of hand eye or whatever it is like okay but you don't want to be a lack of like certainty in what you should be doing on a given ball and play so
uh yeah that's going to be a work in progress I don't think he's ever going to be a plus defender um you know Charles McAdoo as well like we're going to get a look at him um this week and going forward uh not somebody who's described as a great defender either um and he's gone better with with the Blue Jays as well because that's been a big focus of his development but I mean they've had him at second base a couple of times recently just not a position he's played regularly he's
in years um i know the pirates had some questions about whether he was going to stick at third base the blue jays thought that he could stick at third base but um if you want to talk about like what's his best defensive position it's probably first base uh but the blue jays have a pretty good one of those so um i think we're just gonna continue to see some like
imperfect defensive deployment for this team as they continue to just try to push as much thump as possible into this batting order and to try to score more runs because ultimately like if the Blue Jays fielded their best possible defensive lineup all the time right now I mean they probably score even fewer runs than they are to this point like that's why guys like Jesus Sanchez is playing right field every day and that's why Pinyongo is in there
every day, and that's why McAdoo is up. He didn't earn this call-up because he was making highlight reel plays around the infield. He earned it because he's hitting the ball really hard with authority, and the Blues have a serious lack of that in the big leagues right now.
Right, and look, you work with what you have, and if...
the blue jays had been in a position you know and to go back to 2024 you know if they had acquired a prospect who was an amazing defensive prospect and someone with this kind of offensive ability well then you're talking about a top prospect and you just weren't getting that for justin turner or ikf like it just that's not the kind of value those guys had so you get what you could you you
You work with what you have, you turn them into major leaguers, and then you have to find ways to make the pieces work because, yeah, none of these players are perfect five-tool contributors, really, and that's a rarity in Major League Baseball. toolsiest player on the Blue Jays, Vlad Guerrero Jr., has his limitations.
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