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Chapter 1: What are Ben's takeaways from the Blue Jays' recent sweep?
Hey everyone, and welcome to At The Letters for Friday, June 19th, 2026. Ben Nicholson-Smith here with you. Just me today on this episode produced by Christian Ryan. Arden is by now, we think, in Chicago preparing for another day game in another city. Blue Jays obviously played in Boston. Then that leads to travel, rapid turnaround. So Arden is fully in transit.
Look for him on the broadcast tomorrow. And for now, it's just me. But I actually think there's a fair amount to get to. So I did want to sit down, just rattle off a few thoughts here, including on the sweep of the Red Sox. That is massive for this team. Just a little big picture thought on how the Blue Jays might approach some trades when it comes to this summer.
Chapter 2: How significant is the trade deadline for the Blue Jays?
I'm not going to go in there and try to speculate on names. Too early for that. But just... A big picture thought on where they might stand and how they might approach things. A little follow-up on the rule change that we talked about earlier in the week. And a couple more thoughts, rapid fire, before I step aside here. So with that, let's start with the sweep.
Chapter 3: What are the implications of the Blue Jays' playoff position?
I mean, this is massive. This is a sweep of a division rival. The first sweep that the Blue Jays have had since the opening series of the season. Like, it's been a while since they just rattled off some wins and... and swept an opponent. So this is a big deal. They are now 37-38 as we record this.
chance to get to 500 if they just win a series against the Cubs not an easy thing to do necessarily but certainly within their grasp they win a series they're at 500 coming home for an extended homestand so this is once again getting to a getting to a good point we saw before when they got to 500 in Baltimore then struggled after that so there's still work to do of course but as we discuss this right now in playoff position a game below 500 is
They're in this thing. The playoff odds are again above 50%, 53.4%. So they're in a solid spot. And we all know it could be better with better performances. It could be better if they had had better health. We can go down the list, but they're still in a solid spot here. And with that, there were a lot of positives from that series against the Red Sox.
So I want to touch on some of those and touch on what we learned, what we saw on the positive front, get to at least one negative from that series, and also touch on a couple, I would say, questions that are raised, that have been raised since we spoke a few days ago here on At The Letter. So to start with some of the positives.
Chapter 4: What positives emerged from the Blue Jays' series against the Red Sox?
Davis Schneider, power, outburst. I mean, this is the right-handed bench bat that the Blue Jays have needed. It was not a good start to the season for Davis Schneider. Goes down to the minors, basically walks nonstop at AAA, comes back up, and he's swinging it, like really making good contact. making contact in close games at Fenway where he seems to love to hit. So that's a big deal.
They have so many left-handed hitting outfielders. Having a right-handed hitter who can get to some power, that's a big deal. And we saw the lineup for the Blue Jays in games against left-handed starting pitchers like a Peyton Tolley.
It's a pretty good-looking lineup when you have David Schneider rolling and Miles Straw playing a really good center field in there as that righty-hitting center fielder. So that is a positive. Then, speaking of power, you get to George Springer. Career home run number 300. And just more signs that maybe this is turning around for him. Starting to look a little more comfortable.
Stealing some bases, hitting some homers. These are the things that we saw George Springer do last year. And if he can build on that, that is a big deal for this offense. Again, on the power front, Vlad Jr., home run, took him a while to get to that fourth home run, still hasn't hit one at home.
And I think everyone who's following this team probably has more questions and needs to see more from Vlad Guerrero Jr., but look. it starts with one swing. It starts, uh, you know, with, with a couple, couple big, uh, big moments like that. And then you can potentially build some momentum. So for him to get that home run, that's great.
It's still, he's certainly pretty low on the home run leaderboard for, on the season tied with guys like Caleb Durbin, junking Lee. So he's got to do more, but that is, that's the kind of swing you want to see.
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Chapter 5: How did the bullpen perform during the Red Sox series?
Um, more positives from that Red Sox series. When you look at the bullpen game on the Tuesday, or I should say the Wednesday, the middle game of that series, the one where Max Scherzer was supposed to start, then all of a sudden they kind of go to a bullpen game started by Braden Fisher and they make things work all the way to Louisville and to the very end.
I mean, that's impressive work by those relievers and they didn't allow a run in that game. They were able to And I know the Red Sox are kind of a disaster and they're struggling, but they're still a major league team and it's still Fenway Park. It's not the easiest place to pitch. So I think the relievers deserve some credit there.
And all the way to Mason Fluharty in the finale to get a save in those circumstances with Varlin down, Hoffman, Rodgers down. Fluharty steps in, gets it done. So that's what you want to see. They have leaned a lot on that bullpen. And in this series, they stepped up. And I would also connect that to the starting rotation where you have Trey Savage finally not walking anyone.
Chapter 6: What are the potential trade strategies for the Blue Jays?
There was that period of time for a few starts where he was just walking too many hitters. And finally on Thursday, zero walks. He did allow a couple homers late against the bottom of the order. Ultimately, Red Sox tied the game and the Jays took the lead and went ahead against Chapman in the ninth there. But
Still a very strong start by Trey Savage, and I'd almost rather see him allow two home runs late as opposed to walking everyone early and then trying to recover from that and work around those walks. So I would see that as a big positive for him. Additionally, it's not just any team that you're sweeping, that you're beating. It's the Red Sox, and that's a team that's trying to get back in it.
And by sweeping them, the Blue Jays push that goal further off into the distance. And you hear and see some of the quotes coming out of that clubhouse after the game. These come from Chris Cotillo, who covers the Red Sox. Sonny Gray, we're not good. We're just not a good team right now. That's just a fact. We got swept at home, swept at home in division. It doesn't get worse than that.
It's time to go on a streak or we're going to be having new players in this locker room. We've just got to figure it out. So this is a division rival that's knocked down. This is a team that probably expected to be adding as opposed to subtracting. Not probably, they expected to be adding for sure. And now the standings are what they are to a point that
there's not really much discussion to be had. As IKF said, unless they go on a big streak soon, they're going to be sellers. And so that's actually also a good thing for the Blue Jays because if you're a buyer, which the Blue Jays certainly intend to be, then you got to have someone selling and you got to have some reasonably good major league players that you can talk about adding.
So from all of those standpoints, the power of, the bullpen, Trey Savage knocking the Red Sox down, pushing them into more and more of an uncomfortable position. All of those things are huge, and I would say it's the biggest series win of the season so far. They haven't necessarily... Had that many sweeps to choose from. So, yeah, you take a sweep to get yourself close to 500 on the road.
I would say this is a really big one. Playoff odds, again, above 50%. Of course, they have lots of work to do. Of course, they could still fall out of it, right, if they go one and six in their next week. But this was big heading into that series against the Cubs in Chicago. Now, a couple negatives, too, and a couple developments that I'll put in the we'll see category.
Negative, Max Scherzer on the aisle. And we know he struggled this year. We know the home runs have been an issue. We know the overall performance just hasn't been there. But you need starting pitching. You need innings.
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Chapter 7: What rule changes are being discussed in Major League Baseball?
And there's still something there with Scherzer if he can get healthy. Or at least you want to see if there's something there. This is the time to find out. You don't want to wait.
indefinitely this is yeah give him the ball in June see what he can do if it doesn't work out okay you have more information but if it does then that can help you for a period of time instead he's on the injured list with a back issue And unclear what, you know, how long he's going to be out.
Doesn't sound like he thinks it's going to be a super long absence, but, you know, he's sidelined, clearly, for the time being. So that's not good. And, yeah, they have Shane Bieber coming back, potentially, but... You always want to have more options.
And if Max Scherzer could have gotten back to the guy that he was at times last year, to the guy that even he was for a start or two early this season, then that would have helped. But no, that's not the case. Now, these next two I'm going to put in the category of we'll see. I don't want to say they're clear positives. I don't want to say they're clear negatives. But Simeon Woods Richardson...
goes out there, pitches three innings. This is in the middle game on Wednesday. And he keeps the Red Sox scoreless. So on the surface, great. That's good. I got to admit, I see a 410-foot fly ball off the bat that Miles Straw catches. I see three hits in three innings. I see three walks in three innings and just one strikeout. And I'm not... I'm not sold completely on SWR yet.
Now, he was better in the first time he pitched for the Blue Jays at Rogers Center last week. Maybe there are better things ahead. We'll see. He certainly was a very good major league, or I should say a serviceable major league starting pitcher from 24 to 25, so there could be something there. I'm not ruling it out, but
I actually think despite the fact that that was a scoreless appearance, when you're walking three and allowing that much hard contact, wouldn't say I really loved what I saw there. So that's kind of in the we'll see category for me. And then secondly, Shane Bieber. So he made his latest rehab start for AAA Buffalo this week. Five runs allowed, seven hits, four walks.
He struck out two and he pitched five innings. Building up the pitch count, that's good. Fastball, average 91.8, topped out at 93. So, again, I don't want to say, like, oh, this is definitively good or definitively bad.
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Chapter 8: What should we expect from the Blue Jays in their upcoming series against the Cubs?
Certainly the line isn't great. I was in there watching it. I can't tell you how much, you know, the defense impacted things or maybe he was executing his pitches perfectly and the opposing hitters just squared up these nicely ā Placed pitches on the corners. I don't know. So this is where I put it in the we'll see category.
But I do think that, you know, if he's at 91-8 with his fastball, he's going to have to really be pinpoint with it. And Shane Bieber can be pinpoint. He has good command. He has really, really good command. And he knows how to pitch, if you'll allow that cliche. I think that he has a pretty good sense at this point in his major league career of how to keep hitters off balance. But...
91-8 for a right-handed pitcher is pretty low. So he is going to need that command. He is going to need that feel for his secondaries. And he's going to need his defense. So that's where I put that one in the we'll see category. Possible that Shane Bieber pitches at the MLB level for the Blue Jays as soon as Monday.
Not sure exactly how they are going to line up their pitching against the Astros for this coming week. But that would be one option. So those are my thoughts from the Red Sox series overall. Great series. They're in it. And that's pretty significant. So with that, step aside.
Then I'll come back, share some thoughts on the deadline, share some thoughts on some of the latest news from around Major League Baseball. And we'll get to that very soon on At The Letters. All right. Welcome back to At The Letters. A few more thoughts to get to here on this Friday episode ahead of the Cubs series.
And like I said, I want to just touch on big picture deadline thoughts because, again, it's it's too soon to say, oh, this is the player they need to be getting. It's too soon really to even know who will be available because. There are teams that are still hoping to go 7-2 and get back in it. And it's just that time of year where there's more speculation than there is actual traction.
With that said, if you're the Blue Jays big picture, you're thinking about this now. And for a lot of buyers, how they're going to look at this from a front office lens is, okay, where can we improve the most? Like where is the bar currently lowest that we can then raise it and just ā Make the biggest upgrade. So that starts with looking at your biggest weakness.
Turn that into maybe a major league average player. Sometimes improving on a weakness is better than improving on somewhere that you're already average and you want to become great. Plugging those holes, filling those gaps can be just as important. You've got relief pitching. You've got starting pitching.
You've got the possibility of, hey, could you get a blockbuster position player who's an everyday player who transforms things? That's the dream. You'd love to do that if that's possible. But more often than not, the position players traded at the trade deadline are bench bats, platoon outfielders. You see those players moved on a regular basis, and I'm sure that'll be the case this year as well.
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