JTP: Ryan Casteel, White Sox Check-In & Can Toronto Rebound?
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How dire is the Blue Jays' situation after the All‑Star break and what stretch defines their trade‑deadline direction?
Oh boy, did it feel good to set those fantasy lineups this morning. Four days, too long. And I know there was a game yesterday, but I am not particularly invested roster-wise in the Mets and Phillies, it turns out. Shout out to AJ Ewing, though. It was nice to be able to get back into morning routine, have the coffee, set the lineups, no box scores to peruse or anything like that. But baseball is back, and Toronto Blue Jays baseball is back this evening. 7.15 start time tonight as they take on the White Sox. It is... Not to state the obvious, but a very important stretch of baseball here. The Blue Jays come out of the All-Star break six games under .500, dead last in the American League East, two and a half games back of the final wildcard spot.
The trade deadline is 17 days away. As far as decision-making points go, the Blue Jays have 13 games in 13 days beginning today, and you would probably want to determine a direction by the end of that stretch so that you have a full weekend to operate your business. And there are scenarios in which the Blue Jays are doing a bit of buy and a bit of sell. Looking ahead to next year's roster and where the gaps are, not entirely punting on 2026 the rest of the way in case they make a push. But Ben Nicholson Smith with some good numbers in his article today at Sportsnet.ca that basically, unless this is going to be the worst wildcard spot of all time, the Jays are probably going to have to go at least 10 games over 500 the rest of the way.
They have not shown us at any point this year that they're a team capable of being 10 games over 500 for a little under half a season. Now, this is largely the same group that did that last year, and it was pretty damn good for long stretches. So where you're... willingness to believe they can do that lies is going to vary person to person. Today, we will get you set for this White Sox series. We'll talk to James Fagan of Sox Machine, and that'll be a lot of fun. One of my favorite writers, and he's a White Sox guy. We're also going to talk to Ryan Castile. He is the manager of the Dunedin Blue Jays. So as we start to see some of these draft guys pop up and other guys get elevated, good time to check in with the manager of Dunedin.
He was also in AAA, like, a year and a half ago. So that'll be fun to chat with him as well. Trisha Whitaker will join us. It is a Friday night baseball on Apple TV plus game tonight. So as a reminder, we will not have a sports at broadcast tonight. It's on Apple TV, but we will have it on the blue Jays radio network and on Apple TV. You can toggle over to hear Ben and Chris LaRue. If that's so suits you. Let's. Take a kind of zoom out. We've done a lot of this this week because there've been no games, but let's take a zoom out here at the unofficial midway point of the season and look ahead to the stretch run here with Caitlin McGrath, who is on Jay's talk this weekend, pre and post game on Sunday. She joins us now.
Caitlin, how are we doing?
I'm good.
How are you?
I am pretty good. I'm very thankful that there's baseball back for the purposes of this show. How are you feeling generally at the kind of, I know it's not like statistically, like mathematically 96 games is not the midway point of 162, but we tend to talk about the all-star break as a midway point. How are you feeling kind of big picture right now?
I think big picture, you're not feeling great about the Blue Jays. I think that overall, you've been disappointed with the first half for a lot of different reasons. Injury really impacted the team, not particularly. Not performing to their expectation, especially on the offensive side, has been disappointing. I guess the saving grace for the Blue Jays and for a lot of these teams has just been the relative weakness of the American League. That has given them hope, I suppose, that has kept them in the race despite being six games behind. under 500 but I think it's like what two and a half games out of the wildcard spot that last wildcard spot so there's some hope there and it's a reason why you're not
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Chapters
4 chapters
1
How dire is the Blue Jays' situation after the All‑Star break and what stretch defines their trade‑deadline direction?
0:16–16:56
2
What went wrong in Toronto’s first half — which injuries and underperforming veterans matter most?
16:56–52:36
3
Which Blue Jays players are most likely to rebound down the stretch and who’s under the most pressure?
52:36–1:17:55
4
What would a Blue Jays sell‑off look like at the deadline and who might be traded?
1:17:55–1:39:52
Speakers
6 identifiedMore from Blue Jays Talk
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