Chapter 1: What recent series have the Blue Jays won?
The Toronto Blue Jays just keep winning series, asterisk, as long as they're not against the Tampa Bay Rays. If you go back to April 19th now, they played 11 series. They've won seven of them. They've split two of them. And the only two series losses are to Tampa Bay. Now, because you lost five or six to Tampa Bay, your record over that time is only 20 and 16.
You undid a little bit of the work, but the Blue Jays win two to one yesterday to take a series loss. against the Miami Marlins after dropping the opener and don't look now. Everything has gone wrong. There are a million injuries.
Chapter 2: What impact have injuries had on the Blue Jays' season?
There are only two guys left in the rotation of the nine options they entered the season with. But the Blue Jays are tied for a playoff spot this morning, and it's May 28th, so we're not looking at that too, too closely. But when it comes to all this stuff has gone wrong, where is the season? What are the next couple months look like? The division is a long way away at eight and a half games.
But the proximity to a playoff spot is there. The American League has not gotten out of first gear outside of the Yankees and the Rays. And the Rays, by the way, who just got swept by this Orioles team that the Jays are going to play for against this weekend. So 2-1 win yesterday. A whole bunch of roster churn.
Chapter 3: How does the Blue Jays' roster churn affect their performance?
If you missed it, our Shai Davidi reporting that Charles McAdoo is coming up for end of the show from when he was acquired the other year. He was the return in the Isaiah kind of falafel trade with the Pittsburgh Pirates in 2024. That 2024 deadline has fingerprints all over this team right now.
And guys who are close like RJ Shrek, who was on the show last week, Jay Harry, who's having a really good show. Really good show. A really good start to the year at AA. We talked with Sean Keyes about him last week. So cool to see the returns from that. We'll talk about that with Shai Davidi in just a moment. To give you the lineup for the show today...
Chapter 4: What are the current standings in the American League?
Oh, also thank you to show Ali and Nick Ashburn for filling in yesterday. I was on the radio call and logistically, it just didn't line up. So a great job by those guys with Nick Wilson and Spencer miles and Chris Rose. So thank you to them for that. We'll talk to shy to VD momentarily.
We've got John Becker, a fan graphs a little later, Melanie Newman of Masson will join to get the Orioles side of this series. I understand logistically why that we haven't done this in Toronto. The Orioles had bark at the park yesterday, and our old pal Ben Wagner was, like, in the booth on the call carrying puppies. And next time I'm on radio, I would like to have that as well.
Chris Colabella will join us at the back end as well. That's today's show. Let's talk to Shai Davidi of Sportsnet about a lot of stuff today. Shai, how we doing, buddy? All right, how you doing, Blake? I'm good over here. There is a lot of transaction stuff to get to, but before we get to that, the Jays win another series.
They're now tied for a playoff spot to the amount that that matters to you on May 28th. When you look at everything that has not gone the right way in terms of injury and performance so far this year, is this kind of just like what they've got to do right now? Just stay around the periphery of a playoff spot and hope that things move in the right direction as we go here?
Oh, for sure.
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Chapter 5: What is the status of the CBA negotiations?
And it's kind of interesting. I was talking to an executive earlier this week, and we were just talking about the slate of injuries and even before this latest round and what the Blue Jays have endured this season. And one of the points that I'd made is if you think back to some of the teams, maybe in the early 2010s that the Blue Jays have put together, it's
If they had gone through a similar slate of injuries, they'd probably be 10, 12 games under 500 at this point. And for the Blue Jays to have hovered around is a byproduct of some of the organizational depth that they have. And you were talking a bit about the returns of the 2024 trade deadline.
And that's really a factor in how the Blue Jays have managed to stay afloat because, you know, Pinango is part of that. Obviously, McAdoo is part of that. The Brandon Velazuela is part of the return from that because Wagner ends up getting traded for him. And then another piece of the Yusei Kikuchi deal, Joey Loprafito turns into Jesus Sanchez.
And so you just get assets from that and then you have depth and then you
you're replacing injured players or you're covering gaps without having to just go through waivers and and depending on whatever you can get now on the pitching side they've had to do that a little bit and uh that you know i mean the blue jays built in a lot of pitching depth and even that turned out to not be enough uh just because that adage the cliche whatever you want to call it is just so true that you never have enough pitching but
The fact that they have some upper level organizational depth right now is part of the reason that they've managed to stay afloat. And as they start getting some of their guys back, they're going to have some surplus from which to trade potentially. They're going to have opportunities to do other things to bolster this group for a run deeper into the playoffs.
Yeah, it's great. That 2024 trade tree that you mentioned there, and Jake Bloss is, you know, he threw four at the need in his last time out. We're probably only a couple weeks away from talking about him as a potential. You know, could he resolve one of the rotation spots for a little bit there?
Pinyongo was the return for Nate Pearson, RJ Schreck and Jay Harry, and there are a bunch of other guys in the minor.
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Chapter 6: How has Craig Albernaz performed as a coach for the Orioles?
They picked up 14 guys at the deadline last year, and I think 13 are either still in the organization or... turned into another guy like with Valenzuela and the Will Wagner trade there. So there is one of those names that is going to be much more familiar to Blue Jays fans later today in Baltimore because you reported last night after the game that Charles McAdoo is on his way.
Again, the return for Isaiah Kiner-Falefa from the Pittsburgh Pirates at the 2024 deadline. We had him on the show then. His performance when he initially came to the organization was not all that strong, and there were question marks about, you know, what is he as a hitter? What is he as a fielder? But he has been one of the standout guys with the Buffalo Bisons this year.
What can you tell us about this call-up and what's gone into the decision of, you know, McAdoo over other options or patience with guys on the roster?
Well, I think that, and I don't know the counter, but I'm guessing the fact that the Blue Jays were working out both Myles Straw and Brandon Velazuela in the infield before yesterday's game is connected to this and just how beat up they are. And then even yesterday after the game, talking to Kazuma Okamoto, who hit the home run that ended up giving the Jays the win there,
He's got one ice pack on his forearm from the pitch that hit him on Tuesday. He's got another ice pack on his back from the pitch that hit him yesterday. They have a lot of guys who are pretty sore. Vladimir Guerrero Jr. obviously was hit on Sunday in the Pirates series. It was six hit by pitch in the series against the Marlins. That takes a toll, right? The Blue Jays are also 17 and 17.
So McAdoo is a corner infielder.
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Chapter 7: What insights does Chris Colabello share about hitting fastballs?
Interestingly, he's gotten a few reps at second base. I'm not sure what the comfort level is with him there, but at least he's somewhat familiar with another position there too. And the Blue Jays can use that flexibility. And both Vladimir Guerrero Jr. and Okamoto are beat up. It's a right-handed bat that fits. And Lenin Sosa, a guy who was playing first and second,
He got hit on the hand, and he wasn't available yesterday because the hand was so sore. So is he maybe headed to the injured list? I'm not sure at this point what that's going to be.
Chapter 8: What are the expectations for the upcoming series against the Orioles?
But I think that this is someone who can play both corner and field spots. He's got some power. He's got a bit of an approach. the Blue Jays have liked them from an offensive standpoint and where they weren't intending to trade Isaiah kind of falafel at the 24 deadline. But when McAdoo was on the table, they were like, okay, we got to do this.
And so the only way they were doing that trade is if, is if McAdoo was on the table and McAdoo, He's had some hard times. Initially, when he came over, beginning of last season, spent some time, I believe, on the dev list, getting a bit of a reset. That helped him. He had a strong finish and a good showing at camp this spring.
And talking to people in recent days, this didn't come out of the blue. People felt that he'd been knocking on the door a little bit. And the fact that he's a right-handed hitter with a little bit of pop is something that they could use right now.
Yeah, it's a fun development. You know, you look at his offensive numbers and he's still got the eight home runs. But as he upped the level, strikeouts came down, walks came up. Usually we see the opposite there. He's always been a batted ball metric guy, but now he appears to be getting it from a swing decision standpoint. And, Shai, he's my favorite kind of guy.
And I talked to Sean Keyes last week. He's also one of these kind of guys. Charles McAdoo stole 34 bases last year. And he does not look like a guy who's going to steal 34 bases. Obviously, we're all very fond of Josh Naylor here and the season he put together last year. I know the Jays aren't going to have much of a green light.
Even, you know, yesterday was one of the craziest scorebooks that I can remember having. But maybe a little bit of speed that they can inject there as well with McAdoo.
Yeah, some baseball IQ, stolen bases for sure. And look, the Blue Jays are a team that wants to take advantage of any opportunity that presents itself during a game. That was something that they did really well last year. And it was a degree of the relentlessness that they played with, whether, you know, defensively, they weren't going to give you very much offensively.
They were just putting the ball in play, constant pressure. And I think that's what the Blue Jays have been trying to get back to at the plate, which they've, which has been really a work in progress over the course of this season. But I think the Blue Jays, from a defensive perspective, yesterday was a clinic for the Blue Jays in terms of handling the running game.
Not so much on Berlin's end, who, you know, we should all love something as much as they loved making outs on the bases yesterday. But... This is just more tools for the toolkit, right? And the Blue Jays are trying to get back offensively to that consistent pressure from across the lineup. Again, it's something that they've struggled with to have a consistent approach.
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