TORONTO – Overseeing a summer of subtraction is a first for Toronto Blue Jays manager John Schneider, who was a first-year big-league coach on then-manager Charlie Montoyo’s 2019 coaching staff when the club was last a trade deadline seller.
In the four seasons between then and now, with Schneider in the skipper’s seat for the last two years, the team was firmly in buy mode, and he was a part of the internal discussions on potential additions that might push the team over the top.
The shopping list is much different for the Blue Jays as they look to turn their rental players into future assets ahead of the July 30 cutoff, although Schneider says his participation remains “similar.”
“There are ways to make your team better adding and subtracting, I guess is the only way to say it,” he said Thursday before a 13-0 loss to the Tampa Bay Rays. “You don’t look too far into matchups, per se, or opponents like you did in years past. But there’s still a lot of dialogue between all of us as to what’s best for people that are here and people that will be here. So it’s similar, but just going about it in a different way.”
To that end, the discussions ahead of this deadline are more focused on wider organizational goals as opposed to immediate win-now help. Those internal conversations happen “all the time,” said Schneider. “It’s not just focused on this week or two weeks. Everyone’s on the same page as to what would be best for us, both minor-league depth and here at the major-league level.”
The asset class he’d target in the club’s upcoming acquisitions?
“Pitching for sure. Starting pitching. Pitching absolutely at the forefront,” said Schneider. “And from there, I think you look at overall talent. You can never, ever have too much pitching. That’s been an area that we’ve talked about for the past year or so.”
The flip side of the coming adds, of course, are the looming subtractions and Schneider said he’s worked to support players facing uncertainty through collective and private discussions.
Chris Bassitt gave voice to the toll being a deadline seller can take on a clubhouse after the loss to the Rays, saying, “there are a lot of so-called demons that a lot of people are fighting right now.”
Asked what he meant by demons, he replied, “everything that’s going on. Being down 12-0. Being down 5-0, whatever it may be. Giving up that many hits. Not being able to hit. The trade deadline. Who’s going to be here. Who’s not going to be here. There are a million different things right now that are just not great. But it is what it is.”
Very much so, and amid baseball’s daily grind, there’s no break, which is why Schneider is also trying to keep things as normal as possible.
“Everyone’s planning on doing what they normally do every day,” he said. “And, if something changes, something changes.”
Kiermaier’s quest
Time and again during his decade in the big leagues with the Rays, Kevin Kiermaier watched that front office trade productive teammates to ensure the franchise was constantly refreshing its talent base.
“Just a non-stop, circular motion of transactions, year after year, day after day, month after month,” is the way he described it. “The Rays were great with trades and doing things at the right time, when guys were at their most valuable and it’s like, we don’t know if you’ll be able to sustain this the next couple years. Then they trade and get good guys who kill it right then and there. So the timing of it is huge. … You’ve got to understand it’s not always easy to see right away, but moves are made for a reason.”
Kiermaier was never part of that endless Rays cycle, so being one of the players facing the potential churn with the Blue Jays before the deadline is a new experience for him. He understands the realities of the situation – “Whatever moves are to be made, it’s to set them up for the future because 2024 hasn’t played out the way we wanted to,” he said – and in revealing Wednesday that he plans to retire after the season, he’s got what’s next on his mind, too, perhaps part-time coaching, working as an “outfield whisperer.”
Still, that doesn’t mean he’s turned the page on this season.
He wants to play out what’s left, and with eight outs above average – tied for 17th most in the majors, despite only 524.1 innings in the field – and 85th percentile sprint speed, he certainly makes sense as a finishing piece for a contending club, assuming the Blue Jays pay down what remains of his $10.5 million salary.
Interestingly, he played the ninth inning in right field Thursday, his first time anywhere other than centre since 2015, when he twice played right while with the Rays. “We talked about it and he said, ‘Hey, I can go out to right,’” relayed John Schneider. “You trust Kevin in the outfield.”
Giving contenders a glimpse of him there can’t hurt, either, but at the same time, Kiermaier is tempering his expectations since “I cleared waivers (earlier in July) and no one wanted to do that so you never know if I could be traded or what else is yet to come,” he explained. “I’ve been good at playing stuff by ear and just go with the flow and just let things happen, play out the way they do.”
“This week will be a big tell-all, I guess,” Kiermaier continued. “There are quite a few other guys in here who don’t really know what’s ahead, either. I don’t want to jump the gun because I don’t know what the (Blue Jays) thinking and I want them to make whatever moves or let stuff play out, whatever it is. With me being in my situation, I prefer to, if I’m going to put my body through what’s still ahead, you want to make it worth it, in a way. But at the same time, I signed up to play here for a year and I know so many different things can change. That’s why I just want to let things play out. Those are my thoughts in a nutshell. I want to respect the Blue Jays and what they want.”
Neighbours to rivals
Leo Jimenez and Jose Caballero met at a big-league stadium for the first time this week, but their connection goes way back to their days playing pick-up sports on the field that separated their childhood homes in the Quinta Las Flores neighbourhood in Las Tablas, Panama.
“We were talking about it, like, wow, who could have thought we’d from our neighborhood playing pickup baseball games to actually like the Big Show,” said Jimenez. “It’s awesome.”
Caballero, who at 27 is four years older than his Blue Jays counterpart, remembers first seeing Jimenez at the field where kids of all ages gathered “to play soccer, football, baseball, softball, whatever it was,” he said. “I remember him playing soccer, he was fast, having fun, and especially when playing baseball as well. You could see that he had potential for sure. It’s amazing to see him in the big leagues with me.”
And it’s not just them. Former Atlanta and Arizona righty Randall Delgado, 34, preceded them in the majors, making it three big-leaguers from a neighbourhood of some roughly 90 homes.
Caballero remembers Jimenez being “the guy in his age group, always the third-hole hitter, always the shortstop, always the one representing our state to go to big tournaments and to represent Panama. He was just really good at baseball.”
Over time the two became closer, their families bonding and “we ended up being good friends and actually work out together in the off-season,” said Jimenez. “Every time that I’m there, he brings me to his house, we hang out.”
Jimenez is now working to cement himself in the majors, the way Caballero has with the Rays.
“You have to be able to lay off some good pitches,” Jimenez said of his adjustments at the plate. “They want you to chase, they want to get you out of your plan. That’s something I’ve been working on. It’s all about staying focused and being able to make the adjustment right away instead of waiting a few at-bats. You’ve got to make the adjustment pitch after pitch.”
SHORT HOPS
• Daulton Varsho’s leaping catch at the left-field wall to steal extra bases from Jose Caballero in the fifth inning of Wednesday’s 6-3 win over the Rays was the latest remarkable play the defensive whiz. He covered 92 feet before jumping to pick the ball before it hit wall.
“It’s more just anticipating, knowing kind of how guys are pitching, kind of in the right spot at the right time,” he said. “Honestly, that ball, he hit it and I was like, I’m going to get it before the track and there was something weird with the wind pushing it out a little bit further. And it’s like, oh, I’ve got to jump here. Even KK, he goes, I thought you had room all the way and then you jumped at the wall. That was kind of crazy.”
• Lefty pitching prospect Ricky Tiedemann is due to see specialists Dr. Keith Meister and Dr. Neal ElAttrache for second and third opinions on his troublesome pitching elbow. The Blue Jays say there’s been no change in his status after experiencing forearm tightness after returning from nerve inflammation, but Tiedemann is “just looking for concrete answers,” saud John Schneider. “I don’t really know if it’s anything, specific. I think just because it’s multiple times he’s been having some discomfort, ruling everything out. But I don’t think he’s looking for something.” …
• Bowden Francis is likely to start one of the games for the Blue Jays in Monday’s doubleheader and it’s possible he slides into the rotation right after if Yusei Kikuchi, due to pitch Friday, is traded ahead of Tuesday’s deadline.
