TORONTO — Ahead of their biggest game of the season, the Blue Jays will turn to Louis Varland.
A tough loss Wednesday, paired with a Yankees win, leaves the Blue Jays with the same 90-68 record as New York, though technically still in first place in the AL East thanks to a tiebreaker. That means the Blue Jays must keep pace with the Yankees from here on out to win the division and secure a first-round bye.
But with Chris Bassitt on the injured list and Shane Bieber’s start pushed to Friday so that he can get an extra day of rest, the Blue Jays have to figure out Thursday on the fly.
Varland has not thrown more than two innings or 28 pitches this season, meaning the Blue Jays are essentially rolling with a bullpen game. And while Thursday isn’t technically a must-win game, the Blue Jays are veering close to that territory now.
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The Toronto Blue Jays look to avoid a sweep against the Boston Red Sox and recover some lost ground in the AL East race on Thursday. Catch the action on Sportsnet or Sportsnet+, starting at 7 p.m. ET / 4 p.m. PT.
“It’s still in flux a little bit,” Blue Jays manager John Schneider said shortly before Varland was confirmed as the starter. “We’ll just figure out the best way to attack it.”
The Blue Jays’ pitching plans Thursday won’t include Jose Berrios, who pitched two innings out of the bullpen in his first-ever relief appearance with Toronto, or Tommy Nance, who has now pitched in consecutive games.
Eric Lauer, who last pitched Sunday when he threw seven pitches against the Royals on his way to a scoreless eighth, could be an option for at least a couple innings. Beyond that, Jeff Hoffman, Seranthony Dominguez and Yariel Rodriguez will all be on multiple days’ rest, giving the Blue Jays some late-inning options.
But as Schneider said after Wednesday’s game, the Blue Jays’ biggest issue right now isn’t starting pitching or umpires, it’s an offence that’s been struggling to score runs.
Straw meets Moon
As batting practice was getting started Wednesday afternoon, Myles Straw stood on the field near the Blue Jays’ dugout waiting to meet a new teammate. Nearby, Seojun Moon had just finished a media availability and Straw wanted to meet the 18-year-old right-hander, who was visiting Rogers Centre for the first time.
“Myles, nice to meet you,” he said, shaking Moon’s hand and then smiling for a few photographs.
A baseball lifer, the 30-year-old Straw understands the general importance of building a strong farm system and welcoming young prospects into the organization. But Moon’s of particular interest to Straw since the international bonus space that allowed the Blue Jays to give the prospect a $1.5-million bonus out of Korea was acquired in the same deal that brought Straw to Toronto.
Broadly panned by rival office executives at the time, the trade was originally intended to create bonus pool space in case Japanese phenom Roki Sasaki chose to sign with the Blue Jays. But where Sasaki spent most of the season on the injured list before being activated Wednesday, Straw has generated 2.8 WAR with his contact skills, baserunning and elite defence.
With Moon now joining the organization, there’s a chance for the Straw deal to look even better than expected — a complete 180 from the winter.
“He’s got a lot of upside,” Straw said. “I mean, I like to keep up with prospects, especially to know where my trade money went. So it’s kind of cool. I’ve heard a lot of good things about him.”
Straw says he’s heard good things from the Toronto front office about Moon, the first Korean-born international signing by the Blue Jays. A projectable, six-foot-four, 214-pound right-hander, Moon posted a 2.18 ERA as a high schooler before deciding to sign with the Blue Jays instead of entering the KBO draft.
As someone under Blue Jays team control through 2026, Straw wants every prospect in the organization to do well. And because he and Moon both joined the team via the same convoluted and controversial process, he’s throwing a little extra support behind his newest friend and teammate.
“I’m here,” he said. “I’m with the Blue Jays, so I want to see us do well from here to the bottom, whether it’s the big leagues or the Dominican Summer League.”
Downside to a bye?
Asked Tuesday about the possibility of a first-round bye, Schneider offered an interesting response. Instead of simply stating that, yes, the Blue Jays would like a bye if at all possible, the manager admitted to being “a little bit torn” about what’s next for his team.
“There’s definitely some evidence where momentum is real and teams that get in (as a) wild card, they kind of just pick up steam,” he said. “That’s a real thing. So I’m a little bit torn. I think from a physical standpoint, yeah (the break would help). But I guess I’ll have a better answer on the weekend, I think. Because it all depends on how you’re playing, you know what I mean? Like I always say, there’s good off days and bad off days. Good ones when you’re playing like (crap) and bad ones when you’re playing well, so we’ll see. But I think that overall this group could probably use a little bit of a deep breath.”
Give Schneider this — this way of framing things certainly suggests a high level of confidence that his team could succeed in the Wild Card round if needed. This mindset is probably valuable at field level, where staying mentally locked in is a must.
But ask any front office official around baseball and they’ll tell you the same thing: a bye is far, far preferable to the potential unpredictability of a three-game series. In 2020, 2022 and 2023, previous iterations of the Blue Jays learned first-hand how frustrating those short playoff series can be.
And while some rust is possible for teams that don’t play next week, this much is also true: No team with a first-round bye has ever failed to reach the Division Series, but many seemingly hot teams have been burned in the Wild Card round.
