TORONTO – The next three weeks leading into the all-star break, featuring 15 of 21 games against sub-.500 opponents, are a window of opportunity for the Toronto Blue Jays.
Their schedule so far, as has often been discussed, has been a meatgrinder. The American League East is, as always, the big boy division in the big boy loop and they’ve taken some knocks due to their ongoing bullpen issues. Factor in that they’ve called two minor-league parks home and their fans have often rooted for opponents, including earlier this week when New York Yankees supporters took over Sahlen Field, it’s a good time for a soft spot.
Everything must be earned, however, as a fifth straight loss, 7-1 Friday night to the bottom-feeding Baltimore Orioles, underlined.
Robbie Ray never seemed to find a rhythm and didn’t make it through five, surrendering only two runs, including one in the fifth right after Lourdes Gurriel Jr., homered to tie the game in the top half. The offence, meanwhile, wasn’t its usual fearsome self, as Thomas Eshelman didn’t allow a hit through four and the bullpen locked things down from there.
It was a low-energy night that extended a deflating week.
The bullpen wasn’t the prime culprit this time, although a messy five-run eighth after Patrick Murphy was extended for a second frame and Jeremy Beasley couldn’t limit the damage pushed things out of reach.
Up to that point, the bullpen was having a decent night, as Trent Thornton came on with one out and runners on the corners in the fifth and put out the fire, and for good measure delivered a clean sixth. Murphy followed with a clean seventh but surrendered a pair in the eighth before Beasley served up a three-run shot to Cedric Mullins, his second homer of the night.
The Orioles, meanwhile, followed Eshelman with 3.1 innings of flawless relief from Tyler Wells, Tanner Scott, Hunter Harvey while the game was in doubt – the kind of lockdown work the Blue Jays have too often been lacking. Paul Fry cleaned up in the ninth.
As the demoralizing losses have piled up, the discussion around the team has increasingly focused on why the front office isn’t moving heaven and earth to pull off a trade.
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The prime stumbling block on that front is that sellers aren’t motivated to trade so far from the deadline and the Blue Jays aren’t willing to overpay to entice them. Sacrificing too much future currency for volatile relief help isn’t a good formula for building a sustainable winner, but clearly they need some help to bridge the gap between their immediate need and the trading window which is still about a month away.
To that end, they’re looking at both Canadian John Axford and American David Robertson, who both pitched in the recent Olympic qualifier. One official who was there suggested both still had enough in the tank to help a big-league team, but whether that turns into anything is unclear.
Whether there’s value in signing them just to show players the front office is trying is up for debate, but as the Blue Jays wait for the levelling off of performance they’re expecting in the bullpen, they could do worse than rolling the dice on arms with leverage pedigree.
