TORONTO — Myles Straw finished his swing, admired the ball as it sailed into the left-field stands and then flipped his bat. He was feeling himself on Saturday afternoon and for good reason.
That was the second time Straw went deep in the game and the second time he brought the buoyant 42,686 Rogers Centre crowd to its feet in the Toronto Blue Jays’ 14-2 win over the Texas Rangers.
It was the first multi-home run game of Straw’s eight-year career. His four homers in 2025 have matched his career high, set in 2021, and on Saturday alone, the outfielder’s work accounted for 20 per cent of his career home run total.
On the surface, Saturday’s victory was a feel-good romp for the Blue Jays, who improved to 73-51 on the season and have won five of their last six. But on a deeper level, the afternoon reinforced just how far this team has come in building its roster depth.
Prior to the game, outfielder George Springer was reinstated from the seven-day concussion injured list and, to make room on the roster, the Blue Jays optioned Joey Loperfido to triple-A Buffalo. Manager John Schneider and his staff knew this move was on the horizon and it wasn’t easy to stomach because Loperfido had consistently produced, to the tune of a 153 OPS-plus across 30 games since joining the club in early July.
“I think at this point, there’s not really a person deserving of being optioned to the minors or sent down,” said Schneider. “And he understood that. He got that. Joey handled it like a pro.”
When Loperfido sat down in Schneider’s office on Saturday morning, the manager looked at him and said, “Yeah.” Loperfido stared back and replied with a simple, “Yeah.”
“These guys understand it,” said Schneider. “So, they all want to be part of it. But it’s part of it, you know what I mean? He was great. He’s going to go play. He’s going to go work on what he was working on and hopefully be back here.”
If there’s one easy way to convey how the Blue Jays have built their lead atop the American League, it would be to look at their immense roster depth. Loperfido was sent down because there was simply no space for him with other bench players such as Straw performing. The 30-year-old Straw entered Saturday having produced 1.8 wins above replacement this season — for context, that’s more than Teoscar Hernandez (1.5) and Jose Altuve (1.1).
The Blue Jays opened the faucet on Saturday when Bo Bichette led off the second inning with a single to left field off Rangers starter Patrick Corbin and advanced to third on Daulton Varsho’s single. Ernie Clement followed with a double that plated Bichette and Straw cashed in everyone else with a three-run home run to left-centre.
He went deep again in the third frame, blasting a 2-0 fastball from Rangers reliever Jon Gray into the seats in left field for a two-run shot. He collected three hits and five RBIs on the day, while Varsho also recorded three hits, including his 13th homer of the season — a 108.2 m.p.h. rocket to right field.
Davis Schneider added a three-run home run in the seventh against Rowdy Tellez, the former Blue Jays first baseman who was brought in to pitch.
Eric Lauer, another depth player who’s shone for the Blue Jays this season, was the benefactor of the outpouring of runs. The left-handed starter allowed one run on four hits over five innings to lower his ERA to 2.76 on the campaign.
While Lauer isn’t in danger of losing his spot on the roster like Loperfido, he is on the bubble, in a sense. With prized trade deadline acquisition Shane Bieber set to join the Blue Jays rotation this week, Lauer could be sent to the bullpen unless the club decides to roll with a six-man rotation.
All things considered, this is a good place to be for the Blue Jays. Schneider said recently he noticed the level of depth back in spring training.
“You’re making lineups and a lot of times, even on road games or split squads, you have some guys with major league experience, which is kind of uncommon,” the manager said. “So, you could kind of see it, and then the hope is that everyone continues to get better or just be what they are, and they can help out however they need to.”
That’s certainly been the case this season, with the Blue Jays’ collection of players producing a much higher floor than past years,
“I can’t think of another year where guys have come up, multiple guys contributing,” said Schneider. “I think we’ve done a good job at making that (pipeline) a big part of us.”
