DUNEDIN, Fla. – The Toronto Blue Jays completed their Grapefruit League schedule with a 14-1 thumping of the Tampa Bay Rays on Sunday afternoon, leaving them with only a couple more items on their Florida agenda before flying north.
One is an intrasquad game Monday afternoon, when Eric Lauer is slated to throw five innings against triple-A Buffalo. While the other is far more dramatic – finalizing the opening day roster, a task that inched forward when Yariel Rodriguez, Jorge Alcala and Rule 5 pick Angel Bastardo were informed they did not make the club.
That seems to leave righty Chase Lee, Rule 5 pick Spencer Miles and lefty Adam Macko among the internal candidates still in play for the final spot in the bullpen, one destined for a reliever capable of throwing multiple innings. An external candidate, perhaps even Connor Seabold, who impressed in camp before being granted his release Saturday, is possible, too, as names shake loose with other teams also making roster calls.
The Blue Jays must also decide what to do with Leo Jimenez, who is out of options and needs to clear waivers if he does not make the club, each call coming down to the wire as both short- and medium-term seasonal asset management are factored into the mix.
“Definitely part of it,” said manager John Schneider. “There are some ins and outs to it … and it’s not just for Opening Day, but throughout the course of the year, so seeing how everything fits together and not just the individual skill-set of one person. Yeah, we are trying to field the best team, for sure, and trying to win every single game that we can.
“But how does each decision affect someone else? How does it affect the depth of your organization and your 40-man roster?”
As things stand, the Blue Jays bullpen is set to include Jeff Hoffman, Tyler Rogers, Louis Varland, Brendon Little, Braydon Fisher, Mason Fluharty and Tommy Nance.
The role has the potential to be short-term while Yimi Garcia, who is said to be regaining his usual velocity after elbow surgery last summer, builds up. Injured starters Trey Yesavage, due to start a minor-league game Wednesday, Jose Berrios and Shane Bieber will also, eventually, be on the horizon.
With Lauer in the rotation out of the gate, there’s no length option in the bullpen, and an optionable arm that can be subbed in and out as needed would give the Blue Jays more flexibility to manage usage needs.
“It helps,” said Schneider. “We’ve spent the last few days trying to put ourselves in our own shoes a week or two weeks from now, when it is a short start, and there are some innings covered by the bullpen, what does that look like for the following day, even? Who can do that? Who can do that both performance-wise, who could do that contractually, as well, too, and keep you covered going forward.”
Lee and Macko both have options, while Miles, as a Rule 5 pick who topped out at 98.1 m.p.h. during a clean inning Sunday, must remain on the roster all season or be offered back to the San Francisco Giants.
Both Miles and Bastardo, plucked from the Boston Red Sox, have shown big-league stuff, but both are raw, which makes carrying them on a win-now team a challenge. The Blue Jays can try to trade them to other clubs or attempt to make a deal with their original clubs to retain their rights, too.
Cease ready to go: Dylan Cease checked the usual boxes over five shutout innings Sunday, sitting 97.3 m.p.h. and topping out at 98.8 as he held the Rays to three hits and two walks with six strikeouts on 83 pitches. More notable is the way he also effectively worked in 12 sinkers, eight sweepers and eight curveballs, a successful application of his attempts to diversify his repertoire this spring.
“Honestly, I’m in a better spot than I was even really expecting,” said Cease. “I like where I’m at mechanically, mixing in changeups, and I’m throwing a bunch of different pitches for strikes for the most part. I like where I’m at.”
So does John Schneider, who said a focus this spring has been on ways for him to use his pitches “a little bit differently” and “be a little bit less predictable.” Cease’s dominant weapons are his fastball and slider, and they were again Sunday, when the “plan was to use the changeup, get the curveball in early for strikes … and not be so reliant” on his primary offerings.
“Those are the things we’re talking about,” Schneider added. “The stuff is the stuff, but how to use it and try to have a few more weapons to get a little bit deeper into games.”
Vladdy ready: Vladimir Guerrero Jr. hit the first of three two-run homers in the first inning off Rays starter Nick Martinez, throttled for 11 runs over 3.2 innings while re-entering a miserable outing three times.
Guerrero added a single in the second inning and a walk in the fourth, noting afterwards that “I feel good right now, but there are still a couple of days to get better,” before Friday’s opening day.
Already this spring, Guerrero’s been in high gear, batting .444/.476/.944 in five games for the Dominican Republic at the World Baseball Classic, a run that followed his monster 29-hit, 15-RBI post-season.
Carrying that into 2026 is his goal.
“I’m trying to stay where I was at the end of the year and October, but I don’t want to think about it much because it’s in the past,” Guerrero said through interpreter Hector Lebron. “I don’t want to keep thinking about that. I want to keep doing what I did when I was there.”
To that end, he shoehorned his off-season training plan into a shorter winter and likes where he’s at physically, for both the regular season and beyond.
“I did everything that I could,” he said, “and I feel like I prepared myself very well to play the extra month this year.”
Quotable: “Definitely like last year, we’re all together, we’re playing together, everybody knows what to do. And when you have that on the team, good things happen.” – Vladimir Guerrero Jr. on how the Blue Jays shaped out over the course of the spring
