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Worst Case: Jose Berrios who struggled mightily last season, struggled in the WBC, and has another poor season. Matt Chapman, in his first year from Oakland, also didn’t have a very good season. They lost both depth on the major league roster (Teoscar Hernandez) AND minor league depth (Gabriel Moreno) in off season trades, and with Moreno now in Arizona, that was their biggest trade chip to offer in any potential in season move.
Best Case: Daulton Varsho, who came over from the D’Backs in the Moreno trade can provide posistional versatility as he can play all 3 OF positions along with catcher, so on days when Alejandro Kirk sits or DH they don’t lose production out of the position. Berrios is due for a bounce back, Kevin Gausman can put together another solid season, Chapman can bounce back, and hopefully the 2 game loss in the Wildcard series last year doesn’t linger.
Prediction: A trip to the Fall classic for the first time since Joe Carter’s walk off home run 30 years ago, but a different result. A 101-61 record as they edge the Yankees by 3 games in the division; a first round bye, a 5 game series win in the ALDS against the Mariners in what could be the most electric atmosphere of any playoff series; you would have the Rogers Centre (always electric) and combine that with T-Mobile Park in Seattle with all the Jays fans that will come down from BC & Western Canada. They’ll face the Astros in the ALCS, and knock off the Astros in 6 games guaranteeing for the 23rd straight year there will be no repeat champion, but the run will come to an end with a loss to the Padres in the World Series in 6 games. Season kicks off with 3 games in St. Louis; Miles Mikolas (12-13, 3.29 in ‘22) starts for the Redbirds, while the Jays give the ball to Alek Manoah (16-7, 2.24) and this bird-on-bird matchup will start at 4:10.
You were being conservative with that statement. Wow!
Huge setback for TOR this year given all the glowing praise at the beginning of the season.
Almost clockwork whenever they have seasons with high expectations, they choke.
Don't expect anything different from TOR this year
George Springer and Bo Bichette had back-to-back singles to lead off the Jays first, Springer went to 3rd on a Vlad Guerrero Junior fly out, Springer scored on Daulton Varsho’s double with Bichette moving to 3rd, his first base hit as a member of the Blue Jays, Alejandro Kirk singled home Bichette & Springer, 2 batters later Matt Chapman had a single moving Kirk to second, but Miles Mikolas struck out Whit Merrifield to end the inning. Brandon Donovan started the Cards half with an infield single, moving to second on a throwing error by Bichette, Lars Nootbaar walked, Nolan Arenado brought home Donovan with a single moving Nootbaar to 3rd, but Wilson Contreras lined out, and Tyler O’Neil struck out. Springer had a 1 out single in the 2nd, and scored on a Bichette double to make it 4-1, Guerrero Junior was hit by a pitch, but Varsho struck out, and Kirk flied out. Jordan Walker, in his first career major league at bat singled to CF, Tommy Edman followed with a single, but Donovan lined out, and Nootbaar grounded out to keep it a 4-1 game after 2. Contreras had a 2 out single in the 3rd and O’Neil had a 2 run homer, his 4th straight opening day home run to cut the Jays lead to 1 at 4-3. Springer had a leadoff single in the 4th, 2 batters later Guerrero Junior would single moving Springer to 3rd with Guerrero Junior advancing to second on the throw, Varsho would make it 5-3 with a sac fly, before Kirk struck out to end the inning. Edman lead off the 4th with a single, and a Donovan home run tied the score at 5. Kevin Kiermaier lead off the 6th with a single, 2 batters later Bichette would single, a force moved runners to the corners but Varsho ended the inning with a ground out. Donovan had a 2 out single, Nootbaar singled, and Paul Goldschmidt had his first RBI of the season, a 2 out single scoring Donovan, and moving Nootbaar to 3rd, but Arenado grounded out to end the inning. Brandon Belt had a 1 double in the 7th, Chapman followed with a single to right scoring the pinch runner Nathan Lukes to tie the score at 6. Contreras lead off the bottom of the 7th with a single, O’Neil, and Nolan Gorman followed with walks to load the bases, Walker added a RBI on a force out to put the Cards back in front at 7-6, O’Neil was forced out at home with Edman batting while Donovan popped up to end the inning. Springer and Bichette lead off the 8th with singles, they went to second & 3rd on a wild pitch, scored on a Guerrero Jr single who advanced to second on the throw home, but Varsho struck out, a Kirk ground out moved Guerrero Jr to 3rd, Cavan Biggio had a pinch hit walk before Chapman ended the inning with a force out. Nootbaar walked to lead off the 8th, Goldschmidt had a double, and yet despite Contreras leaving the game with injury, having Andrew Knizner on deck, and first base open, John Schneider decides, for whatever reason, to pitch to Nolan Arenado, and that worked out splendildly as Arenado had a 2 RBI double. Knizner had a pop up, O’Neil lined out, Gorman got intentionally walked and Walker ended the inning on a force out. Merrifield had a 4 pitch walk to start the 9th, a Kiermaier single moved Merrifield to 3rd, and a Springer single scored Merrifield and tied the score at 9 moving Kiermaier to 3rd, a Bichette force out erased Springer, but kept runners on the corner, and a Guerrero Jr sac fly gave the Jays a 10-9 lead. Mikolas allowed 5 runs on 10 hits with 0 walks (1 hit batter) and 6 strikeouts in 3.1, Jordan Hicks (1st blown save) allowed 2 runs on 3 hits with a walk and a strikeout in 1 inning, and Ryan Helsley (0-1, 1st blown save) allowed 2 runs on 2 hits with a walk in 1 inning. Alek Manoah allowed 5 runs on 9 hits (2 home runs) with 2 walks and 3 strikeouts in 3.1, Yimi Garcia (1-0, 1st blown save) allowed 2 runs on 2 hits with 2 walks in 1 inning, and Jordan Romano (1st save) had a 1-2-3 9th with 2 strikeouts.
The teams have Friday off in St. Louis before resuming the series on Saturday; Kevin Gausman (12-10, 3.35 last year) starts for the Jays while the Cards hand the ball to Jack Flaherty (2-1, 4.25 in 2022), with game time scheduled for 2:15. In other east action today, the Yankees shut out the Giants 5-0, the Rays blanked the Tigers 4-0, and the Orioles outslugged Boston 10-9. Jays, Orioles, Rays & Yankees are all out in front at 1-0 while the Red Sox are 0-1.
This has not been a good start so far. Bichette & Springer are hitting but the pitching has been less than stellar. Chris Bassitt got lit up like the Rockefeller Christmas Tree on Sunday. They remain in Missouri for 4 games with the Royals before heading out West to Anaheim for the Angels home opener at the Big A.
After the horrid series in St. Louis they responded with 3 out of 4 in KC, and 2 out of 3 in Anaheim. Matt Chapman is having a very good season, and had a grand slam which kick started the jays comeback on Sunday from 6-0 down. They will finally have their home opener on Tuesday against Detroit, and then Tampa comes in for 3.
Won 2 out of 3 against Detroit, and finally handed a few defeats to Tampa before getting pounded by the Rays. What's going on with Manoah?? He has looked terrible so far! Berrios didn't have a horrible start on Friday but hasn't looked good either his time through the rotation. Luckily Kevin Gausman is still pitching like the #1.
6 game road trip this week. 3 in Houston to start, and than 3 in the Bronx against the Yankees starting on Friday.
Split the 6 games this week. After losing 2 out of 3 in Houston and then going into the Bronx thought it might be a lost weekend, but they responded with a series win. They've got 6 at the Rogers Centre this week; first 3 against the Chi Sox and the remaining 3 vs. the Mariners in the Mariners first visit to Toronto since the Wildcard series last October.
Best case scenario: The lineup returns to form. Vladdy for him had a down year; Alejandro Kirk and Daulton Varsho both had bad years, and George Springer needs to stay healthy. Hopefully Isiah Kiner-Falefa (hereby known as IKF) can sustain Matt Chapman’s defense at the hot corner, and Justin Turner hits at the DH spot.
Worst case scenario: The pitching which was pretty good last year takes a step back, the players that had bad years last year continue to struggle, and the team loses all confidence in John Schneider managing the team.
Prediction: This is a big year for the Jays, but unfortunately the AL and the AL East are too stacked against them. They didn’t make enough moves on the offensive side (Ohtani would’ve helped a lot there) and the pitching doesn’t perform up to par. The Orioles and the Yankees look like power houses in the division while the Astros, Rangers & Mariners all look like threats to reach the post season so they have to play almost perfectly all season, and unfortunately they are far from that. 83-79 record and 4th place in the East. First of 4 games at the Trop goes on Thursday: Jose Berrios (11-12, 3.65 last year) starts for the Jays while the Rays hand the ball to Zach Eflin (16-8, 3.50) with game time slated for 4:10.
Split 4 games in Florida, and lost the series in Houston. Going into this year I thought the pitching would be the problem but so far it's been the mediocre offense that's holding them back. In the 2 losses to the Rays they scored 3 runs in 18 innings. They got no hit by a guy making his 8th career start in Houston. In the Houston series they scored 2 runs total in 3 games....and the 2 runs came via a home run in the 9th inning, so they were probably luckily to not get shut out 3 games in a row. The season opening 10 game road trip continues with 3 games in the Bronx starting on Friday, and than to Toronto for the home opener against the Mariners on Monday. Hopefully on the off day Thursday they can find their bats which were totally MIA in Houston.
Had a nice comeback attempt on Saturday night after starting off down like 8-0 and fell just short, but the lack of offense is still jarring. They scored 8 runs in the 9-8 loss on Saturday, and they scored 17 total in the other 5 games. Should have had the sweep of the Mariners, had the bases loaded in the 9th but couldn't walk them off.
6 home games this week to finish the season-opening home stand: Rockies for 3 and the Yankees. Anything less than 4-2 will be disappointing. The Rockies are bad, actually bad might be too kind of them. This is a series you HAVE to win if you want to make the postseason, and preferably sweep it. And as far as the Yankees are concerned the Blue Jays should win at least 1 game. Preferably they sweep the Rockies and win this series, but at least if they sweep the Rockies they have the extra buffer in case the bats remain on a milk carton.
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