Blue Jays Happy Hour

It's been a good week for the Blue Jays, with some actually encouraging signs showing up in their offence. Addison Barger might be for real, Alan Roden and Davis Schneider are back after successful spells in Triple-A, but more important than that is the fact that lately we've been seeing the best of guys like Bo Bichette, Alejandro Kirk, and George Springer—some of the very guys the team had futilely pinned their hopes for "internal improvement" on over the last two or three years.Plus, we look at some of the club's recent roster shuffling and injury woes, check in on the state of the rotation, the bullpen, and some prospects, and take a look through the Athletic's recent Blue Jays All-Quarter-Century Team. Blue Jays All-Quarter Century Team: Toronto’s best since 2000 - Mitch Bannon - https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/6381601/2025/05/27/blue-jays-all-quarter-century-team/

The Blue Jays won a series in Texas by scoring just four runs, and while normally that would be cause to celebrate some extraordinary pitching performances, that certainly doesn't feel like what we just witnessed. The Jays and Rangers were abysmal offensively over the three games, with Toronto batters going a staggering 2-for-31 with runners in scoring position. Ugly stuff!But RISP numbers are so dependent on luck that, even though they greatly help to tell the story of individual games, they're barely worth talking about without also addressing the offence as a whole. So that's exactly what we do, before moving relatively quickly on to topics like the resurgence of Bowden Francis and Kevin Gausman, whether Daulton Varsho should get a contract extension, and more!

The Blue Jays are not a team without problems, as we've been seeing all season. But after (eventually) picking up a much-needed and well-deserved sweep of the San Diego Padres—and potentially finding some solutions to some of their run-scoring problems in Addison Barger, Nathan Lukes, and a Daulton Varsho suddenly leaning in on his power—they now find themselves over .500 for the first time in more than a month. And just like that things feel about as good as they have all season.

After an episode last week that felt about as grim as any show we've recorded in-season for this podcast, the Jays brought us—and themselves—back to life. They've won five of six since we last spoke, and if not for three ugly bullpen blow-ups could be on an eight-game winning streak. Alejandro Kirk and Daulton Varsho have been especially aggressive at the plate, and it's paying dividends as the club has averaged 6.5 runs per game over that span. But can the good times keep rolling?

The vibes around the Blue Jays would certainly feel a whole lot better if not for two stomach-churning late-inning losses in Anaheim this week. But they did lose those games. And though the immediate fault lies with the bullpen for failing to close out leads, the relievers would be in much better shape if the offence could build a lead bigger than one or two runs every once in a while, or if the back-end of the rotation wasn't down to relying on guys pulled off the street. Will Jonatan Clase and José Ureña prove to be the answers they've been looking for? Probably not!

It's been an awful couple of weeks for the Blue Jays, who looked like they were about to suffer their ninth defeat in ten games on Wednesday before embarking on a massive, home-run-powered, six-run comeback that reminded all of us what they ought to be capable of. And that entirely changed the tone of the conversation around the team—at least for a day.

The Blue Jays have lost five straight, their power output has somehow been worse than expected, and they don't have a lot of levers to pull. The vibes? They're bad. And this week we talk about our confidence levels of the big three at the top of the lineup turning things around, where solutions beyond their best four starters and relievers will come from, and a whole lot more!

The Blue Jays couldn't afford to dig themselves an early hole this season, and they've managed to avoid doing exactly that. Chris Bassitt, Jeff Hoffman, and Yimi Garcia pitching like the best starter, closer, and setup man in baseball will certainly help in that regard. But whether their success will prove durable—whether enough offence will come, whether the rotation will hold, and whether the bullpen can continue to live up to an impossibly high standard while being relied-upon heavily—remains to seen.PLUS: Putting an over/under on Max Scherzer's innings pitched, figuring out the roster once Nathan Lukes returns (a conversation we had before Davis Schneider was optioned down to Buffalo), check-ins on Barger, Wagner, Clement, and more!

Vladimir Guerrero Jr. is now under contract with the Toronto Blue Jays for the next 15 years, and all it took to make it happen was a mere half-a-billion dollars. Everybody gets what they want except the pocketbook of a rich weirdo who couldn't spend all his money in a thousand lifetimes anyway. That's a win-win-win in my book!