TORONTO -- Hold your breath and cross your fingers, but it finally feels like the Blue Jays are getting closer to their “real” lineup. For two months now, manager John Schneider has been patching holes. No two lineups have looked the same, a daily game of figuring out who’s still healthy and who fits where. As some healthy reinforcements come over the horizon, these are the questions facing the Blue Jays: Who sticks as Alejandro Kirk’s backup? When Kirk went down in early April, this felt like Tyler Heineman’s job to run with while prospect Brandon Valenzuela would play once or twice a week and get his feet wet in the big leagues. Maybe it would give Valenzuela some valuable experience to compete for this job in 2027. Things have changed. Valenzuela has taken over and he looks like a big leaguer on both sides of the ball. A switch-hitting catcher with some pop and a great defensive reputation is already a great starting point, but Valenzuela has also impressed the Blue Jays with all of the work he does in between games with the pitching staff. There’s a sense of maturity to Valenzuela. Valenzuela has options remaining, which will give the Blue Jays a reason to pause and think, but Heineman is batting .152 with a .385 OPS, a far cry from his breakout season in 2025 (.289 AVG/.777 OPS). The Blue Jays need their best 26 players on the roster at this point, and there’s plenty of time to worry about catching depth later on. In Kirk and Valenzuela, the Blue Jays could have one of the better catching tandems in baseball for the next five years. |
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How does the outfield look when Barger returns? Already a logjam, the Blue Jays’ outfield could get Addison Barger back from his elbow injury within the next couple of weeks. This has been moving a bit slower than expected, at least based on the reports from the Blue Jays, but they should eventually have their full outfield group together for one of the first times this season. When you consider who’s on the IL and in Triple-A, there’s never going to be a shortage here.
Blue Jays OF options: Addison Barger, Daulton Varsho, Jesús Sánchez, Myles Straw, Nathan Lukes, Davis Schneider, RJ Schreck (No. 9 prospect) The recent emergence of Sánchez complicates all of this … in a good way. Sánchez won’t see many lefties, but he crushes right-handed pitching and needs to be in the lineup almost every day with a righty on the mound. That clutters up right field, though, so would the Blue Jays be open to playing Barger more at third base on those days, bumping Kazuma Okamoto into more of a part-time role? The Blue Jays are also eager to have Nathan Lukes in the lineup as often as possible. The underrated outfielder was key to this team’s success in 2025, is a solid defender and someone they trust to bat second in certain lineup configurations. All of this sounds like bad news for Yohendrick Piñango, the rookie who’s made a big impression offensively while battling with the defensive side of his game. Again, this is a good problem for the Blue Jays to have, especially with Davis Schneider resetting in Triple-A and prospects getting hot. Thinking down the road to the Trade Deadline, this feels like a position of surplus that could be used in lower-end deals, like for a reliever. |
Can the Blue Jays fix their defense? Perhaps it’s harsh to say this defense needs “fixing,” as it still ranks slightly above average in the big picture, but that’s not the standard the Blue Jays have set for themselves. They have built an identity as a very strong defensive team in recent years, at times truly elite, and that just hasn’t been there in 2026. John Schneider points to some misleading plays from Daulton Varsho, but it’s also been clear that Varsho isn’t “closing” plays like he did a year ago. Just Wednesday, he dropped a sliding catch that felt more routine from him a year ago. The big difference? Varsho’s jumps. A player’s “jump time” covers the three seconds after a ball is hit, and in that three-second window in 2025, Varsho covered 3.2 feet more than the average MLB outfielder, ranking him fifth among 93 qualified outfielders. This year, he ranks 59th, covering 0.2 feet less than the average outfielder. It’s quietly been one of the biggest surprises of the season. The recent return of Lukes, along with the approaching returns of Barger and Kirk, should only help the Blue Jays’ team defense. Varsho should be one of the stars of the show, though, and if he gets back to that level, he’ll help steal the Blue Jays a win or two along the way. |
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MLB MORNING LINEUP PODCAST |
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CY WATCH: CEASE NEAR THE TOP |
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Dylan Cease is going to miss the next two weeks with his left hamstring injury -- and hopefully no more -- but he’s still put himself in a good position to take a run at the AL Cy Young Award if he’s able to make close to 30 starts this year. In our most recent Cy Young poll, just before Cease went down with injury, he ranked second in polling behind only Cam Schlittler of the Yankees. As long as Cease can return quickly and throw 170-plus innings, he’ll be fully in that conversation and his strikeout totals have been outstanding. The Blue Jays could help him out by hanging a few more runs on Schlittler next time they see him, but this race is still wide open. |
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