*SHOCKING* News STUNS The Toronto Blue Jays Fan Base…. | Blue Jays Rumours & Breakdown

*SHOCKING* News STUNS The Toronto Blue Jays Fan Base…. | Blue Jays Rumours & Breakdown

And just like that, the Yankees are hot on the Toronto Blue Jays tail for the postseason. You are Locked On Blue Jays, your daily Toronto Blue Jays podcast, part of the Locked on Podcast Network, your team every day. Welcome back to Locked On Blue Jays. Thank you for making Lockdown Blue Jays your first listen every day. We are free and available wherever gets your podcast and on YouTube. Part of the Lock On podcast network, your team every day. Today’s episode brought to you by Game Time. Download the Game Time app. Create an account. Use code locked on MLB for $20 off your first purchase. As always, I’m Braden Wasco. He’s Carter First. You can find us on Twitter, Braden Fabiwasco. Carter First, too, as well on our main Twitter account, Lockdown Jays. You can also follow us on Instagram and Tik Tok, Locked OnBlue Jays. And if you’re new here to YouTube, hit that subscribe button. You guys have been killing it as of late, but keep that going. You get your shorts, your podcast, your live streams, the videos, the whole ordeal. So, make sure you hit that subscribe button. Uh, a ton to get into. Uh, again, randomly, there’s always a ton of news in regards to the Toronto Blue Jays, but obviously the big news is that there one game now up on the New York Yankees after a little bit of a comeback victory they had over the White Socks. We’ll get into what happened in the Blue Jays game. a little bit of missed calls and going into miss or missed calls potentially going into missed calls potentially the ABS system automated balls and strike system for will will be in play for 2026 so we’ll talk about that also the DFA of Alec Manoa um in corresponding moves bringing Anthony Santandere back to the Toronto Blue Jays plus what happened to Tai France as well we’ll get into all of that on today’s show but Carter my man um me and you were in opposing rooms at the time watching the Blue Jays not win that game and the Yankees pull that one out and I think we both yelled uh very similar times to uh when the Yankees did make that comeback because you’re slowly seeing this AL East lead AL lead slip through the hands of the Toronto Blue Jays pretty much and again for a season that you can major you know majorly blame on on bullpen issues and sometimes starting ing pitching problems. Um, this offense has been lackluster to say the absolute least lately. It’s kind of when Boba got hurt is where I started not reaching for the panic button, but started alluding to the fact that, hey, the New York Yankees are five, six games back. And without Bobette, this that’s a lot shorter. Like six games seems like a lot, but it can definitely go the wrong way very quickly. And unfortunately, we’re kind of seeing that a little bit. And a lot of it, unfortunately, does stem from the offense. Some of it is strength of schedule. Some stuff that the Toronto cannot control, but they can control their own destiny right now. We’ve talked about multiple times that if they win, go 500, which they still can do, they can go three and two over the next five games, but you lose the next one. Like you got Garrett Crochet on the mound the day this podcast comes out, that’s not going to be an easy task. You couldn’t get the Lucas Glo and there’s a bunch of pitchers that we’re going to go down the list on and that we looking at the Toronto Blue Jays when they faced them recently and it hasn’t gone well consistently for the Toronto Blue Jays. So, we talk about momentum. It’s all in the New York Yankees favor right now. And the Toronto Blue Jays not having a lot of momentum whatsoever, losing five of their last six baseball games. Yeah, that’s something you just can’t do down the stretch in a playoff race. You cannot do that. That can’t happen. This offense can’t go to bed just because Bo Bashette is out of this lineup. Now, obviously, we will talk about the Anthony Sandere all coming back. Does can he help inject some life into this pretty right now bad offense? Um, and I hate to do this and I hate to put this offense on blast because all season they have been pretty good, but we’re getting to a point now where this is the absolute wrong time to take a break, to stop pushing, to stop competing. And that’s really what we’ve seen with this team. And it’s pretty disappointing. Now, in this game, Carter, which we will talk about, I think we’ll start with the Kevin Gosman of it all, but there there was a misfortunate play scenario with George Springer in this one that sort of I don’t want to say killed my hopes, but it seemed like there or never a little bit at the time of that uh in that ball game. So, but Carter, let’s start with Kevin Gosman. um his outing today. I like it wasn’t the absolute shellacking show that Kevin Gosman’s been putting on lately, but he goes five and two/3 innings with nine hits, uh four earned runs, still gets seven strikeouts and only one walk. So, it was good to see that the walk really wasn’t killing uh you know, Kevin Gosman today because sometimes when you do see Kevin Gosman not competing at his best, it comes from the base on balls and that’s usually what ends up hurting a lot of the Toronto Blue Jays pitching staff. Um, but it really wasn’t that today. Yeah, for me, we talked a lot about Kevin Gosman, his ability to uh just be at his best point, be at his strongest point late on in the season. And we talked about how his velocities stayed up throughout September and then throughout starts as well that he’s throwing 97 in the first inning. He’s also throwing 97 in the sixth inning. The pitches have been moving like we’ve seen a lot of good things from Kevin Gosman. But in this game, I think where it stem from was the splitter, it stopped splitting as much. It stopped falling off the face of the earth. We started to lose the movement a little bit throughout this start and you really noticed it throughout the Carlos Nvas at bat taking obviously the splitter down in the zone. Really stayed on it the entire time. Very good swing. Pretty good pitch as well. It’s not really the movement that you wanted to see from Gossman early on. Like the Red Sox know who Kevin Gosman is at this point. They have a very good game plan against them. They know how they’re going to attack them. But that doesn’t stop any other team. Like every team knows how Kevin Gosman is going to attack him. Unfortunately for Gossman, when you rely predominantly on two pitches and you start to lose one, that’s where you’re going to start to run into some trouble. So that’s where it really stem for me with Kevin Cosman. It was the splitter later on in games. And that’s unfortunately how it’s going to be in some outings. And that’s why in the playoffs, whether it’s Kevin Gosman or whether it’s Jose Bereios, no matter who it is, I want these guys to have a short leash. And and if this is the playoffs, you probably pulled Kevin Gosman a little bit earlier than that. I think it was relatively obvious, at least to a lot of the Toronto Blue Jays management and the front office people. John Schneider looked like he was looking a little bit more intently along with Pete Walker at Kevin Gosman throughout this start. So again, I think they mismanage this a little bit differently if it’s the playoffs, but it is again, it’s a big series. I get it, but you still have to get your guys through their starts. Kevin Gosman didn’t look out of control and he is your guy that you want to trust in a game one scenario. So, I don’t mind letting him kind of work it out. Just uh it’s a little bit unfortunate for Kevin Gosman, but still not worried. Just unfortunate with uh the Yankees winning and just the way the offense didn’t show up whatsoever and that earlier call which George Springer, which I kind of want to get into after you react to this, but uh yeah, it’s just unfortunate circumstances for really everyone involved in this game. Yeah, it really was. And and I don’t put this game on Kevin Gosman. can’t when the offense shows up and gives you three hits. It doesn’t matter how good Kevin Gosman would have done. The Blue Jays weren’t going to win this ball game with this amount of offense. And yes, it wasn’t his best start, but I’m not hitting the panic button over Kevin Gosman giving up four runs in this one. I think he was still somewhat competitive, at least in the first few innings that he was out there. I think he looked really good actually in in the first few innings. I think that everything was moving as it should and like you said, it just was it it the splitter just stopped. It just stopped working and that’s what happened. And you honestly hit the nail on the head. In a playoff situation, this is probably managed a little bit differently or you’d hope that it would have been managed differently, but at this point, you’re wanting Kevin Gosman to go out there, keep the feel, keep it moving because who knows, he may not start again this season before the playoffs. Oh, he won’t. It, you know, it’s going to come down to where they are at in the uh schedule. Are they Have they clinched? Have they not clinched? Have they fallen off? And does Kevin Gosman want a, you know, if maybe if they do end up moving on and not having to play in a wild card series, maybe Kevin Gosman doesn’t want to sit there and wait that many days. So maybe he will pitch that that final game. But it will all it’s all going to be circumstances. I think at the end of the day it he probably won’t, but you know, it’s up to Kevin Gosman. So they wanted to give him the innings today as much as they could probably. Um, but Carter, I’ll send it over to you. Uh, I know we both had not great reactions to the whole George Springer play, uh, when the Toronto Blue Jays didn’t get that call. And there are already people on TikTok making fun of, um, the fact that the Blue Jays seeming like they are not getting any calls as of late. I’ve seen now I I literally after the game went on TikTok for like three seconds and I saw two different videos talking about the Toronto Blue Jays not getting calls and rightfully so. Yeah, there’s there’s been three bad ones recently, but just quickly going back to uh Kevin Gosman is is you’re right. Yeah, if this there’s games that have any meaning, like if this comes down to the last game of the year and you know the AL East is still on the line, like yes, if Kevin Gosman is going to be available, he’s going to pitch for this team. If he’s your game one playoff starter, he’s going to be the starter that I want to lock up the American League East. Again, hopefully it doesn’t come down to that. if they have anything locked up whatsoever. This was last this is Kevin Gossman’s last start, but yeah, I mean it’s only time will tell if you you’re going to need Kevin Gossman again, but hopefully not. And hopefully this was his last start of the season and the next one will be coming in game one of the American League Divisional Series. But you talk about a g a just a game of baseball like let’s talk about what like what we’ve looked at this team and what has done especially with the offense not really showing up recently. It’s one moment in one swing and can really change a ball game. And one moment seemed like again in this game really changed a ball game. We looked at previously the Nathan Lucas home run call against the Rays. Oh, the ball would have been a home run anyway. So, we’re going to cut even though the fan interfered, but it would have been a home run. So, we’re going to keep it as a home run. Looked pretty clear to me that Nathan Lucas at least had a pretty good shot at it. The Daltton Bar show catch, which was for me might be still the worst one I think out of all three of these ones because that one was absolutely egregious. Uh a ball that in my opinion clearly caught and somehow not enough evidence to overturn it. And now you have George Springer in the second inning. Base is loaded. Big moment in the game. Obviously you are down one- nothing to the Boston Red Sox. George Springer the your hottest hitter right now by far up to the plate. Hits a ball down the third base line right away. Again the the last times and like the three times this has happened. This has been I think the one for sure for me where I’m like live I’m like this looks like a fair ball. I said that with the Vars one. I was pretty certain this one I was fully on certain it looked like a fair ball right off the bat and you can tell by George Springer’s reaction he did as well cuz he was very fired up. You see the replay it looks like again it’s hard to tell from the angle that we got because like you’re looking from the home plate at third base from the angle that we saw on the broadcast. Again even from that angle looks like the ball is holding on to the line farther than third base egregiously farther than third base. Again third base umpire not making the call. And then in George Springer’s luck, you get a pitch on the outside corner. Maybe not as bad if like again depending on the scenario if this didn’t happen. But you get backto-back calls against George Springer that does not go his way. He slams the bat down. He’s bashing his helmet on uh in the dugout on the equipment rack. Like again, for good reason. Like nothing against George Springer at all. But that’s three separate times. Two for sure. Like I am dead set on two. The Nathan Nathan Lucas one a little bit more arbitrary. Whatever. We’ll throw it in for this one. It seems like everything is going against the Toronto Blue Jays right now. And we talk about momentum and a momentum swing within a baseball game. That’s a two-run double for sure. Debatably a bases clearing double which would have put the Toronto Blue Jays up three to one. When the offense isn’t hitting and then you have moments like this that are continuously falling out of your favor and going against you, man, it is a rough spot to be in and fans are rightfully enraged and it’s just rid getting ridiculous at this point how often this is happening and just like the current situation the Toronto Blue Jays are in. Of course, this is happening right now when the Toronto Blue Jays are trying their hardest to lock up the American League East and who would have thought that things aren’t really going according to plan. Carter, so I got a TV beside me. you know, at reaction looked like you saw something there and just cuz I was hoping that, you know, I’d be able to get another look at the George Springer hit. As you were talking about that, I just got another look at that George Springer hit. It is unbelievable. That ball to me is a fair ball. This is disgusting again because this takes away one moment in a baseball game, right? One moment changes the entire game. That’s the game of baseball. This happens. one catch, one hit, one, you know, diving play, one scoop at first base, everything can change just like that. Momentum shifts with one play of the game. And for this to be taken away from the Blue Jays again and again and again, I’m sitting here being very frustrated. And again, I I I I want to say this. This offense did not do well enough to win a baseball game, but it probably helps if you’re up 3-1 at that point instead of being 1-1, right? It it it this is a completely different ball game, things could go completely differently. But because that’s taken off, now you’re you’re sitting back and you’re having to watch the Red Sox go up on you. And after you just had bases loaded, probably two runs scoring. You said three. I think the the direction of that ball, I think, goes probably off the corner. Probably just two, but maybe three. And Carter, I’m just I’m getting very exhausted. And I feel like in sports at this point, there should be an easier way to tell this, right? Like why is there not a pinpoint line on the base paths or on the baselines that you see or the fair and foul line that h you can tell there’s a chip in the ball chip on the line a camera angle down the line right specifically down so you can tell why are there not these things this is a this is the ma major leagues this stuff to me at this point seems easy enough to do and why is it not being implemented I don’t know that you should be able to tell right in football did this ball get over the the the yard marker that it needs to be. This these couple things do not seem that difficult to implement and it just hasn’t been done yet. And instead, we’re going to we’re going to talk balls the automated balls and strike system, which I think for this Toronto Blue Jays team is a very good thing. And for a lot of the time, people are going to argue it. I’ll get into that later. Actually, I don’t even want to talk about it right now. I’m just very, very frustrated with the amount that this has happened over the past little bit. Um, and rightfully so, George Springer gets mad. I’m I’m totally on board. Honestly, I would have been a little bit of me was thinking John Schneider go out there and get tossed. I would have been okay with it. I think I I don’t know if it helps at that point. I don’t think it really does. We saw what happened when he did it for David Schneider in the home run. Exactly. Exactly. Right after. I mean, ball don’t lie. Maybe it would have been another one of those ball don’t lie moments. But the biggest issue with this whole thing is that everything is trending towards being reviewed and you’re reviewing every single moment in baseball, but you can’t review a fair foul call down the line. Like that’s a play that’s not reviewable all of a sudden. That’s where I don’t understand this whatsoever ever. When you’re trying to take the game out of the umpire’s hands initially, why not review that play as well? And like you’re in a very good spot. Like the the call is is is the ball over the third base uh bag at the point where it’s passing third base. Like before you have the line and whatever. After that, again, it’s a little bit of an arbitrary call. It’s more discretion. And these discretionary calls is where you start to have these conflicts. Again, look to me very obvious. If you have the replay and review system on that call, you probably get it reversed. But look at the Daltton Marshall call or that one. You have the replay review system and it still doesn’t go your way. So nothing’s like concrete at this point. It just seems like you have no consistency with a lot of the calls and like you can’t fault the third base umpire’s positioning because he’s right in front of the b like the ball. And again, maybe his angle there’s something different there, but everything that we saw from the broadcast, the angles they they gave us looked like it was pretty obvious with another call that probably should have went the Toronto Blue Jays way. So, it’s it’s just absolutely insane how it just we can’t seem to get anything. But at the end of the day for me, like we’re talking this is going to transition very beautifully into our second segment. But these really don’t matter if the offense can actually hit. If the offense can produce more than three hits because even like in that second inning, the way they got into that position, it’s walk error from the Boston Red Sox. They should have been a it’s a force play two. I think it’s Trevor Story again. He had multiple players in this game. Just drops the ball. Don’t know how that’s going to happen. Like that’s one thing that’s nice when the Toronto Blue Jays play the Red Sox or the Yankees obviously is you see a lot of defensive mishaps. So they’re going to try to help you out as much as they can. They definitely did there. The umpires not helping the Blue Jays out whatsoever. But yeah, you score or sorry you get three hits in the game like you that helps a lot and obviously you want that to go in your direction but long for long-term success like this like the Toronto Blue Jays are not setting themselves up at all right now offensively. Yeah. If if that George Ferrer play happens, we’re probably looking back at this as a four- hit ball game and maybe the Blue Jays win 3-2 and we’re like, well, it it’s great, but they probably don’t deserve that win, right? I mean, right now, who cares if you deserve it? You just want the win. Like, there’s six games left. Every win matters. Absolutely. But I’m saying at the end of the day, this team needs to do more. So, it doesn’t really that play matters, but at the end of the day, this you can’t be dragging this threehit ball club into the playoffs and expecting them to do anything. So, for long-term success, we need to see this offense do more. And that’s where we’re going to take this conversation right after this break. We’re going to talk about the offense and sort of I know Carter, you have a bunch of points written down. We’re going to talk about um uh the the ABS balls and strike system coming into play. And then a third segment, obviously, we’re going to talk Alec Manoa uh being DFA, uh Anthony Sandere bringing him back up and what happened to Tai France as well. Stay with us right after the short break. Today’s episode is sponsored by Rouette. Guys, you’ve probably heard of Viagra or Seialis. Maybe you’ve even tried them. But if you’re looking for something more than the usual pill, it’s time to meet Rouette Go Long. This isn’t just another ED pill. 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So, Carter, continuing on, uh, obviously, you know, we have a lot to talk about in the offense, but we will talk about a little bit about the automated balls and strike system coming into play, but I know you have a lot of statistics on some guys in the last six games that you want to really cover or September ball. Um, because the offense has been lackluster. You know, we got we went pretty hard on the bullpen in all of August for how bad they were. Well, has the offense been that bad, Carter? Well, and it’s really been everybody in the last 6 days. So, I I’m not even going to go into it individually for that. I’m just going to go into some individual stats amongst September, a very important month in baseball when you’re trying to uh clinch the American League East and you’re trying to get a buy for uh the playoffs and not have to play in the wild card round, which has given this team a little bit of trouble trouble obviously in these last couple of seasons. But just looking at what the Toronto Blue Jays have done over their last six games, you could argue that these are some of the most important six games of this entire season. And the Toronto Blue Jays offense has able to muster it up. I’ll go from the game that was just played all the way back to the previous six games. So they got one run, obviously three hits in this game against the Boston Red Sox. Then you have a very good game where they obviously clinch the playoffs. A lot of fun to watch there. Eight runs scored, 12 hits. But then before that, you have one run against the Royals and four hits. Before that, you lose 20 to1 against the Kansas City Royals. maybe give the offense a little bit here, but with the stretch that they were on, kind of just makes sense with the way they were playing. Three hits here, only one run scored. You have four hits against the Tampa Bay Rays in that third game, you score zero runs. In the second game, you lose two to one. Ian Seymour absolutely dominates you. You get four hits, you score one run. Common theme over those last six games really other than the one. It’s like you could look at the last seven games that were okay against the Baltimore Orioles. It boosts the stats a little bit. But when you’re trying to, you know, clinch the American League East, you’re playing some of the most important baseball of the season. And not only that, is that you like being hot and going into the playoffs playing a good brand of baseball matters a ton. We’ve seen teams that have made just barely squeaked in the playoffs and made the wild card absolutely dominate the wild card series, go in, sweep the ALDS, and go on a very deep playoff run. the record kind of gets scrapped as soon as you make the playoffs. Yes, there’s advantages to being on certain sides of the brackets, obviously getting buys, who you play, different advantages there, but really you just want to make the dance and you want to be playing your best caliber of baseball and this offense really since Boette has gone out has not been playing a good caliber of caliber of baseball. You’ll get some of these guys that are supposed to be carrying the offense. George Springer has been carrying the offense. So, I’m not going to uh, you know, throw any shade at him. His ops is like 1,100 in the month of September. Vladimir Gro Jr. hasn’t necessarily been that bad either. Just been more so in that this recent stretch over the last five games or so hasn’t really been that good over September at 895 OPS. Again, you’re just looking for that big hit from Vladimir Guo Jr. Looking at a guy like Alejandro Kirk, a guy that’s been very good for this team at 189 average in September of 569 OPS. Dton Bar hasn’t been that bad. 794 OPS. David Schneider, a guy that was taking a lot of strides at this point. You want him to be in the lineup a lot. 611 OPS in September, 194 average. Addison Baru, who has really fallen off, not the face of the other, but has fallen off a lot in the last kind of two months or so. A 630 OPS in September. Nathan Lucas, a 547 OPS. Ernie Clint hasn’t been bad either. 741 OPS. But a lot of these guys at least have been carrying you throughout the season are starting to falter a little bit. And these aren’t guys you necessarily want to rely on. But when you have Boba out, when you have a guy like Ty France now who again is injured now, wasn’t necessarily carrying the offense or expected to s back now. Can he help this offense out for sure? He definitely has the ability to will he? That’s a big question. But even with Bobette back, yes, Bobette needs to hit, but you’re going to need Alejandro Kirk to step it up. You’re going to need Barger to step it up. David Schneider, Ernie Clement, Nathan Lucas, some of these guys that even if you get Bobett and Santere back, these guys are still going to be playing almost every single day. So, at this point, it doesn’t matter who you are on this baseball team. You’re going to have to show up and you’re going to have to get hits when it matters. It all does start from the top. But now, at this point, you it’s the all-in-one mentality that we’ve had this entire season. It really needs to hold true. And these last five games into the playoffs as well. Carter, this is something that uh you know, me and you have preached forever, right? It’s going back to last season if you want to. Uh it’s riding the hot hand and and playing who’s hot, but you you can’t have five empty spots on a lineup because, you know, so many of your guys are not being hot towards the end of the season in the biggest moments, in the biggest time of the year. And this is something I think we talked about on an episode prior was the fact that you want to be playing your best brand of baseball as you enter the playoffs. Now, don’t get me wrong, I totally get the point that these guys are exhausted, that it has been a long season, but everybody’s exhausted. You know what I mean? You you have to push through that. You have to be able to outperform the everybody else if you want to be the team that, you know, hosts the trophy at the end of the year. And right now, Carter, I’m shaking in my boots over here with the Yankees uh storming back. I think if this team ends up not getting the buy at this point and losing out the ALA East to the New York Yankees, I don’t think they go very far in this playoffs. And it’s going to come down to not getting that much needed rest that brings back a guy like Bo Bashette. I think the more and more that this team plays without Bo Bashette, the more and more everybody and their mom realizes how important Bo Bashette is to the success of this baseball team. And um I will be the one on the top of the hill hollering to give Bob Bashette a contract because the Blue Jays need to keep this guy around to be I I think Bo Bashette is and will be the driving force of this offense for years to come. I without him I I don’t really know that they have the guys and the capability to to to get to that next level. And as much as I love Vlatty, and Vlatty is a big time player, um it’s different. It’s it’s big time in different ways, right? Bo Bashette is going to is the epitome of consistency almost. You know exactly what you’re going to get from Bo Bashette. It’s a ton of hits. It’s a ton of doubles. Yes, he’s not going to smack 40 home runs, but he is going to be a driving force for the offense. And now we’re seeing it. And you know what, Carter? It goes back to what happened to this bullpen. And again, a little funny here, but without Braden Fischer in this bullpen, they stunk real bad. They bring Braden Fischer back. Wow, this bullpen is doing a lot better. Oh my goodness, what is happening to this offense without Bo Bashette? It’s losing an integral piece of this team. And uh it Yeah, it’s it’s showing in spades right now, Carter. See, and I hate doing this because I’m going to give the Vladi haters a little bit more ammo here, but it it sucks when you feel like you need another guy in the offense when you’re paying a guy $500 million or you need that an an extra guy to drive in runs, that extra guy to, you know, come up in big scenarios when you’re already allocating that significant amount of money to some guy like he’s supposed to be doing all those things. He’s supposed to be your best hitter on the team. So, when you see how like this offense transfers and it completely shifts when Bob Bashette is not in this offense and not in the lineup, it does a couple things. One, it exposes some of the other guys on the Toronto Blue Jays that are supposed to be carrying the offense. And the second thing is it might give us a little bit of a sneak peek on what this offense could look like next season if Bo Bashette does not resign with the Toronto Blue Jays team. Again, we’re getting way ahead of ourselves, but this is something that it might be very real and it will be a very big topic talking point. obviously probably the main one of the entire offseason at least for the Toronto Blue Jays. It will be Bobaet and how this team is affected whether he does resign or does not resign. So you’re really you’re seeing the hole obviously right now without Boba in the lineup. Yes, you’re going to see that with any good player, but you’re really seeing what Bobette is the best at and you’re seeing the Toronto Blue Jays struggle getting that clutch hit without their best player in those clutch scenarios in Bobaet. So yeah, it’s uh it’s a scary place to be with the Toronto Blue Jays with more and more uncertainty as we continue on down the stretch. Some of it for good, a lot of it for bad as well. Yeah, Carter, you know what, and there’s a lot more I wanted to get into on this episode. Obviously, the automated balls and strike system, which sort of relays right into a little bit of what we’re talking about with George Springer. Um, David Schneider, I swear, gets screwed on a call every third at bat that he’s in. Just And it’s not like a ball that’s crazy outside, but it’s just off the plate that hey, with the automated balls and strike system, he would get that call. We’ll talk a little bit more about that tomorrow. Uh, just as you know, we there’s so much to talk about today. We’re going to have to push something. And that’s not something that’s immediately affecting the Toronto Blue Jays. So, we’ll push that to tomorrow or the next day. We’ll chat about it sometime this week. Uh because we have to talk about the DFAing of Alec Manoa, Anthony Santandere returning to the team and what’s going on with Tai France. So, we’ll come back Carter. I think we’ll talk all about uh those three guys in particular uh right after this short break. [Music] Today’s episode brought to you by FanDuel. You guys know how much I love FanDuel because it is my premier place to place my bets. Um, you know, I had a bunch of buddies ask me uh the other day because, you know, NFL season starting up. They’re like, “What’s that? What’s the FanDuel deal? I got to get in on this.” And so, with the NFL season being here and FanDuel is making sure you’re ready for kickoff with a can’t miss offer right now. 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So Carter obviously the uh the big talking point right um the guy that we thought hey if we can just survive until we get him back right at the beginning of the season and you know we’re all laughing about it now but uh Alec Manoa gets DFA for the Toronto Blue Jays in a corresponding move to bring Anthony Santandere back to this team which at this point Carter I’m like try anything get Anthony Santandere back in this lineup this team needs a spark and hopefully He is he’s you know actually looked pretty good in his AAA appearances. So hopefully he can carry that over to the MLB level but there is nothing for sure. So um Manoa is disappointed. That’s what Atkins had to come out and say about him. Um but this is where it’s going. And I really had high hopes for an Alec Mano return, but this is where it’s at. And Carter, this isn’t saying that a team is going to go and pick him up and and that he will be on somebody’s roster and the Blue Jays are going to lose him completely, but it it’s a high possibility right now. Yeah, he’s not going to like be added by a playoff team and then pitch for them in the playoffs. Like this DFA means Aquinoa is not going to help the Toronto Blue Jays here in 2025. We’ve seen it with Treya Savage, the kind of this notion to abandon the safety net and really go all in for it. Almano isn’t going to help this year. I mean, and you need that roster spot. Anthony Son, Derek can actually help this year. Obviously, Alec Manoa can’t. And clearly, Alec Manoa has not been very good in the minor leagues. Uh RA again just not really there. 586 fifth over 38.2 minor league innings. the velocity a little bit lower, two to three miles per hour lower than where we saw it in those 2023, even 2024 when he uh he pitched a little bit for the Toronto Blue Jays. But yeah, it’s out of nowhere a little bit surprising. You’ve lost to Ralphus Martinez and Akmanoa. Two guys like three, four years ago. They’re your top guys. They’re your top prospects. Guys that were supposed to be the future of the Toronto Blue Jays. So again, it’s just crazy how quickly baseball can change. But uh I I think we’ll talk a lot more about Alec Manoa uh you know in the offseason. Obviously the impact of that of that he definitely can come back uh for with his team in spring training. I think a lot of it will depend on whether he gets a minor league major league offer. Obviously the recovery throughout the summer. Maybe the velocity ramps back up. Maybe he shows other teams a little bit more. But that’s the thing. He’s going to get interest from the Toronto Blue Jays and he’s going to show the Toronto Blue Jays something. He’s probably showing other teams some stuff as well. So I don’t think he’s not going to get claimed. He won’t be a part of any team this year. But yeah, it’s uh a weird thing for next year where you thought Alec Manoa would be one of those guys to replace probably Chris Basset. Now there’s another opening. I think that suggests that Toronto Blue Chase might be pretty aggressive in the starting rotation market. Again, more of an offseason topic, but an interesting move with the Alec Manoa DFA. Anthony Santandere being an option off the bench tonight. You saw him with a batting helmet on at some points as well. But before we get into the s on derod s on dair sorry of it all I’ll just quickly go into the tie france of it placed on the 10day IIL left oblique inflammation. They seemed pretty vague about this. They didn’t seem like they knew exactly how bad it was. This makes it uh tie France obviously unavailable for the rest of the regular season and make him unavailable for the uh wild card series as well. So that is interesting to see how they would deal with that and maybe could come back for a third game depending on where the dates line up but definitely would not be available for the first game. So Toronto Blue Chase obviously really banking on that buy for Bo Bashette. Not I thought it’d be Francis Santandere not anymore but Chris Basset’s another guy you got some guys that they would would definitely benefit a whole lot if you did wait or sorry if you were able to wait until that ALDS series to play your first round of playoff baseball but into like kind of the meat and potatoes of it all and the thing that maybe people will be the most excited about I alo Alec Manoa is obviously a big part of this as well being reinstated and is able to hit for the Toronto Blue Jays. Multiple reports have said uh that he has felt better swinging from the left side opposed to the right side, but he has the ability to swing from both sides. I guess the biggest question with Anthony Santandere is I’m not sure how well you’re going to be able to answer this because it’s been a long time since we’ve seen him, but what’s your expectation for Anthony Santandere? Is this a guy you throw immediately in that number four spot with things not going very well? You start him in the middle of the order, five or six. Do you maybe start him at seven? Is he playing every day? Like where do you even start this whole Anthony saga? You can’t start him at four. You can’t. Uh especially in his first game back. You just can’t do that. Um but I think it could ramp up very quickly if you see start to see a little bit of production from him. And I think that’s at this point what you expect because But I mean, you’re going to have to wrap them up quickly. You got five days to figure it out. That’s right. That’s right. So by the end of by the end of g game three, I think you could of uh his return, he very well could be in the four spot if this offense continues to struggle and he’s showing some promise here. So I I don’t think it’s out of the question. This team needs a spark and and you got to hope that he is. Carter, I just saw another video of the George Springer thing. By the way, TSN drew a line. Uh drew a line and like followed followed the pitch. It was a fair ball. Oh, I mean I could have told you that when I saw it live. Like again, yeah, like it’s pretty much like 100% like conclusive like this was a fair ball. Probably it caught probably this much of the plate, but it was a fair ball. Okay, so I I’ll give the umpire a little bit of grace here. here. I know it sucks for the moment, but if it if it’s that close, I mean, it looked like it was like almost a base. Like it was the full base that they had this fair call by. Yeah, that’s going to be a memory that’s living in uh the back of our heads depending on guess how this season goes. Hopefully, it’s one you can quickly forget about. But yeah, that would be one moment where if things don’t necessarily go that well, we’re probably thinking a little bit of of that. But with Anthony Santere, just quickly going back to that, like he has to be in the lineup today, right? Like the day this comes out has to be in the lineup. Absolutely. Absolutely. There there’s no hold bars here. You need to get all of these guys ramped up if you are going to be in a wild card which please to Jesus Christ that you’re not. But in that case, you need Anthony Santer. You need the home run ball because man, it doesn’t look like anybody else is delivering anything right now. So you need that one big swing of the bat. You need this guy in there and whatever he can give you right now, you better be happy about it because goodness sakes, it looks horrible these last few games. Um, yeah, Carter, I don’t know. I’m I’m interested. I I I want to see how this team responds. I We’ve talked about their resilience and their grittiness to be able to bounce back. This offense hasn’t looked like it h it’s had the bounce back. So, I I’m I’m getting worried, right? Like I I’m not I know where the panic button is in the room and I’m I’m starting to be be very concerned, especially with all these players going out in injury now, too. I mean, you got Ty France there as well. You’re losing a lot of pieces and uh the break would be crucial for this Toronto Blue Jays team. So yeah, uh it’s going to be a few interesting days for baseball here. You got to go up against Garrick Crochet and that is not going to be a lick of fun here, Carter. Well, and the Toronto Blue Jays have Max Sherzer on the mound and guess how that went for them the last time out. So again, it’s things have looked better before in Toronto Blue Jays line. They are still one game up on the New York Yankees technically too because they hold the tiebreaker, but again, we’ve seen how quickly those games can dwindle, especially if you are not going to take care of business against the Boston Red Sox. Like we said, Garrett Crochet versus Max Scherzer, you got to hope that Anthony Sandere is somewhere in this lineup. But like right now, the way players are hitting like the expectation at Anthony Santair, if you can get one hit, like you’re pretty happy with that. I don’t think it’s out of the question that this guy hits four cuz who who else like who else is going to hit four? Probably like you probably still prefer Bartow, but the thing is Crochet is a lefty. Like Marshall’s not hitting four against lefty. Yeah. So who who do you got in there? Like it might be Anthony Santandere. You got Vlatty at three. You probably have Schneider, David Schneider at two, I think, at this point. Maybe it’s Ernie Clement, but I think it’s David Schneider, George Springer at one. Who? Like Alejandro Kirk maybe at four and then Santon Dere at five. Like at this point, there’s not a lot of options. No, you’re right. Just with the way people are playing. Like if Yeah, it that’s it, right? That who’s going to give you the best option right now? And it doesn’t look like anybody else is showing up, so why not throw him in there? Throw him in there. Let him hit two. Screw it. Double thread. Like I don’t know, man. He’s got to see something. They got to give us something positive to talk about how quickly things can change in Toronto Blue Jays line. Like the sky is falling. It maybe is a little bit here, but things can change a whole lot if you beat win the next two games of the series. You beat Garrett Crochet, you tie up the series and give yourself a chance to win the series and then the White Socks and help you out a little bit. That didn’t go very well in the first game of the series. But again, like you can’t get upset about the White Socks losing. Like that’s that’s not what their expectation is. Maybe take one. like you want them to take one for sure, but the Toronto Blue Jays are in a spot where they control their own destiny. How about you control it? How about you man up and show up for the moment and actually win yourself the American League East and earn yourself that buy? Because that’s the biggest thing about the wild cards. It’s not that they wouldn’t have a chance against whoever they’re playing. It’s just if they end up in the wild card, it means that they’ve lost a lot to the Red Sox and the Rays. That probably means their offense isn’t playing that well. And then that means you’re not going to have Chris Basset in that uh wild card series. You’re not going to have a lot of these other guys. Anthony Santandere is going to be rushed. You don’t have as much time with Treyus Savage. Ty France is like there’s just a lot that obviously is benefited by winning the American League East. That is still the goal. That is still the expectation, but it’s getting a little bit tighter as we continue on down the stretch. Only five games remaining and uh every game matters a ton. Oh, dude. I’m I’m sitting here and I’m nervous. I’m not going to lie to you. I hate being this way, right? I I don’t want to be upset about this team. they are in a position to make the playoffs and do something. But the signs are there that that can this come crashing down? Maybe. We’ll have to wait and see. We’ll talk more about this. We’ve been here. Sorry to interrupt one last time. This is the last thing that I’m going to say at least. We’ve been pretty good at like keeping even key like keeping like an even temperament when things don’t go well on this podcast. But now there’s five games left. Like that these games matter a ton. Obviously, I think like that’s out the window. like you live and die with every game at this point because every game feels like playoff baseball and every game is so significant to what the Toronto Blue Jays are trying to accomplish. So I think that kind of mentality is out the window at least for this podcast. I was going to say except it really doesn’t feel like playoff baseball. That did not feel like playoff baseball. Like it’s a playoff atmosphere but like the caliber I mean that that’s felt like how the Toronto Blue have played in the playoffs last couple of seasons. That’s not how I want to feel again. I’ll tell you it is. Yeah. All right. Well, we’re out of here for today but everybody please uh come back tomorrow. We’re going to talk balls and strike system as well as the fallout from the game. Um, so make sure you guys stay tuned for all of that. Lot more to come. This Toronto Blue Jays team will be in the playoffs one way or another. We will have it all covered here on Locked on Blue Jays. Hit the subscribe button if you haven’t already. Leave us a comment about everything we talked about today and we’ll be back with you guys tomorrow.

The Toronto Blue Jays are losing their division lead very quickly as they have lost to the Boston Red Sox 4-1 and now hold a one game lead over the New York Yankees. The offense did not show up once again, only accumulating four hits which unfortunately has become a common theme for this team in recent days. In a very surprising move, Anthony Santander is back with the Blue Jays, but Alek Manoah was designated for assignment in a corresponding move. There is so much to discuss, and we break it all down while bringing you while bringing you the most up to date news and storylines surrounding everything Blue Jays right here on Locked On Blue Jays.

Your current Toronto Blue Jays roster: Vladimir Guerrero Jr, Bo Bichette, Kevin Gausman, Yimi Garcia, Anthony Santander, Alek Manoah, Jeff Hoffman, Yariel Rodriguez, George Springer, Jose Berrios, Chris Bassitt, Andres Gimenez, Daulton Varsho, Alejandro Kirk, Brayden Fisher, Max Scherzer, Leo Jimenez, Davis Schneider, Ernie Clement, Jake Bloss, Nick Sandlin, Bowden Francis, Joey Loperfido, Orelvis Martinez, Ricky Tiedemann, Addison Barger, Nathan Lukes, Seranthony Dominguez, Christian Bethancourt, Louis Varland, Tommy Nance, Jonatan Clase, Tyler Heineman , Myles Straw, Shane Bieber, Easton Lucas, Paxton Schultz, Mason Fluharty, Eric Lauer

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