{"id":678498,"date":"2026-04-18T16:45:27","date_gmt":"2026-04-18T16:45:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/678498\/"},"modified":"2026-04-18T16:45:27","modified_gmt":"2026-04-18T16:45:27","slug":"eric-lauer-on-toronto-blue-jays-opener-strategy-vs-diamondbacks-i-hate-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/678498\/","title":{"rendered":"Eric Lauer on Toronto Blue Jays\u2019 opener strategy vs. Diamondbacks: \u2018I hate it\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Toronto Blue Jays<\/a> dropped their third consecutive game on Friday in a 6-3 loss to the Arizona Diamondbacks<\/a>, and pitcher Eric Lauer<\/a> was not happy with the team\u2019s strategy in the game.<\/p>\n

The Blue Jays elected to go with an \u2018opener,\u2019 sending reliever Braydon Fisher<\/a> out to start the game and take care of the first inning before using Lauer out of the bullpen for the second inning onwards.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a common strategy around the majors, which aims to avoid having the starting pitcher face the most dangerous hitters at the top of the order three times in their start.<\/p>\n

Fisher and Lauer combined for six innings of three-run ball, and Lauer finished his five innings having only faced the top of the order twice – so the strategy worked as manager John Schneider envisioned. But Lauer was unhappy with it after the game.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s definitely different,\u201d Lauer told reporters after the loss. \u201cTo be real blunt, I hate it. I can\u2019t stand it. But you work with what you got.\u201d<\/p>\n

This isn\u2019t the first time Lauer has clashed with his role on the team\u2019s pitching staff. Lauer lost his arbitration hearing, where the team filed at $4.4 million against Lauer\u2019s filing of $5.75 million.<\/p>\n

A few weeks later at Spring Training, Lauer indicated he felt his inconsistent usage (Lauer made 15 starts and 13 appearances out of the bullpen in a successful 2025 campaign) led to him losing his claim. \u201cThe fact I ended the year in the bullpen,\u201d Lauer said in February<\/a>, \u201cwas probably what lost me my case.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lauer pitched to a 3.18 earned-run average last season and was credited by utilityman Ernie Clement<\/a> as being the team\u2019s unsung MVP after helping stabilize the rotation when it was ravaged by injuries early in the summer.<\/p>\n

The results have not been similar this year: Lauer has a 7.13 ERA through four appearances. He dealt with a flu bug earlier in April that was cutting his velocity, but he feels that difficulty is behind him now. Moving forward, Lauer said he hopes that he can get back to a traditional starter role.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou can make it work the best you can,\u201d Lauer said about following an opener. \u201cIt\u2019s just, hopefully it\u2019s not something that we will continue doing. But you know, that\u2019s above my pay grade.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Toronto Blue Jays dropped their third consecutive game on Friday in a 6-3 loss to the Arizona…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":678499,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2378],"tags":[30173,5,377,2554,46746,4,282,70,46737,2553],"class_list":{"0":"post-678498","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-toronto-blue-jays","8":"tag-apple-news","9":"tag-baseball","10":"tag-blue-jays","11":"tag-bluejays","12":"tag-eric-lauer-sports-baseball-player-player-statscom-738156","13":"tag-mlb","14":"tag-toronto","15":"tag-toronto-blue-jays","16":"tag-toronto-blue-jays-sports-baseball-team-team-statscom-238","17":"tag-torontobluejays"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116426726553456395","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/678498","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=678498"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/678498\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/678499"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=678498"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=678498"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=678498"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}