{"id":696410,"date":"2026-05-11T21:13:34","date_gmt":"2026-05-11T21:13:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/696410\/"},"modified":"2026-05-11T21:13:34","modified_gmt":"2026-05-11T21:13:34","slug":"blue-jays-cut-postseason-hero-after-5-losses-in-first-8-games","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/696410\/","title":{"rendered":"Blue Jays cut postseason hero after 5 losses in first 8 games"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Toronto Blue Jays<\/a> designated pitcher Eric Lauer<\/a> for assignment May 11 after a disastrous start to his season.<\/p>\n

Lauer, who was instrumental in the Blue Jays\u2019 run to Game 7 of the 2025 World Series, was 1-5 with a 6.69 ERA through his first eight games (six starts) of 2026.<\/p>\n

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The Blue Jays needed to make a 40-man roster move to accommodate the promotion of pitcher Yariel Rodriguez. The Cuban right-hander had a 2.63 ERA in 11 games at Triple-A Buffalo, after being outrighted off their MLB<\/a> roster in December 2025.<\/p>\n

Toronto made another roster swap on May 11. Outfielder Addison Barger<\/a> injured his right elbow making a clutch throw in the Blue Jays\u2019 May 9 win over the Los Angeles Angels<\/a>. He was placed on the 10-day injured list, and rookie outfielder Yohendrick Pi\u00f1ango was recalled from Buffalo.<\/p>\n

Barger ripped off a 101.2-mph throw from right field to home plate to retire Jorge Soler<\/a> at home plate in the second inning of the Blue Jays\u2019 eventual victory against the Angels. It was the fastest recorded throw by a Blue Jays outfielder in the brief history of Statcast.<\/p>\n

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Pi\u00f1ango, who was hitting .423<\/a> in his first MLB<\/a> cup of coffee, had been optioned to Buffalo a day earlier when Barger returned from an ankle injury. It was no surprise to see him return on short notice.<\/p>\n

Lauer\u2019s demotion was somewhat of a surprise. In October 2025, he allowed three runs while recording only one out in Game 2 of the American League Division Series against the New York Yankees<\/a>.<\/p>\n

From then on, Lauer was lights-out. He made four appearances out of the Blue Jays\u2019 bullpen and did not allow a run. That included 4.2-inning relief appearance in the marathon Game 3 of the World Series, which lasted 18 innings.<\/p>\n

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MORE: Dodgers make trade with Blue Jays for 28-year-old infielder<\/a><\/p>\n

Lauer is a veteran of eight major league seasons with the Blue Jays (2025-26), Milwaukee Brewers<\/a> (2020-23) and San Diego Padres<\/a> (2018-19). He\u2019s 46-44 with a 4.26 ERA (97 ERA+) toggling back and forth between the bullpen and rotation at each of his stops.<\/p>\n

This season, however, Lauer had allowed 11 home runs, the most of any MLB pitcher. Despite injuries to starters Shane Bieber<\/a>, Jose Berr\u00edos<\/a>, Max Scherzer<\/a> and Cody Ponce<\/a>, the Blue Jays didn\u2019t want to prolong Lauer\u2019s misery.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Toronto Blue Jays designated pitcher Eric Lauer for assignment May 11 after a disastrous start to his…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":696411,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2288],"tags":[6081,5,377,54086,39,1497,3509,387,56,2328,2304,381,59,4,2305,2303,62,18,1271,1414,70],"class_list":["post-696410","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mlb-postseason","tag-addison-barger","tag-baseball","tag-blue-jays","tag-cody-ponce","tag-dodgers","tag-eric-lauer","tag-jorge-soler","tag-jose-berrios","tag-los-angeles-angels","tag-major-league-baseball-playoffs","tag-major-league-baseball-postseason","tag-max-scherzer","tag-milwaukee-brewers","tag-mlb","tag-mlb-playoffs","tag-mlb-postseason","tag-new-york-yankees","tag-san-diego-padres","tag-shane-bieber","tag-the-blue-jays","tag-toronto-blue-jays"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116558011127936128","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/696410","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=696410"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/696410\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/696411"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=696410"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=696410"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=696410"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}