{"id":698955,"date":"2026-05-14T18:51:14","date_gmt":"2026-05-14T18:51:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/698955\/"},"modified":"2026-05-14T18:51:14","modified_gmt":"2026-05-14T18:51:14","slug":"latest-on-blue-jays-rotation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/698955\/","title":{"rendered":"Latest On Blue Jays’ Rotation"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Blue Jays\u2019 rotation has been slammed by injuries this season, and poor performance from Eric Lauer<\/a>, whom Toronto recently designated for assignment, has only compounded matters. The only healthy starters for manager John Schneider right now are Dylan Cease<\/a>, Kevin Gausman<\/a>, Trey Yesavage<\/a> and Patrick Corbin<\/a> \u2014 the latter of whom was a midseason signing to help patch things over amid the rash of injuries. The Jays will go with a spot starter this Saturday, manager John Schneider said last night (link via the Canadian Press<\/a>), but the organization is still determining who that\u2019ll be.<\/p>\n

Toronto currently has Shane Bieber<\/a> (elbow inflammation), Cody Ponce<\/a> (ACL tear) and Bowden Francis<\/a> (Tommy John surgery) on the 60-day IL. Jos\u00e9 Berr\u00edos<\/a> (stress fracture in elbow), Max Scherzer<\/a> (forearm tendinitis) and Lazaro Estrada<\/a> (shoulder impingement) are on the 15-day injured list. Yariel Rodriguez<\/a> and Rule 5 pick Spencer Miles<\/a> are long options in the bullpen. There\u2019s no clear help on the horizon in Triple-A \u2014 at least not on the 40-man roster. Adam Macko<\/a> has been working in relief, former top prospect Ricky Tiedemann<\/a> is still injured (and last pitched in 2024), and Jake Bloss<\/a> is only just beginning to build back up in Rookie ball after last year\u2019s UCL surgery.<\/p>\n

Non-roster depth options include prospects CJ Van Eyk<\/a> and Chad Dallas<\/a>, as well as journeymen Austin Voth<\/a> and Josh Fleming<\/a>. All four have pitched decently, though Dallas hasn\u2019t gone five innings in any appearance yet and Van Eyk has only done so twice. Dallas is currently listed as the probable starter for tonight\u2019s game in Triple-A Buffalo. Voth and Fleming would either need to stick on the big league roster once added or else be designated for assignment. Both are out of minor league options.<\/p>\n

Schneider mentioned Miles, specifically, as one possible option, but that hinges on whether he\u2019s needed in the interim. The skipper also acknowledged that Saturday\u2019s starter could be someone who\u2019s not even in the organization currently. Trades of any real significance are rare this time of year, of course, and the Jays are hopeful of getting some more established arms back from the injured list before too long. They\u2019re unlikely to acquire a prominent name in a trade over the next 48 hours, but a minor swap is possible. Free agency and the waiver wire don\u2019t have much to offer at the moment.<\/p>\n

One name the Jays don\u2019t seem likely to get back anytime soon is Berr\u00edos. The 31-year-old learned of a stress fracture in his right elbow during an intake physical for the World Baseball Classic. It wasn\u2019t causing him any discomfort at the time, but the Jays played things cautiously and placed him on the IL to begin the season. He made four rehab starts but went for an MRI after a notable velocity dip during the last of those four minor league appearances. That new round of imaging revealed some inflammation but also \u201cchanges\u201d<\/a> to his existing stress fracture.<\/p>\n

The Jays have been opaque when it comes to updates on the right-hander in the days since. Last week, they indicated that an update would likely be available Tuesday, following an in-person meeting with Dr. Keith Meister. That update never came. Schneider said yesterday (via Sportsnet\u2019s Shi Davidi<\/a>) that Berr\u00edos, the Blue Jays and medical experts were still talking through possible next steps.<\/p>\n

\u201c[T]here\u2019s going to be some downtime,\u201d Schneider said. \u201cYou just don\u2019t know how long and how it affects everyone else in the rotation, everyone else depth-wise, things like that. So, not ideal.\u201d<\/p>\n

Health uncertainty is a new phenomenon for Berr\u00edos, who entered the season as the game\u2019s most durable arm. From 2018-25, he led Major League Baseball in both games started (234) and innings pitched (1367 2\/3). Berr\u00edos started a full slate of 12 games during the shortened 2020 season and, prior to 2026, had started 30 or more games in every 162-game season dating back to 2018. He\u2019s in the fifth season of a seven-year, $131MM contract extension that allows him to opt out and test free agency following the \u201926 campaign. Given the injury, it\u2019s hard to imagine Berr\u00edos opting out of the remaining $48MM on his contract, though that\u2019s a conversation for down the road. For now, the Jays are doing what they can to get the veteran righty back on the mound as they try to piece the rotation together.<\/p>\n

There ought to be an update both on Berr\u00edos and the weekend rotation plans before too much longer, but the entire situation seems very much up in the air as things stand.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Blue Jays\u2019 rotation has been slammed by injuries this season, and poor performance from Eric Lauer, whom…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":698956,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2378],"tags":[6869,5,377,2554,73958,83744,4883,387,59036,4,63679,282,70,2553],"class_list":["post-698955","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-toronto-blue-jays","tag-austin-voth","tag-baseball","tag-blue-jays","tag-bluejays","tag-chad-dallas","tag-cj-van-eyk","tag-jake-bloss","tag-jose-berrios","tag-josh-fleming","tag-mlb","tag-spencer-miles","tag-toronto","tag-toronto-blue-jays","tag-torontobluejays"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116574439581246509","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/698955","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=698955"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/698955\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/698956"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=698955"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=698955"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=698955"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}