This week, in our first ever bonus episode, we take a look at the current Blue Jays roster—and, it turns out, farm system—and discuss which players, aside from Vladimir Guerrero Jr.—have the best shot at one day ascending to the Level of Excellence.

PATREON EXCLUSIVE EPISODE - https://www.patreon.com/posts/134360093

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The Blue Jays are headed out of the All-Star Break and toward the trade deadline in first place in the American League East. They're incredibly well-positioned to hit the gas pedal and strengthen their roster before the end of the month—and that's without even talking about some big names due to return from injury—even if we maybe don't quite fully understand how, exactly, any of this has happened.

This week we take a look at everything that's brought us here, where we expect to see regression, which trends seem most durable, and set things up for what could be the most exciting home stretch the club has had in years.

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Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The Blue Jays have continued to roll over the last week, finally managing to reel in the New York Yankees a little bit, and have kept on doing so with contributions from unexpected places. And they’ve made it so they’ll need to keep on relying on those for a while yet, thanks to a number of transactions made in recent days, the most notable of which saw a pair of expected contributors—Bowden Francis and Erik Swanson— banished to the injured list and designated for assignment respectively.

That the Jays decided Francis keeping his spot had become untenable was hardly a shocker, but the presumed end of the Swanson Era—after just 30 batters faced—was at the very least a mild one. And it gave us a chance to talk about all things bullpen construction, to relitigate the Teoscar Hernández trade, and to look into the future at how the staff as a whole will function with a bullpen in transition and a rotation desperate to get Max Scherzer back—and, eventually, Alek Manoah—and could still probably use reinforcements beyond them as well.

Plus a whole lot more!

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It's been a good week for the Blue Jays, with some actually encouraging signs showing up in their offence. Addison Barger might be for real, Alan Roden and Davis Schneider are back after successful spells in Triple-A, but more important than that is the fact that lately we've been seeing the best of guys like Bo Bichette, Alejandro Kirk, and George Springer—some of the very guys the team had futilely pinned their hopes for "internal improvement" on over the last two or three years.

Plus, we look at some of the club's recent roster shuffling and injury woes, check in on the state of the rotation, the bullpen, and some prospects, and take a look through the Athletic's recent Blue Jays All-Quarter-Century Team.

Blue Jays All-Quarter Century Team: Toronto’s best since 2000 - Mitch Bannon - https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/6381601/2025/05/27/blue-jays-all-quarter-century-team/

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The Blue Jays won a series in Texas by scoring just four runs, and while normally that would be cause to celebrate some extraordinary pitching performances, that certainly doesn't feel like what we just witnessed. The Jays and Rangers were abysmal offensively over the three games, with Toronto batters going a staggering 2-for-31 with runners in scoring position. Ugly stuff!

But RISP numbers are so dependent on luck that, even though they greatly help to tell the story of individual games, they're barely worth talking about without also addressing the offence as a whole. So that's exactly what we do, before moving relatively quickly on to topics like the resurgence of Bowden Francis and Kevin Gausman, whether Daulton Varsho should get a contract extension, and more!

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