This changes EVERYTHING for the Blue Jays...

the Toronto Blue Jays were very close to a history making moment yesterday and Bowen Francis was spearhead in that he headed into the ninth inning with a no hitter but It ultimately wasn't meant to be it was broken up by Taylor Ward with a ninth inning home run and he left to a standing ovation from the Roger Center crowd probably the loudest that they have been all year long and what he is doing in his past three starts is changing the approach that the Blue Jays might have to take this offseason they've said that they want to be competitive they've said that they want to try to improve all areas but Bowen Francis is forcing them to basically make a decision in having him in the rotation and not maybe spending on a BigTime pitcher so we'll break down his dominance and what it means going forward for the Blue Jays on this episode of Jay's digest what's up Jay's fans I'm your host Peter Ronis alongside host Nick gos and B and Francis what he did yesterday was probably the best uh the best Blue Jays game that I've seen in a while and of course I wasn't in the building for that one I was in the building for the night before but we still got some fireworks with the back-to-back home runs in the ninth inning by Joey lero who is playing really well may I add and Addison Barger as well who hit that walk-off home run now Nick the Blue Jays they're going to have a lot of work to do this off season because yes they got a lot of prospects back but I don't know if many of them are ready to make an immediate impact starting next season and I'm talking about Charles McAdoo Jake Bloss like there's a lot of players that have really high ceilings but maybe might not feature in 2025 so what do the Blue Jays have to do to be competitive well they're going to have to spend a lot of money and that's on the offensive side of things that's on the bullpen front as well as the starting rotation at least we thought so until maybe a couple of weeks ago when bow and Francis had back-to-back seven inning outings and then yesterday it was the culmination he went into the ninth inning with a no hitter 110 pitches he gave it everything that he had and unfortunately it wasn't meant to be due to a Taylor Ward home run but he's forcing the blue jay's hand and he is showing that he can be a reliable option despite things not going his way at the start of the Season we all thought okay maybe it was just the flash in the pan he was a low leverage guy in 2023 and then uh you know it didn't really materialize into any success as a starter in 2024 but he's worked on some things he's found his Mojo and he's looked the best he's ever looked in a blue jay uniform in a major league uniform and I'm very excited to see how he progresses going into next season but right now he seems as though he's the most reliable option in the rotation not just a a piece that they could rely on for next season but maybe the piece to rely on going into 2025 yeah he won the player of the week last week and then now he's coming out and just he's being what everyone I don't know if what everyone thought he could be but the peak of what he thought he could be and at this point we made a video on it a month ago whatever it was saying that if Bowen Francis can be a number five starter for the Blue Jays that is very big going forward for their approach especially with like you mentioned the lack of starting pitchers in the pipeline the closest one is Jake Blas but you look at Ricky Tedman he's out next year Brandon barrier all these guys and then B yeah Manoa as well who's going to be obviously going to factor into it as well but it's out for a while Bowen Francis yesterday again if you missed it I highly recommend going to watch the uh the highlights there eight Innings one run three walks and 12 strikeouts and Bowen's a guy who people question whether he has that get out pitch and how towards the end of his outings which earlier on in the season even before his hot streak was fifth inning maybe and then his stuff would start to tail off but yesterday John Schneider was letting him go he would have let him go 130 pitches if it meant him getting the the complete game and that means a couple things it means he stretched out for the rest of the year it means he's auditioning for that fifth starter spot next season and that is big for the Jays because quite frankly they're starting rotation starting to age a little bit it is uh Chris Basset is on last year of his deal you have Kevin Gosman you do obviously have Jose Brios you have a lot of young guys who can factor into play but baton Francis 28 years old could be a very important piece to this team going forward if he can sustain this but that is the biggest question he's hasn't ever in his MLB career MLB that is in the minor he has started consistently been able to throw seven six Innings if he can just give you six Innings a night giving up two to three earned runs which it seems like he's leaning towards that side then it's uh it looks good it's not he's a randomly new pitcher he's been around for a while he's pitched a lot of games in the MLB it just seems like he figured something out and his stuff is sustainable even his fastb was touching 94 95 yeah and it started to tail off a little bit towards the end of his outing but that's normal because he hasn't probably gone over a hundred pitches ever and I don't think uh I don't think he would have had he not had a no hitter going into the ninth inning and we see the blueprint around Major League Baseball Nick that starting pitching is important but it's not the end all Beall anymore like Chris Basset and Kevin Gosman Jose baros they can still get you outs do they have Ace caliber stuff like maybe they did at the beginning of their careers or just as early as a couple years ago maybe not but I still think that they're reliable and they can give you close to 200 Innings per season and that's what you can Bank on with those guys but then after that it's your fourth and fifth starters that are your big question marks and Bowen Francis is starting to really silence some of those doubts and with his performance that he's having he's allowing the Blue Jays to maybe zero in on some Bullpen help in the off season and definitely some offensive help like they can go out and spend big on offense or in the bullpen if they can get a consistent performance out of bound Francis and they can rely on him to be that guy going forward now it's going to we're going to need to see it more often I'm not expecting him to have seven scoreless Innings every time he goes out there but like you said if he can get through six with maybe three or four runs and give the team a chance to win that's all you can ask for especially out of a guy who's going to be at the back end of your rotation so been great to see his hot streak uh he's really starting to figure stuff out his splitter looked great yesterday as well and he's trending in the right direction backto back uh seven innings outings culminated in a player of the week award and I wouldn't be shocked if he wins player of the week again I know Aaron judge is on an absolute tear right now with the Yankees but if he can keep doing what he's doing then I think he answers a lot of question marks that the Blue Jays had heading into the off season and that bodess well for the rest of the team getting a major facelift heading into 2025 now do I do I believe that they're going to be competitive and and a World Series Contender if they make minimal to no changes with just bow and Francis being inserted no but it's definitely a good start yeah and the whole MLB was looking at Bow and Francis you had for the first time in a while the Jays were super uh relevant for a little bit there which doesn't really matter but it was interesting to see everybody on Twitter and gathering around I think everyone wanted to see B Francis get it to be honest and you can see here what he said from starting from spring training he wanted to be a starter and it didn't work out at the beginning and he's getting a chance now and he's taking it and run with it and again you look at the stats last year he was in a low Leverage mop-up uh kind of roll he thrived in that role now his ra is about to approach sub three if he can have a decent start he's seven and three with a 4.02 ER but even at that if you're a fifth starter has a very low four Z you'll take that 10 times out of 10 if you're the Toronto Blue Jays especially for a guy who really before last year didn't think I mean he's not a prospect anymore he didn't think he would be able to factor into the uh the offseason and Peter or into the regular season um just want to throw this out there before I wrap up a bit of a funny stat here the Jays had the best record in two months for the past two months in the AL e now granted it's still only a couple games above 500 but it goes to show that who knows how different things uh who knows how different things would have been if you know the offense and they were playing the young guys from the start but uh everyone's struggling in the AL East and the Jays if the season started June 25th would be first and that's uh I mean it's a culmination of many things obviously the Jays are not the best they're not even close they're probably right now the worst team they definitely are the worst team in the a East at least this season but the point is the young guys are playing decent ball 500 ball for all the young players especially because they sold all their assets is good and their hitting is starting to come along so it gives some sort of a light for next season whether they're trying to compete or continuing to retool any final thoughts yeah it's uh exciting right now to watch this team because you see all the hunger and we spoke about it yesterday these are guys fighting for jobs for next season nothing is written in the stars for Leo Jimenez like he doesn't know where he's going to be he's he's got to be on the 40-man roster in order to um remain a blue jay so he's fighting for a job Ernie Clement as well in his first time ever having a significant amount of playing time he is showing what he can do to other major league baseball teams not just the Blue Jays so yeah they're fighting to be on the Blue Jays next year but more importantly they're fighting to remain in the major leagues so you're seeing that maybe the results um like 27 and 25 is not it it doesn't mean you're a world beater by any stretch but they're they could have had a lot more wins than that but they're blowing some games because the inexperience is showing and they're still learning how to be winners at the major league level but that's okay like that's what a retool is all about it's allowing these guys to find their feet and and allowing them to get comfortable at the big league level and they're getting rewarded for it is it always going to be pretty with the results it's not but still you're seeing some very nice things out of guys that want to be part of the solution in 2025 and I think that's very exciting as a blue jay fan like we wrote off the playoffs a couple of months ago and we didn't think that they would be in a position to make the playoffs and they're not going to be but just seeing the progression and seeing how great some guys are becoming from game to game like Joey lero for example he came and he couldn't hit water if he fell out of a boat he was striking out left right and center but now he's really starting to figure it out and he's got an Ops over 1500 in his last uh two weeks so that's great to see and he figures to be a big part of the team next year so all those guys that are progressing together as a unit I think that's the best thing that we can take out of this and Bowen Francis has been one of the bright spots in the past couple of weeks in a season that has not had too many bright bright spots for putting it l yeah it's been a uh an interesting year one of the weirdest seasons in recent memory but having things like this having days like yesterday makes it a little bit easier to to swallow but that'll wrap it up let us know in the comments what your thoughts are on this and we'll see you guys tomorrow