Bowden Francis' gem, Joey Votto's retirement, and more!

you're listening to Blue Jays Nation radio with Cam Lewis and Tyler yurchuk a member of the nation network of podcast all right welcome in to episode 238 of Blue Jay's Nation radio you're REM Chuck and kumy with you you can watch the show on YouTube you can listen to the show of course wherever you get your podcast from make sure you like And subscribe and kumy there have not been a lot of times this season where we can sit and talk about a Toronto Blue Jay sweet but every time they've played the LA Angels we can certainly say that uh the Jays go in and win all four against the LA Angels over the course of the weekend at the Rogers Center and all in all like I I actually am pretty surprised by this although I did say like excited for the Post deadline team where we get to look at some kids and yes I know it's the Angels but this team actually is to stay on form or stay on brand for us it's Gathering up some Vibes it is this has become a lot more interesting to watch as of late and I think I mean we talked about this after the trade deadline and we were thinking oh man you know it actually really sucks to be staring down the barrel of a few months of non-competitive non-playoff baseball where you're not worried about the standings the games don't matter all that much but it's also nice after a year and a half maybe two years maybe a little bit longer depending on who you are and what your expectations are of watching these games and not having to sit there and worry about the outcome just it's kind of like 2018 2019 style you're just hoping somebody catches fire and does something exciting and that's what we've seen these past few games is this whole weekend was just guys under the age of 30 on the JS doing cool stuff where you're thinking oh yeah for 2025 this guy can do this it lets you lets you kind of Dream a Little that next year's roster might be actually good well yeah then you see some of the numbers as well with where the Jays rank over the last two three weeks across Major League Baseball in home runs and run production and they're right up there at the top it's kind of like okay like again they beat the Angels I am not gonna sit here and be like next season's a playoff season because they went out and beat the LA Angels but over the last 15 days nobody's hit more home runs in the majors than the Toronto Blue G's over the last 15 days only the Arizona Diamondbacks have more than their 66 runs produced sorry uh 68 runs produced that is it's uh second in the majors like they're hitting the ball really well right now and it's being driven by some young guys they're also pitching well and we'll talk about that but um let's go into three UPS because there's a couple notable young performers I wanted to talk about um and they were the two guys who hit the back-to-back home runs to walk off the LA Angels like that is unbelievable to have that play out but let's start with Addison Barger because this is a guy who in his first call up and his first little bit of time in the majors was not looking great and when you look at his splits over the last 30 games then compared to just the last seven the last seven are really what stand out he had a very very good series against the Angels where I'll frame this and maybe it's a way to frame it for all the discussion about the young hitters when we talk about the angel series is is this worth getting excited about because maybe these guys are getting used to hitting major league pitching or do you sit there and go oh you played the angels and that's pretty much just triaa pitching I mean to an extent yeah Tyler Anderson was an Allstar this year like it it is a a big blend of mediocre pictures because you look on the other side and this wasn't so much the case with the Cincinnati series because with them being in the National League there're they're still sort of in the race not really but they're not out of it like Anaheim like we saw over these two weeks whatever seven games they played with the angels that as bad as we can complain about the Jays being at any point during this season we're like oh man the Jays suck this is the worst version of the team we've ever seen they're nowhere near in the same realm as teams like the Angels the white socks teams like that like this is the Jays is as frustrating as his year has been couldn't realistically have a good off season go into next year and make the playoffs and it's like it's it's not an insane thing to say it's do I think it's going to happen maybe not like we obviously have to see what happens during the winter but they're not that far away and we saw that with how badly they beat the be wheels off the Angels but with with with Barger when you go all the way back like he was called up for the first time in late April and did very poorly and was sent down and then since coming back in all of the games he's played since the middle of June his Ops and his his batting average is 260 and his Ops is 680 like it's not great but it's respectable it's fine that's what you'd expect for a rookie to be over the he's not drowning anymore yeah no he's not struggling it's not a strike out every second and bad it's 37 games played from June 15th to August 25th where he's putting up a 680 Ops and has been progressively better and I mean obviously the the offense gets better as the year goes on because the pitchers get more tired but this to me looks like a young player and you can say this with other guys too a young player who struggled at first went down fixed something came back and is doing well now I think the other player would be Joey lero and I know there was one one noticeable thing with the timing of his front foot he's not taking as big of a step and he's leaving it a little bit more planted and there was someone on Twitter and again staying on brand for this show I forget who it was but someone did a thread kind of comparing the little mechanical adjustments that uh that he he had made since his first couple weeks with the Jays compared to now and it's again the results are trending in a really good direction over the last week Joey lero is 10 for 24 he's hit two home runs and this is the most important thing because when you look at his numbers over the course of his time with the Jays now he's still striking out kind of 35 5% of the time but over these last seven games again he only has five strikeouts and 24 abs and he's walked a couple of times as well and the power is starting to come a little bit he's racked up some extra base hits like he again 25 years old hasn't spent a lot of time the majors he looks like he's maybe slowly starting to figure out and again it goes back to show the value of this time of year is yes it's hilarious to beat the Angels I love it but the value is in getting these guys theats they need so they know what they need to adjust and work on in the winter low perfo might be a great example of that yeah yeah he definitely is and I mean the the big thing with his numbers throughout the entirety of his his time with the Jays is obviously the number we all see is 19 games played he's gone to the plate 71 times and he's struck out 24 times but even with all that it's still a 239 batting average 744 Ops like you think about players like low peredo and Barger and there's there's other players in the Blue Jays that can fit into this mix as well but it reminds me of back in 2017 and 2018 those years when like it was teoscar Hernandez and lordis guriel coming up for the first time and you know they come up and they play well for a little while and they struggle and go back down and come up with a different approach and you know it's it's it's not a guarantee that you're going to go down and come back and do well you know there was other guys where it didn't click right like there's a guy like Billy McKinny or Derek fiser or something like that it's not every not every player is going to wind up being teoscar or guriel but there's certainly enough here that what we've seen in the past few weeks that get you optimistic that you have a handful of these guys all in AAA and they're all competing with each other for playing time and that's a good competitive environment to have on a team where the Jays are going to have to spend money in free agency this winter so they need a handful of different options to be those cheap call-up guys who can come up and play different roles and I just think that given how many solid young players they have in the mix you have to think that a few of them are going to stick well that's exactly what I was going to say next is like it's not like there's only one or two of them up here and you're saying okay they both better be good next year or else or else but between Horwitz and Wagner and pero and Barger and I still think you can throw Aris Martinez into the mix because he should be able to compete for a roster spot next spring like there's five guys who were not 21 22 23 they 24 25 26 27 handful of them are older than vlat which is hilarious but like a few of them should be able to be regulars for you next year if two of the five that I just listed are then you're in a better spot than you were at the start of this season so low peredo Barger they both get UPS the third name that absolutely deserves up for this series against the Angels is one Bowden Francis um I did not think there was any chance we'd see a blue jay almost throw a no hitter this year let alone it' Be Bowden Francis but his stuff was looking very very good he brings a no no into the ninth inning before Taylor Ward hits a solo home run off him and Francis exits the game 12 strikeouts is incredible this performance as a standalone is obviously jaw-dropping but now when you look at his numbers over his last seven appear es in the majors he is a 1.80 erra he struck out 37 hitters in 35 Innings pitched he is on a tear right now and that game against the Angels yes again the asterisk it's against the Angels but still he did this against guys who were hitting at the major league level and it was it was a gem simply put I'll be honest if Bowden Francis had this exact same outing in Triple A Buffalo he goes eight Innings strikes out with 12 guys only allows the one run and it's solo home run that comes in the ninth inning we'd all still be thrilled that he was doing this against even AAA players Buffalo whatever quad a guys whoever it is like we'd be thrilled and the fact that he did this in the major leagues and I mean the guys in the Angels like even though the team is bad there's still some good hitters there you still have to mow down a few guys three times and it's you go back to all of his outings so far in August and the ER is 1.32 like this is a pitcher who at the beginning of the at the beginning of the month like he came into after that start in Baltimore we allowed three earn runs over five and two thirs that felt like kind of the turn right like that was after um he had been in the bullpen yussi kuchi gets traded comes back in he hadn't been a good starter earlier in the season but comes in after that and you know his his erra after that start 5.68 now it's down to 4.02 just five outings later which is wild like I I just said in the last point the Jays are going to need to spend money this offseason to get better so they're going to need to have like the pitching is going to be a thing where if you can fill these spots internally Bowden Francis Jake Bloss something like that so you don't have to go out and spend $15 million annually to replace UK US Kikuchi if one of those guys can do it then it's huge and this is the first time really that Francis doesn't just look like a a like a starter who can get the job done he looks like a starter who's good a starter who can be like a number four in Pitch outings like this exactly not just a guy who can go and survive and get you three four Innings get you through the order twice and then you got a wines he starts that third trip through like he's shown here he can give you really really good results and it does to an extent I think change the conversation and their plan for next year because okay Gosman and BOS I would assume those two are locked in I don't think you're trading either of them Chris Basset is here Bowden Francis is here they obviously believe in yuriel Rodriguez enough to give him a four-year contract Jake Bloss is sitting in Triple A Alec monoa at some point next season will come back from Triple A so there are seven arms that you think all seven of those guys would like to be making start at some point next season um I'm curious to see how they handle things in the winter and while we have spent some time talking about okay you got to add an arm this offseason and you do need depth I wonder about maybe a Chris Basset trade more and more his comments a couple of weeks ago and then there was some chatter that H maybe someone from the Jay's organization said like you should go walk those back a little bit and he ultimately kind of did do a couple of sports or to the assembled media at Rogers uh at Rogers Center but could you go into next season and say k we got Gosman we got BOS We Believe enough in a Bowden Francis and a yariel Rodriguez and then our fifth spot maybe we bring in a good vet who can go like a Ross strippling esque type and we have Bloss this vet and then eventually monoa going for our five spot or do you think they need to kind of keep all the assembled pieces and just roll with the with the strong depth maybe well the interesting thing is you list up all those guys and you have the three veterans you have Brios Cosman and Basset and then yiel Rodriguez and Bloss and Fran like you mentioned so that's six guys and then Mano would be the seventh one who comes back all of those guys are right-handed so Kikuchi was the one Lefty starter and he's gone so something's got a budge like either they're gonna move somebody out like you suggested or they're just going to add a left-handed pitcher and just have more arms in the mix and maybe they're looking at Rodriguez to play that raw strippling role like we talked about or maybe it is Francis maybe it's both of them or maybe the the player they look for in the offseason who they're going to spend money on is a reliever who can pick multiple Innings something like that because the other thing to think about here is well the starting pitching the depth I think is is solid it's decent it's fine the depth around the bullpen is is not the depth around the relief pitching core and it's obviously hard to look in August of you know one year and think about what your Bullpen is gonna look like next year it's so volatile arms can come out of nowhere arms you'll grab on waivers do whatever but maybe if the JS are going to spend money or make a trade this offseason maybe it's for a reliever with some years of control or something like that because when I look at the pitching staff it's the bullpen that I'm worried about the most yeah I think that's fair just looking at who again some starters on the market this winter who are left-handed uh Blake Snell's got a $ 385 million player option I'm assuming he's taken that considering he's had a good year but he's been banged up good second half yeah yeah uh Patrick Corbin I don't think you're all that interested in him if you're the Jay-Z's 35 Robbie Ray has a $25 million opt out out imagine he takes that Max freed in Atlanta he's only 30 he's heading to unrestricted free agencies so there's you know not that many lefties Nick Martinez he's old though is he not he's in his mid-30s now um not that that's old I'm just saying no in sports terms I'm not in my mid 30s yet I'm only in my early 30s so it's um and then there would obviously be usay Kikuchi in that mix as well so um you know a couple of interesting Lefty options but the market is certainly not flooded with them um and a lot of them are more in their in their mid-30s than right in the middle of their Prime so yeah maybe it is something where they look at the trade market maybe you I I would imagine trading Chris Basset at this point though involves keeping some of the money but I was going to say maybe you trade Chris Basset and then go look at resigning you say Kikuchi and you run with the rotation that is you know Brios Gosman Kikuchi your Lefty in the middle and then you got your kind of not lottery tickets but your more unproven options and Bloss Rodriguez and Francis to finish it off on the back end but that is probably a conversation for another day we'll have a lot of time to dissect all that those are your three UPS from the series win against the LA Angels BL or L peredo and Barger shine with the bats Bowden Francis pitches a no hitter into the ninth inning and that brings up some interesting comments from Taylor Ward he said to mlb.com's Julia Cruz quote I really don't know you know I thought everything was hitable maybe to other guys he made better pitches a lot of guys were T talking about his split and that being on but personally I didn't think it was anything special um this is great because not only does he call out the pitcher who has absolutely owned him and his teammates over his last two appearances against them but he also kind of calls out his teammates as well which I find is a funny part of this just being like I thought it was itable other guys said his splitter was good I didn't think it was that good um generational type hating from Taylor Ward after almost getting no hit yeah that was a a really shocking comment to see like I didn't expect to it's not only like getting that happening in the one game in Toronto you know he's he's Roden Francis is obviously in his Groove he's killing it that day in front of his home crowd but they also pitched they also saw this guy they they went to play yeah it was under two weeks before that it was it wasn't even that long before and they got mowed down completely in that instance too yeah and then there's Chris Basset with the um what does it say yeah it was 15 Innings two earned runs I think it was yeah 20ks I'm looking at the number it's unhitable or it's it's it's hitable and it's unspectacular yeah hitable and unspectacular is what Taylor Ward I wonder I I kind of wonder if he came into Toronto and just generally had a bad vibe after that because the last time this guy played in Toronto got hit in the face with him now know a fast and he had to wind up eating from a tube for a few weeks so I think generally negative sentiment towards Toronto and the Blue Jays and baseball and that's why I felt the need to make these comments because you're playing for the Los Angeles Angels of anah you can't say that anything's hitable like no I like again I I chuckled at this I didn't take like a great amount of offence to it it is you know it's why you see professional athletes a lot of times just give their cliche answers over how they actually feel cuz Taylor Ward probably sat there 24 hours later and was like if I just said he was on his game and we needed to be better I avoid this whole media storm but again he's a professional athlete playing on an awful team that just went up against a not very good team and got their ass kicked four times I wouldn't expect him to be in a great mood I thought the way Basset kind of took it in the interview with Francis was funny ends up being a bit of a rallying point I think for Bowden Francis too like it was fine and again Taylor wardy almost got no hit on a Saturday against the Toronto Blue Jays I don't expect him to come out and be in the best mood ever so I I those comments were interesting gave us a nice little bit of a chuckle um but let's get into our three Downs they're not going to be about what happened on the field because again it was all largely good for the Toronto Blue Jays also vlat hit a bomb in that b Francis game that was an absolute piss missile um and he had another very good series but what else is new but let's go to some of the things off the field for our three downs and one of them that was a dominant storyline early on last week was Joey VTO announcing his retirement he went on Instagram and made a nice big long post from the parking lot in Buffalo and one of the things that he said and I think it's important because of the first place I want to take this conversation he said Toronto and Canada I wanted to play in front of you sigh I tried with all my heart to play for my people I'm just not good anymore thank you for all the support during my attempt there was this big little storm on on Twitter X or whatever you want to call it of people being like how embarrassing how could the Toronto Blue Jays not give Joey VTO his moment and let him come up against Cincinnati and wave and whatever and what I'll say is if Joey VTO had decided maybe a few days earlier to retire you could have brought him out and done like a little thanks for everything you need baseball thanks for the Cincinnati Reds but the idea of having to give him a Major League at bat while it would have been a great story one Joey VTO did not want that so everyone who was standing on their soap boxes calling the Toronto Blue Jays a joke Joey VTO did not want a token handout at bat and to take a spot away from a guy who deserves to be in the majors two they have to put him on the 40 man that would require roster juggling you'd have to move pieces in and out like it it's not as easy as just call him up for a game and let him hit twice and then he can wave and go off like maybe if they would have thought ahead a bit more or Joey vad had pulled the plug on this experiment and in this comeback attempt a little bit earlier you could have brought him out for a little pregame thing and he could have waved and everyone gives him a standing ovation is good but the idea that the Blue Jays owed Joey vad anything when he never played for the organization up until this year I felt like the outrage was just ridiculous yeah it was it was a really weird outrage because it was Joey VTO announcing himself his decision it wasn't you know Shai Dei or somebody uh the Blue Jays didn't release them yeah the Blue Jays didn't just we didn't just get a random roster transaction oh the Jays have released Joey Votto from his minor league deal or we didn't just get shy DVD reporting oh Joey VTO uh decided to retire or something like that it was just he posted it was his own decision with his own text his own words and we all had a chance to look at that absorb it and take it in and I I swear like most of the people are just so ready to get mad at the Jays as an organization for whatever they do and just find a way to just twist it so that they can just have that blue jays related anger that day I mean there's a dozen things you can be mad at for shyro and Atkins since since they arrived here I mean the the Jays are worse they're bad and they're more expensive to watch than they ever have been before and that sucks so just be mad at them for those those things we don't have to be mad at them for bringing a Canadian Legend in on a minor league contract and seeing if it works out like he got injured on his on in his first game of spring training and he's already 40 years old like this this this unfortunately just it it didn't work out and that's just the way it goes and I mean you look at his numbers in Buffalo and his batting average was 143 his Ops was 489 like what what he's saying here is he doesn't want to come up and look bad he doesn't want to come up and have it be Joey vad main character day and he strikes out four times and looks looks terrible and it's just everyone's giving him fake cheers and not everyone's into that it's just it's unfortunate that they didn't pull the plug on this earlier I guess because it kind of feels like maybe there was a chance on Canada Day where VTO comes out wearing a vad blue jay's Jersey and throws the first pitch or something maybe that would have been a cool thing to do but at the end of the day Joey vad is a Cincinnati Reds Legend and they're the team that didn't give him his send off the Jays gave him an opportunity they tried it it didn't work out and I don't think anyone's to blame it's just it's just how things work out sometimes I also thought it was funny that there was a bit of a crossover between people who roll their eyes at the Jays buying into Canada's team and doing the red jerseys and then also we're getting mad at the Jays for not giving Joey vad a look only because he's Canadian like again it's like you can't have both those things um one thing that I found interesting I know you had the quote from The Dan Patrick Show where V said like the coach in Triple A came up to him and said do you want an at bat and he said I don't and he went on to tell an interesting story I was watching the interview um about how him and his dad his late father they used to play catch when he was 10 11 and 12 and Joey said he would always pretend to be Devon white that was his favorite player and another layer to this story is when the coach came over and said do you want this at bat Joey vad was sitting next to Devon white on the Buffalo bison's uh bench and he said all those memories just kind of came flashing back to him here or came flashing back to him in that moment and he was like man I used to like idolize Devon white and Devon white turned to him and said what do you think you're going to do now and Joey VTO turned to him and said I'm going to retire and Devon white I guess kind of said like oh I meant like with the at bat like not and Joey's like that's the moment I knew like I'm done like I don't want to do this anymore that felt like he said a full circle moment to be sitting next to his childhood hero and realizing like this is it like it's my time to walk away so again Hall of Fame career Hall of Fame Canadian greatest Canadian baseball player of our generation without a doubt right up there for the greatest Canadian baseball players ever and I don't view this ending as like sad or a missed opportunity for everyone he gave it one more attempt with his hometown Home Country team it didn't work out because it's professional sports and nothing's really given but I don't think either side should be walking away from this whole thing with really any sort of regrets no I think also like when you look at it if you if you followed along with Joey VTO for his entire career he's always been an interesting personality like a kind of a different kind of guy marches to the beat of Own Drum and always has interesting quips and and and says strange things that you don't usually hear a professional athlete say and for him to you know get the Derek Jeter treatment or the Miguel Cabrera treatment or pool treatment whatever you want to call it like those guys all had then I don't know I feel like him going out this way and having his you know his his own quotes and his video on Instagram and then he goes on and he had a whole bunch of good quotes like he's saying here on the dam Patrick Show I went into the clubhouse thanked my minor league teammates who in my opinion deserve to thank you L appearances from them I took playing time from them so he got a chance to go and say all this stuff all of the different things that you usually wouldn't hear retiring Hall of Fame athletes say and Joey VTO got to be Joey vad in his retirement exactly it again he got to go out to an extent on his own term so you know nothing I don't think there's any ill will on either side of this whole thing here um let's continue with our three Downs there's a couple more here one of them I'm putting it in the downs because again we've had this conversation for so long but we're doing it again John Heyman listed managers who are on this hot seat and surprise surprise he said John Schneider's seat is warm he added quote it feels like honcho Mark shapy and Ross Atkins Will Survive despite the 2024 disaster if a Fall Guy is sought Schneider may be it especially after their big disagreement following the Jose Brio's early playoff exit so I love that we're still talking about that love that we're still talking about is is John Schneider on the hot seat or not um I'm sitting here going why fire him I don't think they're going to be particularly great in 2025 so what's the upside is a new manager really going to spark you and give you 10 extra wins next year no I don't think the best manager in the world would be able to do that so just let him play it out if Atkins and chyro are sitting there though and Ross Atkins in particular says oh boy this is my last shot at things I need to make a change because I have to give this next year's team the best chance possible then I can see why they do it I think it's to use a boring o cliche to me firing John Schneider and bringing in whoever it might be is shuffling deck chairs on the Titanic a little bit here and it won't make a significant difference do you think John Schneider's back next year I think he is I mean I I I see why there's it's obvious that he's going to be written down in a list like this like as we know if John hyon's writing something in the New York Post and he's GNA mention the Blue Jays just like last time right with Ju Soo is they the fifth most likely landing spot or something like that it's just because we're going to talk about it if the Blue Jays are mentioned that's just the way it works but I don't know I I don't think there's I wouldn't call what happened last year in the playoffs like I didn't like that that happened I thought it was stupid um there's a lot of good arguments that suggest that John Schneider and Co made the right decision but we're a Vibes based podcast so that's the approach that I'm going to take he's pitching well he was pitching in his old ballpark he just got to roll with the Vibes whatever but the thing is is that whether we disagree or however we think about that the reality is is that Jose buros is not sitting here seething angry at John Schneider about this they might have been pissed off at the time Whit Maryfield I think had a comment about it yeah and then he left in free agency and that was that and Jose buos has been I don't know maybe Toronto's best stter this season everything's been just fine but I don't think the problems with the Blue Jays are are John Schneider but I I I I could understand the logic of him becoming the Fall Guy but I don't see I'm on the same page as you I don't see why it would be advantageous to do it in the winter because you can save that bullet for next season and if you feel like it's May or June and you have to do something then okay you can fire the manager andar Hal be the guy for the rest of the year or something right Don maddingley can be or they can bring in a buck show Walter somebody like that like an old school yeah bring cedo Gaston back for the third time that'd be sick I don't understand why he's not in the Hall of Fame yet but bring him back for a third time maybe that'll help his case who knows but I really don't see JN Schneider being the problem but I totally understand why we do and continue to talk about this he also mentioned Aaron Boone and Dave Roberts as guys whose seats are getting warm you would imagine early playoff exits would have something to do with that or potential early playoff exits would have something to do with that but both those teams seem like they're capable of going on runs the Dodgers May more DOD man they don't have much of a pitching staff I don't know they released cin beio too so well now they're hooped now they're hooped they don't uh uh yeah the Dodgers right now still sitting at top their division but you're right yeah that lead there is kind of started to dwindle bit they're only three up on the Arizona Diamondbacks the Diamondbacks are the top wild card team in the NL though and are I think seven games up on the Mets who are just on that out on the outside of the playoff bubble there so and again managerial talk always going to put in the Downs because I think it's generally annoying we don't know what we don't know uh third down would be a quote from Matt Chapman kumy um again over the last couple of weeks it's almost like a kicking us when we're down thing you had the Basset comments about how some things aren't fixable and then Matt Chapman talking in San Francisco said quote I don't think I was as comfortable maybe in Toronto the last couple of years as I am here in San Francisco sometimes your environment has a lot to do with that and this is just a good environment for me I definitely enjoy playing on the west coast and playing for Bell Giants manager Bob Melvin I'm comfortable I read that and while it started off with that I don't think I was as comfortable maybe in Toronto last couple of years match happen is a West Coast guy played for Oakland had great ears in Oakland grew up or went to school on that side of the country like to me this is more a compliment of San Francisco and him just being where he wants to be as I don't think it's much of a diss to the Blue Jays all we hear about the Jays and like Justin Turner talked about this and and all the guys who've kind of exited Kevin km talked about this they take care of players famili as well their training facilities are A+ the spring training stuff is A+ the clubhouse is A+ I think this is just Matt Chapman being more like I'm very happy to be home versus the Blue Jays did things I didn't like yeah I think I mean this is a guy who is yeah like you said he was born in California went High School in Lake Forest California he went to Cal State Fullerton he was drafted by the Oakland Athletics he came up with the Oakland Athletics this all makes sense like if you're you're a California guy playing in Toronto is a different experience like these are these are these are these are different places it is what it is like I I don't think we have to I think the way that the quote was presented like the if you it was an easy one to turn into clickbait just because you just show that one part I don't think I was as comfortable maybe in Toronto but even when you look at the way he's saying it when he's saying like maybe maybe in the sentence I don't think maybe it's not like he's coming out and Crossing his arms and being like happy to be in San Francisco because I was deeply uncomfortable in Toronto and it was a bad time it was a hole like no yeah it's it wasn't like that at all this this is a California guy who wanted to be back in California that's just life we we went through this or not we but Toronto people Raptors fans Toronto Sports in general when Kawhi Leonard left it wasn't because Toronto sucks it's because I am from California that's what I know I want to live there exactly and Lease fans got the POS positive side of it with a guy like John tarz uh all right that's our wrap for three up three down both on and off the field over the last seven days definitely a lot of headlines even though the Jays aren't playing for a whole heck of a lot right now we're going to get to a few other things but first we're going to step aside for a quick break back on episode 238 of blue jays Nation radio if you're listening along as a podcast go subscribe to our YouTube the bjn YouTube channel uh also just a quick little update on the Blue Jays and their tank ofon odds that four game little streak there they just put together has deeply impacted their chances of picking first overall they had a 7.48% chance heading into last week they are now down to a 2.45% chance of picking first overall currently sitting in the eighth spot um again they could move up two three four five six spots theob Lottery is relatively confusing um but again the Jays definitely hurt their chances of picking first overall with those wins uh here couple of quick notes from around the team uh perk Ean mathson John Schneider says the Blue Jays would like to keep their starters on an extra day AR rest down the stretch I think that makes sense right there's nothing to play for standings wise and they could use Ryan yarro as an opener or like a short starter but I like the idea now that we're on August 26 Jake Bloss should be getting some games in the majors let's see what he's got same thing as with the hitters bring up Jake Bloss let him go up against Major League competition and heading into the winter he knows what he needs to do I think this is a great chance to get to give the fans a look at the third piece of the US Kikuchi trade it is yeah Jake Bloss has been really good in the miners this season he um he only made one start with Houston's triaa team but he spent most of the time between High a and double A and in high a over the course of four starts he had an area of 2.08 and then over the course of eight starts in doublea 1.61 so far with Buffalo over three stars n 23s Innings hasn't allowed a run just yet so I would imagine when the rosters expand in September it's it's a different kind of roster expansion than it used to be used to be able to have like your entire 40-man roster on your bench you can't do that anymore I think it's what is it two extra guys or 28 guys yeah 28 guys for the month of September you think one position player one starting pitcher I mean I think Jake Bloss would be the guy for me undoubtedly from Buffalo yeah I think it should be uh speaking of pitchers Jordan Romano who has not pitched a lot this year is expected to begin a throwing program jaay plan to have him pitch in the majors this season which again that's maybe as much I want to see a guy like Bloss want to see what he can do Romano I'm almost sitting there going ah prioritize your health maybe you don't need to come back to the majors this year and risk anything but obviously again we don't know what we don't know if the doctors are saying he's ready to go and Romano himself himself is saying no no I want to come up and get a few innings in this year then all the power to him but again we talk about next season and what they need to add adding a healthy Jordan Romano is also a big big part of it like there's been a few things you talked about having to add or maybe trade for some Bullpen pieces but a couple of things that would help one Eric Swanson looks back to his old normal self that would be massive next season if Eric Swanson can be a regular part of your Bullen Chad green looks good Genesis Cabrera he's been up and down this season but if Jordan Romano's in that mix as well I feel a lot better not great but a lot better about the Blue Jays Bullpen heading into next year yeah they they they need a hand this is we're gonna have the bullpen conversation is going to be identical to the conversation we had last winter about all the hitters that have to turn around vlad's got to turn around Kirk's got to turn around Bar's got turned around Springers guard turned around only really one of those guys did unfortunately so when you look at these relief pitches you're the two you're really looking at are romano and Swanson and if both of those guys become who they were before but as we know it's never really a guarantee and um Jordan Romano now handful of injuries over the age of 30 you just never know exactly and you talk about again what we did to the hitters last year this will be an interesting test I think for the front office because you know you almost could sit there and go into the next season and okay say Okay Romano will be healthy and we'll have Genesis Cabrera he'll pitch better Swanson will bounce back you know we picked up Ryan Yarbro that was a bit of a lottery ticket but we'll roll the dice with him Zack pop tapes the step forward it's like okay that's five good Bullpen arms no what the Jays need to do is say we have five guys who have the potential to be good Bullpen arms we need to go get two maybe three good sure things and then if everything goes well you have the you have a great Bullpen and if a few things sputter it's still serviceable you can't sit there and just cross your fingers like they did the hitters and be like God everyone's going to bounce back next year and we'll be fine don't do that um B bashet update from John Schneider uh they're hopeful he will be heading out on a rehab assignment soon he's going to join the Jays uh as they head into Boston to kick off a weird five game series against the Boston Red Sox I think because it's yeah it was originally supposed to be a four and they played twice today oh wow that's interesting I didn't know it was a five game series it's like it's like what was the year that they were doing those long series was it 2021 they were doing the oh yeah the co stuff yeah um so both be with the team they want to get him playing again before the end of the season uh so we'll see where that kind of ends up but again boette you'll probably see him on sportset this week because he's hanging around his Blue Jays teammates once again maybe we'll see him smiling and we'll have we'll get to stop the conversation of does Bo bashet hate all of his teammates which or on the other side if we see him look even remotely pissed off then we can you know take the bob Knight and Gill approach and be like all of his friends know that he's leaving in free agency then we can just start that and say the Jay's just need to have a nice little hot so they can trade him to the Dodgers for Gavin Lux and three pitchers uh all right Gavin Lux and three pitchers that better not be the cas uh when you go to mlb.com the front page of it is a picture of Danny Janson and that is really the only thing we need to talk about when setting up uh this week of games with the Jays they play five against the Red Sox they're going to play the Minnesota Twins as well it's a couple of tus series we'll see if they end up coming away with any amount of Victories or if they get pushed closer or get pushed into having better odds for first overall but Danny Janson is going to be the first player to play for both teams in the same game um he was on the Blue Jays on June 26 he was up to bat when the game got suspended and then he got traded to the Red Sox and now he's going to be in the lineup of the Red Sox so the box score will look cool if you're into that kind of stuff and as a sports nerd I am but like Danny Jansen pinch hit for probably like Brian cin and then on the other side it'll be ree Maguire or whatever pinch hit for Danny Janson like the the box score is going to be very very confusing however they end up doing these for these games um but I know some people on Twitter were rolling their eyes like enough with this but like it's baseball history it's kind of cool yeah it's cool as hell like you didn't you're not going to you come into a season and you're gonna and you're gonna say like what interesting things are we going to see this year are we gonna see a guy play for two teams in the same game no nobody predicted that that's a this is this is the epitome of you cannot predict baseball like it's such a random dumb thing to happen and the funny thing about it is when this game was suspended Danny Johnson was up to bat for the Jil so they're going to have to announce pinch hitting for Danny who's on the Red Sox so and so is going to be Prince heading like probably Brian serin like you said but yeah this kind of stuff's funny this is the the weird Oddities and abnormalities of baseball that you have to care about when your team is six games under 500 in on late August exactly and there were people on Twitter being like enough of this we've heard enough L off of Twitter if you've seen it that many times then you're on Twitter too much that was ex it's your fault it's your fault that is exactly the point I was goingon to make it's like you are on the if you've seen something too much on the internet internet and it's like pissing you off you're on the internet too much exactly it's the same we talk about over and over and over again what are we supposed to talk about oh man um couple of headlines from around the majors Dylan Cruz the number two overall pick from the 2023 draft is going to make his Washington Nationals debut his Major League Baseball debut tonight for the Nats Aaron judge is on Pace for 63 home runs the Yankees hit backto back to back Jacks over the weekend which was impressive and also there was a video of the feure creatures or whatever in New York chanting resigned SoDo and judge and SoDo were like looking at each other laughing Juan SoDo is staying in New York there's yeah we talked about that last week and was like there's no way that he's gonna walk in free agency and if he does walk in free agency it's just to sign an obscene contract with the New York Mets to rub it in the Yankee face that's that's the only other outcome here there's there's no way he's leaving being that onew punch of one SoDo naron judge for the next decade is you're not going to leave that no you do not break up and you do as much as we rollerized at the Yankees and I can't stand the Yankees if you're a baseball fan you know the history and if you were a baseball player the idea of being a legend in New York carries weight and I think that obviously will sit with Juan SoDo so uh the dream of him being a Blue Jay as much as I was pie in the skying it last week There's no way that's happening um but all right there you go that is a wrap on today's episode of the podcast the JS with a couple of uh a couple of chances to play spoiler I guess is a good way to put it this week the Boston Red Sox are four and a half games out of a wild card spot they are chasing the Minnesota Twins for that wild card spot but the Minnesota Twins are suddenly just three games back at the Cleveland Guardians for first place in the division so eight games for the Blue Jays over the course of the next week and they all come against teams or two teams that are very very hungry to get back into the MLB postseason so that's a wrap on episode 238 kumy enjoy history as Danny Jansen plays for both teams and enjoy the baseball oh I will thanks for tuning in to Blue Jays Nation radio don't forget to like And subscribe wherever you get your podcast from to never miss an episode