Next six weeks will determine where latest win-now Blue Jays season is headed

Article content

The road map to meaningful September baseball is simple for the Blue Jays.

Or, as simple as it can be in a complicated sport with a marathon season packed with so many moving parts.

Yes, over the next six weeks leading to the July 31 Major League Baseball trade deadline, the Jays have ample opportunity to give general manager Ross Atkins the ammunition and motivation to be an aggressive shopper and thus open the opportunity for a  late-season playoff run.

The downer of a three-game sweep at the hands of the Phillies on the weekend is real, a come-up-empty performance against a good, playoff-bound team with elite starting pitching. It was not the end of the world, however.

After their longest trip of the season, the Jays returned home for a Monday off-day following what was an overall reasonably successful 5-4 trip, especially since all nine games were contested against three teams with winning records. Given the way it ended — following a sweep of the Cardinals by being on the other end of the broom in Philly — it had to feel a little emptier than that, however.

The good news — and it’s legit — is that a 38-33 record built from a 12-2 run prior to the last stop of a trip through Minnesota, St. Louis and Philly set the course towards success. A team that had danced a couple of games below and above the .500 mark for the first two months of the season has at least built itself a cushion in its pursuit of the post-season and a tangible record to build upon.

We apologize, but this video has failed to load.

Try refreshing your browser, or
tap here to see other videos from our team.

Play Video

.

So, what is manager John Schneider’s team going to do with that recent burst of promise? We’re about to find out.

Starting with a six-game homestand against the Arizona Diamondbacks and Chicago White Sox and extending throughout the all-star break and on to the trade deadline, the Jays have put themselves in a reasonable position to make the 2025 season a success.

There are a whopping 91 games remaining in the season, but just 38 until the trade deadline. That run includes a nasty stretch in late-July that features three games each against the San Francisco Giants and  New York Yankees and four more against the mighty Detroit Tigers.

But consider that the Jays have reached this point with basically zero contribution from two of their top off-season acquisitions — pitcher Max Scherzer and slugger Anthony Santander — and there is an element of impressiveness to the fact that the Jays are sitting somewhat comfortably in an American League wild-card spot.

So what has to happen between now and July 31 to define the Jays as playoff contenders?

For starters, obviously, it’s about the starters. Somehow, the team has jumped to five games above .500 (a season-high eight before the ill-fated Phillies series) with what functionally has been a three-man rotation. There is still a bullpen day every five games and often what is effectively second grueling assignment for the relievers given whatever the struggling Bowden Francis is right now.

Perhaps out of desperation as much as loyalty, Schneider and the organization stubbornly has stuck with Francis, believing minute signs of improvement are enough. Bluntly, they have not been and, even more bluntly, it certainly feels like the leap of faith can’t go on for much longer.

Somehow, then, the Jays have to find a way to hold it together and hope that Scherzer’s latest positive steps to get his right thumb back in working order will see him on the mound in the next couple of weeks.

At some point, a return of Santander couldn’t hurt either, although given his early season struggles and the fact he has been on the injured list for 15 games with shoulder inflammation, it will feel as though the habitual slow starter will be back to square one whenever he does get back in the lineup.

The returns of centre fielder Daulton Varsho (now missing 13 games with a hamstring strain) and reliever Yimi Garcia (down for 22 with a shoulder impingement) could also be massive influences in any pre-trade deadline push.

The larger point, though, is that for all their faults, injuries and inconsistencies to this point, the Jays have kept themselves in the mix. The 12-2 run was invigorating — both within the clubhouse and for the fan base. The resiliency shown in many of those games was a quality that serves teams well when big games get tight later in the season.

Sure, those successes also helped mask some of the flaws, concerns that are still not far below the surface. But a team that has yet to show its best consistently, has played itself into a position that still holds hope and opportunity.

Barring a complete collapse, it’s difficult to fathom a scenario where the Jays are sellers at the end of July. The meter already is running on the $500-million US Vlad Guerrero Jr. extension and the past three seasons essentially have been contested in win-now mode.

The next six weeks will help decide how realistic the 2025 season fits that mantra.