The 2025 Toronto Blue Jays

[Toronto Passions]

I see them performing similar to last season.

The pitching staff is a year older and more prone to injuries, a closer who is a question mark, a lead off hitter who is a few years his prime, and the whole Vladdy/Bo trade talk drama that will never go away.

Rogers has deep pockets and has shown they are not afraid to spend money. That is why I feel that Vladdy doesn't want to play in Toronto.

If they have another year like last it is time to pull the plug on this leadership.

I am still not a fan of the manager as I feel that he has no balls and is just a puppet of the GM.

On another note, baseball should start looking at introducing salary caps to level the playing field for all markets and fans.

….. and the starting rotation is too right handed. They should have found a way to mix in a lefty.

Philip

 

[K Douglas]

I'm not an MLB expert but it doesn't look like the Jays will be heading to the post season this year. It irks me that the Orioles were able to build a waayy better team than the Jays a season or two ago. I thought Vlad and even Bichette would by now leave elsewhere but is staying. Not sure about the pitching staff, felt the pitching overall lacked. Maybe Pete Walker should retire as PC and bring in new talent? Not sure.

The O's have an embarrassment of riches. After graduating a plethora of top prospects including Gunnar Henderson, Jackson Holliday, Grayson Rodriquez, Heston Kjerstad, Colton Cowser and Jordan Westburg, they still have two of the best prospects in the game in Coby Mayo and Samuel Basallo. They are an arm away from the World Series.

 

[Toronto Passions]

I don’t think this team in 2025 is a last place team. Might have a chance at the third wildcard. The question is at the trade deadline what do they consider for being out of it? How many games back will that be and then that absolutely puts Guerrero on the trading block. And once Guerrero is traded, he will never look back at the organization that didn’t value him to his liking.

Philip

 

[mitchell76]

I don’t think this team in 2025 is a last place team. Might have a chance at the third wildcard. The question is at the trade deadline what do they consider for being out of it? How many games back will that be and then that absolutely puts Guerrero on the trading block. And once Guerrero is traded, he will never look back at the organization that didn’t value him to his liking.

Philip

IMHO, it just depends if players like BO and Scherzer can stay healthy. The Red Sox really improved themselves this yr, and the Yankees and Baltimore are way better then the Jays. I guess it will probably be between the Jays and Tampa, to battle it out for last place, in the division??

 

[Toronto Passions]

IMHO, it just depends if players like BO and Scherzer can stay healthy. The Red Sox really improved themselves this yr, and the Yankees and Baltimore are way better then the Jays. I guess it will probably be between the Jays and Tampa, to battle it out for last place, in the division??

I don’t think the Blue Jays are worse than the Orioles necessarily, especially now that Toronto has Santander. If Bichette has a good year, that will change the complexion of this thing immediately.

The Yankees on the other hand look fantastic. Even better than last year imo. This could very well be an LA/New York Yankees final again.


Philip

 

[The Oracle]

The Yankees on the other hand look fantastic. Even better than last year imo. This could very well be an LA/New York Yankees final again.


Philip

Not so fast on crowning my Yankees.

Yes they acquired top closer Devin Williams and a top of the rotation pitcher in Max Fried. So good moves.

But Stanton won't start the season. They have DJ LeMahieu , who has been awful the last few years, at third. Paul Goldschmidt is aging and declining at first. Jasson Dominguez in left. They're worried that Dominguez can't play left even though he was a decent center fielder in the minors. He's misjudging easy balls out there. Cody Bellinger in center, who is 6 years removed from his MVP season and was just okay last year. Austin Wells is behind the plate. His hitting badly slumped in the second half last year. Anthony Volpe at short, who didn't meet expectations offensively last season.

They're pitching looks great on paper that's for sure but other than that there is a lot of question marks for a team that has the 4th highest payroll.

From what I can see this team is not going to score any runs. I hope I'm wrong.

 

[K Douglas]

Not so fast on crowning my Yankees.

Yes they acquired top closer Devin Williams and a top of the rotation pitcher in Max Fried. So good moves.

But Stanton won't start the season. They have DJ LeMahieu , who has been awful the last few years, at third. Paul Goldschmidt is aging and declining at first. Jasson Dominguez in left. They're worried that Dominguez can't play left even though he was a decent center fielder in the minors. He's misjudging easy balls out there. Cody Bellinger in center, who is 6 years removed from his MVP season and was just okay last year. Austin Wells is behind the plate. His hitting badly slumped in the second half last year. Anthony Volpe at short, who didn't meet expectations offensively last season.

They're pitching looks great on paper that's for sure but other than that there is a lot of question marks for a team that has the 4th highest payroll.

From what I can see this team is not going to score any runs. I hope I'm wrong.

I think the Yanks will try to address their 3B issues. They also need a LH bullpen arm. But they have far less holes in their team than the Jays do. And better depth.

 

[K Douglas]

I don’t think the Blue Jays are worse than the Orioles necessarily, especially now that Toronto has Santander. If Bichette has a good year, that will change the complexion of this thing immediately.

The Yankees on the other hand look fantastic. Even better than last year imo. This could very well be an LA/New York Yankees final again.


Philip

I think you are underrating the O's. They are deep. Losing Burnes hurts no doubt but they still have a good rotation.

 

[onomatopoeia]

The O's have an embarrassment of riches. After graduating a plethora of top prospects including Gunnar Henderson, Jackson Holliday, Grayson Rodriquez, Heston Kjerstad, Colton Cowser and Jordan Westburg, they still have two of the best prospects in the game in Coby Mayo and Samuel Basallo. They are an arm away from the World Series.

It's not just that the Orioles have those players. They have all of them with pre-arbitration salaries. Their combined salaries for 2025 will be almost the same as what the Blue Jays will be paying Myles Straw, the stiff they inherited from Cleveland for some International Bonus Pool money that they had hoped to use to land Sasaki.

The Orioles also get pick #'s 30 and 31 in this June's amateur draft, for losing Burnes and Santander.

 

[The Oracle]

I think the Yanks will try to address their 3B issues. They also need a LH bullpen arm. But they have far less holes in their team than the Jays do. And better depth.

Hal isn't going to raise the payroll any so how is he going address third?...He's not the free spender that his dad was.

Today we learned the Last years american League rookie of the year Luis Gil will not throw for 6 weeks with a high grade lat strain..He's probably gone for the first half of the season I'm afraid...Guess they're not trading Stroman after all.

 

[maurice93]

The O's have an embarrassment of riches. After graduating a plethora of top prospects including Gunnar Henderson, Jackson Holliday, Grayson Rodriquez, Heston Kjerstad, Colton Cowser and Jordan Westburg, they still have two of the best prospects in the game in Coby Mayo and Samuel Basallo. They are an arm away from the World Series.

The O's have a great development system with so many players now ready and they are a playoff team. As much talent as I have seen come in over a 2 to 4 year period.

That being said there management / ownership did a horrible job this offseason - their new ownership which was supposed to spend more are still being cheap. This is after bad trade deadline in 2024. They did a great job of drafting and development with so much talent, but they have been bad at consolidating assets and limiting their current window.

They are still going to be a very good team - I think I have them slightly ahead of the Yankees to win the East.
But management and ownership has not done them any favours since July 2024.

At the beginning of 2024, with new ownership that was supposed to spend, I figured we would be looking at a 100-105 win team moving forward. They are still easily a 90+ win team, but I think the next level was expected.

 

[onomatopoeia]

Today we learned the Last years american League rookie of the year Luis Gil will not throw for 6 weeks with a high grade lat strain..He's probably gone for the first half of the season I'm afraid...Guess they're not trading Stroman after all.

Luis Gil To Be Shut Down For At Least Six Weeks Due To Lat Strain

 

[onomatopoeia]

Blue Jays' Top 30 Prospects list

 

[Toronto Passions]

I miss Roger Clemens. I just watched two YouTube documentaries about his career. Roger Clemens and Sandy Koufax are the two greatest pitchers to ever walk the face of the earth. I don’t care about The Rocket “allegedly” needing a little extra rocket fuel lol. I know technically he’s not officially inducted into the Hall of Fame, but the hall actually has artifacts and memorabilia of his on display going back to his significant achievements. His 20 strikeout game for instance. I’m wondering if they have something pertaining to the 1999/2000 powerhouse Yankees. They make it appear as if he is a complete unmentioned stranger in the Hall of Fame… And this is simply not the case. - totally off topic.