{"id":642359,"date":"2026-05-01T08:42:09","date_gmt":"2026-05-01T08:42:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/642359\/"},"modified":"2026-05-01T08:42:09","modified_gmt":"2026-05-01T08:42:09","slug":"blue-jays-bats-go-quiet-end-chaotic-april-with-loss-to-twins","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/642359\/","title":{"rendered":"Blue Jays’ bats go quiet, end chaotic April with loss to Twins"},"content":{"rendered":"

MINNEAPOLIS \u2014 The final day of an April marked by near-constant roster churn came and went without any moves by the Toronto Blue Jays<\/a>. Instead, manager John Schneider noted that Addison Barger\u2019s return is on the horizon, the slugger due to run the bases Saturday before starting a rehab assignment with low-A Dunedin on Sunday. He could be active as soon as next week\u2019s homestand versus the Los Angeles Angels and Tampa Bay Rays.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s been hitting quite a bit (against) live pitching, so I don’t think it’s going to be crazy, two, three (games), see how he feels running back-to-back days,\u201d said Schneider. \u201cIt’s more so time on defence and running the bases. So at least a couple and go from there.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jose Berrios may be back by then, too, the Blue Jays still weighing whether to start him Sunday at Target Field, giving Trey Yesavage an extra day in the process, or have him make another rehab start with triple-A Buffalo. Either way, the instability caused by a chaotic month in which 19 of the 30 days included a transaction of some sort, totalling 48 different moves, continues to ebb, with the performance slowly steadying as a result.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere’s no secret that obviously we’ve had a rough go the last couple of weeks, losing a lot of guys,\u201d said ace Kevin Gausman<\/a>. \u201cWe’re slowly seeing those guys come back and they’re feeling better and so this month will look a lot different at the end as opposed to the beginning. You’ve also got to bank on those guys feeling good coming back. It is what it is. It’s the cards we were dealt. We’ve just got to find a way to keep winning series.\u201d<\/p>\n

Still, particularly at the plate, getting back to themselves continues to be a process, which was evident in Thursday night\u2019s 7-1 loss to the Minnesota Twins.<\/p>\n

Bailey Ober, working primarily off his changeup and fastball while mixing and matching with four other offerings, gave up two hits to George Springer, starting for the first time since fracturing his left big toe April 11, and a solo shot to Daulton Varsho<\/a>, but otherwise spent six-plus innings killing the Blue Jays softly.<\/p>\n

Combined with two Twins bursts at the plate against Gausman \u2013 a Trevor Larnach walk ahead of Ryan Jeffers\u2019 two-run homer, on the eighth pitch of his at-bat, in the fourth and Byron Buxton\u2019s solo shot and Austin Martin\u2019s two-out RBI single in the sixth \u2013 and an ugly three-run eighth, a two-game win streak came to an end.\u00a0<\/p>\n

They\u2019re 14-17 heading into the new month.<\/p>\n

“It was a grind from the jump,\u201d said Gausman, who lacked feel for his splitter and relied more on his changeup to complement his fastball. “I thought I did a good job after the (Jeffers) home run, making some big pitches when I needed to. But I’ve got to find a way to get through the sixth there. … There’s a big difference between being down 2-1 or 4-1. I’ve got to find a way to get those guys out.\u201d<\/p>\n

Springer singled in each of his first two at-bats and while the Blue Jays have missed his production, they\u2019ve also missed his ability to control the strike zone and set a tone atop the lineup. But they\u2019ve also missed Alejandro Kirk\u2019s high-contact, disciplined, pitch-eating at-bats in the middle of the order and, with the threat of Barger\u2019s big-swing power, the diversity of skill-sets that provides.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Blue Jays entered Thursday\u2019s play swinging at 51.1 per cent of the pitches they\u2019ve seen this season, second only to the Colorado Rockies, and with baseball\u2019s second-highest contact rate at 77.4 per cent, that\u2019s not always a productive combination.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s a balance between attacking and attacking the right pitches that, collectively, they\u2019re still trying to find.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt’s a weird thing where you don’t want to take away guys’ aggressiveness, but at the same time you’ve got to read the flow of the game a little bit,\u201d said Schneider. \u201cIf you can be not very hit-dependent, if that makes sense, that just makes it tougher to beat. There have been games where (the opposing starter) is living on the edge of the plate, or not right in the middle of the zone, and when you’re hit-dependent, you let a starter get deep. \u2026<\/p>\n

“These guys, when they’re clicking, they do a good job of feeding on one another and a productive at-bat could be a nine-pitch groundout, flyout, strikeout where a pitcher has to work, he’s not getting into a rhythm,\u201d Schneider added. \u201cWhen we’re at our best, that’s what we’re doing up and down the lineup. It allows Ernie (Clement) to swing, Oak (Kazuma Okamoto) to swing, allows Vlad (Guerrero Jr.) to swing. You have to have the variety and complement the contact with some plate discipline.\u201d<\/p>\n

Some of that is April\u2019s roster disruptions \u2014 the Blue Jays recalled nine players, signed eight minor-league deals, optioned\/outrighted seven players, sent five players to the Injured List (that doesn\u2019t include Cody Ponce on March 31), made four trades, sent four players out on rehab assignments, designated four players for assignment, sent four players to the 60-day IL, activated two players from the IL and signed one free agent, Patrick Corbin, to a big-league deal.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Some of that is the adjustments that need to be made now that May is here.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"MINNEAPOLIS \u2014 The final day of an April marked by near-constant roster churn came and went without any…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":642360,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[558],"tags":[64,63,591,85],"class_list":["post-642359","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mlb","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-mlb","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/642359","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=642359"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/642359\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/642360"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=642359"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=642359"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=642359"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}