{"id":664192,"date":"2026-05-11T16:27:09","date_gmt":"2026-05-11T16:27:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/664192\/"},"modified":"2026-05-11T16:27:09","modified_gmt":"2026-05-11T16:27:09","slug":"addison-bargers-health-fifth-rotation-spot-emerge-as-questions-for-jays","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/664192\/","title":{"rendered":"Addison Barger’s health, fifth rotation spot emerge as questions for Jays"},"content":{"rendered":"

TORONTO \u2014 After an encouraging start to the weekend, Sunday\u2019s loss to the Angels raised at least two significant questions for the Toronto Blue Jays<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The health of their right fielder is now in doubt, and they continue to seek answers in their fifth rotation spot. With those challenges looming large, the Blue Jays must now navigate a three-game series against a Tampa Bay Rays team that swept them just last week.<\/p>\n

As the Blue Jays prepare to host the Rays on Monday (Sportsnet, Sportsnet+, 6:30 p.m. ET \/ 3:30 p.m. PT) for three games at Rogers Centre, let\u2019s take a closer look at a few of the bigger questions they\u2019re now facing:<\/p>\n

What’s Barger\u2019s status?<\/p>\n

Two hours before first pitch Sunday afternoon, the Blue Jays announced that Addison Barger<\/a> would miss the game due to right elbow soreness. The 26-year-old woke up with reduced range of motion leading to an MRI Sunday afternoon.<\/p>\n

\u201cWith how important he is to us, we wanted to be careful,\u201d manager John Schneider said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"MLBMLB on Sportsnet<\/p>\n

Watch the Toronto Blue Jays, Blue Jays Central pre-game, marquee MLB matchups, Jays in 30, original documentaries, the wild card, divisional series, championship series and entire World Series on Sportsnet and Sportsnet+.<\/p>\n

Broadcast schedule<\/a><\/p>\n

The absence impacts the team on a couple fronts. First, Barger can really slug, as we saw last year when he hit 21 home runs and 32 doubles. That power is needed within a lineup that ranks 21st in home runs among the 30 MLB teams.<\/p>\n

And second, Barger\u2019s throwing arm was a welcome addition to the outfield defence Saturday as he prevented Jorge Soler from scoring with a throw clocked at 101.2 m.p.h. His arm \u2014 and even the threat of his arm \u2014 changes the way opposing teams run the bases, and no one else on the Blue Jays\u2019 roster offers comparable outfield arm strength.<\/p>\n

If this was clearly a day-to-day issue, there would be no reason to send Barger for an MRI, but evidently other possibilities are in play. Either way, the Blue Jays will know more Monday.<\/p>\n

Hustling toward an identity?<\/p>\n

Elsewhere on the position player front, Daulton Varsho scored the Blue Jays\u2019 lone run of the game Sunday after reaching on an infield hit in the first inning.<\/p>\n

Without a full effort-run, he wouldn\u2019t have reached base, but his hustle allowed him to reach and score. Later, in the eighth, Myles Straw and Varsho both reached on infield hits and while neither scored and Varsho jammed his heel a bit at first, the baserunning helped load the bases for Vladimir Guerrero Jr.<\/p>\n

This is the kind of effort Schneider wants to see every day and he made a point of saying as much this weekend. It\u2019ll be telling which players take the hint.<\/p>\n

How to proceed with Lauer and Miles?<\/p>\n

Along with Barger\u2019s health, the other big question to emerge from the weekend was what the future holds for Eric Lauer, Spencer Miles and the fifth spot in the Blue Jays\u2019 rotation.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Starting in the major leagues for the first time ever, Miles pitched three scoreless innings Sunday while allowing two hits and striking out two. His fastball averaged 96.5 m.p.h. as he built his way up to 38 pitches, his most since April 11.<\/p>\n

Lauer, on the other hand, allowed six runs, including three home runs, in five innings, while striking out four. He threw 80 pitches \u2014 nearly a starter’s workload \u2014 while averaging 90.7 m.p.h. with his fastball.<\/p>\n

Afterward, he acknowledged he has work to do, regardless of what role he fills from here.<\/p>\n

“I don’t think by any means I’m a shoo-in for a rotation spot, that’s for sure,\u201d Lauer said. \u201cI know I want to help the team in the best way I possibly can.\u201d<\/p>\n

So, how to proceed? While Lauer was an essential part of the 2025 team, his velocity\u2019s down by about 1 m.p.h. and his home run rate has spiked to 2.7 per nine innings. With an ERA of 6.69 after eight turns in the rotation, he\u2019s been given a fair chance and it\u2019s not working the way anyone would have hoped.<\/p>\n

If Max Scherzer or Jose Berrios were healthy, they\u2019d be in that spot. Under the current circumstances, the conversation remains open-ended \u2014 and must now include Miles.<\/p>\n

Schneider said he believes Miles has some important building blocks needed for starting pitchers \u2014 that is, the pitch mix, quality of stuff and command needed to work through a lineup more than once. And when the manager told Miles about his assignment ahead of Sunday\u2019s outing, he was careful with his wording.<\/p>\n

\u201cI told him he would start,\u201d Schneider recalled. \u201cI didn’t say he would open, (I said) he would start. We just wanted to see how he went.\u201d<\/p>\n

Even so, that doesn\u2019t mean it\u2019d be simple to turn the Rule 5 pick into a starting pitcher. His season high in pitches is 43. His career high in innings is 21 \u2014 as in the 21 he\u2019s pitched this season. Ramping him up recklessly can\u2019t be the answer here after two significant surgeries but he\u2019s open to the idea of building his pitch count further.<\/p>\n

Asked about starting, he said: \u201cI definitely think I can still do it down the road.”<\/p>\n

How far down the road? A week from now? A year? Miles sounds open-minded.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“I’m totally capable,\u201d he said. \u201cI mean, I’m just here to do whatever they ask. I’m a Blue Jay.\u201d<\/p>\n

There are no guarantees here, but a cautious, deliberate ramp-up is an intriguing possibility for a team with many injured starters.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"TORONTO \u2014 After an encouraging start to the weekend, Sunday\u2019s loss to the Angels raised at least two…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":664193,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[558],"tags":[64,63,591,85],"class_list":["post-664192","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\/664192","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=664192"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/664192\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/664193"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=664192"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=664192"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=664192"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}