{"id":753157,"date":"2026-06-22T15:50:11","date_gmt":"2026-06-22T15:50:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/753157\/"},"modified":"2026-06-22T15:50:11","modified_gmt":"2026-06-22T15:50:11","slug":"how-game-postponement-offers-hidden-positive-for-blue-jays","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/753157\/","title":{"rendered":"How game postponement offers hidden positive for Blue Jays"},"content":{"rendered":"

CHICAGO \u2014 The Toronto Blue Jays<\/a>\u2019 series finale against the Chicago Cubs on Sunday was postponed due to inclement weather and while it does remove a future off-day \u2014 the game\u2019s been rescheduled to Aug. 6 at Wrigley Field \u2014 this can be viewed as a positive development for the club.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Kevin Gausman\u2019s two-inning start on Friday was followed by a 3.2-inning performance from Patrick Corbin the next day and the result of those abbreviated outings was a heavy tax on the Blue Jays\u2019 bullpen. The club used nine relievers across those two games \u2014 not including outfielder Myles Straw, who recorded four outs in Friday\u2019s 16-2 loss \u2014 adding to the workload of a stressed relief corps.<\/p>\n

However, now, instead of having to navigate a tricky span of 16 games in 16 days, Blue Jays manager John Schneider can take a breath and allow his busy relievers to do the same on what\u2019s become an unexpected off day ahead of Monday\u2019s contest against the Houston Astros at Rogers Centre (Sportsnet, Sportsnet+, 6:30 p.m. \/ 3:30 p.m. PT).\u00a0<\/p>\n

Dylan Cease, Sunday\u2019s scheduled starter, will get the ball in that game, with Shane Bieber\u2019s first start off the injured list pushed to Tuesday. The return of the impact right-hander should help calm the rotation picture and decrease the workload of the Blue Jays\u2019 bullpen, which has logged 332.1 frames this season, a number that accounts for an unsustainable 49 per cent of the team\u2019s total innings. For context, last year\u2019s bullpen tallied 41.5 per cent of the team\u2019s 1,438 innings.<\/p>\n

However, casting forward, the Blue Jays will need to see more from Corbin in his next outing. His struggles were somewhat masked by Saturday\u2019s dramatic comeback win over the Cubs<\/a>, yet the reality is the 36-year-old left-hander\u00a0has allowed 14 runs on 23 hits across 15.1 innings over his past four outings.<\/p>\n

That type of production could bring his status in the rotation into question and when\u00a0Max Scherzer\u2019s ready to return from his bout with back spasms, there\u2019ll be questions about what to do with Corbin.\u00a0One potential answer could be moving him to a bulk role in the bullpen, however, that\u2019s a role currently filled by right-hander Simeon Woods Richardson, who\u2019s tossed seven scoreless innings since being acquired by the Blue Jays.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Whatever happens, it\u2019s clear Corbin\u2019s recent production is not helping the Blue Jays at a time where the club is struggling to reach the .500 mark.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Ahead of Saturday\u2019s game at Wrigley, several Blue Jays players donned black T-shirts featuring an image of David Popkins with the caption \u201cLEAVE\u201d in large, white lettering. It\u2019s an ode to the Blue Jays hitting coach and the signature phrase he yells from the dugout when one of his batters resists swinging at a borderline pitch.<\/p>\n

\"\"\/<\/p>\n

\u201cIt just became our team thing,\u201d said George Springer<\/a>. \u201cIt’s awesome to hear it in the at-bat because he yells it and it makes you feel good.\u201d<\/p>\n

The veteran recently had the shirts made and distributed them to teammates over the weekend.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWe all love Pop,\u201d said Springer. \u201cHe’s so invested into all of us.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cPop doesn’t like being the centre of attention,\u201d quipped Schneider of the garments. \u201cBut he’s the\u00a0Baseball America\u00a0[2025] Coach of the Year, so we’re gonna try to make him the centre of attention.\u201d<\/p>\n

As for Springer, his recent work with Popkins has paid off at the plate. The designated hitter has three homers in his past eight games and collected five walks and 10 hits over that span for a .333\/.432\/.667 slash line.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cHe’s swinging at good pitches and laying off the ones he shouldn’t be swinging at,\u201d said Schneider. \u201cSwings getting a little quicker, a little tighter, and he’s got some good intent to it. It starts with command of the zone. He is doing a good job of that and as that goes, so does his confidence.\u201d<\/p>\n

Schneider, as the manager of the 2025 American League champion Blue Jays, will manage opposite Dave Roberts at next month\u2019s all-star game in Philadelphia. He was asked about his preparation for the event.\u00a0<\/p>\n

(Note:\u00a0Managers are no longer involved in all-star roster selection, but Schneider is welcome to register any thoughts with MLB\u2019s baseball ops group and they\u2019ll take it into consideration.)<\/p>\n

Schneider:\u00a0\u201cObviously new territory for me and new territory for a lot of the staff. It’s kind of flying by the seat of your pants a little bit and in terms of what’s gonna be asked of us, I’m looking forward to it. It’s going to be fun. It’s an experience that I think everyone would love to do. And I’m certainly in that category.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI always say that Pete [Walker] and DeMarlo [Hale] have the hardest job in terms of who’s pitching when and how much we’re pitching and who’s playing how much and what you’re doing. I get to kind of hang out and talk to the media and make sure I’m not doing anything stupid. So, I think it’s gonna be a fun experience.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI think the biggest thing is how you recognize the players that are there and how good they are, the talent level that is actually in that clubhouse and the talent level that is in the other clubhouse in the National League. So, really humbled to be part of it. And just want to stay out of the way as much as I can but recognize the guys who are elected and having the seasons that they are.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Blue Jays fan in you kind of goes on the back burner and the baseball fan comes out and you really get to enjoy the best talent in the world.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"CHICAGO \u2014 The Toronto Blue Jays\u2019 series finale against the Chicago Cubs on Sunday was postponed due to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":753158,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[558],"tags":[64,63,591,85],"class_list":["post-753157","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\/753157","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=753157"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/753157\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/753158"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=753157"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=753157"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=753157"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}