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<\/p>\nTORONTO \u2014 Coming out of the All-Star break, multiple Blue Jays echoed the same sentiment. The American League Wild-Card race is wide open, they said. Toronto didn\u2019t need to rattle off a 10-game winning streak to get back into the race, but simply to win every series. Through three games and two losses against the Chicago White Sox, they haven\u2019t achieved that goal.<\/p>\n
The Jays are a season-worst seven games under .500 and the trade deadline is coming up soon. Sand is running low in Toronto\u2019s 2026 hourglass.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou have to start to win,\u201d manager John Schneider said. \u201cWe got to start winning. That\u2019s just the bottom line. Doesn\u2019t really matter how you do it, if you win 1-0, if you win 10-9, you gotta, you gotta start winning.\u201d<\/p>\n
Here are three takeaways from the Jays\u2019 first series out of the break, including Joe Carter\u2019s challenge to the team, Jeff Hoffman\u2019s adjustments and Trey Yesavage\u2019s command.<\/p>\n
During statue unveiling, Joe Carter challenged the 2026 Jays<\/p>\n
Joe Carter doesn\u2019t think about how his life would\u2019ve been different. He doesn\u2019t have to. When you hit a World Series-winning homer and have that moment immortalized with a bronze statue, one the Blue Jays unveiled on Saturday, there\u2019s no need for alternative histories.<\/p>\n
\u201cHad I not hit the home run,\u201d Carter said, \u201cI figure somebody else would\u2019ve driven in the run and we still would\u2019ve been World champs. That\u2019s how I look at it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Nobody knows what actually would\u2019ve happened if Carter didn\u2019t clip Mitch Williams\u2019 ninth-inning pitch in October of 1993. There likely would be no statue of Carter. The phrase \u201cback-to-back\u201d\u00a0may not mean much at Rogers Centre and former stars may not have returned to Toronto this weekend. But the beauty of achieving greatness is there are no what-ifs.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe could\u2019ve failed,\u201d starter Jack Morris said. \u201cBut then we wouldn\u2019t be talking about it.\u201d<\/p>\n
That indisputable achievement is what these modern Blue Jays are still searching for. They came so close \u2014 inches away, as Paul Molitor said \u2014 from earning it last year. They are, naturally, stuck with so many \u201cwhat ifs\u201d\u00a0in Isiah Kiner-Falefa\u2019s lead, Jeff Hoffman\u2019s slider, Addison Barger\u2019s lead in Game 6, Ernie Clement\u2019s deep drive and so many more.<\/p>\n
As videos of Toronto\u2019s 1993 World Series parade played on the video board ahead of Saturday\u2019s game, John Schneider couldn\u2019t help but think what that would\u2019ve been like last year. Carter, looking to Toronto\u2019s dugout before his ceremonial first pitch, directly challenged the 2026 Jays to reach those heights. Go win the title this time.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe want to have more celebrations in the future,\u201d he said. \u201cSo let\u2019s go you guys.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Jays certainly have to get going to even have a shot. After Sunday\u2019s 3-0 loss, playoff odds dipped below 15 percent. Maybe this isn\u2019t the year. But for the current era of the Blue Jays, even after 2025\u2019s World Series run, to achieve that indisputable greatness, they\u2019ll have to win it all at some point. That\u2019s how you earn statues and grand reunions, as Carter knows best.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think it\u2019s cool for everyone to hear,\u201d Schneider said, \u201cfrom a guy like him who has such an iconic swing, not just for us but in baseball history, to say \u2018let\u2019s f\u2014ing go.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n In starts that Trey Yesavage throws over 60 percent strikes, his ERA entering Sunday was 3.12. (Photo: Mark Blinch \/ Getty Images)<\/p>\n
Trey Yesavage can control his outings<\/p>\n
When Trey Yesasvage was in high school, an opposing team put their pitching machine 30 feet in front of home plate before a game, cranking it up to maximum velocity. In college at East Carolina, the opposition put their machine on a bucket, hoping to mimic the righty\u2019s high release point.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey don\u2019t do that for everybody,\u201d Yesavage said. \u201cIt\u2019s just funny.\u201d<\/p>\n
Those are the lengths other teams must go to in hopes of properly preparing for the Blue Jays\u2019 rookie. He\u2019s so funky and so uncomfortable to face that teams are forced to react to him. As long as he has his command, Yesavage is in control.<\/p>\n
Yesavage, after tearing through college and rapidly ascending the minor leagues last year, still wasn\u2019t entirely sure if his release point would play in the big leagues. When his MLB debut last September started with a Chandler Simpson single and Yandy Diaz\u2019s run-scoring double, those doubts didn\u2019t dissipate. It only took five shutout innings after that tough start, a couple more regular-season outings and a record-setting postseason to confirm he could stick. Even at baseball\u2019s top level, Yesavage was nasty enough.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs a pitcher, going into the game, I don\u2019t really like thinking about what hitters\u2019 strong suits are,\u201d Yesavage said. \u201cI like to pitch off my strong suits and if that\u2019s not working, then we make an adjustment. I just try to pitch off my game.\u201d<\/p>\n
Even in his few sideways starts this year, including a 1 \u2154 inning outing ahead of the All-Star break, Yesavage\u2019s struggles were more tied to his mechanical issues than any opposing approach. In starts that Yesavage throws over 60 percent strikes, his ERA entering Sunday was 3.12. When he threw under that mark, his ERA was 5.71.<\/p>\n
The righty delivered a quality start with nine strikeouts over six innings against the White Sox on Sunday. With some alterations to his posture over the break, he filled the zone with 22 first-pitch strikes and a 73 percent strike rate. If Yesavage can maintain that aggressiveness over the rest of the season, the Jays won\u2019t have to worry about their funky righty.<\/p>\n
Jeff Hoffman wants to be more unpredictable<\/p>\n
Jeff Hoffman found a groove in recent weeks. After losing his closing job early in the season, Hoffman has posted a 1.62 ERA since June 1 with 21 strikeouts to six walks and eight hits. The righty attributes the improvement to a mix of his pitch usage, including more sliders and becoming generally more unpredictable.<\/p>\n
\u201cJust kind of keeping them in that rocking chair,\u201d he said, \u201cI think that\u2019s what made me great a couple years in Philly.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hoffman now wants to take that unpredictability to the basepaths. Hoffman\u2019s never been elite at holding runners, but he hadn\u2019t allowed more than 10 swiped bags in a season before 2026. This year, he has allowed 13 stolen bases on 16 attempts, including two key swiped bags in Toronto\u2019s final loss in San Diego ahead of the break. It needs fixing.<\/p>\n
Hoffman introduced a slide step to speed up his motion to the plate, but even that wasn\u2019t enough to stop the Padres from stealing twice against him earlier this month. The reliever and Toronto\u2019s coaching staff dug deeper after the All-Star pause. Hoffman, who stranded a runner on first in his only outing against the White Sox, is now also focused on not delivering his pitches at a similar point in the pitch clock. He\u2019s even conscious of his exhales, suggesting that baserunners may have noticed a tendency for him to release a deep breath before his pitches.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s just knowing yourself inside and out,\u201d Hoffman said, \u201cknowing what your tendencies are and staying away from those tendencies when good runners are on.\u201d<\/p>\n
It\u2019s a lot for Hoffman, or any pitcher, to focus on while still needing to pinpoint pitches and get strikeouts. But with the rest of the righty\u2019s game rounding into form, holding runners is the last piece to fix.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"TORONTO \u2014 Coming out of the All-Star break, multiple Blue Jays echoed the same sentiment. The American League…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":814026,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[435],"tags":[49,48,462,82,507],"class_list":["post-814025","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mlb","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-mlb","tag-sports","tag-toronto-blue-jays"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/814025","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=814025"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/814025\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/814026"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=814025"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=814025"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=814025"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}