{"id":822031,"date":"2026-07-24T01:22:43","date_gmt":"2026-07-24T01:22:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/822031\/"},"modified":"2026-07-24T01:22:43","modified_gmt":"2026-07-24T01:22:43","slug":"bieber-strengthens-trade-appeal-as-blue-jays-snap-four-game-skid","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/822031\/","title":{"rendered":"Bieber strengthens trade appeal as Blue Jays snap four-game skid"},"content":{"rendered":"

TORONTO \u2014 Max Scherzer knows where the baseball calendar is and the realities of where the Toronto Blue Jays<\/a> sit in the standings, and he isn\u2019t interested in going there. The veteran right-hander, coming off five hitless innings of rehab work at triple-A Buffalo, is trending toward a return from the injured list and if he can hit the ground running, there\u2019s sure to be interest from clubs seeking depth and experience for their pitching staffs.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In possession of full no-trade protection, however, Scherzer holds final say over his fate in the coming months. So, given the situation, would he consider a move should the Blue Jays get an offer for his services? What does he want for the rest of the year?<\/p>\n

\u201cThere’s nothing for me to say,\u201d he replied. \u201cWe have a job to do. We need to win baseball games. We’ve got to go one-and-oh today. When whatever happens, happens, we’ll talk about that at a different time. We have a job to do, go one-and-oh.\u201d<\/p>\n

Powered by seven strong innings from another potential trade candidate, Shane Bieber<\/a>, the Blue Jays went one-and-oh Thursday, beating the Tampa Bay Rays 3-1 to avoid a four-game sweep against the American League East leaders.\u00a0<\/p>\n

By recent standards, the three runs felt like a breakout, as Ernie Clement cleverly scored in the first on Alejandro Kirk\u2019s infield single after Junior Caminero overran the ball at third base, while the go-ahead run crossed on George Springer\u2019s RBI single in the third and Vladimir Guerrero Jr. added some insurance with an RBI single in the seventh.\u00a0<\/p>\n

But, the heavy lifting fell to Bieber, along with relievers Tyler Rogers and Louis Varland, as the Blue Jays (47-56) ended the four-game losing streak that pushed them further toward sell mode ahead of the Aug. 3 trade deadline.<\/p>\n

As they set off for Fenway Park six games back of the Red Sox (52-49), with five teams between them, for the third wild card, Bieber, much like Scherzer, sought to keep the focus on the present.<\/p>\n

\u201cI know that\u2019s a boring answer, but all I can do is control what\u2019s in front of me and that\u2019s Washington (for his next start) and rooting the boys on in Boston,\u201d he said. \u201cThey are obviously going on a great run and they’re on a tear, but all we can do is focus on what’s front of us and play each game like it’s our last and win ballgames and let the chips fall where they may.\u201d<\/p>\n

On the heels of his six shutout innings in Saturday\u2019s 1-0 victory over the Chicago White Sox, the last time the Blue Jays won a game, Bieber\u2019s three-hit, one-run, no-walk, three-strikeout effort should help raise interest in the pending free-agent righty, who doesn\u2019t have any no-trade protection.<\/p>\n

One rival evaluator said each outing between now and the deadline will really matter for Bieber as teams try to assess where he\u2019s at after he missed half the season with elbow inflammation and has been building up on the fly in the majors. A second evaluator said as long as Bieber shows that he\u2019s healthy, there will be a market for him because post-season calibre starters are difficult to acquire at the deadline, and he showed his mettle returning from Tommy John surgery in last year\u2019s playoffs.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Manager John Schneider described Bieber as outstanding in \u201climiting hard contact against a really good offensive team\u201d in the Rays, adding that he\u2019s progressively getting sharper.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe looks totally different right now than what he did his first couple,\u201d said Schneider. \u201cWith delivery comes command. He’s been putting the ball where wants to the last couple of outings.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Blue Jays don\u2019t feel the need to make deals for the sake of making them, so they\u2019ll demand a certain talent threshold to complete any subtraction trade. So how teams view what Bieber \u2014 and their other players on expiring contracts \u2014 can offer will determine how deep any potential sell-off ends up going.<\/p>\n

As that drama plays out, Schneider and the coaching staff remain fixated on helping their players turn the team\u2019s fortunes, regardless of what the playoff odds say.<\/p>\n

To that end, they\u2019ve looked to the way the Red Sox, seemingly buried with playoff odds as low as 8.4 per cent back on June 21, not long after Toronto swept them in Boston, rallied to win 15 straight and return to relevance. Their playoff odds now, according to Fangraphs, stand at 62.1 per cent<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Last season, the Cincinnati Reds\u2019 playoff odds stood at 6.6 per cent Aug. 7 and fell to 1.3 per cent on Sept. 4 before they rallied to win a wild-card spot. The Cleveland Guardians were at 12.2 per cent last July 31 and 2.5 per cent on Sept. 1 before they rallied to win the AL Central.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In 2024, the Detroit Tigers\u2019 playoff odds stood at 0.3 per cent on Aug. 1 and sold at the deadline before winning a wild card, each a recent example for the Blue Jays to latch onto.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor sure,\u201d said Schneider. \u201cJust yesterday we were sitting here talking, OK, if you say it’s July 23rd and you’re six-and-a-half out of first place in the division, you’re like, that’s attainable. I know it looks a little bit different now record-wise, and there are more teams involved, but yeah, you look at that, you look at the Red Sox, you look at the 2021 Braves who didn’t get over .500 \u2018til August 6th. You’re waiting for it to turn, and I think you’re grasping on players performing better that can perform better, and you’re grasping on ways to try to make that happen quick, or quicker.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cBaseball is stupid, we talk about it all the time, and it can turn on a dime,\u201d he continued. \u201cWe all know that it has to turn now and are frustrated that it hasn’t, but there’s always hope until there’s not. That’s the beauty of it. And that’s what we’re talking about, just meeting that head on.\u201d<\/p>\n

Thursday\u2019s win pushed the Blue Jays\u2019 playoff odds up from a season-low of 7.3 to 8.7 per cent, the type of slow incremental gain it will take to make a low-probability outcome happen.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt this point, it’s just go play,\u201d said Springer. \u201cIt\u2019s do anything that you can to win the game. Everyone understands where we are and what’s at stake. At the end of the day, you don’t want to press but you have to play free and, you know, can’t be afraid to fail. Just go out there and play with your hair on fire, and we\u2019ll see what happens.\u201d<\/p>\n

That\u2019s Scherzer\u2019s approach too.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Thinking about what the front office might do \u201cis not our job,\u201d he said. \u201cI get the question. Fair. But, literally, it’s our job to go out there and play baseball and win a baseball game. We can’t do anything else. Once we get past that deadline and whatever happens happens, then we can talk about whatever needs to happen. But until that decision, until that day, your job is to go pitch and go one-and-oh.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"TORONTO \u2014 Max Scherzer knows where the baseball calendar is and the realities of where the Toronto Blue…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":822032,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[435],"tags":[49,48,462,82],"class_list":["post-822031","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mlb","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-mlb","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/822031","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=822031"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/822031\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/822032"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=822031"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=822031"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=822031"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}