TORONTO – The Blue Jays’ offence finally has started hitting home runs in bunches this week, but their bullpen won’t stop giving them up.
On Wednesday night, this new combination led to a familiar result for the Blue Jays. Playing in front of 27,057 at Rogers Centre, they jumped out to an early 6-0 lead only to allow 11 consecutive runs and lose 11-7 to the Cincinnati Reds.
This was by no means a well-played game. There were errors by each team, two balks and a wild pitch. Inherited runners scored, baserunners made mistakes and it took three hours and 17 minutes before the Reds could finally leave town with a series win on the day Joey Votto announced his retirement from baseball.
Most problematic of all, though, was the Blue Jays’ bullpen. When Yariel Rodriguez left the game, there was one out in the fifth inning and three runs had scored. By no means was Rodriguez at his best, but with six strikeouts and two walks allowed, he was doing some things right.
“Couldn’t really wiggle out of that that inning,” Blue Jays manager John Schneider said. “He was at the end of his pitch count and just ran out of steam really, but he had some really good pitches, and some that were just up (in the zone).”
Before long, though, Brendon Little had allowed two of Rodriguez’s baserunners to score plus another of his own. That alone erased the Blue Jays’ once-promising lead and tied the game.
Once Erik Swanson entered, it got worse. Swanson hit Ty France, the first batter he faced, before walking Santiago Espinal with the bases loaded and striking out Will Benson to end the inning. But the next inning went homer-homer-walk-double for Swanson, who heard some loud boos from the crowd as he left the mound.
“His delivery kind of got out of whack,” Schneider said. “We talked earlier about his slider being better and fastball command being better, and that kind of escaped him tonight
For the season, the right-hander has a 6.93 ERA with a FIP of 7.82. While there’s still time to turn things around, an off-season non-tender would presumably enter the conversation for the Blue Jays if these struggles continue.
Of course, the Blue Jays’ bullpen issues extend far beyond Swanson. No bullpen in baseball has allowed more home runs than the Blue Jays (75) and no team in baseball has less WAR from its relievers (-2.2 entering play Wednesday). While Jordan Romano’s injury accounts for some of that, the likes of Tim Mayza, Nate Pearson and Swanson simply underperformed and there wasn’t enough organizational pitching depth in place to backfill.
Clearly, better results are a must in 2025 and that means adding as many quality relievers as possible via trade, free agency, waivers and the international market. Otherwise, the Blue Jays run the risk that they’ll undermine nights like this where the offence provides a rare six-run cushion.
To their credit, this edition of the Blue Jays does some things well at the plate. They’re hard to strike out, they draw their share of walks and they rank among the top 10 in MLB in singles and doubles.
But while walks and singles are great, home runs are far better and the Blue Jays haven’t hit nearly enough of those. Entering play Tuesday, the Blue Jays had out-homered just four teams: the Nationals, White Sox, Rays and Marlins. They had only one 20-homer hitter – Vladimir Guerrero Jr., with 26 – but as a collective they weren’t scaring anyone.
A five-homer outburst on Tuesday represented a welcome contrast, and the early Wednesday home runs from George Springer, Spencer Horwitz and Ernie Clement were encouraging for a Blue Jays team that’s lacked power all season.
Finding ways to support Guerrero Jr. will be essential to the Blue Jays’ chances in 2025, and even after this recent power binge, there aren’t many clear answers on that front. With three homers over the last two days, Springer has raised his season total to 17, but he’s entering his age-35 season and hasn’t hit more than 25 home runs in five seasons, so he’s likely more of a complementary player.
Adding at least one power bat to this lineup will likely be an off-season goal.
“You look around the league right now with teams that have pretty good run differentials and pretty good records,” manager John Schneider said before the game. “They’ve got some guys that are leaving the ballpark.”
In recent days, those home runs have certainly helped. Now they need to keep that up and do a better job of preserving the leads they get.