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Mehar wrote:

Michael Bradley wrote:The Jays seem to think Espinal is a better defender at 2B than Merrifield. I haven’t looked up the numbers but I’d be shocked if that’s true. The eye test certainly doesn’t support that.

This has to be one of the most frustrating, and quite frankly boring “good” Jays teams I can remember. I mean I’ll take a boring team that gets a playoff spot but even that’s not a certainty at this point.

Merrifield was a former Gold Glove finalist at Second Base with Kansas City. Regardless, if Espinal had any situational awareness he should have thrown to home right away, and gotten Smith out. Just crazy mental lapse by him. With Boston's schedule in the coming weeks where they can beat up on the Royals, Nationals, and Tigers and also playing the Jays at Fenway (where they have not lost a game to Toronto all year) they should surpass the Jays as Boston is only 1.5 Games back. The Jays are facing all .500 or better teams for the next 4 weeks (Angels, Red Sox, Phillies, Reds, etc.), and they have struggled against .500 or better teams all year. A healthy Yankees team in about a couple of weeks with Judge, and pitchers Loaisiga and Cortes will be a different team also; and the Yankees are only 2.5 Games back. So, some of these homers and optimists like Mike Shillner, saying how everyone needs to settle down as the Jays are in a playoff spot are fooling themselves. Boston, New York and Toronto will be likely fighting for one spot, and playoffs is definitely not a certainty with what I have seen all year.

johanliebert wrote:

Michael Bradley wrote:The Jays seem to think Espinal is a better defender at 2B than Merrifield. I haven’t looked up the numbers but I’d be shocked if that’s true. The eye test certainly doesn’t support that.

This has to be one of the most frustrating, and quite frankly boring “good” Jays teams I can remember. I mean I’ll take a boring team that gets a playoff spot but even that’s not a certainty at this point.

Espinal is the jays best defensive middle infielder. He had a brain fart it happens and whose to say Swanson even retires the next batter.

Madvillainy2004 wrote:

johanliebert wrote:

Michael Bradley wrote:The Jays seem to think Espinal is a better defender at 2B than Merrifield. I haven’t looked up the numbers but I’d be shocked if that’s true. The eye test certainly doesn’t support that.

This has to be one of the most frustrating, and quite frankly boring “good” Jays teams I can remember. I mean I’ll take a boring team that gets a playoff spot but even that’s not a certainty at this point.

Espinal is the jays best defensive middle infielder. He had a brain fart it happens and whose to say Swanson even retires the next batter.

This year? I don't know and since Espinal has 1 homerun and a 70 OPS+ I'm not sure what his role is anymore. At best Espinal is a neutral/slightly negative defender which considering his bat and the fact he mostly plays one of the easier positions in 2nd base is awful..

Randle McMurphy wrote:

Michael Bradley wrote:

Randle McMurphy wrote:I'm still not convinced they are actually "good." I think they have the potential to be good, but they certainly haven't reached that at any point of this season. If this team didn't have the benefit of a more balanced schedule for the first time in a generation, is their record much better than .500?

I'm easily taking the 2021 and 2022 versions of the Jays over this group right now.

That’s fair. The 2021 team might end up being the best Jays team in this run, which is a shame due to how that season ended (I hope having Charlie as the manager was worth it for Atkins). I think the Jays missing the playoffs is a very realistic outcome this season. The talent is there but a combination of underperforming and lack of urgency (Manoah and White still being on the 26 man roster points to that) might make us look back on losses like last night with a lot of regret. I’m still upset at the Chatwood and Brad Hand games in 2021. This stuff adds up.

The Yankees with Aaron Judge are in all likelihood better than this version of the Jays, so I think missing the playoffs is a serious possibility. I'd place the odds at somewhere around 50/50. The lack of urgency has been a persistent characteristic of this management team for as long as they've been here. There have been times this season where they've gone with virtually no bench or very little bullpen (like last night) in a game needlessly. You also can't be wasting a roster spot on Mitch White (or throwing starts away on Alek Manoah) if you want to win every game possible.

As far as 2021, there's tons of blame to go around for that debacle with a team as good as that was (Montoyo, management, Chatwood, Hand, etc). Also don't forget the Canadian government also didn't allow that team to play home games for 4 months for reasons that still remain unclear to anyone.

Randle McMurphy wrote:They start this game by running into another stupid out at 3rd needlessly.

linery88 wrote:Jano is a legit deep threat now,anytime,anyplace.No need to play with his lineup slot.

Mehar wrote:

linery88 wrote:Jano is a legit deep threat now,anytime,anyplace.No need to play with his lineup slot.

I watched the final 4 innings of the game and they mentioned on the broadcast that Jansen will be a free agent after next year, and it would make sense for the Jays to work out a contract extension with him. For some reason, I thought he had two years left until free agency. I definitely hope both sides can work something out this off-season. One of the reasons I wanted to keep Moreno was because of his 6 years left of being under control after this season. The Jays cannot afford to lose Jansen after next year, and having to put all your eggs in the basket of an out of shape Alejandro Kirk; who is one of the slowest runners in all of MLB.