Blue Jays Happy Hour

The Blue Jays stuck with MLB's least experienced lineup of the season on Sunday, even when down one run in the ninth with a bench full of veterans. Does a team owe fans better, even in a lost season like this one? Nick and Stoeten talked all about it this week—but not before checking in on Bowden Francis, assessing the young hitters currently getting a long look, joking about Bo Bichette being traded (obligatory), and a whole lot more.

The Blue Jays have been MLB's sixth-best team by wRC+ in August. They're tied for seventh in home runs, and if you counted the four runs they scored when completing their June 26th game against the Red Sox on Monday they'd rank ninth. Suddenly they're... watchable? But what, if anything, does all that mean? PLUS: Bo's imminent return, Votto's departure, and a whole lot more.

Jays RHP Chris Bassitt stirred up controversy this week with some fairly benign—but, admittedly, fascinating—comments about the Blue Jays, their pursuit of Shohei Ohtani, and the failures of their offseason and 2024 as a whole during an appearance on the Chris Rose Rotation, before clarifying in a hasty seeming follow-up interview that his intention was never to validate every frothing weirdo's incoherent hatred of the front office. Nick and Stoeten talk all about it in this week's episode, plus Bob Nightengale, Bo Bichette, Bowden Francis, Joey Loperfido, and more!

The Blue Jays and their fans are now firmly into the process of getting to know a number of young players acquired at last month's trade deadline, so it's time to think about first impressions. Joey Loperfido has struggled, Davis Schneider still looks lost, and Addison Barger has yet to find his footing, but Will Wagner had a loud debut, and we've seen good things so far from Spencer Horwitz and—to an extent—Leo Jiménez as well.Plus! The bullpen has its own share of new faces, Bowden Francis has rejoined the chat, Vlad's hit streak has ended (but the need for him to get a new contract hasn't), and a whole lot more.

Trades, trades, trades! The Blue Jays had a wildly active trade deadline, and in this episode Nick and Stoeten review the particulars of all eight of them and discuss where this leaves the team in 2024, how it sets them up for the future, and whether or not the team was successful in this one small aspect of what's obviously been—and will continue to be—a truly unsuccessful season.

For the first time since 2019, the Blue Jays will unambiguously be sellers at the trade deadline, giving them just a week to start reshaping their roster for 2025—assuming they believe that taking a crack at the playoffs again next year is even viable. Whichever way that plays out, the choices they need to make with their two most important players, Vladimir Guerrero Jr. and Bo Bichette, loom larger and larger by the month.

One of the worst qualified hitters in baseball after nearly three months of play, George Springer has suddenly, surprisingly been one of the best in MLB over the last few weeks. Is this anything? PLUS: Prospect talk, Yariel Rodríguez, Kevin Gausman, Alek Manoah, Nate Pearson, the future of the Jays' rotation, and a whole lot more.

We're now less than a month away from what will likely be the most significant moment of the 2024 Blue Jays' season: the trade deadline. And while Vlad's heated up, and guys like Spencer Horwitz and Yariel Rodríguez have been good, the team has continued to spin its wheels.