Blue Jays’ John Schneider speaks up on tricky pitching situation amid playoff push

Circumstances may be lining up for the Toronto Blue Jays to make a strong push for the third and final AL Wild Card spot. They may have lost convincingly to the Kansas City Royals on Sunday, 6-1, but with a 72-72 record, they sit just one game behind the Cleveland Guardians in the Wild Card chase in a stunning turnaround after selling at the trade deadline.

Alas, the Blue Jays’ pitching depth is being stretched thin, and it’s not helping whatsoever that they traded veteran starter Kevin Gausman as they accepted their fate as a selling ballclub. It looks as though Toronto will need to ride the likes of Dylan Cease, Jose Soriano, and Max Scherzer to carry them to the postseason, especially amid injuries to Jameson Taillon and Trey Yesavage.

Manager John Schneider has some difficult decisions ahead of him, but he’s looking for ways to simplify those choices as much as possible.

“We’ve been talking about it for a little bit, and there are definitely a couple routes to take, and I think it really depends on the efficiency of definitely Dylan and Jose and Max and how they can recover and how they can come back,” Schneider said, per Shi Davidi of Sportsnet.

“There will probably be a couple games where you may have to get a little bit creative, not a bullpen game per se, but try to grasp some matchups that you like. But a lot will be dictated by what those three do.”

On Sunday, it was Spencer Arrighetti who drew the start for the Blue Jays on the mound, and he allowed six earned runs in 4.2 innings of work.

Suffice to say, Toronto needs its best pitchers to make starts as often as possible. And with a postseason spot on the line, it will be gut check time for the Blue Jays as they look to make an unlikely run to the postseason amid a 20-12 stretch since the trade deadline.

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