The Blue Jays have placed right-hander Trent Thornton on the injured list with elbow inflammation, Ben Nicholson-Smith of Sportsnet reports. Thornton “felt kind of weird” when throwing a bullpen, but he’s not in line for an MRI at this point, per Nicholson-Smith.
Set to turn 27 years old next month, Thornton joined the Blue Jays in a trade with the Astros for infielder Aledmys Diaz in November 2018. Thornton wound up as one of the Blue Jays’ most relied-on starters in 2019, when he threw 154 1/3 innings and notched a 4.84 ERA/4.59 FIP with 8.69 K/9 and 3.56 BB/9. Prior to his IL placement this year, he made one appearance on July 27 and yielded one earned run on eight hits with three strikeouts and two walks across four innings in a win over the Nationals.
Victories have been in short supply for Toronto, which is off to a 4-6 start, and its rotation has been a mixed bag in the early going. Thornton, Tanner Roark and Nate Pearson have kept runs off the board at a good clip so far. That hasn’t been the case for Hyun Jin Ryu and Matt Shoemaker, but they’ve shown they’re capable major league starters. That’s especially true of Ryu, who was a star with the Dodgers in recent seasons. In his best Blue Jays performance to date, he tossed five shutout innings of one-hit ball in a win over the Braves on Wednesday.
Jays need to fire Montoyo.
For what?
For being negligent. Clearly you do not watch baseball Terry. Leaving a player off a lineup card with a last name like Waguespack is inexcusable. Montoyo’s lack of focus and desire to be great at his job explains why the team is lost and why the team lacked discipline last year.
Fire Montoyo. Only Terry can approve 4th place finishes.
Except it is the bench coaches job, Montoya just double checks and submits it. When they check Waguespack was on the digital lineup card but not the umps and it turns out that according to the rules the umps made a mistake and were not allowed to prevent Waguespack from pitching..
Great. There is now two coaches deserving of a pink slip. Right on-cue a Blue Jays fan excuses this crap. The fact that they can’t keep a lineup card properly, which cannot be refuted, is a problem.
@wild bill tetley Aww do you need a new dipey old man? SOMEBODY MADE A POOPY!
Wild Bill wonders if you can refute anything that was said. Curious if you can earn the J in your name.
Wild Bill has a point. The average Jays fan just repeats what they hear on Sportsnet. An appropriately critical take on the Jays is difficult to find north of the border and the Jays are a non-factor to the south. It’s this same mindset that cultivates baseball mediocrity in Toronto, the same mindset that defended John Farrell for so long. Jays fans deserve better.
John Farrell went on to manage a WS champion.
Not the best example.
Most managers are as good as the team in front of them.
Did Farrell become a genius the year after needing to be defended by Jays fans for 2 years?
Do you even watch other teams around the league?
A good manager and/or coach is about as common as a good catcher.
Is Montoyo great by any measure that we can see? No. Definitely no.
Is Montoyo doing a great job by being the perfect puppet for Shapiro to get his way? Most likely.
Too many decisions seem to be made with fringe roster players in mind.
No chance Font or Yamaguchi get the ball if the team isn’t being blown out under regular circumstances.
Somebody wanna see what they got in some of these fringe guys more than they wanna push to get a wild card playoff spot.
Can’t see Montoyo being fired until Shapiro thinks they are ready to compete in the playoffs. Not just make the playoffs. Compete as well.
Missing the playoff streak ended.
Doing something big once getting back is the new goal.
Let the Twins be the team that gets there and doesn’t win. (While paying for JD to rehab his calf… wait, where was I….)
The Jays are pretty raw still.
Sophomore slumps do still happen, some of these guys aren’t going to fully turn it around this year.
Biggio, Bo, Vlad may still be hearing questions and doubts while having inconsistent stretches on the field. As long as they stay healthy, we will likely see some smarter decisions out there as the season progresses.
For some playoff magic to happen, everything would have to go the Jays way, including injuries to some of the stars in these very scary lineups around the league.
The attempted zinger about the Twins earlier is mostly made with envy that they would crush the Jays in a playoff series if they met in 2020 playoffs.
Guillermo as sacrificial lamb seems like it could happen.
And/or Dante?
For being the worst manager they have ever had, and they have had some bad ones!
This season really doesn’t matter, so I’d give him a bit of a longer leash. But if he continually makes mistakes like he has both this year and last, it’s time to move on. They can’t risk losing games when they’re trying to compete because the manager wants to get Joe Panik’s bat in the lineup.
Agreed
Make sure to replace Thornton’s name with Waguespack. Plenty of coaches on the staff and not enough attention to detail. Not good.
With all due respect to Waguespack he’s not going to save the Blue Jays season anyway.
With all due respect that’s not the point; a manager should be fully prepared, including a properly filled lineup card a 6 year old could do.
Meanwhile, wondering who Teoscar ticked off as he’s been one of the better hitters yet is dropped in the order. More questionable decisions by the coaching staff.
That…is the point.
It seems that they are using this season as an experiment and are not trying to win. They are using players who are either not ready for the season or who were bad acquisitions. These players have cost the Jays at least 3 games so far. A playoff appearance is within grasp. And I am not talking about young players, either. Yamaguchi, Font, Panik, Alford.
Agreed. I would’ve preferred the team attempt to reach an 8-seed. And again, Vlad with another silly baserunning mistake last night. The discipline has been a problem during Montoyo’s tenure. Not just the young players.
I saw your comment about Montoyo. I’m not sure if he’s the worst manager the Jays have ever had. That is one to ponder. The bar is set lower than “I fought in Vietnam”. That’s not good.
Exactly dalrob.
Still seeing what they have to work with.
8 seed still within reach, but they’d have to trade some chips to be able to make noise anyway.
People were pissed about the wasted time and appearances spent on guys like Hudson and Phelps last year, but any chip you can flip into a piece for 2021-2023 range seems to be the ultimate goal right now.
Wild bill:
There are 4 guys that aren’t young players. None of which are ultra talented.
Montoyo has been gifted with rookies. Almost all rookies. And he is also a rookie. What do you expect of the guy?
They’re almost all sophomores now.
Maybe they can bring in a ringer to manage next year.
How about a so-called genius veteran manager? The Angels fans are currently thrilled that their team went this direction.
Forgot about Vietnam dude. I disagree about having to flip young assets to make a playoff appearance. All the have to do is finish higher than Tampa. This division is weak right now. You have to strike while Boston is in disarray. I am tired of the “tryouts”. I acknowledge that some good young players have been acquired that way, but I want to win. Thanks
First, I expect him to show enough focus to write a proper lineup card.
Second, I’d like for him and the organization to challenge the players. Meaning, stop with the mental mistakes. They have played this game since they were 5 or 6 or 7. Little League mental errors should not happen at the major league level. We saw it enough in the AA era and we are seeing it again.
Montoyo is in year 2. That means he is no longer a rookie. In fact there aren’t many players playing in their first official season. So that argument does not jive.
Finally, if management is surveying the landscape of free agency they will see impact 3B aren’t around, B+ starting pitchers and Stroman, Giles who’s hurt at closer.
More focus from the coaches might lead to more focus from the players. Stop coddling Pearson (he should have started the 6th inning with 79 pitches). Time for Rogers to show they want to win by spending with the big time players in the game. Mediocre is the Jays calling card. Dalrob, even Jimmertree and myself want and expect more. Shouldn’t you and the rest of the so-called Blue Jays fans?
Seriously happy with a 7 or 8 spot in the playoffs?
Making the playoffs and getting knocked out again is not what I want.
‘World Series or bust.
Current squad isn’t exactly going to make playoff noise..
Current squad if they signed Rendon isn’t getting there.
Look at the top 4 teams in MLB and honestly say they wouldn’t crush these young Jays in a playoff match.
It took the Nats years.
Dodgers, Twins, Rays still trying.
Need to make the playoffs with a strong pitching staff.
Winning the title isn’t easy.
Thanks for taking comment so literal about rookie manager. Season is still too young to consider any of these guys true sophomores in my eyes.
How are they supposed to be challenging these players? You wanna hit them all in the top 4 of the lineup even with plethora of mental errors and a weak ability to even run the bases. Gonna bench them for worse players? Cut them for way worse players? Smarten up. Where are these good managers and coaches around the league that you speak of? Lack of discipline is common around the league. Managers aren’t drill sergeants anymore. Majority of MLB managers are simply puppets for management.
Coddling arms or trying to see what the team has with all of these excess fringe arms? They coddled Ryu the night before as well.
These aren’t normal conditions. Extra roster spots means extra decisions to be made. Just giving away these players backfires. Urshela for example that burned them, or Bautista for example that helped them.
Trade and free agent market isn’t about getting the high priced vets. Look what they have been trading for. Young chips. Kay and Hatch already look like promising pieces that were had for real cheap. More on the way.
Why be content with a playoff caliber team.
Championship caliber or bust.
Lighten up, and cool it with calling people idiots that see things differently from you. You have some good takes and insights on the game, but your mentality is way too negative to truly have a decent conversation with.
Enjoy some Jays.
Two lefties back to back in today’s lineup. You going to overlook that? Wild Bill says yep you will overlook it. We can’t criticize a mediocre organization, according to you.
You’re lying about World Series or bust. You demand nothing of the sort. Otherwise why aren’t you up in-arms over the Jays not signing big free agents? Ryu aside…
For this team, 8 isn’t out of the question and postseason experience of any kind would be helpful. I bet the young guys would be motivated as hell to do it again in 2021 with only 5 spots up for grabs.
I stand correct with what I said. Don’t care if you don’t like it. 2 postseasons and 1 division title since 1993 with the richest owner in baseball since 2001 is grounds for negatively. Lighten up and open your eyes.
Reese should’ve been batting 8 to break up the lefties, way to get that nut you blind squirrel.
Not up in arms because I am realistic about the other 29 teams in the league being a part of the competition to sign these big names.
Great point about the postseason experience.
With the lack of killer instinct so far, I still see a decent chance at landing the 8 seed. Luckily Rays are starting slow as well.
Holding all that negativity from past regimes is unhealthy Mr.Cranky. Try to look at the Shapiro regime on their own. Making strides.
Finally seem to be committing to properly building a team with more than a coin flip’s chance of winning it all.
The Mariners have way richer ownership and way less to show for it. What’s your point?
Nobody cares whether you think what you said is correct. Try considering whether anybody else thinks you are correct.
Put a battery in that clock and you might be right more than twice a day.
Making the playoffs with this young group of players would be invaluable experience. It teaches them what is necessary. How many wild card team won it all? More than one and that is good enough for me. I want wins along with the rookie mistakes. No more Alford, Yamaguchi, Gavilio, Fisher, Davis, Travis Shaw. Putout your best players every single game and go from there
Valid points dalrob.
Still not sure where the players that are improvements on these names listed are coming from.
Other teams do compete with the Jays for talent.
Personally feeling like an 8th seed isn’t out of reach yet. Other teams are struggling too.
Historically, Wild Card teams have won it all but there are usually veteran stars involved. Recent years the talent gap from top to bottom has spread so much that a Wild Card champion needs 4-5 studs on the roster.