Episode 21 feat. Nick Ashbourne - Jays Season, Depth of the team, and a live trade reaction!

We had Nick Ashbourne from Sportnet who joined us to talk about the Jays Season. We discussed was about the season, how big of a deal is the run differential, the rotational depth, the bullpen improved from 2024, how deep is the offense and who's been a pleasant surprise, how important is this defense, how important is Kirk part of this franchise, how important Bichette is in the middle of the lineup, and many more! We had a live trade reaction(41:13)!

Where you can find Nick Ashbourne:

1. X:@NickAshbourne
2. X: @Sportnet
3. https://www.patreon.com/c/BJHH/home

Episode Transcript

(00:32):
Welcome to another edition of the Blue Jays and Ave.
Podcast. We have a guest in here who's a
writer and contributes to sportsnet.ca.
Nick Ashburn, welcome to the show.
I said a brief introduction about yourself, but if there's
anything else you want to share,what work you do, just let the
world know. Thanks.

(00:53):
It's a pleasure to be here. If I'm gonna do some mini plugs
here, if you like anything you hear, I do a podcast for my own
with Andrew Stoughton called Blue Jays Happy Hour.
And sometimes you can hear me guest hosting on Jays Talk,
which I will actually be doing this weekend and I think a
little bit of the Colorado Rockies series as well.
But as I said, I'm pleased to be.
Here it's awesome to have you, man.

(01:16):
We followed you for a long time.We love your tweets and and you
put out a lot of great stuff about the Jays and we're excited
to have you today and, and thanks for joining us.
No problem. I mean, it's an exciting time.
We're talking about the days to be honest and obviously we're
recording this after a couple ofkind of brutal losses for

(01:36):
Toronto. But if we, if we kind of zoom
out a little bit here, the fact that they're leading the AL East
and I'm not sure exactly when this comes out, but presumably
they still will be when that's the case.
Unusual situation, and it's kindof a magical year so far.
Definitely. Let's get straight to the
questions here. So the first question I want to

(01:58):
ask you is, you know, the Jays have been in first place ever
since they swept the Yankees in that four-game series during the
Canada Day week. And they've been, they've been
holding it down for quite some time now.
And the last time they've been in first place in the Alley East

(02:20):
and throughout the ale was back in 1993, which is 32 years,
which is a significantly a long time.
And how do you look at this teamas a whole overall?
Like how do you how do you classify them as as as a 26 man
roster? Yeah, I mean it.
We've seen them play such good baseball over the last couple of

(02:43):
months. You know, there's a reason that
they have vaulted to the top of standings here.
And so I don't want to be a person who's pouring cold water
on that. You know, even with them going
through a couple rough games against Baltimore in the end of
that Detroit Tigers series, I dothink that it's a team that's
been hot more than a team that'struly elite from a talent
perspective. It's a good team for sure.
It's a good team. The bullpen has got some nice

(03:05):
arms that help propped up the starters.
You get a lot of contributions up and down the lineup, even if
at times Vladdy and Beau haven'tbeen, you know, kind of true,
true superstars. There's a lot to like about this
group. But I think, you know, the whole
AL East component of it is something where this division
has been so hard for so long. It always seems like whether

(03:27):
it's the Yankees or the Red Sox with having the massive budgets
or it's the raise with how ingenious that franchise is,
It's so, you know, even Baltimore with their wave of
young talent in recent years, it's hard to claw your way to
the top. And this year, I do believe
people thought it there wasn't ajuggernaut in the pack, but not
a lot of people thought the Jayswould be here this late in the

(03:48):
season. And, you know, the the franchise
hasn't had a lot of pleasant surprises over the last couple
of years. It's been a time where I think a
lot of fans have become a bit bitter, a little bit cynical,
and 2025 sort of going to show that it doesn't always have to
be that way, that sometimes thisis a team that can exceed
expectations, not fall short of them.

(04:10):
You know, The thing is like if you look at the way they play
the brand of baseball, ever since they were 25 and 27, I
don't know about now after thosetwo games or three games, if you
want to include Detroit on three-game losing streak,
they've been the they've been the best team in baseball during
that stretch. And and looking at the way

(04:32):
they've been playing competitivebaseball, like they've been
facing great pitching and they've been beating great
pitching or they've been stayinga pat with certain matchups,
right? How how important is that?
Like, you know when, when you look at guys like the Freeds,
the Rodos, the Webs, the Robbie Rays, like the way they faced

(04:54):
throughout the year and they've been beating them.
It's, I mean, it's a little bit more proof of concept that this
is a group that could potentially win in the playoffs
because those are the type of pictures you're going to face
now. You know, I, I kind of think
back to 2/20/23 when there was alot of discussion of that this
team couldn't really hit againstgood pitching.

(05:16):
It only beat up on bad pitching.And sometimes those narratives
take on, you know, they take on a little bit of a life of their
own. And I'm not sure that they're
always as valid as, as sometimesthey're perceived to be.
But that was a reputation that the team had.
And then this year you don't seethat.
And I, I, honestly, the team that I think of when I see this
team, and I know that a lot of Blue Jays fans like to think of

(05:38):
the 2015 team because that, you know, that kind of magical
feeling and the AL East being inplay and all that stuff.
And maybe the deadline makes people feel that way if they do
something super dramatic. But I find myself thinking of
the 2015 Kansas City Royals where it was a team that never
struck out. It always put the ball in play
and played extremely good defence.

(06:00):
And the power was enough to get by.
And the rest of the offence was enough that, you know, those
aspects, you know, the power wasn't necessarily elite, but
they were creating sustained rallies consistently.
They were pesky for other pitchers to deal with.
And then they played the great defence on top of that.
And that's kind of what this Jays team is to me.
There are moments where the power comes out.

(06:21):
We know that body has incredibleraw power.
Addison Barger is impressive, but what makes them special is
the way that they're always getting on base and putting the
ball in play and then next thingyou know, you know they're
putting up that three run, four run inning because it's just
impossible for the other pitcherto find an out.
So Jayce offence run differential drastically change

(06:46):
over A50 game span from being a -30 to I believe was a positive
a 35. I believe.
I don't know what it is after today, if it's still the same,
but um, what, what do you figurehas worked for them in that span
to get them, um, the offence going in the right direction?

(07:10):
Yeah, I mean, obviously when youtalk about run differential,
that's going to be offence, that's going to be pitching,
that's going to be defence, it'sgoing to be a lot of factors
basically the whole game that goes into that.
But there are a few things that stand out that were happening
later on that weren't happening early in the season.
So you can point to a couple players like Addison Barger was
not a factor at the beginning ofthe season.

(07:30):
He became a middle of the order factor in a big way.
Ernie Clement and Alejandro Kirk, those are a couple guys
who didn't get off to great starts.
Then ultimately they are having really good years right now.
Clement has faded a little bit recently, but still they're
having impressive years. I also think about the rotation
because even though that group has not been, you know, one of

(07:52):
the league's best by any means, the thing that was happening
early in years, they were running out Bowden Francis every
fifth day and he was getting clobbered.
And that's what leads to some ofthose sort of blowout losses
that make your run differential often kind of worse than your
team is if you're losing games by big margins.
And when they when Francis was pitching, that was happening a

(08:14):
huge percentage of the time. So they tightened up the
rotation when he got his injury.And then you talk about, you
know, Allison Barger emerging and then some of the other guys
are already on the roster, whether it's, you know, Bo
Bichette had no power early in the year.
His back came around. And then those other guys like
Clement and Kirk, suddenly the lineup is longer, Suddenly the

(08:35):
rotations better. And even in the bullpen, I think
Yariel Rodriguez, who has becomeso critical in the late innings
and, you know, in high leverage spots and earlier in the year,
they didn't really know exactly what his role was.
And he scuffled a little bit of the gate as well.
So there are a lot of players who struggled early in the
season who really turned the corner, have been consistently

(08:55):
big contributors since. Speaking of the pitching staff,
I want to talk a brief A brief moment about the starting
rotation here. And you mentioned about Bowden
Francis, he wasn't good this year and he's now placed on the
60 day IRL. But the guy who's been the

(09:17):
unsung hero who's going to pitchtonight on the doubleheader
against Baltimore, it's Eric Lauer.
How important is he in that rotation?
And talk about how how well the the rotations been after the
All-Star break. Besides Bassett struggling on
the road like which is baffling because he pitches well at home

(09:38):
and then it splits on the road is terrible.
But talk a bit about the rotation as as itself.
Yeah, I mean, Lauer has been fantastic.
He's blown away every reasonableexpectation you could have.
This is a guy who you basically got off the scrap heap in the
offseason. And, you know, he pitched in

(09:58):
Korea last year. He hadn't even pitched
particularly well there. And so I think at the time he
was acquired, he thought of him as sort of a warm body, a little
bit of depth, someone who had had some success at the Major
League level, but it had been years ago.
And So what he's given them since they acquired him has been
unbelievable. And you can't sometimes with

(10:20):
these guys, you can poke some holes, you can say, OK, like
he's keeping runs off the board,but he's been so good with
runners on or his defence has been so good behind him.
And if you kind of look behind the curtain here, it's not quite
as strong. And with Lowry, there's just not
a lot there. Like he's he's striking guys
out. He's avoiding walks, he's
avoiding home runs. He's keeping hard contact down.

(10:42):
And he's doing it with a varietyof pitches.
And he's not doing with overwhelming velocity.
He's doing it with command and keeping guys off balance.
And it's hard to know exactly how long this ride will last,
but he's already given them so much.
And then some of the other guys you mentioned, yeah, I've
definitely come out of the breakstrong.
You know, Max Scherzer giving his most impressive outing as a

(11:06):
Blue Jay is, you know, is alwaysencouraging.
We're not talking about his thumb right now, right?
We're talking about how he's performing and that has been
unusual this year. It's been a lot of discussion
about is he going to be healthy for the next start?
How is he recovering? Does he need an extra day of
rest? How many innings can he give
them? And then, you know, on July
27th, couple of days ago, right?That's 11 strikeouts over 7

(11:28):
innings. I don't know if we even kind of
thought that a 41 year old Max Scherzer would ever give them a
start like that. I know there are three runs on
the board. So it wasn't exactly pristine,
but just the way his stuff looked and the way he dominated,
I'm, I'm not sure that this rotation is ever going to again
be one of the league's best. What you've got is a lot of

(11:49):
older guys, veterans who you know, they can pitch deep into
games if you need them too and they're generally going to give
your respectable outings. You mentioned Bassett has had
some stinkers, so it's not always the case.
But generally they give you a spectral outings, they keep you
in the game as long as the offence is decent, that should
be enough. Most of the time it's going to

(12:10):
get interesting potentially in aplayoff situation because
they're it's more of a deep rotation than a top heavy
rotation. And normally it's that team that
has two or three amazing starters as opposed to five that
you can sort of trust that are better equipped for the
playoffs. But we'll see.
There's a chance the trade deadline might shake that up a

(12:30):
little bit. Kevin Gosman, right?
Like when the J signed him to that contract, knowing that they
were always high on him. And I know he had his struggles
last year and then this year he was having his ups and downs.
But it seems like he looks like a different pitcher now.
And how important is he in that rotation?

(12:52):
Does he look like that frontlinestarter slash H type pitcher
again? And how, how does he hold down
in the anchor of of being in that staff?
Yeah, I mean, he's an interesting guy because if you
looked at his his ERA this year compared to last year, it is
pretty much it's almost identical.
Like it's .001 off now. And at the same time, he has

(13:17):
been significantly better. You know, he's striking out more
hitters. His velocity is up.
His stuff just looks better across, across the board.
I think last year he was almost a little bit lucky to escape
with it, allowing his few runs as he did at times.
This year he looks stronger again.
Like strikeouts are such a big thing for him because he's never

(13:37):
been great at generating soft contact.
So he needs to get out via the strikeout.
He's got almost one more strikeout per nine innings this
year. Like that's a big difference.
I don't know if he's quite that guy who lines up with the terric
school and you feel good about it.
Maybe that's an unfair thing to expect of anyone.
But he he can definitely be someone who's more than just

(13:59):
that middle of the rotation guy.He I think he has a little bit
more upside than some of the other guys on this staff.
And I think that in a playoff situation, he is probably
someone, if he keeps pitching the way he's pitched over the
course of the year and it's beena bit up and down, but just the
average of it, he's someone you probably would want to be one of
your top three starters. Then we'll talk about the

(14:23):
bullpen a little bit, how it's been night and day from last
year. It's been really, really good.
And you know, you got guys like Brayden Fischer has been, you
know, they find him from the Dodgers last year, I think in a
trade for Cavan. Biggio's been really good.
Mason Flew already has, has had a good start to the year there.
And Brandon Little's been amazing.

(14:45):
And you mentioned your yard, Rodriguez in the back end.
And even guys like Justin Brule and and Paxton Schultz have
stepped up at times when they'veneeded him to.
So, you know, what are your thoughts on how the bullpens
played out this year, how it's been built and how can they
strengthen it heading into the trade deadline?

(15:08):
Yeah, I mean, there are definitely, at this point it
does feel a little bit shorter than it's been at times this
year. Injuries are playing a role in
that. Talk to Jimmy Garcia and Nick
Sandlin being on the IL, it doesn't look quite as impressive
as it has at times this season. But at the end of the day,
you've got Brendon Little, who'sbeen one of the more effective
left-handed relievers in the game.

(15:29):
He's gone to a lot more of a curveball, heavier approach.
He's striking out more hitters. The walks are troubling at times
with him, but he's generally speaking getting the job good
done. Yariel, high leverage, sometimes
giving you multiple innings. He's been as good as they
possibly could have expected. Brayden Fisher is an interesting
one because he's not someone that people would have expected

(15:50):
much out of coming into the yearand in the minor leagues, he
always struck plenty of guys out.
People knew his stuff was good, but he simply couldn't throw
strikes. Like that was the issue with
him. He was just walking away.
Too many guys and he's strained it out this season and suddenly
that stuff is playing up and he's looking good even in
difficult situations. You know, we didn't even talk
about Jeff Hoffman and Hoffman, you know, it has been an up and

(16:14):
down Rd. for him undoubtedly, but he is still one of the more
talented relievers in the game. There's a reason why he was so
effective in Philadelphia over the last couple of seasons and
there have definitely been stretches where he's looked like
that guy who can absolutely dominate at the end of games.
You know, at this point, do you want, you know, do you want
Tommy Nance or Mason Flu Hardy or Paxton Schultz to be in the

(16:36):
bullpen come playoff time? Potentially no.
And you know, there there could be some injury component to
that. If you're able to get Nick
Sandlin back, for instance, you know, Ryan Burr and Garcia look
like they're probably gone. But that's that's a good place
to shop at the trade deadline. Like even in a market where
they're not necessarily that many sellers, a lot of teams

(16:56):
think that they're in the in thepack.
And part of that has to do with the expanded playoffs.
It's just tougher to buy these days than it used to be.
There's still always going to berelievers available.
And I wouldn't be surprised if the Jays got multiple relievers
here because as strong as that core of guys has been at the
back end, they could use more depth.
And especially if you don't necessarily need those guys at

(17:19):
the end of games, you may be more need death.
I think they probably still needone high leverage arm, but it's
not like they need 3 high leverage arms and they're going
to have to pay up for all of them.
Maybe it's one bigger name and then a couple of other guys that
you're looking at. I I think that that's something
they can certainly get done by the end of the week.

(17:39):
I want to dive deep into the depth of this offence and you
see that Varsho Santander and Jimenez are are on the IL right
now and you see different contributions from different
players on a on a daily basis. And you know, it's, it's been a
pleasant surprise in my opinion that it's been, it's been that

(18:01):
them, the players that's been inthe roster that's been stepping
up. Who would you say has been a
surprise in your end? And can this hold up the way
they're playing offensively? Barger is the obvious name in a
sense because his production is just so much better than we've
seen sometimes even at the minorleague level where you know,

(18:22):
he's been good at AAA, but he's never been a guy who looked like
he was going to become that middle of the lineup threat, at
least reliably. And we'll see where his future
takes him. He's still they're still
adjusting to him. He still hasn't proven that he
can hit lefties consistently. Like there's a lot still going
on with Barger. So I but I will point point to
Joey Loperfido because he's someone who it felt like he was

(18:46):
kind of getting lost. There's a lot of outfielders, a
lot of young players demanding at bats.
There was the rise of Alan Rodenin spring training.
People were really excited aboutwhat he could potentially do.
And it just didn't look like Joey Loperfido was going to find
a way to break through. And you know, to be fair, it's
not like he's played a ton. He came up relatively recently,

(19:09):
but he cut down in the strikeouts at Buffalo and that's
been a huge problem through his whole pro career.
And he's come up and he's been really effective and deserves a
lot of credit for, you know, thework he's put in and the way
he's carved out, you know, role against right-handed pitchers
and even lefties sometimes as well.

(19:30):
In this time, I don't know what's going to happen with him
going forward because there's a chance that he's seen as the odd
man out when Varsho comes back as a left-handed outfielder.
There's also a chance he gets moved at the deadline because
he's got some interesting tools and another team might want to
give him more run than the Jays are able to.
But he's someone that it wasn't so long ago he felt really

(19:51):
buried in this organization and has done a lot in recent weeks
to make people take notice. With death with defence has been
a strength of the Blue Jays. They have the best defence in
baseball. My opinion on how important is
that for the Jays, especially when Far showing him Inez is set

(20:12):
to return heading into the playoffs and down the stretch
run. I think it's important for a
couple of reasons. One of them is that although
this is a good offence undoubtedly or as as being in
recent months, and I think getting those guys back, getting
Varsho back, Santander, we'll see when that happens that that

(20:34):
should help significantly with the talent on the field and
their ability to create runs dayin day out.
But the strength of this team isn't necessarily going to bash
the ball over the wall like evensome of their rivals like the
Yankees. We've seen in series with the
Yankees where the days have beenvastly out homered and some of
those series. So they need to have a position

(20:56):
player group that creates a ton of value, which they've had this
season. Some of that has to come from
defence because I don't think the offence is always going to
be overwhelming for this group. And the other thing is that they
have a group of pitchers specifically starting rotation
that I don't know if you can rely on to pile up the
strikeouts. Like even we talked about
Gausman, how a strikeout rate has improved, it's still below a

(21:19):
strikeout per inning, which is alow number for him.
Jose Berrios doesn't get a ton of strikeouts.
Chris Bassett is not setting theworld on fire.
In that respect, Max sure is. I'm not sure we kind of even
know what his baseline is yet because he hasn't pitched that
much this year. They have a lot of pitchers who
let the ball into let the ball get into play and the fact they

(21:41):
have such a good group of defensive players, and this is
with Varsho missing a massive percentage of the year, this is
one of the most impactful defenders in the entire game.
That has been really important to helping.
Having it helps the pitchers look good a lot of the time and
it helps keeps runs off the board and it is it
differentiates them from other teams.
It is one of the things that makes them special.

(22:02):
It's a huge part of what's gone on here and has allowed them to
go on this run. I think the difference in the
way it's talked about is that the last couple years they had
this level of defence as well. They have had really, really
good defence over the last couple of years.
But people are so upset with thelack of run scoring that no one
really wants to give them creditfor that.
And now that the rest of the team built around that is a

(22:24):
little bit stronger, I think it gets more of the positive
attention that it deserves. I want to talk about Alejandro
Kirk here and what he puts into the table for this franchise.
How important is he for this organization?
He is a he was an All Star this year.

(22:46):
And you know, a lot of people questioned that extension,
right? And they were like, is he going
to bounce back to what he was in2022 or is he going to be the
player he was like the last couple years?
But he looks like he's everything as advertised being a
top three catcher in his sport. And what's the importance of
what Kirk is for the Blue Jays organization?

(23:09):
I think there's an argument to be made that Kirk has been their
most important player this year because a lot of this offence
has been relatively balanced throughout the lineup, whether
it's spring or more recently, Vlady has turned it on.
Bo, you know, Barger's name keeps coming up.
It hasn't really been about one guy dragging the offence.
And so with Kirk, you have a guywho's a above average offensive

(23:31):
player, not just for a catcher overall, and then you have an
elite defensive catcher. And that's a very difficult
package to find. And one of the things that
people said when the Jays were trying to sign Vladdy was
there's so much uncertainty about what this team is going
forward. There's a lot of players who are
coming off the books, a lot of free agents to come.

(23:52):
And it's not one of those farm systems where there's so many
guys coming through that can plug and play in the near
future. And that I think that's one of
the reasons there was so much urgency to get flat under
contract was that this kind of medium to long term future felt
so uncertain. And then they signed that Kirk
Extension. And at the time it seemed like a
solid extension because he's young and he's productive.

(24:16):
But at that moment it was more like, oh, this is an elite
defensive catcher who can be adequate with the bat and that's
a decent package. It's a valuable package.
But what he's done this year, looking a little bit more like
2022, now you're talking about astar player.
You know, there's a reason why he was in the All Star game.
And we'll see what comes out of this concussion IL stint and

(24:40):
hopefully he's OK and that doesn't end up being a longer
term issue for him. You know, playing catcher is a
perilous thing, but he's just inevery facet of the game other
than base running. And, you know, to his, you know,
to his credit, he tries with that.
And there's not a lot of catchers who do provide a ton on
the bases. But with the bad and, and with

(25:02):
the glove, he's absolutely outstanding.
And I think the Jays have to feel fantastic about the value
they're likely to get on this contract going forward.
Overset has been on a tear lately.
I think he had nine hits straight in a row coming into
yesterday and he's he's just been incredible for this team

(25:23):
this year. I think he's the leader in hits
now actually in Major League Baseball.
How important is he to this team, especially with the way
he's played defence too, which has looked a lot better than it
has been in the past. So just how important is is is
he to this team? And do you think that there's a

(25:45):
pathway that they could, you know, get a deal done and he
could remain a Blue Jay long term?
Yeah. I think early in the year there
was a lot of concern about Bo. He didn't hit a single home run
in April. And, you know, he's making
contact. He wasn't brutal at the plate by
any means. But when he's a guy who

(26:06):
generates a lot of his value forthe bat, even as a shortstop,
there was worry about like, whatis potentially lingering from
2024 and how great a season can he have for this team in what
could be his walk year. And then sort of since the
calendars turned to May, he's been extremely valuable.
As he said, he just piles up thehits.

(26:26):
That's what he's always done. He's someone who doesn't strike
out a ton. He doesn't walk a ton either.
But the ball is always in play. And with him, it's just spraying
line drives all over the field. And he's really, you know, is
looking like the bow of 2021-2022 and 2023, like he's
looking like that every day. Middle of the lineup menace.

(26:47):
And I do like that they removed him from the leadoff spot,
brought him down because he's been so effective in the middle
of the lineup driving and runs. He he's, you know, sometimes
people go overboard with clutch stats and who's clutch?
But he's someone throughout his career was always put up better
numbers with men on base and high leverage situations.
And now they're giving them a chance to do that and the middle

(27:08):
lineup and he might not have that, you know, 40 home run
power that you stereotypically think of for a cleanup hitter,
but he consistently puts the ball in the gaps.
He puts the ball over the wall enough and he drives in a ton of
runs. And I do think there's a world
where he stays with the Blue Jays.
You know, he has expressed in the past that he, you know, he's
come up with Vladdy and for themto sort of succeed together, win

(27:33):
together at the highest level would be awesome for him.
And not so long ago, doing that the Blue Jays probably felt
pretty far fetched, felt like that wasn't going to happen.
And if it does in a notable way this season, like, you know,
some kind of playoff run, I'm not even necessarily talking
about a World Series. If they win a couple series and

(27:54):
Beau feels like staying in Toronto and trying to do this
with a team built on him and Vladdy over the long term as a
way to go. I couldn't imagine it happening.
But I, I, I think it's still, I'd still put it at less than
5050, but I would have before the season said it's an almost
0% chance. I want to dive a little bit into

(28:16):
the positional player depth in AAA and it's pretty stacked.
And I, I don't know where these guys are ranked or anything, but
if you look at the way the Jays are positioned right now, like
it's going to be fascinating to see what they do after the trade
deadline, who stays and who goes.
But I want to mention a few names.
I know some of the players they acquired was from last year's

(28:37):
trade deadline and they've been benefited in this year's season.
Jonathan Clause is probably the top name in Yohandry Pinango or
the other day and you got RJ Shrek, Aerovis Martinez, Josh
Kasevich. Do you see these guys as a fit
for this organization long term or do you think these these guys
could be potential trade pieces to go upgrade on what necessary

(29:01):
needs they need to address? Particularly when you're talking
about those outfielders like, you know, Shrek and Pinango and
and Alan Roden and Clause, there's definitely not enough
room in the outfielder follows guys they're just isn't.
And so at a certain point you only you want to keep a certain

(29:21):
number of guy. You can only keep 40 guys on the
40 man roster and and just overloading depth that a single
position doesn't really make sense.
And prior to the season, it seemed to me like they might
start dealing from that positionof strength to try and prove the
2025 roster has sort of surprised that the season came
around And all these guys and even guys like Loperfido and

(29:43):
Barger, it just seemed like theyhad this glut of players who
were sort of not necessarily prospects anymore.
I know rodent classes are a little bit different.
You probably would have considered them prospects.
But a lot of players who are a little bit older knocking on the
door. The major leagues, maybe with a
little bit of experience, but not a ton.

(30:04):
And there just wasn't going to be room for all of them.
And I thought it would have beenwise before the season to maybe
make some trades. I was surprised they didn't.
Holding on to all these guys is,generally speaking, paid off.
You know, we just talked about Loperfido coming up and
contributing. Will Wagner has been great since
he came back after a rough start.
David Schneider, someone they might have traded.
He's contributed A surprising amount this season.

(30:25):
So holding on to this guys has served them well.
But they still do have a lot. And this is the type of player
that I think is valued around the league, someone who is ready
to step into in the major leagues relatively soon.
And if you're a team like, I don't know, the Pittsburgh
Pirates or someone like that whocan afford to sort of give run
to a young guy and see if they can catch lightning in a bottle.

(30:47):
You know, kind of like the Jays did with Teoscar Hernandez back
in the day, where it's like, oh,here's a guy kind of knocking on
the door of the majors. You know, Houston does knocking
out to give him time. There are competitive team.
He's got flaws. And so they took him on and then
they gave him a chance and he blossomed into an awesome
player. I'm not saying that there's a
future Teoscar Hernandez necessarily in this pack.

(31:08):
But I think that's the idea for teams that are rebuilding right
now is they could probably pluckone of these guys that they like
and see if their tools and play if they're given consistent at
bats at the Major League level. Here's some of the pitching
depth as it currently stands in Buffalo.
You know, they have they have, they have guys like Jake Bloss,

(31:30):
who who was injured earlier thisyear and with the injury to Alec
Manoa and Ricky Tiedeman, they're working their way back.
And the recent promotion from Kendra Rojas to Buffalo, which
he's one of my favorite pitchersin this system.

(31:50):
I think that guy can shove. So what are your thoughts on
what the AAA depth is done musically?
Got out of Macon, who looks pretty good too.
So what are your thoughts on on on some of the pitching depth
down in Buffalo? Yeah, I think, you know, I think
it's really unfortunate for the organization to begin with that,

(32:12):
you know, Gloss and Tiedeman arenot available because that I
think those two guys were pitchers they probably
envisioned in a perfect world, you know, really making a
difference in AAA and excelling there and potentially being part
of the solution at the Major League level.
And then, you know, Taco Maco and Rojas, I think that's a
little bit of a tier down. But, you know, again, it doesn't

(32:34):
mean they're not going to ever contribute the Major League
level. I think there are times where it
felt like Maca wasn't too far from being called up to the big
leagues. Obviously, Rojas had just gotten
there. So it's a little bit of a
different situation with him. Yeah, it's I think that the
return of Alec Manos probably going to be the biggest
potential mover and shaker to the pitching depth that can come

(32:57):
up to the Major League level. But, yeah, I mean, Maco is still
a guy of great interest who hasn't necessarily proven
himself at the AAA level for an extended amount of time yet.
I think he still has to do that.But that doesn't mean the talent
level still isn't very high and that there isn't a chance that
he can be a notable arm for themin the future.
And you know, the same obviouslytrue of Rojas, but even more to

(33:20):
prove because he hasn't pitched a ton even at the AA level.
And they were willing to move him aggressively.
And that shows what they think of him.
And he's still young as well. But I don't, especially for the
end of the season, I think they're going to probably bring
in more likely bring in Major League depth or just have Manoa
come along. I'd be surprised to see these
guys, unless things go really sideways for the Blue Jays.

(33:43):
I want to mention one name and he's the top pitching prospect
currently in the Jays organization is traded Savage
and he's already in AA as it stands.
And I think he had a dominant performance.
And I'm curious to see what theydo with it because Ross did
mention that there's a potentialthat he could be up later in the

(34:05):
year, whether it's August or September or whenever.
Could you see him get a call up and could he be anything for
this organization just for this year?
I know that he's a long term guy, but just just for the 2025
season. It's not inconceivable.
I mean, I think about, for instance, I think how Aaron
Sanchez was treated at the beginning of his career where

(34:27):
he's a big time starting prospect and they felt like his
stuff was electric and it would play out of the bullpen and they
had a competitive need. And so they brought him along
that way. You know, it's been done with
quite a few pictures in the past.
That's how I think it would be done.
It would be him coming up and playing a role out of the
bullpen. I think, you know, he still
hasn't started at the AAA level yet.

(34:49):
It's not like he's dominated a double.
I know that most recent outing was very strong, but generally
speaking, he's had some issues with walks there.
There's still development to be done with him.
The Jays have to be thrilled with the season he's having and
he's absolutely come along at anextremely high pace.
And maybe there's a world where he gets promoted to AAA by the

(35:11):
end of the year so he can make astarter 2 there.
I think it'll depend. It'll depend if they if they
feel like he's really harnessed his stuff that the command can
be relied upon at the highest level because the bullpen, as we
discussed before, it's not overstuffed with fantastic arms.
There's kind of a group of 4:00-ish at the moment you feel
good about and they'll probably be some reinforcements, but

(35:34):
there's a world where they feel like they could use one more arm
in the bullpen. And if you Savage has been, you
know, he's been shoving in the minor leagues through all of
August, for instance, then there's certainly a world where
he comes up. I still think that's less likely
to happen than not, but I can see the road to it for sure.
Like this is a college pitcher who's physically developed and

(35:56):
you know, you might actually want to ease on his workload a
little bit at the end of the year anyway.
One of the ways to do that is tomake him a reliever.
The big league level. I wouldn't.
Again, I wouldn't get too excited about like this is going
to happen for sure, but there's certainly a pathway to making it
work. I want to I want to talk a
little bit deeper into the the minor league prospects,

(36:19):
especially specifically the pitching aspect.
It's been an issue over the lastcouple of years as we know that
they they had one of the worst foreigns, but it seems like it's
gradually improving. As you can see the rankings of
performances. I think it had a lot had to do
with their their minor league coaching Staffs and they had to

(36:39):
fire a whole bunch of them because I believe they had more
than 10 Tommy John surgeries, which is baffling to think,
right? But if you look at now that in a
microcosm now, like even Jays fans are witnessing talent in in
AA high A all like you name it, even even a guy like Johnny

(37:00):
King's been talked about, he whowas in the FCL, who's been
performing out of his mind and and how important is that for
this organization now, especially now that you know,
the injury rate for pitchers arean all time high.
And let's just say I don't thinkthis year, but next year.
How important is that depth as awhole?

(37:23):
And one of the things that this organization has really
struggled with in the front office is sort of current regime
has been the development of young pitching that can make an
impact at the Major League level.
And there's been some success with that this year in the
bullpen. But especially finding starters
has been very hard for them to do.
And as a result, they've had to go and spend quite a bit of

(37:46):
money on guys like Berrios and Gausman and Bassett and
Scherzer. And, you know, they've lucked
out with Eric Lauer here. But there's definitely a world
where instead of that happening,you would have had to go and,
you know, get another free agentlow end starter, which is a
really expensive way to build a team.
And they, they're lucky that they've had support from
ownership that is allowed, want to basically do that when

(38:07):
they've needed a guy, they've been able to go and get one, buy
one and free agency, but it's not a really sustainable way to
build a team. They're also very lucky that the
pictures that they've selected have been really durable,
especially those three guys, Barrios, Gausman, Bassett.
And to be fair, they have selected for durable guys that
some of the organization has really put an emphasis on.

(38:28):
But again, you want to have thatwave of young pitchers coming so
that if you lose 1, if you lose 2, as you mentioned, like
pitching is dangerous. Guys get hurt.
There's a lot of attrition with pitching.
It's just the way it is. You want to have that wave of
pictures coming such that if oneor two go wrong, then it's not
the end of the world because there are enough of them

(38:48):
challenging for spots in the rotation and in the bullpen.
And in recent years, the one success story they really had
was Alec Manoa. And then Manoa was relatively
ineffective and then injured, and then they didn't have much
to show for their whole farm system.
So it does feel encouraging thatthe quantity of pictures that

(39:09):
you can dream on in this in thisorganization feels like it's
increased recently. And maybe eventually you will
sort of get that wave effect where there will be enough
pictures that if one of them gets Tommy John or one of them
has an issue with their shoulder, as much as that is a
disappointment, it's not crushing for the organization
because there are so many of these guys coming.

(39:33):
In the 2525 draft class, JoJo Parker was the big name they
drafted and they also drafted a couple Canadian kids and Tim
Piazza Piasentin and Mike Micah Bucknam.
They got Blaine board, which they oversighted Jared Spencer,
who I didn't think would be available available to them that

(39:56):
late. They grabbed him and it was, I
thought it was a great pickup. So what are your thoughts on on?
And some of the the names that they drafted and the fact that
they managed to get everybody signed except for the the 20th
round pick I believe. So what are your thoughts on
this year's draft class? Maybe we'll take a while for us

(40:16):
to know. That's always the reality of the
draft. I find it funny when people are
throwing out draft grades and I know that's folks jobs.
I'm not trying to disparage them.
But again, we just don't know how these players are going to
turn out. What I will say is that it seems
like there was a fairly conventional draft.
Like they didn't draft players who were wildly ranked
differently than when they were picked by consensus.

(40:37):
And you know, they they liked athleticism with JoJo Parker.
They like up the middle players.Jake Cook is a guy.
Their second. They're well, it's their second
pick, a third rounder who's considered to be an unbelievable
athlete who hadn't quite produced up to his athleticism.
So clearly they were targeting, you know, the ceiling on guys,
which I think is always a positive.

(40:58):
I don't like to hear a draft pick where it's like, oh, this
guy, if it turns out right, could be 1/6 starter or a long
man or whatever, but we feel confident he'll get there.
Like those type of players you can go out and buy relatively
cheaply. I like to hear.
Could can I interrupt for one SEC?
We just got a trade. The Jays acquired Sir Anthony
Dominguez in cash for Jerome. Watch Brown.

(41:20):
Wow, OHT breaking news as we go.Breaking news, Sorry.
If I had to interrupt but but yeah, sorry.
But they got. More important than my take on
the draft. So that's.
Fine, it was just breaking news,but I carry on.
Well, no. And I do think that the strategy

(41:41):
of having a couple guys who willcost a little bit more that you
draft outside the 1st 10 rounds,it's become kind of conventional
at this point. You get a few of your guys who
are sort of 4th year seniors or fifth year seniors and you sign
them for almost nothing like 5000 bucks.
You pocket the money and then you go and use that on a Jared
Spencer and blade bullet. So like that's nice, that's

(42:03):
clever. I don't want to give them too
much credit for it because it's what everybody sort of does at
this point, but it it should be an effective strategy for them.
And again, we'll see how the draft pans out, but it looks
good on the outside. In terms of Sir Anthony
Dominguez, Like this is, you know, this is a guy throws a ton
of heat. He's gonna have a better
fastball in terms of velocity than anyone who's currently in

(42:25):
the bullpen. He's a rental guy.
He's having a good year with theOrioles.
And pretty funny that, you know,he's being trailed.
Get to walk across the clubhouse.
That's a classic. I mean, this is a guy actually
mentioned in the story I wrote recently about potential relief
targets for the Jays, and he seemed like one of the better
options. As long as the walks are under

(42:47):
control, I think Jays fans are going to enjoy watching this
suit. It's a, it's a perfect segue to
get to that question now, like you said that they need to
address, address multiple relievers like you said now and
you met and like you said, you mentioned about Sir Anthony
Dominguez. But I'd like to talk about the

(43:08):
other names you mentioned in your article is Jake Berg, David
Bednar. They they've been talked about
today, Shah, Newcomb and Brockberg.
What do you think about those other four?
And and like you said, like so they're so with Sir Anthony
Dominguez, they gave up Juan Watts Brown and who is probably

(43:29):
one of their top 30 prospects, so.
I love him man, I love him. Gonna miss.
Him So what what do you so earlythoughts and talk about the
other guys that you think could fit into the Jays bullpen?
Yeah, I don't think that they'redone based on this.
You know, this is a player who, again, you could see in big

(43:51):
spots, he's traditionally been much better against right-handed
hitters and left handers. So it'll be interesting to see
how carefully they deploy him. But he can be really unhittable
for right handers when he's on some of the other guys you
mentioned. Like I would be surprised now if
Jake Byrd is the guy will see just because I feel like he sort
of a right-hander that maybe isn't at the very end of the

(44:12):
games and that's sort of a Dominguez potentially is.
There might be a little bit of overlap there, but I you know, I
could see them getting another lefty, you know, as Brandon
Little has been good. But at the same time, you know,
Flu Hardy has had his moments, but he's a relatively unproven
guy. And so having a second
left-hander is always a nice thing in the bullpen.
So I Brock Burke on the Angels was a guy that I pointed out

(44:34):
he's got a 96 mile out of fastball.
That's pretty rare for a left-handed pitcher.
And he's someone who's just beenreally good against lefties.
A lot of the time. He's a little bit of a different
style than little. Little is a bottom of the strike
zone curveball sinker guy. Brock Burke likes to throw the
four seamer up high. So certain certain left-handed
hitters treat those things differently.

(44:55):
And it's nice to have multiple flavors.
Sean Newcomb's a lefty that could also be interesting who
could give them a little bit of length out of the bullpen.
He's someone who's been a starter as recently as this
year. And so he's got, you know, he's
got experience in multiple roles.
Again, not someone who's going to pitch with the game on the
line in the 9th inning, chances are, but just as sort of a nifty

(45:16):
rental. And Bednar is just he's the
interesting name because he's such a big name.
The Jays have done business withthe Pirates in the past.
And he's a, you know, he's a topnotch closer, one of the better
relievers in baseball. And so if you want to add
someone who you can really use, you can use them as a closer,
but you could also just use themin tight spots late in games,

(45:36):
kind of like what Garcia in theory is going to be until he
had his this injury issue. But having someone who's sort of
a backup closer slash fireman, he would be really effective for
them, chances are. And and he, he cost a little bit
more because he's arbitration eligible next year as well.
Those guys always cost more whenit's more than one year.
But when it comes to our levers,I actually don't really mind

(45:58):
going for rentals like Dominguezbecause honestly, like there's
such volatility with these players that other than the
very, very best, and maybe Bednar qualifies as that, but
other than the very best, often you just don't know what you're
getting year to year. So buying a multi year
commitment isn't as appealing asit is with the position player
or starter. Let me ask you this question,

(46:20):
Nick, while we're on the topic of Dominguez and the relievers,
what do you think of that, that,that price to, to give up Jaron
Watts Brown for, for, to make? Is that just the premium that
you deal with in the division? Cause I, I mean, in that kind of
signifies to me that they're allin on this because you're

(46:40):
dealing a guy that and you look down the road and you could be
watching Tron watch Brown shaving against your team.
So what are your thoughts on that?
I mean, it's always risky to give away a guy who, you know,
could be a legitimate Major League starter, someone who's
had success at the AA level thisyear has moved quickly.

(47:02):
You know, I think a lot of prospect lists he maybe won't be
as high on in part because he's been a riser this season.
So that's, you know, I think a lot of the trade people say, oh,
this is a fantastic trade because I think Fangraphs has
them at 28 or whatever. It's like, well, maybe he's not
that guy anymore. I think that's part of I
honestly, I think it's good, youknow, it's good GM thing on the

(47:25):
Baltimore side, because I think in these situations with rentals
where you often get is sort of aplatter of four or five
forgettable guys. And Baltimore said, we want to
bet on one. And you know, it does see it is
a steep price. But as you said, I think it goes
to show that the Jays are interested in a win now type of

(47:45):
situation or they are seeing theopportunity that's in front of
them and they're willing to pay a significant price for, you
know, maximizing the amount of wins they can get in 2025.
And we'll see how that bears outand we'll see how the market
expands on relievers. I don't think we've had enough
trades happen yet where we can say, oh, they overpaid in this
market or wow, that's a deal compared to what else is out

(48:07):
there. We just haven't had enough
transactions. But I, you know, I think it's
the type of move that you have to be comfortable with if you're
diving in and saying we're trying to win a division here,
we're trying to make a playoff 1.
Got one more question before we get to the next one is could you
see so the names you mentioned and I could see them getting one
of them. Could you see open up with other

(48:31):
teams where you see that Derek Falvey has a relationship with
Ross Atkins and Mark Shapiro, Ben Cherington has a
relationship with Mark Shapiro and Ross Atkins.
Like there's a connection of certain GM's that's worked with
Shapiro and Cleveland. And another one is Cliche
Antonelli, which the closet thing was mad that, that that

(48:51):
was a winger. Um, could you see them address
maybe another reliever? And I agree with you, they're
not done, but could you see themdoing a deal with one of those
guys by any chance? Yeah, I mean, I think that these
relationships are meaningful. There's a reason why teams have
a, you know, a greater history of trading with some clubs more

(49:13):
than others. Like it's it's a real thing.
Guys who are just have an easiertime doing business with one
another. And whether that's due to
professional history or just theway they get on with each other,
you know, that can be it just kind of depends on the
situation. But absolutely, I think that
that I can see them getting as many as two more relievers, to
be honest. Again, like a lefty and then
maybe a high leverage guy might just be one of those things.

(49:36):
It's not necessarily easy to pull off a trade, but I would be
surprised if this is the last wehear of the Blue Jays at this
trade deadline, that's for sure.So besides relief pitching help,
should they address any other needs?
And if so, what needs did the Jays need to target?
Because I, I don't feel like there's much this team really

(49:56):
needs to target. But if they were to target
something else at this trade deadline, and if possible, what
what, what do you think that they could target?
It yeah, it is tricky. It it does not feel like a
market that is packed with players that you feel strongly
about in terms of being upgrades.
It's interesting. Even someone like Steven Kwan,

(50:17):
there's been a lot of rumors linking the Jays to him.
I still kind of struggled to seesee that fit.
You know, I think that the one rumor that has has picked up
some steam over the last couple of weeks that I could see is
Mitch Keller in Pittsburgh, because that's a pit.
That's a starter who will give you multiple years of effective

(50:38):
innings. And the Jays might think, OK, we
can reinforce this rotation now,but also in the years to come
where, you know, Chris Bassett is potentially leaving in free
agency and act Scherzer potentially leaving in free
agency or even retiring. You know, Gausman's got one more
year beyond 2025 and Barrios hasan opt out coming along.

(51:01):
So there might be a sort of killtwo birds with one stone
situation where you add a Mitch Keller potentially bump lower
into the bullpen where he becomes a second lefty and gives
you length as well. And then you have a little bit
more certainty going forward. But the the price on someone
like that is obviously going to be potentially uncomfortably
high. But when I think about kind of

(51:22):
outside the relief group, that'swhat I see the most of it.
It's hard to think of a positionplayer fit that is extremely
strong, although you could convince me that, you know, you
want someone more proven as kindof a right-handed hitter, lefty
masher type then Davis Schneideris.
If you want to convince me that I could, I can buy that too

(51:43):
because he's been good this year, but there are reasons not
to trust him as well. What about what about bats?
Like, I know that, you know, theoffence has been plenty good and
you know, some people believe that they should get one more
bat, maybe some power, because Iknow that to all that I know

(52:04):
that Anthony Santander will be back hopefully sometime later
this year. Varsha would be a guy would be
back probably by tomorrow or if not the series against Kansas
City. And then him Inez, who was who
was playing a little bit better,you know, before he was injured.
But do you think by any means they would have to give up

(52:26):
something to go upgrade if they need to?
And if so, is it important to upgrade the lineup as it is, or
do you think it's good enough? Mostly it's good enough.
It's also a matter of, you know,what are you, what's the
opportunity cost of doing that? Like if you do X, can you not do

(52:47):
Y? And you know, there's always
trades that can be out there that, you know, maybe we aren't
obvious, right? Like you kind of go through
teams, you look at teams are outof it, look at players who might
be available, but then sometimessomething will come out of
nowhere and opportunity and you feel like, oh, this is a trade
you got to make. We got to jump on this.
And so if there's one of those situations where it feels like

(53:09):
there's a position player upgrade that that wasn't
necessarily obvious from an outside perspective, maybe
that's something that happens. But it just seems like the
market has more pitching, it'll be easier to get and it fits
more easily into the roster as currently constructed.
But I, I'm intrigued. I'll be interested to see if
they do anything with that because as much as the roster,

(53:31):
you know, does feel like it could use one more bat
theoretically to sort of competeon a raw offence level with some
of the other competitive teams. Part of the reason why it's so
good is because of the defence and because of the way that, you
know, the bottom of the line hasbeen effective and they've been
able to run these platoons that they run.
And so it's not necessarily so easy to pluck a bat out of thin

(53:54):
air and say, OK, this guy's going to be a clear upgrade
that's worth paying a big price for.
So the next question I want to ask you is looking forward to
the rest of the season and the remaining schedule.
And you'll I think their strength of schedule is like in
the middle of the pack, but they've been beating really good
teams. I believe they have to face the

(54:16):
Rays in the last two weeks of the season, which is which has
always been a theme now all of asudden, right?
And and if you look at their September schedule, it gets a
little bit tougher. And I think that this comes to
the point where this is the timethey got to address it because
after the trade deadline, you won't be able to add guys.
But how important this team needs to go to make a run and

(54:39):
and win the AL East for the first time since 2015?
Yeah, I mean, we've seen in recent seasons, right, in this
kind of era of of Blue Jays baseball, when you find yourself
in that wild card series, how difficult life can be.
And you know, it's easy to, you'll feel like you're out in a
snap of the fingers if one or two things goes wrong for you.

(55:01):
And I think the idea of being aggressive and pushing for an AL
East victory is not just about that.
It's about avoiding that wild card round and being one of the
top two teams in the American League.
And if you find yourself in those wild card rounds, like
really anything can happen. And I think that's kind of true
of a longer series as well. Baseball is so random as a
sport. They see teams take crazy runs.

(55:23):
But you want to put yourself in the best position to avoid
randomness totally ruining your season.
And that is avoiding those wild card rounds, which means, you
know, they've banked a lot of wins.
They should feel good about that.
They've got some serious coming up where they should feel like
there's an opportunity as well. When you're talking about, you
know, Kansas City at home, we feel good about that.
And then you go and face Colorado.

(55:44):
Even at Coors Field, that's a series.
You have to feel comfortable that you're likely to win that
one. There's a stretch later in
August where they've got Pittsburgh, then Miami and then
Minnesota at home. You know, you gotta come out of
those stretches with a big bundle of winds because it is
tougher to beat the Dodgers. It's tougher to have that final
stretch where there's a ton of rays and red socks who may still

(56:07):
be competitive at that point as well, Houston, New York.
But I think when you're talking about being one of the top teams
in the major leagues, like you're not necessarily scared of
anybody either. Like if this team is one of the
top teams that's fighting for a division crown and to be one of
the top two teams in the American League, I don't think
you necessarily are in a position we're getting too
worked up or worried about what the schedule is because you feel

(56:29):
good about your chances of winning on a given night.
So how far do you think this team can go?
The Jays have yet to win a playoff series, a playoff game
in the Volvo flat and Boera, anddo you think that they could
finally win in the playoffs and beyond?
What do you think this team sealing is?

(56:51):
Angry seen in recent seasons that if you get there and
especially if you're able to avoid that wild card round, but
generally speaking, if you get there, there's no reason to
believe that you can't make a run to think about the 2023
Arizona Diamondbacks, for instance, not even that Rangers
team that beat them. Like these weren't juggernaut
teams. I don't think the Jays are going
to be a juggernaut team. There isn't really a route to

(57:13):
that for them. But they're really good team and
they're adding to their team. We'll see where that Nets out
from talent perspective. I think they just put themselves
in the best position they can entering the playoffs and see
where things go. I think winning a game would be
a fair expectation. I think they would like to win a
series. I think if, you know, especially
if they won the division and then they weren't able to win a

(57:35):
single series and sort of convert on that momentum, that
feel would feel like a bit of a let down.
You know, people have different opinions about, you know, is it
a is a season of success or failure if you get to the, you
know, LDS or the LCS or do you have to make the World Series?
You have to win it all or it wasall a waste?
Like people have different thoughts about that.
I personally, I think that any kind of run which I would

(57:57):
consider to be a playoff series win would feel like a step
forward for the franchise. And I think at the end of the
day, people would be relatively satisfied by that as long as
they didn't lose in sort of humiliating fashion in the next
round. But yeah, I think a fair
expectation at this point is making the playoffs and
potentially winning the division.

(58:17):
And I think they would be in a pretty good shape to win
whatever that first round serieswould be, whether it's a wild
card series because of the thirddivision winner or it's an ALDS.
I I'm not yet projecting them for like, this is a World Series
team. This is definitely a team that
gets into the ALCS. I just don't really think any of
the teams are so good that you feel that confident about what

(58:41):
they'll do in the playoffs. But this is a really good team
and it's on an exciting run and they're going to continue to add
and that might change the way wefeel about it.
Nick Ashford, we thank you for being a guest.
Great insight, great informationand a live reaction on a a Blue
Jays trade right in a in a rare situation, where could we find

(59:02):
you in social media and everywhere else?
Sure, you can find me at at NickAshbourne on Twitter and on Blue
Sky, although I'm not sure, I think you just searched Nick
Ashburn should be good. And then you'll find my writing
on the Blue Jays every week at sportsnet.ca.
And fairly frequently I'm guest hosting Jays Talk on the

(59:23):
weekends. You know, that's an irregular
schedule, but you can look out for it.
And my Blue Jays podcast with Andrew Stodden is called Blue
Jays Happy Hour. Thank you for joining us today,
Nick. It was awesome having you here
and we're honored that you couldjoin us on on the Blue Jays Ave.

(59:43):
podcast today. And good, like you said before,
the show was exciting times to be a Blue Jays fan.
So you know, no better time thannow, right before the trade
deadline to have you on and hopefully we can have you back
sometime in the future. My pleasure.
We will place the description below where you can find Nick

(01:00:05):
Ashburn and social media and everywhere else.
But till next time, take care, be kind to each other.
Signing off from the Blue Jays Ave.
Podcast on Tuesday, July 29th, 2025.

(01:00:45):
No.