The Blue Jays show no mercy to Brewers, Teres, but the injury weighs heavily on the bullpen

Milwaukee, Wisconsin. — A year and two days ago, Rowdy Tellez was called into the manager’s office to find out that he was selected for Triple A.

He was fighting — sitting on the .209 / .272 / .338 line at 62w RC +. He played inconsistently — sometimes as a designated hitter, sometimes as first baseman, and most often off the bench as a pinch hitter later in the game. And the Toronto Blue Jays didn’t have room for him — they activated George Springer from IL, hoping that veteran outfielders would need his fair share of the upcoming DH days. was doing.

Teres saw what the rest of us did. Vladimir Guerrero Jr. has become the first baseman in Toronto and finished second in the American League MVP vote. He didn’t go anywhere. So was Springer, who was in the first year of the $ 150 million deal. Teres believed he could play in majors if he had the opportunity. If he sees consistent play time, he was able to realize his potential. And he had nothing left to prove with Triple A.

So he told the Blue Jays that if they could find a team they were willing to trade with him, he would be open to potential.

“Me and [Blue Jays GM] Loss [Atkins] Speaking when I got the option, I told him, “Hey, I love my organization, I love my team, I love everything about it here. But at some point I want to extend my career even further, “says Teres. He didn’t say that, but he said, “If I get the chance, I believe in myself more than Triple A.”

Teres remembered the story on Friday when he was sitting at the home dugout in Milwaukee’s American Family Field. There he found the opportunity he was looking for. The Brewers exchanged relief Trevor Richards and Bowden Francis, a right-handed pitching prospect, with the Blue Jays in early July last year to address the shortcomings of both. The Blue Jays immediately needed the help of the bullpen. And Brewers needed a replacement for first baseman Daniel Vogelbach, who was staring at his long absence with a tense hamstring.

And not only did they get a replacement, they also got an upgrade. Teres thrived in his daily playtime with .272 / .333 / .481 hits on the rest of Milwaukee’s roads. He started three of the four Milwalky Division Series games with the Atlanta Braves and two home rings. He then resumed from the interruption in 2022, becoming the first baseman of Milwaukee on Friday, hitting .249 / .323 / .459 with 115w RC + at the heart of the division leader’s command.

As a result, Teres had a hard time finding words to describe his feelings of playing his old team this weekend. He spent the first nine years of his professional career at the Blue Jays. When he entered the organization at the age of 18 and left the organization at the age of 26, he was two completely different versions. He made lifelong friendships with teammates such as Danny Jansen, who was in charge of the off-season wedding, and Cavan Biggio, who crashed at his spring training home. But he is in a better place now.

“I’m not bittersweet, but I definitely smiled all day today. I can meet everyone I came up with, the coaching staff I dealt with. Before I entered the Big League, I was with the Major League Baseball staff. I spent a lot of time. It’s nice to see everyone again, “Teresu said. “As soon as I went out there [on the field,] Everyone was tired of me. There is nothing new. It was really nice to meet everyone. “

It’s where the good atmosphere of Theres Friday ended when Alek Manoah and Toronto’s violent attacks covered his Brewers 9-4. Manoa made a solid outing, another Hoham, who hit Milwaukee to two runs in 6.2 innings and hit six. On the other hand, the depth of the Toronto lineup is that when Alejandro Kirk drives from a cleanup spot with a home run, Matt Chapman plays 3 with a double from 7 holes to full base, with Lourdes Gurriel Jr. and Cavan Biggio. Biggio has two hits at the bottom of the order.

Well, this wasn’t Manoa on the ceiling. He produced only eight whives, leaving plenty of pitch on the plate, avoiding the base runner in all but one inning, allowing the lead-off man to reach five. However, Floor Manoa turned out to be pretty good too. And whenever he needed a ground ball with traffic behind him, Manoa could find it.

His most annoying moment came second when he walked the pair before Willy Adames reached the second out with the third rare Chapman error. It brought Tellez to the plate on which the base was loaded, among all people. However, after making a mistake on the first pitch, Manoa regained count leverage with a fastball at 96 mph and then dribbled an elevated sinker into Teres to enter the shift and finish the inning.

Interestingly, the Blue Jays extended Manoa even further than during the season, with Milwaukee batters seeing him for the third time and sending him out on the 96th pitch in the seventh. And when Tyrone Taylor stringed a 0-2 heater to the left center field wall to lead the innings, the risk of that decision quickly came to fruition. However, Manoa was lifted at 106 pitches after retiring the next two batters and faced 27 batters. His highests for the year entering the night were 102 and 29.

Asking Manoa to go a little further was related to the score, which was 8-1 at the beginning of the seventh. And there are many implications for Manoa’s effectiveness and durability, but it’s off the chart. But it also has at least a little to do with the nakedness of the Toronto bullpen. The Toronto bullpen lost another leverage arm to the injured list in Emi Garcia on Friday.

The Toronto bullpen needed help before Garcia joined Trevor Richards, Julian Merryweather, Tayler Saucedo, and Andrew Vasquez’s injured list. Nate Pearson isn’t immediately helped as the 25-year-old Triple A Buffalo rehab mission ended last Sunday and suffered a tense two-pitch outing.

The club’s minor league relief depth is just as thin, and the change-up between Adrian Hernandez and his screwball could be perhaps the most interesting arm. The 22-year-old Buffalo beat 36.8% of the batters he faced this season at 1.80 ERA. Certainly, his opportunity will come. However, there are some doubts about how the low 90’s fastball, which weighs 5 feet 8 and 190 pounds, plays at the big league level. Of course, there is only one way to find it.

All of this makes the Blue Jays a fairly pressing concern for relief in the medium term. But if other clubs aren’t willing to trade, you can’t force a deal. And the fact that the Blue Jays passed the seemingly useful rescue team of Roenis Elias a pristine exemption this week does not project a sense of urgency. Veteran right-handed Sergio Romo has also recently cleared Waver and was released by the Seattle Mariners. If the Blue Jays feel something left on his funky, sideways bent arm, he just makes a phone call.

Of course, Teres’s productive left-handed bat would look great on the right-handed Heavy Blue Jays lineup. But the same problems that led to his trade continue today. Teres can only play on first base, where Guerrero plays. And the Blue Jays need to open a DH spot to get regular rest for Guerrero and Springer. On Friday, a 32-year-old was out of the lineup for two consecutive games due to elbow problems. He is not behind the plate.

There is no place to match a player with a profile like Teres. If the Blue Jays add high-impact left-handed bats to their lineup prior to the August 2 trading deadline, the cleanest way to do so is in the outfield — ideally playing in the center. With someone who can spell Springer.

Andrew Benintendi is a name that Royals flounders and 27-year-old free agents often hear from now on to the deadline as they approach this winter. Benintendi doesn’t barrel the ball very much, but his contact-oriented approach continues to produce .295 / .360 / .390 lines this season, making it suitable for 117w RC +. David Peralta is another pending free agent on the team that goes nowhere and should be interested in many candidates thanks to his persistently strong exit speed and defense. Even when he was in his mid-thirties, Peralta was still an above average batter, boasting a 91st percentile out of the average.

The Blue Jays had some interest in Robbie Grossman at last year’s deadline, so he was able to revisit it with the 26-43 Tigers. Grossman has been down on the plate for a year, hitting with a slightly alarming 30.7% clip. But that performance is in stark contrast to his achievements, and driving him out of Comerica Park, one of MLB’s worst offensive environments this season, helps unleash what worked in the past. There is a possibility.

Kole Calhoun, Ben Gamel, Ian Happ, Tyler Naquin — all candidates are the same. The Blue Jays’ current task is to identify who is actually available and assign values ​​to those players before testing the body of water for acquisition costs. While preparing the draft at the same time and considering daily roster decisions. It’s a busy time, even if it doesn’t always look like it on a transaction wire.

However, the deal with Tellez last July and the club’s acquisition of Adam Cimber a week ago show that if they are willing to take action at this time of the year. As long as the Blue Jays win as easily as they did in Milwaukee on Friday, it doesn’t seem to have to worry. But next week, the club will be hosting the Boston Red Sox with three people and the Tampa Rays with five people, which is not a typo.

Look at the standings. There were less than two games that separated the Blue Jays, Red Sox, and Rays into play on Friday. The club’s next holiday is until July 11th, and Toronto’s depth is about to be tested. That is also urgent.