TORONTO — Shane Bieber reconnected with his Toronto Blue Jays teammates Friday, did some throwing on the field, packed up his gear and bounced, off to Worcester to join triple-A Buffalo for his latest rehab outing.
“Raring to go,” he said as he zipped up an equipment bag. “Just a matter of pitch count right now, building up innings and volume. I feel great. As hard as it is to say patient, it’s going according to plan.”
Bieber will be aiming for four innings or so Saturday in his third rehab start, part of the cavalcade of reinforcements nearing a return to the Blue Jays. Dylan Cease, fresh off his rehab start Thursday, was also back in the clubhouse and his next start “very likely could be here,” said manager John Schneider, on Tuesday, the first day he’s eligible to come off the injured list. The same could hold for Max Scherzer, who sat 93.4 m.p.h. Friday while throwing 73 pitches, allowing three runs in 3.2 innings for Buffalo.
With Alejandro Kirk catching at low-A Dunedin as he builds up, a “locker room that’s been hobbled, so to speak, for the majority of the year can kind of see things hopefully rounding into shape here soon,” said Bieber. “Happy to be a part of that.”
What the Blue Jays’ situation looks like by the time they’re all back, assuming there are no setbacks, is still an open question.
Given how hard injuries have struck, they’ve done well to not let their season unravel to the degree the Detroit Tigers, New York Mets, Boston Red Sox and Houston Astros have. At the same time, they continue to tread water, falling back to four games under .500 at 30-34 after a 13-3 thumping from the Baltimore Orioles, a mere week after fighting back to the break-even mark.
Still, thanks to a deeply mid American League, keeping themselves afloat has been enough to remain in the wild-card race.
“That part has been good and it’s also been frustrating as hell because you feel like you’re making some progress and then you lose a couple games in a row,” said Schneider. “The pitching overall has been really good and over the last handful of games, you have some hiccups from both starters and relievers. But the pitching has done a good job. Our defence has gotten better, and that allows you to be in these games. … The next thing is we need some guys to slug. You need George (Springer) and Vlad (Guerrero Jr.) and (Jesus) Sanchez and (Daulton) Varsho to slug a little bit more and hopefully get some separation.”
Brandon Valenzuela provided a dose of that slug Friday with his go-ahead, two-run homer in the fifth inning, but the Orioles had plenty more of it during a five-run top of the sixth, when Jackson Holliday and Adley Rutschman, who went deep in the first, both doubled and Coby Mayo added a two-run homer to wrest control of the contest.
The Blue Jays’ ongoing inconsistencies at the plate are why Schneider pointed out that “it’s not just a foregone conclusion that when you get guys back it’s going to be rainbows and butterflies.”
For that reason, the coaching staff’s messaging continues to be about “focusing on the here and now” since “everyone has different goals, whether it’s defensively or offensively, continuing to hammer that and just say, OK, today is the most important day. It’s not when Kirk gets back or Biebs or Max or whoever. Today’s the most important day to do what you’re good at. And every day is vital until we do get some regular guys back. Then you’ve really got to just keep your foot on the gas.”
To follow that metaphor, then, this period right now is about getting into gear.
The Blue Jays have held together thus far thanks to contributors like Valenzuela and Sanchez, two additions made through players acquired during the deadline sell-off in 2024. Pinango and Charles McAdoo were also direct acquisitions from that purge and combined, they’ve helped provide the depth layer that’s buoyed the club.
“It sounds so cliche to say, but the triple-A roster is an extension of us,” said ace Kevin Gausman. “We set the tone in the spring that we expect everybody to be good at the fundamentals so that when they come up, if they’re asked to lay down a bunt, it’s not the first time they’ve ever done it. Hats off to the organization for doing that honestly because a couple years ago, that wasn’t the case.”
Still, if the Blue Jays are going to do more than keep from drowning, the heavy lifting will need to come from the players expected to do the heavy lifting. And to their fortune, the league keeps giving them time to figure things out.
“To be honest it’s crazy that we’re that close because I think we’ve been playing pretty terrible compared to what we all expect,” said Gausman. “And so, the fact that we’re still that close is definitely encouraging.”
Forced to largely watch from a distance, Bieber is trusting in the resiliency he first saw after being acquired from Cleveland at the deadline a year ago.
The Blue Jays, he said, have “the ability to just put their head down and continue to trudge forward. Obviously, you’d love to run forward, but right now, we’re just continuing to progress forward. That’s very obvious for me coming back in here today. Nobody’s hanging their heads here, by any means, so we’re completely confident on what’s ahead of us.”
The challenge, then, for the Blue Jays between now and when Bieber and the others return is in doing enough for that confidence to remain.