Blue Jays foolishly fueled final stage of Eric Lauer's heel turn in Dodgers trade

You either die a hero or live long enough to see yourself become the villain. In the case of Eric Lauer, the left-handed pitcher has taken the latter and will try to revive his season with the biggest heels in the sport, the LA Dodgers. The team that Lauer pitched 4.2 effective innings against during an 18-inning marathon in Game 3 of the 2025 World Series, will now hope that Lauer can be more like his 2025 self and less like his 2026 performance as they look to overcome some pitching issues.

The Dodgers lost Tyler Glasnow to the 15-day Injured List on May 8, and Blake Snell was shelved on May 15. Dodgers reporters have indicated that Lauer will slot in as the teams' long reliever, a role he was supposed to play for the Blue Jays, but almost immediately after the end of the 2025 season, tensions arose around what exactly Lauer's job would be in 2026.

Both the Blue Jays and Lauer are to blame in what became a frustrating split. It began when the Blue Jays went to arbitration with Lauer as he was looking for more of a starters salary at $5.75 million. The Blue Jays saved just over a million dollars by arguing that he was more of a reliever, and the arbitrator agreed by settling the case in favour of the Blue Jays, giving Lauer a $4.4 million deal for 2026.

The Blue Jays also spent most of the offseason looking for rotation upgrades. Between Dylan Cease, Patrick Corbin and Max Scherzer, with the addition of Shane Bieber taking the option on his contract to remain in Toronto, it seemed like the Blue Jays were pushing Lauer further away from being considered an option for the starting rotation.

Lauer and the Blue Jays at odds all season, resulting in his trade to LA

But when the season began, Lauer was tabbed as the number three starter coming out of Spring Training, thanks to a barrage of injuries. Lauer looked great in his first outing, pitching 5.1 innings against the Athletics in the third game of the season. He struck out nine, walked one, and allowed two earned runs on three hits in a 5-2 Blue Jays win.

Things only went downhill from there though as he battled a sickness that led to his ineffectiveness on the mound. Then the Blue Jays started toying with the idea of using an opener in front of Lauer, even though they still didn't have a full five-man rotation, and that didn't sit well with the 30-year-old from Elyria, Ohio.

Lauer was very vocal about the Blue Jays pitching strategy and it got so bad that even former Blue Jays outfielder, and current MLB analyst Kevin Pillar said, "it looked like Lauer was just begging the team to DFA him." The body language could not be worse and Lauer got his wish.

Now that he's with the Dodgers, there's almost a guarantee that Lauer is going to discover something in his game that just helps him pitch better than the 6.69 ERA and 1.33 WHIP that's he's executed this season. He's also leading the league in home runs allowed with 11 in 36.1 innings pitched, after giving up 15 all season in 2025. Surely, the Dodgers coaching staff will be able to help him correct these trends.

The Dodgers as a team have allowed 0.89 HR/9, sixth best in the league and they have limited walks to 2.88 BB/9 which is the third best mark. Their FIP sits at 3.46, second best in the league, and their 1.10 WHIP is the best in MLB. With coaching like that, if Lauer has to get it right.

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