5 Blue Jays the fans are already losing patience with

Trevor Richards

He may have had quite the long leash, but Trevor Richards’ nine lives may be running out soon with the ballclub. He started off his tenure with the Jays in formidable fashion as he firmly stabilized their bullpen after being acquired back in 2021. Unfortunately, the proceeding years of 2022 and 2023 have been a totally different story as he had been consistently inconsistent over that period. Every appearance that he would make would get the fans all nervous, as they didn’t know which version of Richards they would get for that game.

Similarly in 2023, Richards got off to a bad start, then strung together a series of good outings, and now was back to being unreliable again in just over a 15-game stretch. Overall, he has pitched 18 innings, leading to a 4.50 ERA and 1.50 WHIP, with 11 walks and 28 strikeouts. The numbers may appear somewhat acceptable; however, because of his lack of consistency, he has been frustrating to watch and have lost the trust in the majority of the Jays’ fanbase. With Adam Cimber being activated from the IL soon, in addition to some decent available arms from the minors (think Jay Jackson’s brief successful stint with the big club), Richards will need to turn his game around as soon as possible to keep his remaining life alive with the team.

Daulton Varsho

Being part of a big trade that involved the Jays’ top prospect Gabriel Moreno (the top catching prospect in all of MLB at the time as well) and their everyday left fielder Lourdes Gurriel Jr. has put added pressure for Daulton Varsho to perform right from the get go when he joined the Jays organization this past offseason. He was already known for his strong defensive abilities, but it was believed that he could unleash some of his untapped potential when given the chance to be an everyday player with the Jays and playing in the hitter-friendly combines of Roger Centre as well.

Varsho has certainly come as advertised on defence, with 9 DRS, three outfield assists and only one error committed in 92 chances and over 390 innings played. However, his offensive output has left much to be desired. Although his season’s output of seven home runs, 17 RBI, 20 runs scored, and six stolen bases have been respectable, the bulk of those numbers came from a two-week hot streak between April 29 to May 12. Otherwise, he had been very inconsistent in providing run production, despite being utilized in the cleanup spot quite often.

An even tougher pill to swallow was that the two players he was traded for had been excelling and putting up big numbers with their new club, the Arizona Diamondbacks. As a result, frustration have began to mount for Jays’ fans, so Varsho will need to provide more offensive consistency fairly soon before he starts becoming like another forgettable player that had great potential in Colby Rasmus.

Alek Manoah

Normally, if a pitcher struggled for a few starts on the mound, they would be given time to work things out, as seen with José Berríos and Yusei Kikuchi this past year. Patience was the key point being emphasized for it to finally work out for the pitchers in the end. As such, Alek Manoah has unfortunately run into some of the same troubles this year, as he had lost control of his command in most of his outings, leading to a cumulative ERA of 5.15, 1.737 WHIP, with a whopping 33 walks, nine home runs, and 40 strikeouts in just 50.2 innings pitched. It has been a very uncharacteristic season for a player who has proven to be one of the most consistent hurlers the past two years, including being an AL Cy Young finalist just last year.

If he was similar to Berríos and Kikuchi, being at the back end of the rotation, he wouldn’t have garnered as much attention. But because he has shown to always be the dominant, Cy Young-calibre, ace starter of the Jays’ staff these past two years, much more was been expected of Manoah, as people weren’t accustomed to such inconsistency at all. As a result, as much as he should be also given a long runway to work out his kinks, the patience of the Jays’ fanbase is beginning to wear thin as they know he is much better than this and should have figured it out and gotten out of it much faster. He did produce a solid start in his last outing against the Baltimore Orioles, which was quite encouraging, but unfortunately it was disrupted by an inexcusable blunder by the manager. Speaking of which….

John Schneider

As the interim manager of the Jays in 2022, John Schneider helped the team to a 46-28 record down the stretch after taking over from Charlie Montoyo midway through the season last year, leading the Jays to second place in the AL East and a postseason berth. The Jays believed he could continue to guide the team to success in the 2023 season and thus signed him to a three-year contract to become the full-time manager of the team. It appeared to be the right move, as the Jays got out to a strong start for the 2023 season and had kept pace with all the strong teams in the AL East division.

However, in recent weeks, many questionable actions and decisions made by Schneider had started to draw the ire of the Jays’ fanbase. The list included: leaving struggling pitchers in one batter too long, putting struggling or fatigued pitchers in high-leverage situations that backfired, underusing certain players that could potentially produce and be effective, pinch hitting an obviously ill player for someone who was on a hot streak, escalating the fiasco between the Jays and New York Yankees and almost embarrassing the team, and the most recent blunder of forgetting how many mound visits were made in an inning and forcing the pitcher (who was having a good game) to be removed from the game, just to name a few.

With such moves, they have directly or indirectly cost the Jays many winnable games this season, and with the crazy tight race in the AL East, every little game could potentially be a difference maker down the stretch and determine whether or not the Jays eventually make the postseason. As a result, Schneider will definitely need to show that he can make the right roster moves, situational adjustments and think over carefully twice before making any decisions soon, or else not only will the Jays’ season be in jeopardy, but his position may be as well.