5 Blue Jays who will make the 2024 Opening Day roster but won’t last the season

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With spring training just around the corner in a little over a month’s time, the Toronto Blue Jays will be gearing up for yet another exciting MLB season. For the bulk of the players, including superstars Bo Bichette and Vladimir Guerrero Jr., their spots on the 2024 Opening Day roster have been already locked in. Therefore, they could use the time to get in shape and gradually ease their way into the regular season. For some others, this will be the time in which they battle it out with others in pursuit of a spot on the 26-man roster when the season starts on March 28.

However, even for those that are favoured to land a spot on the roster for Opening Day, it doesn’t guarantee that their spot on the team would be permanently fixed for the entire season. As a result, here, we will look at five Blue Jays that will make the 26-man roster as of March 28, but won’t likely to last the season there.

Davis Schneider

No one will ever forget the immediate impact Davis Schneider provided in his debut with the Jays last season. He practically singlehandedly helped the Jays sweep the Boston Red Sox during the first weekend in August at Fenway. In the three games, Schneider went 9-for-13 with a 1.887 OPS, 3 runs scored, 2 home runs and 5 RBI in record fashion. He would continue to hit at the torrid pace until mid-September when he finally cooled off to finish the season. Apparently, pitchers began to make the right adjustments to counter his attack at the plate.

Nevertheless, in terms of his overall numbers, Schneider amassed a .276 average with a stellar 1.008 OPS, 175 OPS+, along with 23 runs scored, 8 home runs and 20 RBI in just 35 games played. With the great impression that he made with the ballclub in his rookie debut, he will likely be in the mix for a starting role, or at the bare minimum a bench role to start the 2024 season. However, if Schneider is unsuccessful in making the proper readjustments in his approach at the plate following what he endured during his final 10 games of 2023 (2-for-35 with 14 strikeouts), he won’t last long into the season before the Jays will start looking to other replacement options within their system.

Santiago Espinal

After establishing himself as a solid starting second baseman with his All-Star season in 2022 with the Jays, Santiago Espinal found himself in a precarious position in 2023 when he had to fight for starting time all over again. With both Whit Merrifeld and Cavan Biggio added into the mix in a carousel situation at second base for much of the 2023 season, Espinal quickly found himself becoming the third fiddle as the season progressed.

Merrifield put together a strong season offensively, which ultimately gave him the starting role by mid-season. Because Biggio bats left-handed, he still got his fair share of playing time when the Jays faced right-handed pitching. But in the case for Espinal, he struggled for the most part at the plate last season, and subsequently it affected his usual steady play in the field as well. For 2023, Espinal hit a career-low .248 with a .644 OPS, along with just 30 runs scored, 14 doubles, 2 home runs, and 25 RBI in 93 games. Even his defence suffered as he posted his first negative DRS season with a -2 DRS, along with committing a career-high 9 errors in just 229 chances.

With the Jays recently signing Isiah Kiner-Falefa, it had recreated the three-player revolving carousel once again, with Kiner-Falefa taking the spot Merrifield held in 2022. Even though Espinal will likely still start the season with the Jays, his days with the team could be numbered as all of the potential positive attributes that he provides the team can be covered by both Biggio and Kiner-Falefa. If the Jays needed power, offence or a lefty bat, Biggio would fit the bill. If the Jays needed defence, speed, and/or a righty bat, Kiner-Falefa should get the call. More importantly, both of them have added flexibility in that they can play multiple positions both in the infield and outfield, whereas Espinal can only cover the infield. As a result, it wouldn’t be a surprise if Espinal doesn’t want to go through it all over again like last season and want a fresh start with a new team that could give him the playing time that he deserves.

Trevor Richards

When Trevor Richards joined the Jays via trade from the Milwaukee Brewers back in 2021, he had a sensational season with the ballclub in helping stabilize their previously inconsistent bullpen. He went a solid 4-2 with a 3.31 ERA, 136 ERA+, 0.80 WHIP, along with a strong strikeout rate of 30.3%.

However, the following two seasons have been a wild up and down ride for Richards. He often had stretches of really good mixed in with stretches of really bad, putting his reliability and dependability in question at times. When he was on his game, he was lights out, but when he was off, the opposition would light him up as if they were doing batting practice.

For the 2023 season, despite maintaining a strong 33.3% strikeout rate, Richards toiled with a 4.95 ERA, 1.35 WHIP, giving up 40 earned runs including 13 home runs in just 72.2 innings pitched. More significantly, he failed to produce for the Jays down the stretch when they needed him most by pitching to a horrific 12.41 ERA 2.19 WHIP, surrendering 17 runs with 11 walks and 16 strikeouts in just 12.1 innings of work. As a result, it made total sense that he saw no action during the brief Jays’ postseason.

With his overpowering strikeout ability and veteran experience, Richards will begin the season once again on the Jays’ roster. But if he doesn’t start showing the consistency that he displayed when he first came over in 2021, the leash likely won’t be as long this time around compared to the past two seasons. Especially if the Jays want to be serious contenders, they can no longer risk leaving things to someone that can fluctuate that extreme in performance.

Yusei Kikuchi

Ever since coming over to the States, Yusei Kikuchi has always shown flashes of his utmost potential on the mound in the past five years. However, he has often struggled with command and control despite having the stuff that would have put him among the elite if harnessed correctly. As a result, he has compiled a somewhat disappointing 32-37 record with a 4.71 ERA and 1.38 WHIP in 134 games played thus far in his MLB career.

However, Kikuchi did manage to put together his best season to date in 2023 when he went a stellar 11-6 with a 3.86 ERA and 1.27 WHIP, along with 181 strikeouts in just 167.2 innings pitched. He even had a dominant six-game stretch following the All-Star break in which he put up a minuscule 1.29 ERA and 1.00 WHIP in helping the Jays win four of those six games. In spite of that, some glimpses of his inconsistency would rear its head in inopportune times, as in his final eight games of the season, he struggled by putting up a 5.26 ERA and 1.47 WHIP. Those numbers once again resembled what he has constantly posted throughout his career.

Nevertheless, Kikuchi will start the 2024 season firmly in the Jays’ back end of the rotation. But with Kikuchi also entering his final year of his contract with the ballclub, he will be a prime candidate to be gone by the trade deadline whether or not the Jays are still in contention by then. That is because if Jays aren’t, Kikuchi would be a strong trade chip to recoup back some assets to help the ballclub in future years. If the Jays are still in contention, they will likely look for an upgrade in the rotation at the deadline that could provide much more consistency and reliability than Kikuchi can provide heading into the stretch run and eventually the playoffs.

Alek Manoah

Finally, there is former team ace and pitching phenom Alek Manoah. Manoah took the world by storm when he surprised everyone by making his MLB debut back in 2021 with only 35 career minor league innings under his belt. However, he defied the odds and put together a strong rookie season by going 9-2 with a 3.22 ERA, 1.05 WHIP, with 127 strikeouts in 111.2 innings pitched. He would promptly follow it up with a spectacular 2022 season in which he finished as a Cy Young finalist by posting a stellar 16-7 record with a 2.24 ERA, 0.99 WHIP, with 180 punchouts in 196.2 innings of work.

At that point, Manoah appeared to be unstoppable as many of the Jays’ faithful anticipated what he would have in store for 2023 to surprise the nation. Well, he certainly fulfilled the element of surprise, but not in the way anyone expected. Manoah completely fell apart last year by compiling an uncharacteristic 3-9 record with a 5.87 ERA and 1.74 WHIP as he was plagued with constant issues with his control and command for much of the season. Ultimately, he was demoted twice to the minors and eventually shut down near the end of the season.

Many of us don’t know if Manoah can regain his prior dominant form for the 2024 season, but GM Ross Atkins injected his vote of confidence in a presser in late 2023. He clearly stated that he felt Manoah has a strong leg up on his competition for a spot in the rotation, along with full belief in him returning to his 2021/2022 form. With no plans of the Jays pursuing any more starters currently this offseason, Manoah will likely start the season in the Jays’ rotation as a back end, number five starter. However, if he hasn’t corrected his pitching mechanics from last season, he could be in for a long season that could see him spend more time in development in the minors to hopefully re-establish what once made him a successful, effective big league pitcher. Hopefully, an impressive Spring Training will help put away any doubts and give us and himself a glimmer of hope to build upon once again for the coming season.

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