5 players who are entering their final days on the Blue Jays

Zach Pop

Pop is somebody that we've touched on before it pieces like this one. It's getting to the point where you have to wonder what kind of dirt he has on someone in the Blue Jays front office. It feels like every time he takes the mound, bad things come.

In 66 appearances across the past two years, Pop has a combined 6.16 ERA, 5.60 FIP and 68 ERA+ in 57 innings of work. He doesn't strike many batters out, he can't keep the ball in the ballpark and walks bite him on occasion as well.

Outside of a decent 13-game stretch in the month of May, Pop has been borderline unwatchable in every single month of the season so far. His June ERA was 6.97 in 14 games; July's EA was 6.30 in 11 games; August's ERA was 7.27 in 10 games and he's currently got an 18.00 ERA in two September games.

Of course, ERA is not the quite the tell-all stat like followers of the game used to think it was, but in Pop's case it's a darn good indicator of the player we're working with here. He seems to do okay in short stints, but even in those instances, it's touch and go.

It was clear to see why the Blue Jays gave Pop another look last year after he looked so strong post-trade in the 2022 season. He had a 3.11 FIP in 17 outings after coming over from the Marlins and appeared to be a reliable relief option in the making. Instead, he's just gone into a full-blown meltdown that doesn't seem to have an end in sight. The Jays need to give up on the experiment and cut their losses before this gets any more embarrassing for all involved.

In the immediate future, Pop is going to become arbitration-eligible for the first time in his career. A non-tender seems like the most likely outcome.

Chris Bassitt

This one's a bit tricky, but nearly every time Bassitt has taken the mound lately it seems like a guaranteed loss for the Blue Jays. This is a very disappointing turn of events after he established himself as a beloved workhorse on the mound last year. The 10-year veteran led the AL in wins last season, made all 33 starts and hit 200 innings for the first time in his career.

A signing that was curious at first quickly began to look like a win by the Jays. Now, the 35-year-old has lost his way and doesn't look anything like the pitcher he did last year. In 28 starts, Bassitt is 9-13 with a 4.30 ERA, 4.06 FIP and 95 ERA+. His walk rate is up, his hit rate is way up and he leads the American League in hits entering the day with 165.

Going by the splits, Bassitt is 1-6 with a 5.98 ERA and 4.75 FIP in nine second-half starts. His 6.2-inning performance against the Red Sox in which he struck out nine and allowed just one run is undoubtedly carrying his overall second-half numbers, because outside of that start it has not been pretty. At all.

Dating back to the beginning of July, he has made 11 starts. He's surrendered two runs or less just two times and allowed four or more runs to score six times (his last outing saw him give up four runs but only three were earned, but I'm counting it).

Where this will become interesting is the fact that Bassitt is still under control for another season beyond the current one. He hasn't quite been bad enough to warrant a straight release, but it's worth wondering if the Jays could try and trade him to a team that needs a veteran starter/clubhouse guy but isn't counting on him to perform at an All-Star pace.

Since the Blue Jays are going to give this thing another go next year, they're not going to be able to rely on Bassitt to turn things around and help them in their quest for the postseason. He seems to be showing his age a bit, so a sudden turnaround feels unlikely.

Bo Bichette

Bichette hasn't appeared in a game since July 19 as he nurses yet another calf injury. The two-time All-Star was in the midst of easily his worst season as a professional before being sidelined. In 80 games, he had just four home runs, a .222 batting average and .595 OPS.

His OPS+ had also dipped all the way down to 69, which suggests he had been 31 percent below league-average at the plate. This is quite the fall-off for a player who had led the AL in hits in two of the previous three seasons.

Outside of the overall underperformance of this club, one of the biggest storylines on the Blue Jays this year has been whether they'll trade or extend Vladimir Guerrero Jr. and Bichette. Guerrero's re-emergence as an MVP-caliber talent has removed him from the "trade bait" category and put him firmly in "franchise cornerstone" territory.

Bichette, on the other hand, has seen himself go the opposite direction. With a massive group of middle infield-types set to compete for playing time next year, it's possible that the only player to have earned MVP votes out of the bunch is the one that gets moved.

In the months prior to his injury, Bichette had seemed uninterested and lethargic on the diamond. It might be because of the trade rumors, he might've been unhappy to have been playing for a losing team, and he could very well just have been checking out. The industry-wide speculation has been all over the place since right around the trade deadline, but all signs are pointing to the Jays at least being open to a move in the offseason.

This is not the first time I've discussed such a thing, and it won't be the last. MLB Network's Mark Feinsand penned an interesting piece that consisted of him polling executives around the league on the direction of the Blue Jays and their superstars. Here is one of the most noteworthy quotes:

“I sense there is interest on their part to move Bichette,” an AL executive said. “Buying a guy out of his arb years and not extending him further sends a message that either he or they have concern past the six years they have him.”

Touche.

Erik Swanson

Full disclosure: it's not Swanson's fault that the results haven't been there for him this year. With a spring training that was cut short due to a serious accident involving his son, Swanson's head was nowhere near 'in the game' as the season got underway, which clearly led to a lapse in his mound performance.

However, he's going to fall into a similar category as Ryan Burr did above. The Blue Jays bullpen has literally been one of the very worst in all of baseball this year, and there's no reason they shouldn't move on from anyone who struggled and replace them on the free agent market. Swanson falls into that group despite the fact that he was one of the more reliable weapons in the 'pen last year.

Again, the Blue Jays simply cannot afford to keep a player like Swanson around if he's struggling so badly to regain his footing. He already had a(n unsuccessful) stint down in the minor leagues and things certainly did not get turned around. Instead, he was rushed back to the big leagues before he was ready for such a move.

In 34 outings this year, the 34-year-old has a 6.52 ERA, 7.39 FIP and 63 ERA+ in 29 innings. He's seen his strikeouts plummet, his walks raise at an alarming rate and his HR/9 spike by two full home runs. Looking at second-half performance alone, his 3.77 ERA is much better but his 6.81 FIP and 4.45 SIERA tell a story of luck rather than an improvement in his game.