Chris Bassitt offers blunt assessment of the state of the Blue Jays' current vibes

To say the Toronto Blue Jays are struggling right now, would be a major understatement. Somehow, a ball club with one of the highest payrolls in all of baseball (ninth according to Spotrac), sits bottom of the AL East as of Saturday morning with a sorry 19-24 record.

The latest defeat in a so far miserable season for the Blue Jays, came on Friday night versus the Tampa Bay Rays. They lost 4-3, but you can make the case the game wasn't as close as the final scoreline suggests.

The reality is that the Blue Jays were losing 4-0 at one point. Making it even worse, Rays starter Tyler Alexander was working on a perfect game, before Danny Jansen hit a one-out single in the bottom of the eighth.

Regardless, the Blue Jays ultimately lost and are looking nothing like a team capable of genuinely challenging for a playoff spot. Chris Bassitt was despondent when speaking to the media, following a performance where he allowed five hits, three walks and three earned runs in 5.2 innings of action.

Bassitt concedes the Blue Jays have no solution

As per Keegan Matheson of MLB.com, when asked about the Blue Jays' season at this point, Bassitt simply said: "Struggling." After a follow-up question asking what needs to change, he said: "If you have that answer, let us know."

This response was telling, in that it alludes to the Blue Jays quite simply having no solutions to solve their current woes. That whatever they have tried so far to turn the ship around, is failing.

The offence is -- quite rightly -- getting the brunt of the criticism, with the lineup once again failing to live up to its potential. It is shocking that following Friday night's games, they have the second-fewest runs among all 30 Major League teams.

Further highlighting the issues with the bats, the Blue Jays are 25th in batting average and 26th in OPS. This is quite simply unacceptable.

Not that the pitching doesn't deserve its fair share of the blame as well. They are tied 24th-worst in team ERA, tied 25th-worst in batting average and 25th in WHIP.

On an individual level, Bassitt himself epitomises the team's struggles, looking nothing like the pitcher who led all Blue Jays starters with 21 quality outings last year. This year has seen his ERA and WHIP balloon, from 3.60 to 5.03 and 1.175 to 1.531 respectively.

Schneider potentially on the chopping block

Manager John Schneider tried to find the delicate balance, between explaining one of the team's main issues and trying to put a positive spin on things. As per Matheson, he said: "If you look it up, we’re top five in baseball in terms of what we’re swinging at, but we’re on the low end of what we’re doing with those pitches. That’s where our focus has shifted, even before the year started. We’re waiting for that to hopefully even out a bit."

The reality is though, that time is running out for Schneider specifically. As much as Mark Shapiro and Ross Atkins deserve just as much -- if not more blame -- for what is happening in Toronto, you figure that Schneider will be first out the door as the proverbial scapegoat, if the situation doesn't improve soon.

UItimately though, even Shapiro and Atkins can't continue to try putting the blame elsewhere. The Blue Jays seem to have no solutions in their quest to get the team playing more up to their talent level, and that's a bad look for everyone involved with the organisation.

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