Is John Schneider on the hot seat?

Will someone step up?

The strongest argument Schneider’s defenders have right now is a simple one – he's not exactly swimming in options.

Look at the roster. Is there so much as one player who has noticeably exceeded expectations so far? Maybe Kevin Kiermaier? Bo Bichette? Heck, there’s barely a handful of players who have even met expectations.

Find yourself disagreeing with Schneider’s lineup decisions?

From straw-that-stirs-the-drink George Springer being cold as ice for most of the season to new guys and expected middle-of-the-order thumpers Daulton Varsho and Brandon Belt at times bordering on black hole status, to each of the catchers having extended periods of incompetence both at and behind the plate, to at-one-time-valuable utility players Santiago Espinal and Cavan Biggio falling off a cliff, there aren’t many magic bullets at Schneider’s disposal.

Hate Schneider’s bullpen management?

Nine relievers have made more than three appearances for the Jays this year; Two of them (Yimi García and Zach Pop) have ERAs over six, Anthony Bass is at 5.06, and Adam Cimber, 4.50, while even the back end of Romano and Swanson have seen their ERAs climb into the mid-threes. It’s not exactly Ward and Henke on the other end of the bullpen phone.

Sick of seeing the starters flame out multiple times per week?

A perilous lack of starting pitching depth is something we discussed at length at Jays Journal heading into the season. With Hyun-jin Ryu and Mitch White still injured, and Rickey Tiedemann taking his lumps at Double-A, the options for change don’t extend very far beyond bullpen-day-or-bust.

The fact is, there are only so many ways a manager can hide underperforming players. Eventually, somebody is simply going to have to start playing better.

And if they don’t, if huge portions of the roster continue to struggle, well then, the discussion isn’t really about the manager, is it? At that point, if we’re talking about hot seats, we may want to start a dialogue about Ross Atkins and Mark Shapiro …

Who is to blame for the Blue Jays current struggles? And can they get out of it? Let me know on Twitter – @WriteFieldDeep.