Trouble may be brewing in Blue Jays clubhouse with pitcher at odds with management

The Toronto Blue Jays have been well known for the camaraderie that helped pave the way for their success last year. Very rarely did any friction arise between the team members other than when José Berríos displayed his displeasure in being moved to the bullpen towards the end of the 2025 MLB season.

Well, that rare occurrence has managed to rear its head once again early in the 2026 season amidst all of the Blue Jays current struggles. Trouble could be brewing in the Jays clubhouse with pitcher Eric Lauer potentially at odds with manager John Schneider.

Eric Lauer not a fan of how he has been deployed

This past Friday, Schneider decided to use reliever Braydon Fisher as an opener for the game against the Arizona Diamondbacks while Lauer would follow up starting from the second inning Openers have been used frequently as a strategy by managers to minimize the exposure of starting pitcher to the top part of the opponents lineup. The thought is it gives them an advantage, to not have the face the best hitters three times in the game. It’s not completely uncommon in this era of baseball.

However, Lauer reportedly didn’t take that assignment by Schneider lightly. Following the game, he expressed his displeasure in the move with reporters.

“To be real blunt, I hate it. I can’t stand it. But you work with what you got … You can make it work (being used after following an opener) the best you can … hopefully it’s not something that we will continue doing. But you know, that’s above my pay grade,” Lauer explained, as per TSN.

That came as quite the surprise reaction from the 30-year-old veteran. After all, he was deployed by Schneider in such a role on multiple occasions near the beginning of his 2025 campaign and there were no signs of unhappiness back then. Perhaps with Lauer expressing earlier this past offseason that he wanted to be a starter going forward, he didn’t expect to be in this situation again in 2026.

Nevertheless, Schneider ultimately addresssd Lauer’s remarks to help soothe out the situation, as per Mitch Bannon of The Athletic.

"I respect everyone's opinion," said Schneider. "I know the end of his quote was, 'It's above my pay grade,' and it definitely is above his pay grade as to how we use him. We're trying to win, you know what I mean? My job is to put him in spots to try to have success. That's what I try to do. He's aware of that. He gets that. Anyone who's been bounced around a little bit, he wants to start, I get it. But he's on board with us just trying to win and, go out and execute until we take the ball from you, big fella, and do it again the next time.”

However, the Blue Jays manager also helped straighten things out with Lauer in a short pep talk on what should be done and what shouldn’t going forward, and the 30-year-old veteran was on board with the plan.

"... It's just reminding guys like, 'Hey, if you don't like your role, like, come talk to me, come talk to Pete.' That goes for everybody. You don't like when I take you out as a starter, all right, come talk to me, don't tell you guys (the media), come tell me. That was it, basically. It was quick. The message was again like, 'Hey, you pitch, I decide,” Schneider said.

In a year that was already full of drama for the Blue Jays with all of their injury woes and rough start to the 2026 MLB season, the last thing that they need is even more drama to destroy whatever team chemistry that they have left to keep the club chugging along. Hopefully, this occurrence will be just a one-and-done deal so that Toronto can focus more on what’s at stake instead, which is to turn this season around in a hurry before it’s too late.

Add us as a preferred source on Google

Follow