Could visit to Seattle be the start of something good for Blue Jays?

Toronto's starting rotation has four of its five starters back on schedule

Published Jul 02, 2026  •  Last updated 5 minutes ago  •  4 minute read

Toronto Blue Jays fans cheer during Game 3 of the American League Championship Series between the Toronto Blue Jays and the Seattle Mariners at T-Mobile Park on Oct. 15, 2025 in Seattle. Photo by Steph Chambers /Getty Images

If the Blue Jays are going to make a move in the American League standings, now would be a great time.

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Not only are the Jays headed to a city in which they have recently enjoyed a ton of success, but the Seattle Mariners just happen to own the third and final AL wild-card spot they are currently chasing.

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Five games under .500 at 41-46, the Jays were three games behind Seattle before the Mariners faced the L.A. Angels on Thursday night.

Granted, two other teams — the Houston Astros and Minnesota Twins — also sit between them and Seattle, but bringing the M’s back to that group remains the first job.

And with the usual influx of Jays fans expected to make their way down from Vancouver and the bordering Canadian towns for the three-game series, it could again feel like a home game for the visitors.

Last season, the Jays swept the Mariners in a three-game set at T-Mobile Park in May. The year before in the regular season, their one visit to Seattle saw them take two of three.

In the post-season last year, Toronto and Seattle matched up in the ALCS, and after the Mariners took the first two games in Toronto, things looked dire for the Jays.

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But once in Seattle, Toronto won the first two games there, then dropped the third before coming home and won both there for a World Series berth.

It’s almost silly to talk wild-card in early July, but this Jays team is in desperate need of a run, if for no other reason than to put behind them their recent missed opportunity, going 3-7 on a 10-game home stand that looked like a real opportunity to firmly cement themselves among the playoff contenders.

Best of all, the indications are there that this could be that time.

The rotation has four of its five starters back on schedule after spending most of the first three months of the schedule trying to plug holes.

Kevin Gausman, Dylan Cease, Trey Yesavage and the recent return of Shane Bieber gives them a solid four. The fifth spot, which was being filled by Patrick Corbin, is now back up for grabs with the veteran lefty working in long relief for the time being.

Corbin ate up five innings in what turned out to be a 9-3 Jays blowout of the New York Mets on Wednesday.

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Corbin allowed all three Mets runs Wednesday, but the game already was well out of reach at that point. How much Corbin is used going forward likely depends on Max Scherzer’s ability to get, and stay, healthy.

Scherzer was expected to make a rehab start in Vancouver for the Jays’ class-A farm club and then rejoin the team in nearby Seattle.

If he’s healthy, Scherzer could wind up filling that fifth spot in the rotation.

Corbin, who signed a one year, $1-million deal to bail out the Jays when it seemed like all of its starting pitching was on the injured list, likely sticks around in long relief or, if Scherzer winds up back on the injured list, might even find his way back into the rotation.

The Jays, though, have another option who is likely ahead of Corbin at this point. That would be Rule V pickup Spencer Miles, who has been logging increasingly longer relief stints during bullpen days to great effect.

To date, the Jays have been reluctant to declare Miles a starter, but he is looking increasingly comfortable with pitching multiple innings and has clearly been more effective than Corbin. Miles picked up his fourth win of the season on Wednesday, pitching three innings ahead of Corbin.

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But the starting pitching is just half of the equation if this team wants even a sniff of the post-season highlights they had a year ago.

The offence needs to find its own legs, although there are signs of that coming, as well.

Vladimir Guerrero Jr. isn’t hitting home runs yet, but the extra-base hits are starting to come back and that’s progress for a guy who was becoming one of the highest-paid singles hitters in baseball history.

The nine-run outburst against quality Mets starter Freddy Peralta is another good sign for the Jays.

The offence was spread throughout the lineup, with seven of the nine starters registering at least a hit. But nothing was more promising than the three-run homer off the bat of rookie slugger Sean Keys that broke the game open.

Keys was called up after connecting on 21 minor-league home runs, and belted his first at the MLB level within three games of his arrival in the Jays clubhouse.

If Keys sticks around — and he will at least for this weekend series in Seattle with George Springer on paternity leave — another thumper in the lineup would be a welcome addition.

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Other than third baseman Kazuma Okamoto, the Jays have not enjoyed any real consistency in the long ball department. We suspect Guerrero will eventually find his home run stroke, but this lineup doesn’t have a lot of pop with Alejandro Kirk’s long-term injury and Addison Barger’s continuing absence hurting them in that area.

The Jays will see Seattle starters Luis Castillo, Logan Gilbert and George Kirby this weekend. Gilbert and Kirby are tough matchups, Castillo not so much this season, but the Jays will counter with Cease, Yesavage and Bieber, so they are quite capable of matching up on that side of the ledger.

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