Tuesday Bantering: Fisher Cats to wear poutine jerseys

The New Hampshire Fisher Cats, the Blue Jays’ double-A team, is set to wear “poutine jerseys” for one of their upcoming games, when the state’s annual poutine fest will be hosted at the ballpark, Northeast Delta Dental Stadium. I’m not quite sure how I feel about these. No words can do them justice.

Bo Bichette, currently a Lansing Lugnut, made MLB Pipeline’s team of the week for last week, an honour that celebrates the best player at each position throughout all minor-league levels. Bichette, who now ranks 100th among all prospects, went 7-8 in last Thursday’s double header for the Lugnuts. Hitting just below .400, Bichette has a slash line of .396/.463/.639, all of which lead the Midwest League.

The Score’s weekly power rankings put Toronto at 13th yesterday, a correct ranking, in my opinion. Last week, Toronto sat at 14. The Score cites the Blue Jays’ struggles to reach .500 and an injury to Devon Travis as reasons why the team is in danger, but they do sit just two games out of the American League wild card.

The New York Yankee’s number one prospect, Gleyber Torres, needs Tommy John surgery on his left elbow and will miss the remainder of the 2017 season, the team announced yesterday. Torres is expected to be ready for 2018 spring training.

In other divisional injury news, J.J. Hardy of the Baltimore Orioles is expected to miss four to six weeks with a fracture in his right wrist. Furthermore, it could be more than two months before Hardy returns to Baltimore’s lineup, meaning that Ruben Tejada is expected to earn most of the playing time with Hardy on the disabled list.

The Blue Jays placed Joe Smith on the disabled list with right shoulder inflammation yesterday, recalling Leonel Campos to fill the hole on the 25-man roster. Smith, who ranked third in major league baseball with 34 appearances when he was placed on the DL, doesn’t expect to be out long — he should be ready to go when he is eligible to return to the team.

“I guess you can blame me,” John Gibbons told Hazel Mae of Sportsnet. Gibbons also said that Ryan Tepera will be filling the set-up role for the time being.

Other notes:

• The Blue Jays signed Kacy Clemens and Kevin Smith yesterday, two draft picks within the first eight rounds.
• Andrew Stoeten wrote a comical piece at Vice Sports on what nicknames Blue Jay players should use during player’s weekend in August. It’s pretty great.
• Dustin Pedroia was hit in the rib cage on Sunday, and is currently day-to-day after an MRI confirmed that he did not have any fractured bones.
• Kaitlyn McGrath at The Athletic wrote a feature on Dwight Smith Jr. published yesterday, and it’s pretty great. Better yet, it has no pay wall.

Follow Mark on Twitter @MarkColley.