Tuesday Bantering: Jays Bits

There are little bits of Blue Jays news:

• Nate Pearson’s issue is a sports hernia. He will return to throwing next week and he is going to be a reliever for the rest of this season, hopefully making it up to the Jays bullpen. Next year is an open question on whether they will have him on the starter or reliever path.
• Alek Manoah is expected only to miss one start, tonight’s.
• Cory Dickerson took batting practice and ran yesterday and all is good today. He might be starting a rehab assignment soon.
• And the team doesn’t know how the trade market will shake out. They want to improve on the pitching side, but, if nothing works out, they aren’t against adding another bat.

Theree might be last minute roster moves before today’s game (if Kay isn’t optioned, I’ll be very surprised):

Baseball America has their list of ‘hottest prospects’ of the last week:

• Orelvis Martinez gets the number one spot. He was 14 for 28 with 7 home runs.

The Scoop: Martinez is one of the most gifted prospects in Toronto’s system, and he showed a very loud glimpse at his potential this past week. He entered the week with eight home runs and closed it with 15. The cherry on top was a three-homer game on July 17. His three homers that day had exit velocities of 100 mph or better. (JC)

• Kevin Smith is number nine for a 12 for 24 with 3 home runs week.

The Scoop: One of the breakout stars in 2018, Smith’s 2019 season quickly fell apart and the canceled 2020 season meant he didn’t get to prove that his 2018 dominance was more his speed than the 2019 struggles. But here he is halfway through 2021 and his Triple-A numbers look a lot like they did when he was bashing home runs in 2018. Smith is tied for third in the Triple-A East with 15 home runs and is fourth in slugging (.583). (JC)

Today’s lineup: