OverDrive - Longley on Jays having the opportunity to rest Guerrero Jr., expectations for Bieber’s first start, and on Pham’s bizarre antics

Episode Date: August 19, 2025

Toronto Sun Blue Jays reporter Rob Longley joins OverDrive to discuss Tommy Pham’s bizarre antics on the field and Twitter. Longley shares his expectation for Shane Bieber’s first start and his thoughts on the Jays' opportunity to rest Vladimir Guerrero Jr.

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I made it to my tournament and lost in the first round. But you got there on time. Intact Insurance. Your auto service ace. Certain conditions apply. from tariffs to trade deals the markets are changing is your portfolio ready for what comes next for all your questions you need a money guy calvin the money guy will help you develop a financial plan that includes the right levels of diversity the best way to navigate uncertain times with strategic advice from kelvin you can not only protect your investments you can grow them don't wait call 416457 plan or visit ask kelvin dot We are joined by Jay's Beat Writer for the Toronto Sun. Rob Longley.

How's going, Rob? Hey, pretty good, guys. So, Rob, we were just talking about the update here on Vladimir Guerrero Jr. Sounds like it's just inflammation as opposed to anything super serious. Is this a dodged bullet for the Blue Jays? Yeah, I think it probably is. But, you know, I've learned to the more I follow this team, the more I've learned that, let's wait until he'll back in the lineup and performing at the level that he's been performing at before we get

too carried away because it seems to me anyway that anytime somebody heads to the injured list, they stay there for a little bit longer than has been expected. And I'm not saying that Glad's going to the injured list right now that Blue Jays believe that he's going to avoid that. But, you know, we've certainly seen Dalton Varsho fall into that wasteland. We've seen Anthony Santander gone and out of sight for so long. Jimmy Garcia as well. So it's just, it's the kind of thing with injuries.

You just never know. I mean, obviously the Js are very hopeful. And the fact that the MRI didn't expose anything, that everything is okay. But hamstrings can be funny. And I would expect that they wouldn't rush him back. I wouldn't think you would see him play at all tomorrow. And then with an off day, Thursday before they resume play in Friday.

I think that would be sort of the wisest and the best case scenario for Glad to be back in. Would you be okay with them taking a little extra time here, given the fact that the Jays have a five-game lead over the Yankees and the Red Sox right now? Yeah, for sure, Frankie. I think they've got to start thinking in those terms, especially when every time they lose, it seems nobody makes any ground on them.

And I talked to pitching coach Pete Walker about this the other day, and there really is some value in having a cushion. You don't want to abuse it and take anything for granted, but when you have an opportunity to rest a pitcher, say, or a couple of starting pitchers, you do that. When you have the opportunity to give position players an extra day off, you do that. And when you have the opportunity not to rush somebody back

from even the most minor of injuries, you take it until you really need to win games again. You know, definitely exercise some caution in this because they've earned that, right? They've earned that position, and this is the time of year. I mean, John Schneider, mentioned it today in Pittsburgh, that, you know, everybody's, everybody's body is a little bit cranky at this time of year when you're, you know, 40 games away from the wire in a 162 game season.

It's, you know, the grind is officially on. So, yeah, take that extra time if you can do it. And then, and, you know, the rest would probably hurt gladden in a number of ways, or help glad in a number of ways. Yeah, and I mean, when you look at the pitching rotation, everyone's about to get an extra day, Shane Bieber, going to be getting into this. rotation on Friday. Sounds like he's going to make the start against the Marlins. What expectations do you have for Bieber and his opening start at the Jace? Yeah, I think Mike, I think it's really exciting to see what he's going to deliver

because anybody that I've talked to that have seen him in his rehab games, they basically are raving about him. They're saying that everything about him from his velocity to his location to his, you know, all his breaking pitches and stuff is vintage Shane Bieber. the type of performance that could be elite level starter. And, you know, that was sort of the rationale behind this trade. It was certainly a high risk trade, but the benefit of having a high reward upside to it.

And everything they've seen so far against AAA hitters, you have to make sure that you realize what it was, suggest that he is the Shane Beaver that they attempted to acquire. And, you know, in a number of ways, the beauty of it is he's going to make that first start on whatever it is the 22nd of August. He's got a month had changed to get ready for the postseason, and that means five or six starts. And if they get peak Shane Bieber on October 1st,

it's going to be one of the better trades in the Ross Atkins era. So if they get peak Shane Beaver, of course, it's going to be a great trade. Where do you think they're at with Max Scherzer? Not, you know, we know he's available right now, but where do you see his game at when it comes to being peak Max Scherzer? Well, Frankie, to me, I see these guys as number one and number two for games one and game two of the postseason. I mean, obviously the asterisk is there for Beaver because we don't quite know what he's going to be like against a big league hitting,

even though his pitch count has been up and he's done well in AAA. But I think what we've seen from Max Scher, and we're going to see him here in a little bit again tonight, but I think what we've seen from him over the last three or four starts is pretty special. You know, you can see that he is not bothered by the thumb anymore. He doesn't even seem to be thinking of it. And I think that's a huge weight off of his shoulders because essentially it's been in his mind for almost three seasons now. And then you look at the fact that, you know, he's such a competitor.

And his arm is going to be, I know it's a 41-year-old arm, but it's somewhat fresh because he really hasn't had to use it a whole lot in the last couple of seasons. And I think the prospect of having those two as a one-two punch heading into the playoffs has the potential for being something special. And probably Kevin Gosman as your third guy, any order of those three guys, the rotation could be a real strength heading into the playoffs. And one of the guys that you, I guess, didn't mention there would be Jose Barrios.

And he's seen a dip quite significantly since July 1st. She's got like a 568 ERA, the VLOs down. Is there concern about Jose Barrios here down the stretch? I think there has to be. I mean, I think there has to be some probably fairly soon, some difficult conversations with him because, I mean, they love everything about Jose Barrios. They love the competitor in him.

I mean, his nickname is La Macchina, the machine. He just, you know, he takes the ball every five days and gives you his best. and one of the hardest workers and one of the best teammates in that clubhouse but his form has definitely been off for a good chunk of this season and when you have the luxury of six starters you're looking for

I mean how do you navigate going forward with that group and certainly for Burrios to be in the next of the top four which is essentially what you need come post season he's got to change his form somehow between now and then maybe he's

the candidate for a bit of a breather. Maybe you find a mystery IL stint for him. You know, he's really driven to make those 30 plus starts every year. That's a real goal for him going into every season. But Breos, even after his last start, sort of hinted at it, that yeah, somehow the hitters seem to have an edge on him. And that's almost in the admission of defeat from a starting pitcher. He's well aware that he's not going to stop working, but he's well aware that his stuff isn't at its best right now. Last night was a bit of a weird one for the Jays. They lose

to the pirates. There's some errors. There's some pitching that goes awry. And there's an incident with Tommy Fam at home play. Would you make of that whole sequence and some of the comments from Fam, I guess afterwards or today when he spoke to the media?

Well, Frank, it's pretty on brand for him, right? He's got a career littered with these types of moments, but it was certainly bizarre in the moment last night the reaction after that walk. I mean, even if he heard Tyler Heinemann mutter something about the call, I mean, that happens all the time between umpires and catchers. Like, just get on down, get your butt down to first base and carry on.

But the real bizarre part about it, and Frankie, you could speak to this, is like, why do you go on to social media responding to stuff in basically the middle of the night and then call out at Blue Jays player for allegedly using steroids. Oh, it's crazy. That was nuts. Why would any professional athlete do that in this day and age?

I don't know, like, I don't know if you're bored or you're so enraged by it, but I don't know. I found that to be bizarre, A, the fact that, like, he tweeted off of Keegan Matheson's tweet that he wasn't tagged in. So he obviously either sought that out or someone sent it to him and then went on the Addison Barger thing. Like, just play baseball, man.

You're on a team that's 20 games below 500. Like, just, I don't know, just play baseball. Yeah, it was strange. And, of course, he's not in the lineup tonight, which is probably no surprise. But, I mean, at some point, like, when does the rage end? Like, it sort of, if you watch it last night, but when he was on first base, like, it kept going for another five minutes, at least. And clearly, he carried it into the night and felt the need to go see what,

social media was saying about it. And, like, yeah, like, he deleted the tweet. But, I mean, it's, it's out there. And people had to ask him about it again today. Like, it's a story that's going to have life for a week if he, if he, if he doesn't let it go. Does he go back in on Wednesday? It'll be interesting to see. I suspect probably, yes. But we'll see what happens in tonight's game. If there's any sort of, if there's any hijinks or any fireworks, I wouldn't think that there would be. But I would think that Blue Jays would want to get as far away from anything and like that because the last thing you want to do against the last place team that's going nowhere is suddenly offer up some incentive for them to get fired up.

I mean, let's try to go quietly into the night here and take two or three from them at least because this is an opportunity for them to keep building on that cushion that we were talking about earlier. With Rob Longley of the Toronto Sun, and you put out an article recently with Pete Walker, he had a one-on-one with him. What stood out to you about what he had to say about this year's Toronto Blue Jays? There are a number of things. I'll obviously talk specifics about the pitching staff

and how he feels that the rotation can be his strength. But what I found interesting, he's the longest-serving coach on the staff there. And so he was around in 2015 and 2016, and he sees some parallels with that 2015 team, not so much in personnel. But in the sort of the excitement around the team, I mean, these guys are loving seeing the Roger Center full. I think it's like 16 games in a row now that have been sellouts.

And Pete Walker was talking about how it, you know, it really resonates with everybody. The players feed off of it, the coaches feed off of it. But he is seeing the same sort of passion from the fan base that we saw in 2015, which was the first time people in Toronto had seen it for decades, right? because there were so many bad teams in that era for the Blue Jays. So it's sort of reliving that moment for Pete, and he's noticing it on the streets as well where people are talking Blue Jays and wearing Blue Jays skier all the time.

So I found that interesting that he sort of channeled those vibes because, like I said, he's seen a fair bit. He saw that team bring the passion back to baseball in the city with what they did in 2015 and 2016. Then he saw the sort of the start of the Vlad Guerrero Jr. and Bo Bichette era and the great expectations that came with that. And, you know, a lot of excitement for a couple years of that, then through COVID. And then you saw the bottoming out last year when the team was finished last place. So to see that surge again and to see the fan base respond to it, I think that resonates with everybody on the team, Pete Walker included.

Yeah. I mean, everyone's kind of excited about what's going on with the Blue Jays. I know I was down there for that comeback on Friday, and that place was rocking. And it will continue to do songs as long as they continue to put up wins as we crawl to the end of the season and the postseason begins. Rob, really appreciate the time. As always, pal, we'll do it again soon. Seasoned gamer or just video game curious,

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