OverDrive - Matheson on a crucial division series against Tampa, Vladdy's offensive slump, and Dylan Cease's Cy Young worthy campaign

Episode Date: July 20, 2026

MLB.com Blue Jays Reporter Keegan Matheson joins the program to tee up Toronto’s AL East series against the Tampa Bay Rays at home, discuss what mechanically could be wrong with Vladimir Guerrero Jr., and the odds of Dylan Cease winning the Cy Young if he keeps his glorious campaign alive.

Maybe the Jays can catch a heater starting tonight with Tampa and Town. Let's head down on the dome. Here's Keegan Matheson from MLB.com. What a beautiful look. What's up, Kagan? How are we feeling down there? Bonjourno, my friends. I want to support Jonas here, guys.

I could hate winning the lottery if there's a big crowd and the temperature's wrong, okay? So I understand it. I respected fellas. But listen, this slow pitch walk, though, no, Bueno. Isn't that crazy? We can't have that. That's got to be an automatic. An automatic walk, an intentional walk in slow pitch softball should be two bases.

I know you guys were excited to litigate the rules of slow pitch softball. You're on overdrive today, but come on, you can't live your life in cowardice on the slow pitch softball field. I totally agree. And here's the thing. First pitch was 9.45 last night. So this happened at like 10.30 on Sunday night. That's crazy. And we're like game planning.

Okay, we're going to walk this guy. We like the idea of possibly getting the next guy out. No one pulls off double plays. No one can catch anything. No one can do anything. We all stink. But anyway, it happened, and we won the ball game. You guys have an analytics director down there, Mike.

I know. It seems like that could be happening at some point, you know, in the future in the slow-pitch league that I play in. All right, Keegan, give us a vibe check. Game 100 tonight. I can't say it was exactly an inspiring effort coming out of the All-Star break. They're now four and a half games back of that third wild card spot. Camp in town tonight. What are the vibes like around the clubhouse this afternoon?

Not great here, fellas. Coming out of the break, the Blue Jays needed to show something different. They needed to show energy. And it's hard to do in baseball because, frankly, you can't go out and hit anyone. Okay, you can't play harder, you can't try harder. It's hard to prove that. It's hard to find energy in this game, but that was not what it looks like. That one-nothing win because a ground ball snuck through the middle,

that's not even that encouraging. At this point, then getting shut out in the last one, losing to the White Sox. The Rays are one hell of a team, guys, and the Blue Jays need to bear minimum split this series. But if you drop three of these four games, we're talking about a team that's going to be nine games below 500. And I think it's very obvious what direction this entire conversation will go in at that point. The energy, guys, is the exact same as it's been all year, which is not great. Yeah, and that's, again, not surprising.

We're about to play Game 100 tonight. You know, we're talking about a last hour, Kagan, that if you've been watching, watching the team play like we all have. This is not surprising. It's the same issues that have plagued them all year. And, you know, Schneider, I feel like he's still, John's like dancing a little bit here because he doesn't want to panic, but he knows he should be panicking. You know, like he's like, well, we're running out of time, but I also want everyone to relax. I don't see how you can possibly kind of marry the two, Kegan. Like, for me, the relaxing, let's just play ball type of attitude, I'm not sure how that's applicable. more considering how much time they've wasted and how deep of a hole they've dug themselves

right now. Yeah, it doesn't work that way. And John Snyder is good at talking his way through that. I think that's a skill, and he's got it. But at this point of the year, you don't want to say this is the series. You don't want to say we have to win these series. Because if you don't, then you're standing in front of me three days later, and I'm asking you if the season's over.

You don't want to set that expectation, but you need to live in reality, and the reality is not good right now. The Blue Jays need to be winning just about every series the rest of the season, and they're playing some really good baseball teams, which is not something that they have been this year. So the urgency and the pressure involved in this guys, it's like I mentioned earlier, you can't just go out and give 200%. You'll look stupid if you try too hard out here, but you need to be hitting for power. You need to be doing it differently. This whole thing needs to look differently. And what's happened so far is 100 games of the exact same story over and over again, which I know because I've tried to write the exact same story over and over again. And fellas, it's not going well. I'm running out of thesaurus pages

down here. It's been the same game, same offense, same performance. Something's got to break them up. Something needs to shake them out of this. Vlad is the obvious answer. He's the easy answer, but it's got to be anything at all. Well, Keene, you were in here a couple days ago before the break was over. And you had a great list of five things. that needed to change if anything was going to change in the stretch run here. And one of them was you wanted to see an angrier version of Vladigrero Jr. Three games in, you know, is there any sign of that? A little bit.

That big double off the wall the other day was exciting. It was a ball in the air that was not hit to right field. So that's a start. Guys, we are in game 100 and Vladdy has not hit a home run in the stadium. I know that this has been the year of can you believe Vladdy Blank? I can't believe that. I really cannot believe we're standing here late July and Vladdy's not hit a home run out of this ballpark

because we're standing right in the same stadium where he did such incredible things last October against the Mariners, against the Yankees, against the Dodgers. That player still exists. He's still right there across the diamond behind me. Nothing has happened. Nothing has changed with him, but he's not getting that talent out of himself right now.

I don't understand it. If Vladdy or the hitting coaches or anyone had the answer would have happened by now, and that's the frustrating part. But you need to see that aggression from him. You need to see that healthy frustration and a hitter who's fed up because this is Vladdy's team. This is his organization. And guys, if we are two months from now,

talking to the Blue Jays as they pack up their lockers before the postseason starts for everyone else, it's going to be Vladdy who's asked about all of this. And it's going to be him who has to live the offseason, which might be a long off season with this taste in his mouth, guys. Hasn't been pretty. And again, game 100. No home runs here.

I can't believe it. What is the question, though, Kegan, like, I'm sure you're thinking about this all the time. What is the question with Vladdy that you're asking yourself about this situation? Yeah, Jonas, for me, it's why the swing does not look as explosive and aggressive as it did last year. Like, everyone can imagine those great Vladdy swings where his hips and his body flip open, so violently. And that's where his power comes from. Like, think of Jose Bautista.

Jose Bautista is not 6'6-280, okay? He's a smaller-built guy. But his body would uncoil, and it's the power that you create from your hips and from your core. That's where it lives. We're not seeing that from Vladdy right now. You're seeing him shoot the ball

to right field a lot, which is just all arms. He's shooting the ball, kind of like you do in softball. If you see somebody playing right field who sucks at softball, you think I'm going to shoot a ball their way. Vladdy is letting that swing go right now where he's guiding it out to right field.

That doesn't work. That's okay if you are 5'8-160. Vladdy ain't that guy. He needs to be absolutely unleashing on balls. And if that means that you end up missing and swinging through strike one and looking a little silly, whatever. I'll take that. You need to take some risks if you're Vladdy. But I haven't seen that explosiveness.

I haven't seen his hips fly open and that big, aggressive, risky swing. you got to take some risks right now. If it backfires, whatever. You weren't in a playoff spot anyways. You need to take some risks right now. With Keegan Matheson, so another night where Ernie Clement will lead off tonight, Alejandro Kirk will hit seventh tonight. How long of Elish do you see that having in terms of Clement being the lead-off guy?

Do you think that's just going to be the case the rest of the year? And Kirk, you know, we're well aware of what he's doing at the plate, but him hitting that deep in the lineup is not something I think. think anyone saw coming when we started this season. No, the Kirkwin's worrying for me, guys. Ernie Clement and Lidoff, I like it. Have a guy who puts the ball in play, someone who is a great-off. I like Ernie's approach, and if you put Ernie's approach in some of these other hitters,

I think this goes a lot better. But Alejandro Kirk coming back from that fractured thumb guy, when you look back through the history of players who have come back through fractures in their thumb, I'm saying that like it's a fun thing to do, okay? I just don't have much else to do. But when you look at hitters who come back from fractures in their hands, the power isn't there. It takes another year for that power to come all the way back. Because you're talking about the hand muscles, the wrist muscles that are still for a month,

maybe while they're immobilized. That doesn't always come back. The throwing is another thing. We've seen that be a bit of an issue with Kirk. But the power isn't quite there. Now, Kirk is not a 30 home run hitter, but he's a 12 or 15 home run hitter who needs to be hitting line drives. We know he's not going to beat out a single ground ball, and that's okay. He's a contact machine, but the contact needs to go somewhere, and I don't see the strength. That natural strength in him right now, and it's something that unfortunately takes a little while to come back. Look, in 13 games between now and the August 3rd trade deadline, Hayes was, you know, pointing out a really interesting scenario about the future with this team, is that, you know,

whatever this season becomes, and obviously it looks like it's becoming something that you'd rather forget. There's a lot of uncertainty in the air with this team with the pending unrestricted free agents of George Springer and Kevin Gosman and Max Scherzer and Shane Bieber and Dalton Varsho and it's a long list of guys who are

core pieces here. Can you foresee a trade deadline sort of strategy where they attempt to look ahead and say, okay, this year is done, but we got to get back to competitive as quickly as possible next year and we're going to have holes to fill. I mean, could you see that sort of being their

trade deadline philosophy at this point? Absolutely. And I like that idea. Treat the trade deadline as an early access window to the offseason. Get out there and see what's available because the Blue Jays have money and they have prospects. They can do whatever you want. You're not going to go out and trade for Shoah, Tani, but they have enough prospects to do whatever they want at this point. And being able to take on money is a major advantage in this market, especially if there is labor uncertainty ahead, that could cause some other teams to be a bit more conservative. The Blue Jays just keep proving to us that they can spend money. I'm looking around in a sellout crowd here guys every single night on Mondays and Tuesdays. There's money coming through this building. So the Blue Jays,

I think, would be very wise to get out ahead of that. This is not a rebuild. This is not a step back. They're going to try to win next year, and they're going to spend a heck of a lot of money next year. So I don't think that going out and acquiring an 18-year-old in Sing the layball is going to help or excite anyone unless they're the next big Vladdy, I don't know. But I think that going for older, more mature prospects is one play, or going out and buying. Even if you don't think it's to make a run this year, go out and find a pitcher who has two or three years of control left. Go out and find a center fielder for next year and beyond. Those things could be available on this market and springboard into something. Like, I really like that idea. I like that aggressive

thinking. And if anything's out there, I think the Blue Jays are set up as well as anybody to get in on that. With Kegan Matheson, Jay's race tonight where Dylan Sees will be on the mound post-all-Star break post-making that start at the All-Star game for the American League. And, you know, it's a strange kind of dichotomy where, again, there's

some dark clouds over this team and a lot of uncertainty about what could happen between now the trade deadline. Yet Dylan Sees, you know, depending on what book you look at, he's the favorite to win the Cy Young this year, the American League. So, I mean, there is that positive, right? Kegan, like how

great Cs has been and how they have him on term. And, you know, obviously you want team success, clearly. But at a minimum, him chasing a Sanyang could continue the kind of compelling storylines down the stretch if this team continues to fall off when it comes to the win-loss column. It ain't all bad, fellas. Come on. There's one or two things going right around here. When you look at the off season, this is what amazes me or maybe confuses me even more.

Dylan Cese, amazing signing. Fantastic sign. Tyler Rogers has been really good. Kaz Okamoto's been their best hitter. Spencer Miles has been the best story of the season. They nailed their whole off season, and it still ends up like this. I don't get it. But Dylan Seas has been fantastic, guys.

And when it gets to the end of the season, there will be 30 voters who vote on this. It's not about who has the most war, the most whatever. There are voters who vote on this. Dylan Sees' path to this is probably having Cam Schlittler stumble a little bit. But that raw number of strikeouts, if he gets up to 250, 260, 270 strikeouts, that gets pretty undeniable at a certain point. And if Dillon C's can avoid, the blow-up starts down the stretch, I think he's got a legitimate, really good shot guys to win this.

And to take a run at some strikeout records that beyond Roger Clemens and his two incredible years, which nobody's ever going to touch, he could be in that next level. Gosman, Robbie Ray, and his Cy Young year, man, just fantastic. It's like you're facing a closer for seven-innings straight. Higin, great stuff, buddy, as always. Enjoy yourself down there. We'll do it later in a week.

You got her fellows. We'll see you soon. There he is. Keegan Matheson. Hello, Canada. This is Brian Adams Radio. Hosted by Brian Adams himself. We'll play a few of mine, a ton of my favorites, and some must-hear behind-the-scenes stories

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