OverDrive - Phillips on Guerrero’s struggles, the Jays’ injury bug, and the status of Judge

Episode Date: June 4, 2026

TSN Baseball Insider Steve Phillips on the continuing struggles for Vladimir Guerrero Jr, the ongoing injury issues for the Blue Jays and their rotation, and the latest on Aaron Judge’s injury.

Catch everything soccer with Bell's game time bundle. Get 5 TV with TSN plus 5150 internet, all for $99 a month. Price guaranteed for two years with a two-year internet and TV term and auto pay credit. Visit bell.ca for more details and to check availability. Bell, connection is everything. To give us some sort of optimism ahead of tonight's game, our baseball insider Steve Phillips now joins us. Steve, give us something, my man, please. Well, guys, I got to tell you, not the greatest matchup tonight either.

I mean, you're going to face Chris sale and get to go with an opener. And, but, you know, listen, if they can get the sale early, that's when to get them. Get them early. Bunt, run on him and try to take advantage to get him flustered a little bit. He gets emotional if you get them early. But, you know, I think it's not a great matchup either. He has thrown the ball extremely well so far this year. Their offense is sitting on all cylinders.

and, I mean, they're just a really, really good team right now. So, you know, if they run into the buzzsaw and, you know, they're healthy for the most part. They do have some starters that are going to work their way back, but the starters they have are thrown well. And so, listen, this is a tough team. There's no shame of losing to a team that's 62 and 40 so far on the season. But that being said, the Js cannot drop too far behind. They've got to keep pace in that wildcar race. Steve, it seemed like they were trying to make some ground up.

They were making some ground up. I think they slid into a wild card briefly, and then they fell backwards. If you were on the fly could come up with like a mini little power ranking of what the hell needs to happen for these guys to click and get moving, you can include health, Vladdy's performance, possibly making a trade, pitch your health. How would you kind of put that list together? Yeah, so I think Vladdy getting going is number one. because, you know, look, you can make additions,

but if your best player isn't playing well, you know, you're not going to make a trade for a best player. Where are you going to make a deal for a complementary player? And so, you know, I had a year one time. I thought to myself, look, I can make as many rules as I want, but if my group players don't play well, then there's not much I can do. And, you know, I can do all I can to supplement them. So Vladie's got to get going.

And, you know, enough's enough. It's time for him to step up and start to deliver. It can't be everybody else trying to get it done. And so Vladdy's number one by far, and it's a significant number one when you look at it. I think that, you know, beyond that, you know, Springer's got to be the second guy who's going. And he looked like he was starting to get things going a little bit as well. But he's got to be, you know, the other catalyst. He's an emotional leader on this team.

Vladdy needs to just do it by action. and he is a vocal guy, but he goes to Springer to say things for him. And Springer at 206 or the 282 on base and a 350 slug is not the George Springer that they need. They need that guy that come back from last year. Then they need Kirk and Barger back in. You know, I think that they need to round out the lineup so that they can feel like, okay, this is who we are. Remember who we were last year? Now we're all back again.

Let's start the row in the same direction. you don't always get that luxury, you know, when there are injuries. And you've got to, you know, I mean, the likelihood is, the possibility can be that those guys come back with somebody else could get dinged up a little bit. And so, but I think if they get the offense going, the pitching for me can be enough. And they're going to get healthier with the pitching, but I don't know what's fair to expect out of Scher coming back in it.

I don't know really what Beaver's going to be. And, I mean, I know he's coming back, but, man, it's taken a long time for a guy who looked like he was okay. at the end of the year last year. It's taken a long time for that elbow to bounce back. So, you know, I think that, yeah, look, it would be nice if some other guys could get going. Jimenez down to 213 with a 259 on base right now. That's not great. At least Okamoto's got 13 home runs.

But, you know, I mean, when your top guy is Okamoto with 13 of the next guy is Andrez Menez, your slight hitting shortstop was six. and then Hesu Sanchez, a semi-regular player was six, you know, you're struggling for power. And they can't fall behind and then hope for a three-run homer. They don't have that kind of offense. And so, you know, they need the horses to get out in front and lead right now. So, Steve, when you've got a scenario like you're talking about all these types of players, is it just as simple as one guy?

Like, how do you get a guy like Vladdy going? Like you just, you mention all the things that could go. But is it, you see a guy like who's going to make $500 million, he's the face of your franchise, how do you get him going? Is it simple? Do you have meetings with the guy? Is it extra time in the batting cage? You know, what have you found over your experience to help guys find their game? Yeah.

So, you know, again, the thing about Vladdy, which is good and bad, is that, you know, he's struggling hitting 2.9. Right? You think, well, geez, that's pretty good. I mean, he's in 293. He's got 387 on base. It's just driving the baseball. And when he's not confident, he gets caught in between and his launch angle is bad. And so it's got to just be, you know, I would have him out there taking home run derby swings. I would. I would have him get out there and really pretend it's a home run derby where he gets that front foot down and he lifts the baseball and gets back to that feeling of, you know, hitting, hunting the bottom of the baseball. I know he's not a great launch angle guy, and he's not. It's always been an issue for him. But, you know, this is, this is, he still hits hard ground balls, but that's not the $500 million man. I mean, the reality is that, you know, Louisa Rice can get singles.

And there's a reason why he's done on like five or six different teams, because that's not enough. But I think that for Vladie, it's a confidence factor, but I think, you know, you can work on things all you want. It's awfully hard to do that and take into the game. And then when a guy starts trying so hard, it makes it that much more difficult. But I would tell him, I don't care if you're late on the ball. I want you to go in there thinking about don't drift forward, don't get out,

don't cheat on the fastball, just see the ball and hit the ball. And stop worrying if you strike out, you strike out. But I think right now it's just been such a struggle to get the ball in the air. And 10 doubles and 3 home runs is just, it's crazy. because we know there's so much more in there. So with a $500 million contract, Steve, who start, and I don't want to blow this out of proportion, but we're getting to a point where it's like,

what the hell's going on here with this guy? It's not just kind of a bit of a slump. It's three home runs, and he had 23 last year. Who starts scratching their head first? Is it Mark? Is it Ross? Is it the owner, Edward? Like, who starts scratching their head and says,

what the hell's going on? Yeah. So I think that, you know, it's more, you know, Ross. And look, the organization, this is an organizational decision for a guy who, you know, earned, like he showed you what he can be. And in some ways he's spoiled us because, you know, we have an expectation for him that's well beyond what he's doing right now. And, you know, it's in there. And he's 27. So it's not like he's aging out at this point where, like Springer not being consistent. I kind of get it.

You know, when you get up to be that age, at least in baseball, that's where you, you know, things start to decline a little bit. You're not quite the same player. Your eyes aren't the same. Your reflexes aren't the same. And we thought that he sort of caught back up again last year. But for Vladie, this is just, you know, this is baseball. And the mental part of the game is such an important thing, right?

Whether Yogi Bear say baseball is 90% half mental. and so, you know, that part of the game is just your mind plays tricks on you. And then you do things that you think will help you get better, and they compound what you're doing wrong. And so I think it starts with on the field. Ownership understands that Vladdy is a great player. Mark understands that Mark's been around for a long time. I mean, he was a GM back when I was a GM, so he's getting up there too.

Ross knows, and they're just going to have to play it out. And, you know, the belief is, we'll look it to the back of the baseball card. And what it means for us is he's going to get really hot really soon. No, I don't know they can catch all the way up to career numbers, but he's got to get better than this. Steve, just want to quickly get your thoughts on the Yankees in the situation with Aaron Judge, and they keep saying it's not, you know, long-term, and yet he keeps getting more and more tests,

and he's going to see a doctor in Texas, and this bone bruise that's given him pain. and his shoulder. How concerned behind closed doors are the Yankees right now given that situation? So I don't know exactly what's going on, but right from the beginning, I was like something's not right here because, you know, they said his shoulder's been bothering him for a couple weeks, and then they said he's got a bruise in his rib cage, and it didn't really make sense. And then the idea that he's going to go see a specialist, I'm thinking, well, isn't an orthopedic surgeon, the specialist when it comes to bones and shoulders? And like, what are we talking about here? And so,

you know, what we do know is that the doctor he's going to go see as a specialist on thoracic outlet syndrome management in athletes. So, you know, what they said was that one of the tests that they gave him, the swelling was so much, it complicated the reading on it. But I don't think we're dealing with just a strain of something, I think there's something more significant going on. For my experience, it's just, you know, a strain in the upper rib cage causing pain in the shoulder doesn't make sense. But what I do know is when they do surgery for thoracic outlet syndrome, there's a blood clot in the shoulder that they go in and remove the top rib because that's compressed against the vein causing the clotting to take place. And so I don't

know that that's what it is. But we can start to connect dots with the doctor that he's going to go see, the pain that he's having, the shoulder and the rib cage issue. And so, you know, who knows? Maybe it won't be anything more than a cracked rib or stress fracture or maybe it's just a strain of the cartilage. But the indications to me are that this is something more significant and serious than that. Steve, sticking with the injuries, I want you to answer something for me because I've always wondered about it, the difference between baseball and hockey.

If Alejandro Kirk was a hockey player, the coach would be saying, are you ready to play and he would go right into game action? How come in baseball there is like the assignment and you build your way back? How come he just doesn't say, are you healthy, you're back playing? I've always wondered that. Yeah, yeah. So I think that the big part of it is timing. And for a position player, it's going to be, you know,

He hasn't seen a 99-mile-per-hour fastball that moves like it does in, you know, two months. And to just jump into the batters box, you're begging for a guy to come out of the gate and not get any hits. And, you know, you want a guy to be able to sort of knock off the rust at the minor league level when the games don't matter as opposed to down below. You know, like in football, they come right back in and they play because they grit their teeth and they go hit somebody. it's okay. In baseball, it's such a skill to be able to do it. And the timing and the eye and the pitch recognition is so important that getting some level of experience to be able to go through it again is critical. For pitchers, it's more obvious. You've got to build up arm strength and a feel for your pitches. You've got to build up for velocity. And then you kind of want a guy, especially if you've

got a leg issue to re-experience everything, run over, cover first base. You know, do all of those sorts of things and returning to baseball activities so that if you're, and the other thing is if you're hurt, if you come back and then you're not quite ready, then you start the process all over another 15 days. So you always want to make sure that the guys are 100% ready when you activate them because you don't want to wait another 15 days for him to show that he's ready. Awesome stuff as always, Steve. Thanks for joining us. Okay, you bet it guys. My pleasure. Anytime. huge hits and unforgettable items a non-stop stream of the biggest and best

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