The Blue Jays game on Tuesday night has been canceled.
However, the word around the block is that the Blue Jays will be scheduled for a traditional doubleheader starting at 12:35 PM EST.
Realistically, neither team has anything to play for. The Blue Jays have locked up home-field advantage for the wild-card game. As for the Orioles, the trash birds are just playing to regain some of the dignity they had lost for tanking all those years.
That begs the question, why should the Jays play 18 innings of baseball tomorrow afternoon? To put it simply… they shouldn’t. There was literally no point in doing so.
First and foremost, there’s a good chance the team will burn through their bullpen to cover at least six innings, potentially even more with Kikuchi and White being the expected starters.
Secondly, they probably won’t finish with a better record than St.Louis, who is a game up on them with two games remaining. Even in the event that the two good bird teams make the World Series together, burning through your bullpen in a meaningless game severely hinders your chances of getting there.
Even with the Guardians, they have two games remaining and a game behind. It’s possible they win both their games against Kansas City and finish with a better overall record than the Jays if they only play one game. However again, the chances of the two teams meeting in the ALCS is slim, even more so if TORONTO BLOWS THROUGH THEIR BULLPEN.
As Keegan Matheson reports, even the players and the organization aren’t particularly happy with Major League Baseball’s decision to schedule this stupid doubleheader.
What are the consequences of forfeiting? Literally a 9-0 loss. That’s it. However, the league may see it as a giant “F you”, and decide to punish the Jays, however that is pure speculation.
The last time a team forfeited a game is on August 10th, 1995. It wasn’t even a team deciding to forfeit, it was the umps’ decision due to Dodgers fans yeeting souvenir baseballs on the field. The last time a team decided on their own volition to forfeit was actually in a Blue Jays and Orioles game in 1977.
The Orioles manager complained about an exposed tarp, and played the game under protest, but the Orioles players didn’t return after minutes. The umpire awarded the Blue Jays the win. This was the only time a team voluntarily forfeited since 1914.
Another interesting option that could be available is sending all optionable players down (yes, Bo and Vlad included), and just calling up other players on the 40-man roster to fill in the two games. After all, the Jays were ready to go with this lineup, so I don’t think they really care about these games.
It would’ve been nice to see Bradley Zimmer, Otto Lopez, and Gabriel Moreno actually get some at-bats in the major leagues, but hopefully, we just see it in one game on Wednesday.
me on Twitter @Brennan_L_D. MLB is incredibly dumb for scheduling a doubleheader. There’s literally no benefit to it.
More must-reads: