The Toronto Blue Jays are on the cusp of history, with two chances to win the World Series in front of their home crowd. For this group, the stakes have never been higher. They’ll be going all out to get the job done and it means that all hands will be on deck.
That means more of the same for a beleaguered bullpen that has come through when it matters so far. And with the Dodgers down to their last gasp, a window of opportunity has presented itself.
In the ALCS, the Jays were selective about deploying their relievers. They were mindful of the “third time through the order” penalty impacting their best relievers and tried to keep everyone besides Louis Varland from too many at-bats against Seattle’s top hitters.
Through the first five games of the World Series, John Schneider has played it a little more loosely. The Blue Jays have rolled out the bullpen more traditionally and the top dogs have been called upon for the top matchups more often than not.
As a refresher, this is how much the Blue Jays limited the exposure of their relievers in seven games of the ALCS:
Here’s how they’ve done through five games vs. the Dodgers:
Through seven games, there were 13 times that a Mariner stepped to the plate for their third look (minimum) at the same reliever. Through five games against LA, that number is at 11. And maybe we’ll call it five and a half games — one of the contests was two games on its own.
But that marathon 18-inning Game 3 isn’t the main culprit. Mason Fluharty, Varland, Chris Bassitt and Seranthony Domínguez were in the game well before extra innings. The only usual pitcher to do more than anticipated was Jeff Hoffman, who stayed in for a second inning. Eric Lauer was sensational out of the bullpen, working through the order nearly three times on his own. He lands in this table after facing Max Muncy and Teoscar Hernández three times that night alone (Shohei Ohtani and Mookie Betts would also be on here if not for intentional walks, which we’re not going to count).
While we’re here, Lauer is Toronto’s true unsung hero in a season full of them. While his 4.2 innings of clean relief in Game 3 were for naught, he was a big domino to fall in the story of the 2025 Blue Jays. Lauer emerging as a reliable starter allowed the team to shift its focus at the trade deadline, bypassing the innings-eaters and rotation depth options to hunt at the top of the market, eventually landing Shane Bieber. Rather than searching for a stopgap who could chew up five innings every fifth day, the Blue Jays could allocate resources to the “maybe he’d start a playoff game over Kevin Gausman” tier. Lauer allowed them to insulate both the returning Bieber and call-up Trey Yesavage while building in an extra day off for the entire group.
And maybe Lauer extending Game 3 as long as he did, even in defeat, fooled LA into trusting Edgardo Henriquez in a much more important situation later in the series — Henriquez allowed two inherited runners to score without recording an out in Game 5.
The big change in Toronto’s bullpen in the World Series has been more trust in Hoffman. Performance informs process a lot of the time, and that Hoffman has been close to lights-out has allowed Schneider to dial him up more frequently. Against Seattle, Hoffman most frequently faced Dominic Canzone mired in a brutal slump and the scuffling Randy Arozarena. Against LA, Hoffman has most often seen the heart of the order — Freddie Freeman, Will Smith and Teoscar Hernández are basically 3-4-5, semantics aside. This is why the Blue Jays lavished him with a deal worth up to $39 million.
That said, nearly setting the season afire in Game 5 against the Mariners played a major role in this new deployment pattern. If the Blue Jays are going to go down, they’re going to let their best players settle things. If they can line things up to have that happen without letting hitters get too comfortable, all the better.
Toronto has distinct game plans when it comes to their pitching staff, whether that’s bullpen assignments or Yesavage featuring two unique pitch mixes in his World Series starts. That Schneider is loosening the grip on his relievers should be a potential advantage for the Dodgers, especially given the bullpen’s home run problems.
It’s a chicken-and-egg situation, however. The Jays can feel more confident with additional bullpen exposure because the Dodgers bats, minus two at the top of the lineup, have gone quiet. You’re not going to worry about a player seeing a pitcher for the third time if they’re not hitting anyone. That the powerful Dodgers have gone silent has forced Dave Roberts to mix his lineup around in a search for offense.
The lineups in Games 3 and 4 are almost identical, with Hernandez jumping over the slumping Muncy a night after he picked up four hits. The next night was the big departure.
In Game 5, the Dodgers opened up one major lane for Toronto to swing the advantage back now that Hoffman is fully in the circle of trust again. By moving Will Smith up to the two spot and Mookie Betts down to third, the Dodgers created a five-player run in their lineup that features Shohei Ohtani as the only left-handed batter. Given how eager the Jays have been to walk Ohtani when the opportunity arises, there are many circumstances in which he may as well not exist.
Trey Yesavage made it all moot with a brilliant, all-time performance. Maybe Yoshinobu Yamamoto can deliver another classic of his own and make it moot in Game 6. But, if the Dodgers stick with this look — and they might, believing in this configuration now that the specter of Yesavage won’t be looming over them — then it eases a lot of the mental burden on Schneider in the middle innings, especially if there’s a spot where Ohtani can be shuttled to first without a second thought.
With the other lefties at least two batters away on either side of Ohtani, the Jays can likely avoid dropping Fluharty in for his third (or fourth, or fifth, etc.) at-bat against the game’s greatest player and don’t have to think about trusting Brendon Little there either. With Fluharty better deployed for the four-batter pocket from Freeman to Muncy, the rest of the lineup is structured in a way that allows Varland, Dominguez and Bassitt the opportunity to eat up more than three potential outs at a time while pitching around LA’s most dangerous threat.
It could go the other way — Ohtani comes up in situations where he needs to be pitched to by a right-hander, or it forces Fluharty into matchups with Smith and Betts — but the downside remains.
Roberts can’t really be criticized for this lineup creating that potential outcome. He has to get his house in order before worrying about what anyone else can do in response. The Dodgers have two games to hit paydirt. That, more than anything else, has to be driving his decisions. Simply put, the Dodgers, with their backs against the wall, had to do something.
In choosing this, however, they may have given the Blue Jays a chance to go for the throat in a way that converges with their overarching plans.
Both teams’ bullpens have taken their lumps but Toronto’s offense has managed a few more breakthrough moments. Los Angeles is scrambling for answers and now the relief corps might be lined up exactly how the Blue Jays want them. Only time will tell if this new Dodgers lineup is a history-changing fix or a move that plays right into Schneider’s hands.
