Eric

Lauer

The Blue Jays struck out 14 on the day, and one has to wonder if the A’s are going to break every strikeout record — the bad kind — by Memorial Day. That’s taking nothing away from Lauer, who was excellent. He generated 17 swings and misses, and the only two runs he allowed came on a homer by Max Muncy in the fifth. Lauer has not shown this kind of bat-missing ability in the past, but he’ll try and replicate it against the lowly White Sox next weekend.

Lauer earns his spot in Toronto’s season-opening rotation with rookie sensation Trey Yesavage (shoulder) along with veterans Shane Bieber (forearm) and José Berríos (elbow) heading to the injured list. Big-ticket offseason acquisition Dylan Cease will get the ball following Opening Day starter Kevin Gausman. It’ll be Cody Ponce and Max Scherzer rounding out the initial rotation.

Both Scherzer and Ponce will work in an additional minor league game to continue getting stretched out before taking their respective turns in the Jays’ rotation. That means the two right-handers can be penciled in — in some order — for the first two games of the Rockies’ series that starts on Monday, March 30. That means Dylan Cease and Eric Lauer are likely to follow Kevin Gausman during the first series of the season against the Athletics.

Yesavage’s build up has been slow all offseason, and this helps explain why. He arrived to camp with the injury, per Schneider. He’s not slated to stop throwing, so it’s possible this is just a minor delay for Yesavage’s 2026 season. He’ll throw off a mound again next week. Eric Lauer will likely take Yesavage’s rotation spot in the early season.

With the Blue Jays being really cautious about the early season workload for Trey Yesavage, who has still yet to throw in a big league spring training game, it seems most likely that Lauer and Yesavage will work in tandem for the final spot in the rotation. However, these comments, also make it possible that Lauer could simply take that spot with Yesavage beginning of the year in the minor leagues to continue ramping up. Regardless, Lauer is probably worth drafting in deeper formats right now.

That’s not typically a good sign. The Blue Jays had previously said they were not concerned about a major injury for Berrios, but it’s hard to be as confident in that now. He likely wasn’t on fantasy radars anyway so this shouldn’t change that, but it may change value in the rest of the Blue Jays rotation. The team had wanted to be cautious with Trey Yesavage’s innings, but they may not have that luxury anymore. Of course, they could just move Eric Lauer into the rotation or piggyback Lauer and Yesavage. This also means Cody Ponce’s spot in this rotation is very secure, and he should be going higher in drafts.

The first four batters reached against Lauer on three singles and a HBP. He retired five in a row from there, but the damage was done. A nice surprise in 15 starts and 13 relief appearances for the Jays last year, Lauer seems likely to spend most of 2026 pitching in middle relief with the team adding Dylan Cease and Cody Ponce and bringing back Max Scherzer.

Lauer threw 104 2/3 innings in 2025, managing a 3.18 ERA in 28 appearances while going 9-2. He was often used with an opener in 2025 and struggled to hit five innings, making him an unlikely source of wins in 2026. Still, Lauer is talented enough to remain on the mixed-league streamer radar.

In every October run, there’s a swing that becomes shorthand for everything else. This one will be remembered forever — especially if the Dodgers go on to win their second straight title. Freeman put the exclamation point on the longest game in World Series history, ending a nearly seven-hour extra-inning marathon with a majestic fly ball that barely cleared the center-field fence. This game had everything: spectacular defense on both sides, heroic relief outings from unheralded arms like Toronto lefty Eric Lauer — who fired 4 2/3 shutout frames — and Dodgers righty Will Klein, who delivered four scoreless innings on a career-high 72 pitches. And, as the 19th inning loomed, Yoshinobu Yamamoto was warming up in the bullpen — just two days removed from throwing a 105-pitch complete game. The two clubs will meet again in just a few hours for Game 4 of the Fall Classic at Dodger Stadium with Shohei Ohtani taking the mound opposite Shane Bieber. Are you not entertained?

Schneider added that Scherzer likely would’ve been included on the roster for a matchup against the Red Sox, but they wanted to include some additional left-handed relief depth to combat New York’s plethora of lefty sluggers. It’ll likely be some combination of Eric Lauer and the bullpen working a potential Game 4 matchup with Kevin Gausman looming for a winner-take-all Game 5.