The reigning American League champions will open up the spring schedule on Saturday.
The Toronto Blue Jays open up the Grapefruit League schedule on Saturday, Feb. 21 as they start the journey back to winning the American League championship again.
And when they take the field, they'll do so with left-handed veteran Eric Lauer on the mound.
Manager John Schneider announced that decision to reporters on Thursday.
Now 30 years old, Lauer is a seven-year veteran of the San Diego Padres, Brewers and Blue Jays. He's gone 45-39 for his career with a 4.13 ERA, making 127 starts in 148 appearances. He won a career-high 11 games for the Brewers in 2022.
Last season, he pitched in a swing role for Schneider's team, going 9-2 with a 3.18 ERA. He made 15 starts out of 28 appearances, tossing 104.2 innings in the regular season. He added five appearances in the postseason, including 5.2 scoreless innings in the World Series.
He's a free agent after the 2026 season. Toronto will pay him $4 million this season after defeating him in an arbitration hearing. He figures to serve as the long man in the bullpen, especially after Jose Berrios has to move to the rotation to cover for the injury to Shane Bieber.
The Okamoto plan
Kazuma Okamoto, signed to a four-year deal this offseason, is going to leave camp soon to join Team Japan at the World Baseball Classic. However, before he does, he'll get plenty of early spring training action. It will be a great chance for Jays coaches to get a look at him for the first time against consistent major league pitching.
Per Keegan Matheson of MLB.com:
Kazuma Okamoto is expected to open #BlueJays Spring Training games by playing on:
Saturday vs PHI Monday vs NYM Wednesday @ DET Thursday vs MIA
Signed to a $60 million deal, Okamoto should help raise the ceiling and floor of Toronto's offense. He's a powerful hitter without a lot of swing-and-miss in his game, something that fits well with the Jays' offensive profile. He had six seasons of 30 homers or more in Japan and should hit in the middle of the WBC lineup. Japan won the tournament in 2023 and is a favorite again in 2026.
Other news and notes
--Might a pair of former Blue Jays pitchers make sense for the suddenly reeling Atlanta Braves? We took a look at both Max Scherzer and Marcus Stroman, who are both free agents still. Stroman was an All-Star with Toronto in 2019.
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