Nathan Smith
The Toronto Blue Jays entered the 2026 MLB season with sky-high expectations following their World Series appearance in 2025. Unfortunately, the team has suffered through immense injuries early in the year, with the team currently sitting at 32-35 and in third place in the American League East.
Early in the season, the team has seen extended absences from the likes of Alejandro Kirk, Addison Barger, George Springer, Dylan Cease, and Max Scherzer, among others.
While Kirk and Barger are further away from a return, the Blue Jays have been running a three-man rotation lately, and now, they’re getting healthy.
Blue Jays get two much-needed returns this week
As announced by Manager John Schneider on Monday, both Cease and Scherzer are back, as they will start games 2 and 3 of their series with the Philadelphia Phillies on Tuesday and Wednesday.
Thankfully for Toronto, Cease has not missed much time, as he was sent to the IL after his May 24th start against the Pittsburgh Pirates. When healthy, he’s been one of the better pitchers in all of baseball, compiling a 3.05 ERA with 92 strikeouts across 62.0 innings of work thus far in 2026.
Can Max Scherzer turn back the clock?
In years gone by, Max Scherzer has been one of baseball’s best pitchers, winning three Cy Young Awards in his time with Detroit and Washington. While he’s well past his prime, he’s been more than serviceable in recent years, posting a 3.77 ERA across 14.1 innings in the playoffs a year ago during Toronto’s World Series push.
However, he’s struggled early in 2026 with Toronto, allowing 20 earned runs across his 18.2 innings across his first five starts of the season. In three of his past four starts, Scherzer struggled to get out of the third inning, but with the Blue Jays’ pitching staff under the pump due to injury, they’ll need to see some flashes of the old Max Scherzer.
Even with these two returns, the Blue Jays continue to wait on Shane Bieber, whose return to the big league level is expected within the next three weeks.
For now, the team will run with the five-man rotation of Kevin Gausman, Cease, Trey Yesavage, Patrick Corbin, and Scherzer, giving them a formidable and healthy group for the first time this season. Simply put, the Blue Jays have struggled for momentum this season with injury after injury, but now they’re finally getting healthy, and with Cease and Scherzer back, this team is a major threat in the AL East once again.
