The Toronto Blue Jays won the AL East by the skin of their teeth on the regular season's final day, guaranteeing them a bye and the No. 1 seed in the American League. Earning the bye felt like such a gift for this Jays team that was dealing with injuries and had an exhausted pitching staff, but based on their Division Series roster, the bye wasn't long enough.
Bo Bichette, one of Toronto's best players, was left off the roster with the knee injury that he suffered against the same New York Yankees team they're gearing up to play against in early September.
It turns out that Bichette isn't the only notable Blue Jays omission from their roster. The Athletic's Mitch Bannon reported that both Max Scherzer and Chris Bassitt were also left off the roster, meaning Toronto's pitching situation is going to get very weird.
The #BlueJays’ playoff roster is out.
— Mitch Bannon (@MitchBannon) October 4, 2025
SS Bo Bichette is not on it. Neither is Max Scherzer or Chris Bassitt.
Jays’ pitching gonna get weird.
For more news and rumors, check out MLB Insider Robert Murray’s work on The Baseball Insiders podcast, subscribe to The Moonshot, our weekly MLB newsletter, and join the discord to get the inside scoop during the MLB season.
Blue Jays take big gamble with ALDS pitching decisions
One of the biggest questions entering this Division Series was what Toronto would do pitching-wise, and this doesn't exactly clear anything up. Kevin Gausman is starting Game 1, and there's a good chance that Shane Bieber and Trey Yesavage will start Games 2 and 3, respectively, in some order, but what about Game 4?
The Jays could bring Gausman back on short rest, but would that be the best idea? The alternative would probably be using an opener like Louis Varland to pitch in front of Eric Lauer for three-ish innings and hope the bullpen can take it from there.
Are either of these better options than leaning on one of the two veteran starters they left off the roster? That can be debated. When discussing Scherzer, that feels like an easy yes. Scherzer had a 5.16 ERA this season and had a 9.95 ERA in his last five regular season starts, one of which came against these Yankees. He certainly hasn't looked like a pitcher ready to contribute in a meaningful way in October.
As for Bassitt, that's more complicated. Bassitt had a sub-4.00 ERA in the regular season and pitched really well against the Yankees in two of his three regular season starts against them, so you'd think he'd be on the roster, but he was also placed on the IL in late September with lower back inflammation. If he isn't 100 percent, it makes sense to omit him from the roster. If he is healthy, I question this decision.
Even if the Jays don't want Bassitt starting a game, would he not be a more valuable addition than, say, Justin Bruihl? I get that the Yankees have a ton of left-handed hitters, but even against them, it's hard to trust an inexperienced arm like Bruihl over Bassitt.
The Blue Jays could very well be taking a risk here, sacrificing Bassitt's reliability in exchange for, well, we really don't know. A bullpen game can work, and a bullpen game can blow up. Blue Jays fans have seen both unfold.
The pitching decisions can prove to be costly, but we know that the Jays will miss Bichette.
Blue Jays pitching decision might not matter because of Bo Bichette injury
It's entirely possible that whatever the Jays decide to do in Game 4 could blow up in their faces, but are we sure that'll even matter? Bichette being out feels like such a big deal.
He doesn't get nearly as much press as his co-star, Vladimir Guerrero Jr., but Bichette was arguably the best offensive player on the Jays not named George Springer this regular season, slashing .311/.357/.483 with 18 home runs and 94 RBI. He was tied for second in the majors in hits despite missing the best part of the last month with his injury, and he hit a whopping .381 with runners in scoring position.
The simple question of whether the Jays can score enough runs without him must be asked. I mean, they nearly blew their AL East lead once Bichette went down, mainly because they stopped scoring runs.
The Jays can make whatever pitching decisions they want, but if the offense can't score more than two or three runs per game, those decisions won't matter too much. It'll be a lot tougher for Toronto to score without its All-Star shortstop, and that's the sad reality.