Playoff Push: Blue Jays Opt for Five-Man Starting Rotation
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The Toronto Blue Jays announced (per Arden Zwelling) that they are going to be moving forward with a five-man starting rotation; in correlation to this Eric Lauer will be moving to the bullpen (which isn't hard to believe after his last start).
The team released their probable starts for their next five games which concludes a series with the Cincinnati Reds and then takes them into a stretch with the New York Yankees.
José Berríos and Shane Bieber are going to finish off the series in Cincinnati to hopefully come out with a series victory after dropping game one today. Even though Chris Bassitt had an exceptional start (six innings, six strikeouts, and two earned runs) in the opener with the Reds, the bullpen had a disastrous final inning when Tommy Nance and Brendon Little let the Reds score three of their five runs on the day.
The Blue Jays will have an AL East showdown at Yankees Stadium once they bounce back from their loss today. Right now the probable starting lineup for that series is Kevin Gausman, Max Scherzer, and then it will be back to Bassitt to close it out.
As October draws closer, management is trying to solidify their starting rotation, especially with the newest addition- Shane Bieber. Bieber could definitely end up being a game one starter when the postseason comes around, and now it is just figuring out who complements him best.
Eric Lauer this Season
While Lauer had a rough go of things in his last start (back on August 27 against the Minnesota Twins) he has bolstered their starting rotation for most of the season. He is a big part of why the team sits at the top of the AL East.
Through his first 12 starts with Toronto he had an ERA just over 3.00 with a 5.64 strikeout-to-walk ratio. That was back on August 5 before his last three starts, but even with a couple of rough games, his ERA on the season is still 3.21, which almost matches his career-best.
Now even though he is going back to the bullpen, one can still expect great things from him. This isn't the only time he has been used out of the pen this year, and with Toronto's relievers currently struggling, they really need him to come out and be a closer. Lauer has all of the capabilities to do so, and that is where the team needs him most for them to win games and make a deep run into October.
Bowden Francis put the Jays in a very dangerous spot this year in terms of their rotation. Eric Lauer saved the staff as the number five guy. 8-2 record with a 2.76 ERA.
— Sid Seixeiro (@Sid_Seixeiro) August 21, 2025
This guy is a major reason Toronto’s in first. Please put some respect on his name. pic.twitter.com/7IKfmd17b2
The Jays are hunting for their 80th win on the season. At 79-59 they only have a 2.5 game lead over the AL East after dropping a couple of games to the Milwaukee Brewers and another to the Reds. Their biggest weakness right now is in the bullpen and Lauer will make an immediate impact as a closer.
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Maddy Dickens resides in Loveland, Colorado. She grew up with two older brothers, where their lives revolved around sports. She earned a master's degree in business management from Tarleton State University while simultaneously playing basketball and competing in rodeo at the collegiate level. She successfully parlayed a reserve national championship into a professional rodeo career and now stays involved in upper-level athletics by writing for On SI on several different MLB teams' pages, along with some NCAA sites.