Two teams going nowhere will play out their seasons in a three-game series starting Friday night when the Cincinnati Reds visit the Toronto Blue Jays.
Both teams have been eliminated from playoff contention. The Blue Jays (77-82) saw their hopes in the race among a cluster of mediocre teams for the third and final American League wild-card berth end officially Wednesday when they lost 4-2 to the Baltimore Orioles in the opener of a doubleheader. Toronto also lost the second game by the same score as Baltimore completed a three-game sweep.
Toronto is considered a major disappointment this season after losing the 2025 World Series to the Los Angeles Dodgers in seven games.
The Reds (74-85), meanwhile, are coming off a 7-6 road win Thursday in the rubber match of a three-game series with the Atlanta Braves.
The main Blue Jays’ interest in the last weekend of the season figures to be the reaction to comments by first baseman Vladimir Guerrero Jr., who had a poor season in the first year of a 14-year, $500 million contract extension.
Guerrero, 27, is batting .263 with nine home runs, 56 RBIs and a .695 OPS this season, with only one home run at home.
In the 2025 postseason, he batted .397 (29-for-73) with eight homers and 15 RBIs in 18 games.
Guerrero told podcaster Veronica Batista in Spanish this week that Toronto gave him the extension early in the 2025 season based on what he had done in the past, not what he would do in the future.
“They didn’t pay me because I’m going to hit 40 (home runs) every year,” he said. “They paid me for what I already accomplished.”
Guerrero stood by his comments Wednesday in Baltimore after Toronto had been eliminated from the playoff race.
“That was a quote from the interview when she asked me how I felt about this year,” Guerrero said through team translator Hector Lebron. “I said that, obviously, I feel really bad about the year that I had, that I couldn’t help my team get to the postseason. I said I felt — that it’s my personal opinion — that every player gets paid for what they have done.
“With that said, you guys have to remember that I signed my contract at the beginning of last year, then I did put up a good year (23 homers, 84 RBIs, .292 batting average). Then, the kind of playoffs that I had to help the team get into the World Series.”
On Friday, Toronto is expected to start right-hander Jose Soriano (12-8, 3.72 ERA) against Reds left-hander Nick Lodolo (3-6, 5.04).
Soriano is 1-1 with no runs allowed in 15 innings over four appearances (two starts) against Cincinnati, including a 9-6 victory on April 12 while he pitched for the Los Angeles Angels. He threw seven shutout innings and yielded two hits and three walks with 10 strikeouts in 106 pitches. Soriano was acquired by Toronto at the trade deadline in August.
In his most recent outing, he gave up six runs (five earned) on four hits and one walk with eight strikeouts in five innings in a 6-2 road loss to the Texas Rangers last Saturday.
Lodolo has never faced Toronto. He also pitched last Saturday and took a 5-2 loss to the visiting Chicago Cubs after yielding three runs on six hits and two walks while fanning one in seven innings.
Reds manager Terry Francona has become accustomed to participating in the postseason, so this year has been a disappointment.
“I hate to sound so jealous,” he said before the series finale against the Braves on Thursday. “You look across the field, the Braves are getting ready. The Cubs, Dodgers, they’re all making these plans. The Brewers, the way they’re handling their rotation and things like that. … You miss that a lot. There’s a lot of anxiety, but I wouldn’t trade it for the world.”
Cincinnati’s Elly De La Cruz has a goal this weekend — steal one more base that would give him 30 for the season. He reached 30 homers for the first time in his four-year MLB career on Thursday.
“That’s something everybody wants to do, so it’s really special,” he said.
If he nabs his 30th steal, he will join Eric Davis, Barry Larkin and Brandon Phillips among the Reds’ only players in the 30-30 club.
–Field Level Media
