Is Demko’s health and Canucks goalie depth a concern ahead of season?
Canucks reporter Rick Dhaliwal joins Halford and Brough to give the latest update on Thatcher Demko’s off-season rehab, and whether the team has been poking around the goalie market to get some insurance if he’s not ready to start the 2024-25 season?
TORONTO – Sometimes, when the Toronto Blue Jays make a notable change in the next day’s lineup, John Schneider will give the player a heads up before sending out the details in the team’s WhatsApp chat. But the manager didn’t tell Will Wagner that he’d be in the cleanup spot Tuesday against the Cincinnati Reds before sharing the batting order, curious to see what kind of reaction he would get.
“He was normal,” Schneider said before watching the 26-year-old collect a first-inning RBI single in what finished as a 10-3 drubbing of the NL Central visitors. “I purposely didn’t do it with him and got a good response.”
That response, or more accurately, non-response – “I didn’t really have a reaction at all,” said Wagner – reinforced to Schneider the unflappability Wagner has shown during his first week in the big-leagues. A move into the cleanup spot in a sixth career start might make certain players a bit nervous, but the rookie second baseman simply shrugged and went on with his day.
Hitting fourth “is just a spot in the lineup where you hit,” he explained. “A lot of people make a big deal about the four-hole, being a big power hitter and stuff like that. But in today’s game it’s kind of changed. So my reaction was just normal, as usual.”
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Wagner ripped a single through the 3-4 hole in the first to tie the game 1-1 and the Blue Jays proceeded to tee off on Carson Spiers for a season-high five homers, two of them by George Springer, to give a solid Jose Berrios all the backing he’d need plus plenty extra.
Springer’s two-run homer in the second, right after an Addison Barger RBI double, opened up a 4-1 lead. Alejandro Kirk and Spencer Horwitz went back-to-back in the third to make it 6-1. Wagner’s high-spin flare to third baseman Noelvi Marte was scored an error and brought home another run in the fourth, while a two-run shot by Leo Jimenez and a Springer solo shot in the fifth turned it into a laugher that led to two shutout innings during garbage time by an old friend, catcher Luke Maile.
Before Tuesday, the Blue Jays hadn’t hit more than three homers in a game this season. Berrios, meanwhile, allowed only two runs over seven innings of six-hit ball, striking out seven while not surrendering a homer for only the seventh time in 26 starts this year.
While the outcome resulted in a fun night for a paid crowd of 34,662, these games are as much about bigger-picture takeaways as they are wins-and-losses. In that regard, Wagner’s ongoing vetting was particularly relevant, his night including a range play to his right on a second-inning Spencer Steer grounder that he corralled and relayed to first for the out.
Schneider said that Wagner’s calmness has really stuck out to him, as has the way he controls the strike zone and works at-bat. The sample size is obviously small, but “understanding the flow of the game is something we talk about a lot with the young guys,” he said. “It’s not just your at-bats or your defence or your pitches. It’s game situations. When’s a good time to swing first pitch? When’s not? Where am I in the order? What’s my starting pitcher doing? He has a good feel for all that kind of stuff.”
All of which led to a night in the cleanup spot for Wagner, with curious eyes on his reaction.
An example of a worrisome response, Schneider said, “would be, ‘Like really?’ Or, ‘Four?’ Something like that. I would still do it. There’s all these little tests you can do at this time of the year with new guys. I wasn’t expecting him to be overwhelmed. But if you get something along those lines, of kind of a question, you go, ‘All right, go hit and let’s talk about it later.’”
No need for that.
“It’s been a crazy couple of weeks, to be honest, just from the trade and stuff, but I’m starting to settle in,” said Wagner. “I just try to go up there with a lot of confidence and no matter who’s on the mound, I always feel like I can get a hit off them. That’s always been my mentality hitting and I’ve taken it into box here and with the brighter lights and everything, it’s no different.”
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