The Toronto Blue Jays are fighting for their lives to stay alive in the AL Wild Card standings.
They haven’t been mathematically eliminated yet, but the Jays dropping their last series with the Texas Rangers over the weekend was not helpful.
Now, on Monday, the Blue Jays start a new series with the Baltimore Orioles, which is equally as important as their prior series.
Before the Orioles series began, the Blue Jays announced a Kazuma Okamoto lineup demotion.
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Kazuma Okamoto Dropped in Blue Jays Batting Order
After batting cleanup on Sunday afternoon, manager John Schneider has opted to bump Kazuma Okamoto down two spots in the lineup in a batting order that features a lot of changes.
Here is the full group, per @UnderdogMLB:
Blue Jays 9/21: “B. Bateman CF A. Kirk C N. Lukes RF G. Springer DH S. Keys 1B K. Okamoto 3B J. Smith LF A. Giménez SS E. Clement 2B T. Yesavage SP”
B. Bateman CF A. Kirk C N. Lukes RF G. Springer DH S. Keys 1B K. Okamoto 3B J. Smith LF A. Giménez SS E. Clement 2B
T. Yesavage SP
Kazuma Okamoto has steadily batted between 4th and sixth in the Blue Jays batting order all season.
Trey Yesavage is back on the mound, and Alejandro Kirk is batting second to form a battery with him.
Vladimir Guerrero Jr. is out of the lineup after exiting Sunday’s game.
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Looking at Kazuma Okamoto’s Rookie Campaign Thus Far
With several Toronto Blue Jays players experiencing ‘power-outage’ seasons, Kazuma Okamoto has had a strong display of power all season.
He is still just a rookie after all, and he leads the Blue Jays (by far) with 33 home runs this season.
Across his first 549 MLB at-bats, Okamoto has also driven in 89 runs, recorded 129 hits, and scored another 79 runs for this Blue Jays team. His OPS+ is 109, which is only being weighed down due to his low on-base percentage.
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Toronto Blue Jays Announce Kazuma Okamoto Demotion Before Crucial Orioles Series