Olney: Francis, Wagner impressing down the stretch with roster spots available for 2025

The Toronto Blue Jays enter play Tuesday sitting eight games back of the last American League wild-card spot with just under a month to go in what has been an extremely disappointing 2024 season.
 
While the team may have waved the white flag on their playoff hopes by selling off expiring assets at the trade deadline, many of the organization’s younger players have found success after receiving their first extended run of play in the major leagues.
 
Starting pitcher Bowden Francis is a prime example of a player who’s been given an opportunity to separate himself within the organization, and has impressed both fans and the front office.
 
Francis, 28, has put together a stretch over the past month that should at least earn himself a rotation spot next season. Over his last 29.0 innings pitched, the right hander has allowed just six hits and two runs with 32 strikeouts. In that time, only 10 batters have reached base against Francis for a WHIP of just 0.32, the lowest ever total across a four-start span in major league history.
 
“Well, it certainly gives you hope,” said ESPN’s Buster Olney on TSN1050’s First Up with Aaron Korolnek and Carlo Colaiacovo Tuesday morning. “When you watch him pitch, the pure stuff, the dominance, you feel good about it.
 
“We’ve also all been trained, kind of like with spring training statistics, that you don’t totally trust what you see at the end of the year. There’s not necessarily a carry-over, but if you’re the Blue Jays and their front office made the decision at the trade deadline to retool the team over the winter time to try and win next year, he’s one of the reasons why.”
 
Francis isn’t the only Blue Jay putting his name in the conversation for a spot on the 26-man roster next season, as Will Wagner has enjoyed a good start to his major-league career.
 
Wagner, 26, is slashing .345/.367/.552 in 17 games since debuting for the team on Aug. 12, and became just the fifth player in franchise history to record five hits in his first two games in the big leagues.
 
“I think Will Wagner also is someone that you’re watching,” said Olney. “To me, what’s really apparent about him, and his history told you this, is that he just flat out hits. He’s going to hit at every level, he doesn’t strike out very much, 60 plate appearances [at the MLB level], just nine strikeouts, which in this era is remarkable.
 
“I don’t want to make a comparison directly, but he does remind you stylistically of a couple of guys. One, for me, is Luis Arraez [of the San Diego Padres] who’s a guy who has always been a good hitter, but there’s always been the question of where’s he going to play defensively. He’s always been a little subpar defensively, but you take it when you get an unusual hitter like that.”

Arraez is seen across the majors as one of the best bat-to-ball hitters of his generation. The Venezuelan infielder led all of baseball with a .354 batting average in 2023, and is the only player to win the batting title in the National and American League in consecutive seasons.
 
“DJ LeMahieu [of the New York Yankees], as well, is another guy who he kind of reminds me of. You just know that, year in and year out, you’re not quite sure where he’s going to fit, where you’re going to play him, what’s the best possible spot. But you know this: in an era in which teams are struggling to find offensive players, you’ve got a guy who looks like he’s going to hit for his whole career.”
 
A comparison to LeMahieu, a two-time major league batting champion with three All-Star selections and two top-five MVP finishes is high praise for Wagner, who was acquired from the Houston Astros alongside Joey Loperfido and Jake Bloss in exchange for starting pitcher Yusei Kikuchi.
 
Similarly to Wagner, Kikuchi has been at his best after the trade, posting a 2.57 ERA with 47 strikeouts in six starts with the Astros. Houston is 6-0 in games that the Japanese southpaw has started.
 
“If you trade a rental that you’re only going to have for two more months, like Kikuchi and the Blue Jays, and you get one player out of that, one major leaguer with six years of service time, that’s a good trade,” said Olney.
 
“The Astros, as they have often done – they did it with Charlie Morton, they did it with Justin Verlander, they did it with Gerrit Cole – they bring over a pitcher, they talk about pitch mixes and how it might work better, and all of a sudden that one inning that seemed to doom Kikuchi when he was with the Blue Jays, that went away.
 
“To this point, he has been the most impactful piece moved at the deadline.”