Bo Bichette (SS-TOR)
Bichette made his major league debut hitting 6th and playing shortstop and singled in his first at bat; he finished the day 1 for 4 with a strikeout. Bichette received the call with the trade of Eric Sogard, and should see plenty more. His .275/.333/.473 is a little low for the super-prospect but he does have 8 home runs and 15 steals in the minors - numbers that should translate to the major league game. He has seen a small rise in K rate from 14% up to 19% as he has risen the ranks of the minors, as per usual it will be worth keeping an eye on how he handles major league pitching. Bichette should see regular starts over the next 2 months as the Blue Jays look to get reps for all their young infielders.
Brad Keller (SP-KC)
Keller lasted 7 innings allowing 4 ER on 8 hits while striking out 5. Keller has turned in a respectable season pitching to the tune of a 4.01 ERA thanks in part to a 52% groundball rate and limiting damage via the longball (.68 H/9) - although that was not the case Monday as he allowed 3 home runs. His advanced metrics (4.88 xfip) indicate he is pitching not quite as well as his ERA shows, and he will have to keep inducing groundballs at a strong clip to make up for his 6.41 K/9 and inability to always miss bats. Prior to Mondays start he is coming off a very strong July that saw him surrender just 4 ER over 27 innings, a 4-game stretch that lowered his Era over half a run per game.
Teoscar Hernandez (OF-TOR)
Hernandez went 1 for 3 with his 15th home run and 2 runs scored and has swung a hot bat in July posting a 1.014 OPS with 7 home runs, 13 RBIs and 10 runs scored over 63 PAs in July entering play Monday. Hernandez had not hit any higher then .234 in any previous month this season, and his overall .221 average is held back by a .269 babip. His other numbers are like last season as he doesn't walk a ton (8.7%) strikes out a lot (30.4%) and he even has a slightly HR/FB rate than last year at 18.4%. If he can keep up his July numbers he looks to be a lock to surpass the 22 home runs he hit last year as he pushes for a roster spot in 2020.
Cavan Biggio (2B-TOR)
Biggio went 3 for 5 with his 8th home run, 3 runs scored and 2 RBIs. At some point the Blue Jays will have to decide where Biggio's ultra-patient approach (33% swinging rate, 7.8% swinging strike rate) which has led to a 17% walk rate and 29% K rate fits best in their lineup - but he is settling nicely into the leadoff spot. Despite hitting the ball with complete authority (45.5% hard hit rate) he just hasn't gotten the hits to ball- and his .269 babip is not an unreasonably low number either. Despite an OPS hovering just around .700 he has added 7 home runs and 7 steals apiece and I am still a fan of what he does at the plate - but it'd look a lot nicer if he could get his batting average up to .250.
Merrifield (2B/OF-KC)
Merrifield went 1 for 4 with an RBI Monday. While he only hit 1 home run in the month of July he provided hits throughout the entire month, hitting .309 while hitting safely in 19 of 23 games played and scoring 16 runs and stealing 4 bases. Merrifield's overall line of .302/.356/.486 remains very consistent with what he has done the past 2 seasons, although he may have traded some steals for power this season as he only has 15 after swiping 80 combined the past 2 seasons while he has increased his slg% 50 points from last season.
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