Yankees - Blue Jays lineups April 5: Who are the probable starting pitchers?

Currently sitting atop the division with a 6-1 record, the New York Yankees will play host to the 5th-placed Toronto Blue Jays at Yankee Stadium in the Bronx, New York. Indeed, Friday’s game will kick off a 3-game series between the two sides, creating a need for proper roster management. Let’s take a look

Blue Jays vs Yankees: Who’s in and who’s out?

At 3-4, following a heavy 8-0 loss to the Houston Astros, the Toronto Blue Jays haven’t started their 2024 campaign in the best way possible, but at the least, we can say these are still early days. Conversely, the Jays’ next opponent is coming off of a solid 6-5 win against the Arizona Diamondbacks and as mentioned above, are currently the No. 1 seed in the AL East. Of course, with the season having just started it would be fair to say that we haven’t seen the full potential of either team. Consider for a moment that despite the difference in record, the Yankees have only scored four more runs than Toronto.

This brings us to the offense. Where the Jays are concerned, it would be Justin Turner who has been putting a large majority of the team’s runs on the board. In the 20+ innings that he has played so far, Turner has seven hits and one home run along with four RBIs and an on-base percentage of .435. As for the Yankees, the man of the moment has been Oswaldo Cabrera who has nine hits from 22 at-bats, with an eye-opening seven RBIs in six games. The Venezuelan has essentially doubled his on-base percentage with a current figure of .409 and seemingly more to come.

Truthfully, while it’s quite likely that the Yankees will come out on top in this one based on the current form of both teams, it will almost certainly have a lot to do with how things go on the mound. The probable starting pitchers for Friday’s game are Yusei Kikuchi for the Jays and Marcus Stroman for the Yankees. Where the Jays’ lefty is concerned, Kikuchi is in the third year of a three-year $36 million free-agent contract that he signed with the Jays before the start of the 2022 season. Since then we’ve seen one very bad campaign and one very good one, which leaves the question: What can we expect from him this year? As for the Yankees’ star, Stroman only joined the Yankees this past January on a two-year, $37 million deal. Given the Yankees’ current position and the fact that he’s coming off an impressive performance against the Diamondbacks, it’s hard to see the Bluejays coming out of this one with the W.