I don't usually buy team sets of base cards because whatever, but this year I made a new year's resolution to spend my money poorly and decided it would be fun to chase as many Blue Jays cards released in 2026 as I can.
This is Eric Lauer. He was recently DFAd, which is the big league baseball version of getting fired on a Friday afternoon. Lauer has really stunk this year and despite that also complained to the media about starting behind an opener. Well, when you suck, the manager is going to play you against the top of the other team's lineup as little as possible. But don't feel bad, Eric. Sometimes I feel like a walking DFA.
Berrios is one of a jillion Jays that has been injured. I don't believe he has played at all this season. Our pitching has stunk, so we could use him. Assuming he doesn't stink, too.
I haven't seen much of Estrada. He's been back and forth between the Jays and their farm team in Buffalo. I dunno why he even has a card as opposed to other, more popular Jays. I guess because he's a rookie, but whatever. A lot of popular Jays were missing from Series 1.
Varsho has been one of the few Jays that has been fairly consistent and hasn't gotten hurt. He's not the most exciting player, but he did make a cool catch the other night where he ran full force, face first into the outfield wall. Perhaps he forgot it was there.
Barger was hurt, came back, got hurt again. I feel like a lot of the injuries might be a hangover from the Jays sacrificing their bodies to get to the World Series, because they played hard and now they are paying the physical toll for it in the new season.
I fucking hate these red uniforms. It completely screws up the colour scheme the Jays have going with blue and white. It also sucks that Topps printed Vladdy's card with him in the red uniform, as obviously lots of Jays fans (like me) collect him and we have to look at this blood red nonsense. It looks awful in a binder next to other Jays cards. They should save this uniform for one of those stupid alternate photo parallels and have flagship Topps feature players in their team's flagship uniform. Right?
Gausman had a bad night the other game, but has been one of the few consistent pitchers this season. I also absolutely hate the City Connect uniforms. I love the design of the Toronto skyline, but the colours are hideous and you can barely see the design with the colour palette they chose. It's ugly.
Who the fuck is Joey Loperfido? He was traded away in February. I really don't understand some of the choices Topps made with this checklist. Obviously they couldn't have known he was traded, but he wasn't really a guy that needed a card anyway.
Kirk is another guy that has been hurt. He broke his thumb or something. We miss his bat.
Nice photo of the Jays celebrating. Ernie Clement is in the foreground, and is one of the most popular Jays and one of the few having a good season. Maybe he should like, have a card here or something?
This is what the first nine cards look like in a binder page. There are ten cards, which means Gausman sits alone on the second page. Why can't Topps or whatever company do these things in multiples of nine? They know us dorks are going to put this stuff in binders. I don't get why they can't do team sets in nines, subsets in nines, insert sets in nines. That way, you get a full page for each obvious theme. The modern card companies are so horribly anti-consumer in so many obvious ways, it's quite astounding. But then again, most companies I find are now hostile to their own customers, so why should baseball cards be any different.
There you go. Flagship Jays. Half of them shouldn't even have a card, but it's not like I'm a fan of the team or anything.
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