TORONTO — The Toronto Blue Jays rotation set a high bar last year with its splendid performance on the mound, finishing with a combined 3.85 ERA that ranked third in the major leagues.
Coming into this season, the group wanted to raise the bar even further, but after nearly three turns through the rotation, their results have been below what they expect from themselves. Before play Wednesday, the Blue Jays rotation had a collective 5.09 ERA over 58 1/3 innings, while their combined fWAR of zero ranked 29th.
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“I’ve been pretty disappointed in our starters so far,” Chris Bassitt said Tuesday following his start.
This frank assessment of the rotation’s shaky start came shortly after Bassitt made his best start of the season, hurling 6 2/3 innings with one run in a win over the Seattle Mariners. But amid his criticism of the group’s disappointing start, the right-hander owned that before Tuesday, he’d not been part of the solution, and it’s left the bullpen — already short two of its best arms — particularly taxed.
“This is my third start, too, but two of my starts were terrible in my opinion, so I’m no help to the problem,” Bassitt said. “But I just think the biggest thing for us is getting our starters going. I’m so confident in all the guys we have. It’s just (our) first 10 or 11 games have been pretty rough for us, to be honest with you, outside of José Berríos.”
Indeed, with Kevin Gausman’s velocity dipping last outing and Bowden Francis’ rough beginning to his season, Berríos has been the rotation’s bright spot, carrying a 1.45 ERA after three starts in which the right-hander has pitched at least six innings in each, including in Monday’s home opener win over the Mariners.
José Berríos, Nasty 84mph Slurve…and Sword. ⚔️
6th K pic.twitter.com/wdxnikBtaM
— Rob Friedman (@PitchingNinja) April 9, 2024
With Bassitt’s strong start Tuesday, the Blue Jays were hoping to get on a roll with their rotation. Clearly, Yusei Kikuchi understood the assignment as the left-hander threw six innings with one run against his former team. However, the start was slightly spoiled as the Blue Jays fell 6-1 to the Mariners, who staved off a sweep Wednesday at Rogers Centre.
“We give each other a lot of advice, little tips here and there,” Kikuchi said about the starters helping each other through his interpreter, Yusuke Oshima. “All of us, we’re all pretty experienced in the rotation. Obviously, there could be some ups and downs throughout the season, but we trust each other and we’ll be fine this year.”
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Coming off a strong scoreless performance against the New York Yankees in his last outing, Kikuchi built off his success even further against the Mariners, against whom he now has a 0.52 ERA in three career starts. Leaning on his fastball and breaking balls, Kikuchi limited hard contact from Seattle’s lineup and racked up 13 swinging strikes on his way to nine strikeouts and just two walks.
The only run Kikuchi allowed came off a J.P. Crawford single in the third inning that scored left fielder Dylan Moore, who led off the inning with a walk.
Blue Jays first baseman Vladimir Guerrero Jr. evened the score in the seventh inning with a 114 mph, 459-foot solo home run off of Mariners starter Logan Gilbert, who to that point had silenced a Toronto lineup that’s shown encouraging signs of life over the last two days.
But the Blue Jays couldn’t replicate that Wednesday, even when they loaded the bases in the ninth with a chance to walk it off. Catcher Alejandro Kirk hit a hard line drive straight at right fielder Mitch Haniger, then third baseman Ernie Clement hit a popup into shallow right field that Mariners second baseman Jorge Polanco made a nice running catch on.
Bases loaded. Bottom 9th. 1-1.
Jorge Polanco with a GREAT play to save the Mariners the game. pic.twitter.com/oWJVyKMw5o
— Seattle Mariners ON Tap (@MarinersONTap) April 10, 2024
In the 10th inning, Cal Raleigh hit a two-run home run off the first pitch he saw from lefty Tim Mayza in his dogged pursuit to torment the Blue Jays. The Mariners catcher now has a 1.091 OPS in 15 games against the Blue Jays, with nine home runs and 16 RBIs. His nine home runs against Toronto and seven home runs at Rogers Centre are his most against any team and at any opposing ballpark.
“Maybe he’s part Canadian,” Blue Jays manager John Schneider quipped when asked about Raleigh’s success against the Blue Jays. “Tip your hat to him. He likes hitting here and he likes hitting against us.”
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Coming into the season, the Blue Jays starting rotation was considered their strength, particularly because their four starters — Gausman, Bassitt, Kikuchi and Berríos — who made at least 31 starts and combined for 742 1/3 innings in 2023 were returning this year.
The only lingering question mark was how Alek Manoah would follow up his disappointing 2023 campaign, though that query still hangs in the air as the 26-year-old right-hander continues to recover from shoulder inflammation that has delayed the start to his season. His return is creeping closer, though, as he’s scheduled to make his second rehab start Saturday with Triple-A Buffalo.
As surprising as the slow start from the rotation has been, the Blue Jays aren’t worried.
“Oh, God, no. Oh, God, no,” Schneider said when asked if there was any panic about their starters. “They’re good. They’re good. And they’ve been around and they’re going to be good. They know how to take care of themselves. They know how to take care of themselves in between starts, all those things. There’s absolutely zero worry about those guys.”
Bassitt, for his part, agreed that the rotation’s track record suggests this is merely an early-season blip.
“In my opinion, it’s just more so the trust and belief (in us). Gausman has a bad one, I have two bad ones, Francis is not off to the best start,” Bassitt said. “I don’t have any problem thinking Kevin Gausman is going to be really good this year, and I have no problem thinking the same thing for Francis. And obviously myself. I would say it’s more so track record. I know how good Gausman’s going to be. I know it’s going to fix itself, but the bullpen’s had to wear it.”
With three consecutive strong starts of at least six innings this week, however, the bullpen is in much better shape than it was, and the starting rotation looks like it’s turning a corner.
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“They’ve been outstanding, all three of them, really,” Schneider said. “It’s kind of how we’re built a little bit, and all three of them really answered the bell this series against a pretty good lineup.”
Soon, the bullpen is poised to get even stronger as Erik Swanson (forearm inflammation) and closer Jordan Romano (elbow inflammation) are slated to make rehab outings Thursday in Buffalo, and their returns could be getting closer. But a bullpen’s success is typically helped by the performance of the rotation. That’s why Bassitt was calling on his fellow starters to raise their level to meet the high bar they know they can reach.
“(Bassitt), Kev, José, they really want to keep raising the floor a little bit with what the expectations are,” Schneider said. “It’s something they talked about in spring training. I wasn’t surprised to hear (Bassitt) say that (he’s disappointed about the start). I feel like he’s always looking for something to get better at.”
(Photo of Yusei Kikuchi: Dan Hamilton / USA Today)
