Toronto Blue Jays’ Rotation Begins To Rebound After Rocky First Starts

The Toronto Blue Jays have designs on unseating the New York Yankees as the American League Central Division champions.

Last season, the Blue Jays finished with a very fine 92-70 record, good for second place in the division, 7 games behind the Yankees. The Yankees 99-63 record included an outstanding 57 wins at Yankee Stadium.

This offseason, the Blue Jays added outfielder/catcher Daulton Varsho from the National League Arizona Diamondbacks. The trade cost Toronto very promising young prospect catcher, Gabriel Moreno.

The Blue Jays also made some consequential free agent transactions in the offseason. They signed free agent first baseman Brandon Belt to a 1-year, $9.3 million contract. Kevin Kiermaier, an outstanding defensive center fielder, was signed to a 1-year, $9 million contract.

By far, one of the Blue Jays biggest offseason deals was the acquisition of right-handed starting pitcher Chris Bassitt, who signed a 3-year, $63 million deal that ends in 2025.

The rival Yankees completed two huge transactions themselves. The Yankees signed slugger Aaron Judge to a massive, 9-year, $360 million contract. They also agreed to a 6-year, $162 million deal with left-handed free agent starter Carlos Rodon. Rodon is currently resting and rehabilitating an elbow strain.

A “balanced schedule” for Major League Baseball is new this season. Instead of 76 division games, teams will now play only 52 games within their division.

Instead of playing each division rival 19 times, they will play their division opponents in only 13 games.

The new schedule structure will have a significant impact on the Blue Jays vs. Yankees. Every game they play against each other may be magnified in consequence.

Tough Opening Outings:

In their season opening series against the National League powerhouse St. Louis Cardinals, the Blue Jays experienced a bit of a hiccup. Actually, it may be characterized more as a melt down, requiring serious evaluation and review by the Blue Jays pitching coaches.

The problems? Two of the highly regarded Blue Jays starters were ineffective, struggling mightily.

Right-handed opening day starter Alek Manoah, 25, was pounded for 9 hits, and 5 earned runs in only 3.1 innings of work. He walked 2, struck out 3, and yielded 2 home runs.

The Blue Jays won the game despite his rocky start.

Manoah, an All Star last year, is coming off a season of 16 wins. His sparkling 2.24 Earned Run Average in 31 starts covering 196.2 innings were among the best in baseball.

Reason for concern? Not yet. It was only one start. But it wasn’t pretty.

Right-handed free agent acquisition Bassitt, 34, had a miserable outing in the team’s second game.

Bassitt went only 3.1 innings in the Blue Jays second game against St. Louis. He yielded 10 hits, and 9 earned runs. He gave up 4 home runs.

Bassitt did not walk or strike out any of the Cardinals hitters.

He is hoping for much better results in his second start.

Starter Kevin Gausman had the best outing among Manoah, Bassitt and Gausman. Gausman started the second game of the season, and lost to the Cardinals, 4-1. He went six innings, yielding 3 runs on 8 hits.

Interesting Statistics:

The home runs yielded by Manoah and Bassitt at Busch Stadium in St. Louis provided an interesting backdrop for the start of the Blue Jays season

Last season, Busch Stadium was ranked as the No. 26 most difficult venue for yielding home runs in MLB. A total of 82 home runs were hit at Busch.

Great American Ball Park, the home of the Reds in Cincinnati, yielded 150 home runs. Great American saw 26 more home runs hit in the park than any other MLB venue.

The problem for the Blue Jays? Rogers Centre, home of the Blue Jays, is friendly to hitters. Last year, 108 home runs were hit at Rogers Centre, the 9th most in baseball.

In their first starts of the season, Manoah and Bassitt tried to work through their early troubles, but things just didn’t go well.

But good pitchers recover from bad outings.

Manoah did just that in his second start. He recovered.

Manoah went seven innings in his second start, beating the the Kansas City Royals in a 3-0 shutout April 4 in Kansas City. He threw at gem at the Royals, yielding only one hit, while striking out five and walking four. He left after throwing 96 pitches.

Bassitt will have to wait until April 7 to redeem himself. He’ll be facing the Los Angeles Angels in Anaheim in his second start.

Berrios Struggles In Kansas City:

As if the issues with Manoah and Bassitt weren’t enough, right-hander Jose Berrios, 28, started game number 4. It was on the road again in Kansas City, and like Manoah and Bassitt, Berrios got clobbered.

In 5.2 innings, Berrios yielded 9 hits and 8 earned runs. He walked 2, and struck out 7.

Berrios threw 89 pitches, but only 56 for strikes. He left the game with a 12.71 Earned Run Average.

To be fair, much more success is expected from Manoah and Bassitt. However, if Toronto is to compete for an American League Central title, Berrios has to hold his own. He has to keep Toronto in games against teams not expected to be contenders. Like the Kansas City Royals.

Berrios is scheduled to face the Angels in Anaheim April 8. He will try to right his ship in his second start.

Yusei Kikuchi and four relief pitchers helped the Blue Jays get back on track April 4, ending a three game losing streak. Kikuchi, 31, went five innings, to get the win. He yielded 3 hits, and one earned run. His was an excellent start.

Conclusions:

The Toronto Blue Jays are highly regarded as a potential threat to the American League East supremacy of the New York Yankees.

The first four games of the new season brought significant struggles to three Blue Jays starting pitchers.

Alek Manoah, Chris Bassitt, and Jose Berrios all struggled in their first starts of the season.

But Toronto saw improvement with the game lefty Yusei Kikuchi started in the Blue Jays fifth game of the season. He got the victory over the Kansas City Royals, setting a new, more positive tone.

In the team’s first few games, Kevin Gausman, 32, gave his team an effort equal to his press clippings, as he defeated the Cardinals in the second game of the season. Then the three tough outings took place before Kikuchi’s victory quieted some critics.

But Alek Manoah came back strong in his second start, a shutout victory over the Royals.

Now, the team has to hope newly acquired Chris Bassitt can have a second outing to equal that of Manoah.