RYU ISOLATES AND IS WAITING NOW FOR A DIFFERENT DELIVERY
In a closer to perfect, non-pandemic world, Hyun-Jin Ryu would be well into bringing returns to the biggest contract signed by a Toronto Blue Jays pitcher in club history.
Rather than looking forward to a likely fifth start for his new team, however, the South Korean lefty is biding his time in Dunedin, Fla., where, like most of us, life is moving at a much slower pace.
In the weeks since Blue Jays players started vacation at the team’s spring and winter home, Ryu has celebrated his 33rd birthday, settled into the area home of former Jays catcher Russell Martin and spent plenty of time with his wife, Ji-Hyun Bae, who is coming up on eight months pregnant.
All the while, the clock has started on that four-year, US$80-million contract he signed in December, an acquisition that generated considerable excitement around the Jays.
The economy of Major League Baseball will have far-reaching consequences around the game, but in the Jays’ case at least, losing part of the first season of the big Ryu contract wouldn’t be as bothersome as later in the term.
Still, his debut being indefinitely on hold is high on the list of frustrating aspects to the COVID-19 crisis. To help him cope, the Jays front office and coaching staff have been in regular contact with Ryu, much of it through his translator Bryan Lee. So far, all is as well as can be for the team’s ace-in-waiting.
Once camp was dramatically shuttered and it was clear that travelling to Toronto — where the Ryus had expected to have their child — or back home to South Korea wasn’t going to work, the team did its best to ensure Ryu was in good hands.
Jays staff explored multiple options in medical care, which ultimately led to them settling on an arrangement in which they would feel comfortable. Given the time in Dunedin was going to be extended, Ryu was reportedly in touch with Martin — who caught most of his games with the Dodgers last season — and the couple was offered the opportunity to move into his home.
From a baseball standpoint, Ryu has kept busy enough, albeit clearly pulling back from the workload he had built up to in Grapefruit League play where he was approaching the form that would have had him get the ball from manager Charlie Montoyo for the March 26 home and season opener.
As someone familiar with Ryu’s routine described it last week, he’s in “January form,” working out regularly at the team’s Dunedin facilities and staying sharp enough to ramp up in intensity if and when that time comes.
While it would be difficult for those in the organization to be more impressed with Ryu than his 2019 efforts in which he had the lowest ERA among qualified MLB starters, seeing him close up certainly reaffirmed the attraction.
First was the signing itself and the reverberations it made around baseball, both in the money spent and significance of landing a player from the high-profile shed of super agent Scott Boras. When he arrived in Dunedin, the positive first impressions continued.
As a source who spent significant time around Ryu in February and March noted, he quickly became a positive figure in the Jays clubhouse, winning over his teammates despite the language barrier.
“One of the things we were so impressed with was the ease in how he transitioned and was embraced,” the source said. “He just fit right in right away and was upbeat and positive.”
Then the Jays saw him go to work. First, it was his professional approach to fitness and his daily routine. That evolved naturally into his in-game work, which was steadily progressing.
“You watch him work and you watch how meticulous he is with certain things in between and during his games, and you see that he’s got a really good idea of what he wants to do,” Jays major league coach John Schneider said before camp was shut down. “And then he goes out there and executes.”
So there’s been quiet time with his wife as they prepare to have their baby delivered in Tampa before baseball returns. As for the other delivery — the return on the Jays investment — that must wait. rlongley@postmedia.com