Stroman’s progress giving Gibbons food for thought
How rehabbing starter does on Monday for Triple-A Bisons could force Jays to make room
“If everything goes well, he looks good, he feels fine, he could come and start a game or two for us.” JAYS MANAGER JOHN GIBBONS ON MARCUS STROMAN
The Rogers Centre in the pre-game, before the Orioles and Jays squared off, was a beehive of media activity, with TV cameras, reporters and officials in suits.
It was an on-field scene normally associated with playoffs. As it turned out, the day’s major newsmakers were the Jays’ rehabbing starter Marcus Stroman and Canadian Liberal leader Justin Trudeau. There were parallel thoughts for both men. The common question was “Maybe they’re just not ready?” and the observation, “Nice hair.”
Stroman, for his part, is rejoining the Jays for the weekend following his first start in a real professional game in 341 days, this being for the Lansing Lugnuts, where he threw 69 pitches of no-hit ball against a Class-A team called the Loons on Wednesday. He will fly with the Jays to Boston.
As excited as Stroman was about his Midwest League performance and the health of his wounded knee, his next start on Monday — for the Triple-A Buffalo Bisons in Pawtucket, R.I. — becomes the important one for manager John Gibbons in determining an actual role down the stretch. Just the fact the organization believes he can play a role is a major victory for Stroman and his rehab process.
“We’ve got to see how the game Monday goes,” Gibbons cautioned.
“If everything goes well, he looks good, he feels fine, he could come and start a game or two for us.”
It’s funny Gibbons feels that way now.
When Aaron Sanchez was in the minors on an injury-rehab option, the Jays, and especially the manager, felt there wasn’t enough time for him to get enough starts to stretch out and rejoin the rotation. Gibbons forced the issue of bringing him back as a reliever because, in his mind, that’s always how he saw Sanchez in 2015.
“The big part of Sanchy doing what he’s doing (as an eighth-inning man), we needed to beef up our bullpen,” Gibbons said. “That was the key part there. That’s where I thought we needed him. Other people wanted to see him start, but I thought we needed him down in the ’pen, the way things were going. Plus, he was coming off an arm injury, a lat injury, and this guy (Stroman) is coming off a knee. So he’s been throwing for six months now.”
When will he start? Even though Gibbons is not ready to commit to a firm date for Stroman, coming off knee surgery in March, to make his initial outing of 2015, the manager dropped some clues.
Gibbons flipped starts for Mark Buehrle and David Price for Saturday and Sunday this weekend, the reason being Buehrle, at his age, could use an extra day’s rest. But the manager also stated that even with the change, he wants Price to face the Yankees twice over the next 14 days. Price’s starts against New York will be next Thursday and Sept. 21, the first games of the series in the Bronx and at Rogers Centre. In between, Price will have to be given an extra day of rest to create the Yankee matchups.
So where could Stroman ease his way into the picture? The only series left on the schedule outside of the AL East is Sept. 15-17 in Atlanta, following an off-day at the end of the series in the Bronx. After his Monday minor-league outing, the earliest Stroman could be available would be Saturday or Sunday at Yankee Stadium; Marco Estrada and R.A. Dickey are starting those games.
The opener in Atlanta on Sept. 15 is slated to be Drew Hutchison’s game. Gibbons and pitching coach Pete Walker arranged the rotation for the last trip so Hutchison, with a 9.00 ERA away from Rogers Centre, did not make a road start. Stroman would be pitching on his eighth day and Hutchison would be fresh and ready to go in case there was trouble. It all makes sense.
“If he gets a spot start, if it’s right after his one down in Pawtucket on Monday, we wouldn’t sit him for a couple days and bring him out of the ’pen,” Gibbons hinted. “If it’s good, we might start him again. But if it’s not, then maybe we throw him in the ’pen (the rest of the way), but he’s going to need a few days off. It’s still up in the air. His arm’s fine, but is everything else fine?”
The Jays have planned their rotation through the end of their final homestand.
Once the Jays’ post-season status has been determined — at any point on the final trip through Baltimore and Tampa Bay — Stroman would have his opportunity for a second start.
But make no mistake — what the 24-year-old right-hander has done already, in coming back from a torn ACL in less than six months, has been remarkable.