Future might be now for Pearson
Lack of pitching moves puts more on shoulders of 24-year-old starter
As Ross Atkins talked Wednesday about adding more major pieces to the Blue Jays roster, particularly the rotation, he weighed improving the team against ensuring opportunity for arms already in the organization.
“We’re at the point now where if we were to acquire two major pieces it would require, likely, some subtracting from our roster, not for financial reasons, just because of opportunity reasons,” the Blue Jays general manager said.
“At some point you start to run out of the opportunity for growth and for development for guys that we really do believe in.”
Hours later, the Jays added a potential major piece, trading minor-league pitchers Sean Reid-Foley, Yennsy Diaz and Josh Winckowski to the New York Mets in exchange for southpaw Steven Matz.
Matz joins a growing list of back-end starting options already on the Jays roster, including Robbie Ray, Tanner Roark, Ross Stripling and Shun Yamaguchi. And while an addition like that might limit majorleague opportunities for guys like Julian Merryweather, Anthony Kay and Thomas Hatch out of the gate, there will be no shortage of room for growth and development for righthander Nate Pearson.
With no No. 2 or No. 3 starter signed to date, and the Matz’s $5.2-million (U.S.) salary in 2021 possibly limiting Toronto’s ability to go out and acquire the likes of James Paxton, Taijuan Walker or Jake Odorizzi, the importance of the 24-yearold future ace’s second bigleague season increases.
The question is, can he handle so much responsibility so early on in his career?
Pearson, who landed at No. 5 on Keith Law’s annual list of baseball’s top 100 prospects on Thursday, showed he has the stuff to compete in the big leagues. He went head-to-head with Washington Nationals ace Max Scherzer in his debut, with six innings of no-run ball, and sizzled in his final appearance, striking out five batters in two innings of relief against the Tampa Bay Rays in the playoffs.
He hopes to build on those outings in 2021 by prioritizing his command and throwing even more strikes this off-season. It’s an area where the team as a whole needs to get better.
“I learned a lot this year,” Pearson told MLB Tonight earlier this month. “I felt like a little bit last year I tried to be too fine and tried to paint corners too much, rather than really just attacking the zone. After I came back from my injury, I really just took that to heart and tried to attack guys and it really worked out for me.”
For all that good, Pearson’s durability will remain a question mark until he proves otherwise. Since his first professional season in 2017, he has tossed over 20 1/3 innings just once, when he logged 101 2⁄3 frames in 2019. A flexor strain limited Pearson to just 18 innings in 2020.
Whether or not the Jays will have to be more creative with how they employ their pitching will depend on three things, Atkins said. There’s what the front office does with the remainder of the off-season, the willingness, or not, of their arms to take on less traditional roles, and the performance of starting pitching in the short term.
How Pearson holds up will be critical to ensuring Toronto’s rotation is a strength in 2021. The same can be said for Ray, who the Jays signed back in November as a potential wild card in their rotation. He was the first free agent off the board and the signing was generally regarded as a gamble that might work if recent changes Ray made to his mechanics help him with his command — and if Toronto added another pluspitcher to ace Hyun-Jin Ryu and Pearson through free agency or trade.
The Jays haven’t done that, which makes Ray getting back to the guy he was in 2018, a guy who went 6-2 with a 3.93 ERA in 24 starts, all the more important. As it stands now, the pressure is on both he and Pearson to fill holes that the Jays front office has, to date, left open.