Short on games, but not on pitching
Hyun-Jin Ryu is standing just about where he was 113 days ago — on the bump as the ace of the Blue Jays pitching staff and likely to take the ball come opening day. Whenever and wherever that might be.
Just as predictably, the team is all pearl-clutching about the status of their stud mound prospect, Nate Pearson, loathe to definitively designate the whence and wherefore of the flame-throwing right-hander, just as they were before Major League Baseball suspended spring training on March 13 because of the coronavirus pandemic.
Ryu remains a sure thing, albeit now with his family increased by one baby and one mother-in-law in Dunedin situ. Pearson, who had eyes popping at the vernal bivouacs, now might have a better shot at making the starting rotation given a whole heap o’ variables and how-does-this-work muddle of a quickstep training camp and 60-game regular season.
The reconvened players were scheduled to fly to Toronto on Sunday, assuming no snags in their COVID-19 intake protocols. And who wouldn’t want to get the hell out of Florida right now, given that recalcitrant state’s surging contamination level. Yes, there are a multitude of logistical questions about how the only Canadian MLB franchise will pull off this leap into the unknown, not least of which where the club will play its games since no approval for cross-border travel has yet been given by three levels of government and a fistful of health authorities.
But hissy fits from some of the commentariat notwithstanding — what, you mean professional athletes might be treated different from the hoi-polloi, why I never — let’s just put the focus on baseball, a salve for the soul in these twitchy times.
“Nate’s been fantastic,” Jays general manager Ross Atkins told reporters on a Saturday conference call, stating the obvious before segueing into Ross-speak. “His desire to use all of the resources and communicate consistently and have a consistent routine is elite for a major-league player. It has certainly been elite for someone where he is. So, as he was in spring training, we talked about what is going to be best for his development, what is going to be the absolutely best thing for him to do, not just the first five days of spring training” – actually, summer training — “but as we learn more and more, as we get everybody into camp, see everyone’s status, then we’ll make those decisions as we get closer to opening day.”
Which is not as adamantly anti-Nate as Atkins sounded back in March in conversations about whether the 23-year-old might break camp with the club rather than start in the minors. Because now, of course, there will be no minorleague baseball in 2020.
Pearson has always been projected as a pure starter. But with only 1012⁄ 3 innings thrown across three teams last season, just 18 of them at triple-A, that would be an exceptional step up, keeping in mind how cautious the Jays have been with their emerging gems and, of course, that whole service manipulation thing, although it’s being pro-rated over the 2020 66-day calendar, meaning Pearson needs to stay in the minors for just over a week to secure the club an additional year of team control in 2026.
With no limit on the number of pitchers a team can carry in this bewildering new normal, it’s possible Pearson can start in the bullpen. No wait, Atkins says that’s a non-starter. “I don’t think that we’ll consider that for Nate, as a pure relief role. But we’ll consider for all of our pitchers, how do we maximize development, put them in the best situation to make a significant impact. We just feel so strongly about Nate Pearson’s ability to start that we’ll prioritize.”
There obviously wouldn’t be much “developing” for Pearson should he be pointed to Buffalo, where the rump of the nonroster is headed to play pretend baseball. But an expanded roster of 30 players (to start) buys interesting space for Pearson and several other prospects. And nobody knows, of course, how players will rotate in and out should anyone test COVID-positive in the coming months. The Jays have already put four players from their 60-man pool on the 10day injured list, amidst speculation they might have tested positive.
Baseball is still coming to grips with a dramatically altered landscape. Nothing is a sure thing.
Except Ryu, as Toronto’s matinee off-season free agent signing, is as close to a sure impactful thing as the Jays can get. Never before has an ace been more significant to a team’s helter-skelter fortunes.
“He’s in a great spot,” Atkins assured. “He’s been working out consistently in Dunedin.” With anxious eyes on him.
“We talk about depth. Now we’ll be able to use our depth differently. We don’t have to get through 162 (games). The value of an ace in a shortened season versus a longer season is hard thing to put your finger on because it really just depends on how many starts they make. But the importance of winning and the importance of having someone you can count on every five days is something that’s definitely going to be at the forefront.”
The general manager was quick to emphasize that health and safety, of players and staff, is the crucial consideration as they go about their bubble existence in group training sessions that begin Monday. “What has been so loud and what has made us so proud is their focus on one another. And that has quickly shifted their mindset to what it takes to win. The discussion has become largely about winning and what we have to do to make that happen, in the world that we’re living in today and the circumstances that we’re under.”
Heading into the weekend, MLB had reported 38 positive test results among players and staff — a minuscule 1.2 per cent of 3,185 test samples. Nineteen clubs had one or more individuals testing positive.
With no precedent to provide a road map, and the alwayspresent possibility of injuries — less time on the calendar to recover and return — the playing field doesn’t necessarily tip toward what would have been odds-on favourite teams. Certainly the youthful Jays, with a clutch of ripened boldface sophomores, have high expectations to at least be vigorously competitive. The swell of urgency is a common denominator.
“We’ve thought about the roster construction, the number of games that we’ll be playing, and the creative ways to maximize what we feel is a very versatile group, a dynamic group with a lot of upside,” said Atkins. “The way we’re thinking about it is that we’ll be in a position to potentially not overexpose some guys while capitalizing upon some of the strengths, the diversity and the extremely athletic skill-sets that we feel we have.”
The pitching arms, of course, are the nucleus thing. Fifteen weeks ago, the mound cadre was nicely stretched out; then they had to ratchet it down. Now there’s a fortnight to get game-ready.
“I feel what is going to separate teams, after the health factor, is the ability to have arms in a healthy place. We had to encourage guys to ramp down because, as you can imagine, of their competitive instinct. It was hard for them to really come down after ramping up so aggressively. But they did, to a man. Then strategically started to ramp back up as we were getting updates on what the potential timing could be.”
On the low side, the pitchers arrive in Toronto with one inning of live BP on the individual program; on the high side, four innings of simulated work. But there’s bulk in numbers. “If one of our starting pitchers is only able to make it through four innings or three innings in his first start, then we’ll be prepared to offset that.”
It likely won’t be pretty, for any team. But it’s baseball, right? It will be beautiful.