Jays hoping for a really good Shoe
If pitcher stays healthy, he could bring stability to revamped rotation
Hyun-Jin Ryu’s debut for the Blue Jays in Friday night’s win against the Tampa Bay Rays wasn’t a vintage performance, but the left-hander’s composure went a long way toward eradicating the erratic nature of Toronto’s rotation over the past few seasons.
Matt Shoemaker is another player who could have a stabilizing effect on the pitching staff, the area most in need of improvement if the Jays want to return to the post-season.
Shoemaker doesn’t garner fanfare like the organization’s ace, Ryu, or its top prospect, Nate Pearson. And the numbers he put up last year — a 1.57 ERA through four-and-a-half starts before he tore his anterior cruciate ligament last April — are unrealistic. But if Shoemaker can get back to being a pitcher similar to the one he was from 2014 to 2016 with the Los Angeles Angels, when he put up a 3.80 ERA with eight strikeouts and 1.9 walks per nine innings, he could be a swing vote of sorts.
If three injury-riddled seasons are behind him and he can give the Jays another consistent veteran alongside Ryu, it could make a difference between contending for a playoff spot and lamenting another October spent at home.
“That’s going to be key for us. If he pitches anywhere close to what he did last year, we’re going to be a good team,” Jays manager Charlie Montoyo said.
He showed what an essential piece he can be in his season debut, allowing just one run and three hits over six innings in a 4-1 loss to the Tampa Bay Rays on Saturday.
The signs of a successful comeback have been there since the spring.
Shoemaker has used all of his pitches — four-seam fastball, splitter, sinker, slider and the occasional curveball — to generate soft contact. His fastball usage was at 18 per cent during his brief stint last season, down from almost 27 per cent from 2014 to 2016. That could make room for Shoemaker to employ other weapons, like a “deadly” sinker, according to Kyle Ray, a catcher Wayne State University who caught Shoemaker during the off-season and coronavirus shutdown.
“Not a lot of pitchers throw it, so it’s different to see that type of movement and stuff. It complements his other pitches,” Ray said of the sinker, which Shoemaker used almost 29 per cent of the time in 2019. Shoemaker and Ray would work for an hour to 90 minutes on long-toss days. On bullpen days, it would be around two to two-and-a-half hours. Ray said Shoemaker improved with every outing.
“Mechanics, to how his pitches were moving,” Ray said. “Velocity-wise, it was increasing every time. The way he was hitting his spots. Every time he threw his bullpen, you could see a difference.”
Higher velocity hasn’t always benefitted Shoemaker. With the exception of his curveball, his numbers jumped by about one mile an hour on each pitch between his rookie season in 2014, when he had a career year with a 3.04 ERA in 136 innings, and 2016, when he posted a 3.88 ERA in 160 innings and saw almost all his numbers falter incrementally. But his fastball was down to averaging 90.9 miles per hour in 2019 after being up around 91.6 miles per hour through the first six years of his career. A bump there would be a boost, and probably the benefit of his ACL rehab.
“Going through rehab, you strengthen your lower half so much,” he said this spring, “and, as we all know, as a pitcher, lower half is so important … I’m planting good and getting over that knee. Just those little movements. Any little movement you can do, nonpitching wise, you’re getting your body better. And when you get your body better, your pitching’s going to be better, too.”
Now he just needs the body to hold up. If he can make a dozen starts — the same number he made over the last two seasons combined — he may just be a game-changer for Toronto, a name that could be just as important as Ryu or Pearson.