TAMPA, Fla. – The Toronto Blue Jays and left-hander Yusei Kikuchi reached agreement on a $36-million, three-year deal, an industry source said Saturday, further bolstering what’s becoming one of the deeper pitching staffs in baseball.
Kikuchi will join a rotation that already featured Jose Berrios, Kevin Gausman, Hyun Jin Ryu and Alek Manoah, with Ross Stripling and Nate Pearson available to step in as needed. It’s a far cry from where they were back in 2019, when the rotation was so thin, manager Charlie Montoyo was left pointing to “an opener and a guy” as his next day’s probable starter.
Kikuchi turned down a $13-million player option from the Seattle Mariners earlier this winter after the club turned down its $66-million, four-year option following an all-star season in which the 30-year-old faded down the stretch.
The Blue Jays were interested in him when he first came over from Japan, and now he in essence fills the spot vacated by Steven Matz, who signed with the St. Louis Cardinals for $44 million over four years.
The agreement is the club’s second since the lockout ended after the club reached terms with lefty reliever Andrew Vasquez on Friday night.
They are far from done as the Blue Jays are still seeking an infielder, more bullpen help and possibly a left-handed hitting outfielder, too.
Kikuchi had an ERA of 4.41 with a WHIP of 1.318 and 9.3 strikeouts per nine innings over 157 innings last season and is the type of subtle-tinker job starter the Blue Jays have had success with in recent years.
Opponents last year batted just .176 and slugged .282 against a splitter that produced a 39.6 whiff rate. But it was his least used pitch, thrown 627 times fewer than his worst offering, a mediocre cutter that batters hit .276 and slugged .476 against, underperforming the expected numbers off the pitch.
Kikuchi’s whiff rates on both his fastball (30.3) and slider (31.2) are encouraging enough to believe that some usage changes could generate far better results, akin to the tweaks that helped straighten out Matz.
