LOS ANGELES – Decision time on Shane Bieber is coming soon, which means two cliches working overtime around the Toronto Blue Jays – baseball has a way of figuring these things out and this is a good problem to have – will have to give way to actual answers.
A small stretch of runway remains, as the 2020 AL Cy Young Award winner is likely to make one more rehab start before activation from the injured list. But his start Saturday for triple-A Buffalo at Worcester – 5.2 innings, 78 pitches, two runs on four hits and a walk with six strikeouts – put him on the cusp of a return and barring a sudden change in circumstance, there’s no open roster spot for him to fill.
So, space will have to be created for him and the Blue Jays are thinking about simply adding him to the rotation, even as manager John Schneider said they “haven’t really decided if it’s definitely going to be a six-man yet.”
“It’s a definite possibility that we do that for 10 days or two weeks,” he added. “But haven’t finalized it.”
There are challenges to running a six-man, even if it is for now the simplest solution, as the Blue Jays have four off-days in a 19-day span Aug. 21-Sept. 8, making excessive rest an issue between outings one disruptive concern. Another is carrying a seven-man bullpen rather than the current eight relievers through a crucial stretch.
Schneider said the Blue Jays talked to their starters “right after the deadline and the message hasn’t changed. It’s get ready to pitch when your turn comes and we’ll figure out a good problem if that does come into play in another week and a half or so.”
A more immediate problem in the interim is finding a way to handle the Los Angeles Dodgers, who romped to a second straight win over the Blue Jays, 9-1 on Saturday night. Blake Snell overmatched them in five shutout innings, striking out 10 while allowing only three hits and three walks, while one of the sport’s most formidable lineups wore down Chris Bassitt for three runs – two on a Max Muncy homer in the fourth and another on Shohei Ohtani’s 40th homer of the season in the fifth – before roughing up Yariel Rodriguez and Seranthony Dominguez for a six-spot in the sixth.
The loss was an eighth in the last 13 games for the Blue Jays (68-50), with three of the wins during that stretch coming against the inept Colorado Rockies. The San Diego Padres did them a solid by beating the Boston Red Sox 5-4 in 10 innings, keeping their lead atop the AL East at three games, but the Dodgers (68-49) are exposing all kinds of vulnerabilities.
That the Blue Jays’ skid coincides with George Springer’s absence underlines how much they miss him, especially against elite lefties like the ones they’ve faced at Dodger Stadium. Another looms in Sunday’s finale when Tyler Glasnow starts against Eric Lauer, while Springer remains with Buffalo, unable to meet the thresholds in MLB’s concussion protocol to resume play.
Compounding matters is that their bullpen allowed close games to unravel on consecutive days, against a calibre of lineup that sets the bar for October baseball.
Now, everything about the Dodgers is enviable but notable for the Blue Jays as they ponder how to onboard Bieber is the way they’ve eased their way into a six-man rotation.
Between Ohtani’s build-up after reconstructive elbow surgery, injuries at different points of the season to Snell, Glasnow, Clayton Kershaw and Roki Sasaki, they’ve juggled their way through a lot. But they’re now running Kershaw, Snell, Glasnow, Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Emmet Sheehan and Ohtani in the rotation and making it work.
Given the cumulative workload on Jose Berrios, Kevin Gausman and Bassitt, not to mention Max Scherzer’s struggles with his thumb, some extra rest could very well be beneficial “for all of them, really at this time of the year,” said Schneider. “They’ve been really durable and they’ve thrown a lot of innings in a lot of consecutive years, knock on wood. But it’s a fine line of having that extra rest and then trying to adjust your routine in between starts where you’ve got to do something a little bit different if it is six, seven days consistently.”
How to slot in Bieber isn’t the only major question looming for the Blue Jays with both Andres Gimenez, perhaps as soon as Tuesday versus the Chicago Cubs, and Springer on the horizon. As things stand, Gimenez likely pushes Buddy Kennedy off the roster, but once Springer is ready, there are only difficult choices as no one is deserving of a demotion.
“It’ll be tough because there’s going to be probably one uncomfortable conversation,” said Schneider. “You watch what guys are doing, you look at how they’re working, the adjustments they’re working on and how they’re going to fit in relative to who else will be here. We’ve dealt with it before where some guys are better suited to play every day. Some guys are better suited for part time. We’ll take that into consideration too. But it’ll really come down to who’s performing, how, when and, who we’re going to be playing and how they’re going to be used.”
