TORONTO — Over the last four weeks Yimi Garcia has quietly re-established himself as a reliable and dominant leverage reliever for the Toronto Blue Jays, not allowing a run in his past 11 appearances, giving up just six hits and a walk with 10 strikeouts during that span.
Contrast that against his uncharacteristic start to the year, when he took damage in 12 of his first 31 outings en route to a 5.83 earned-run average and .846 OPS against, with the chatter about him focused on pitch location and selection as potential issues.
The difference between then and now?
“Well, to be honest with you, I think it was more like maybe I was tipping something than command because most of the time I was making very, very good pitches and they still were making good contact,” Garcia said through interpreter Hector Lebron. “I think it was more like tipping than command.”
Team staff spent hours spent pouring over video of the 32-year-old right-hander, eventually spotting a possible tell with his glove.
Check out these two screengrabs from his May 21 outing against the Baltimore Orioles, when he allowed five runs, four earned, in two-thirds of an inning.
On the left, his glove is about at his chin as he comes set to deliver a fastball to Cedric Mullins, who drove it for a double. On the right, his glove is up by his eyes as he readies to deliver a curveball that Gunnar Henderson turns around for a single.
Of note is that Garcia gave up runs in all three of his outings against the Orioles and both of his appearances versus the Tampa Bay Rays.
While Garcia didn’t want to get into details, he admitted that “we made some changes on the glove position. Sometimes I had it one way, sometimes for some pitches another way. So we made some changes.”
His return to form is timely for the Blue Jays, who are deciding how to augment their team before the trade deadline.
With Garcia, Erik Swanson, Tim Mayza and an increasingly reliable Nate Pearson bridging the gap to closer Jordan Romano, plus the potential addition in the weeks ahead of Chad Green, the veteran reliever building up post Tommy John surgery, GM Ross Atkins could devote his limited prospect capital to other areas of need.
While there’s always room for another bullpen arm, Garcia, who has stranded all 16 of his inherited runners this season, and whose been in the upper percentiles in suppressing hard contact, limiting walks, striking out batters and predictive stats, seems like a weapon of choice again.
“I’m going to go to war out there every time,” he said of his mindset. “I’m ready to go out there and battle and give all I’ve got for my team.”
Rotation shuffle
The left side discomfort that led to Kevin Gausman getting scratched from his start Saturday is easing, with the all-star righty playing catch Sunday morning. But with an off-day Monday allowing the Blue Jays to juggle their rotation, they are doing just that, pushing him back to at least the weekend in Seattle to “give Kev a little extra rest,” said manager John Schneider.
Alek Manoah makes his first start of the second half in Tuesday’s series opener against the San Diego Padres, followed by Jose Berrios and Chris Bassitt. Yusei Kikuchi will be ready to start Friday’s opener at Seattle against the Mariners, so the Blue Jays could wait until Saturday to reinsert Gausman, or they could flip him and the lefty if he’s ready to go sooner.
“We’re still taking it day-by-day to see where he fits into the rotation,” said Schneider, adding later: “But he’s doing better every day.”
Ryu’s Runway
A return to the Blue Jays rotation for Hyun Jin Ryu has gone from a distant possibility to a looming reality, with the veteran left-hander getting up to 66 pitches during five innings of one-run ball with triple-A Buffalo on Saturday.
The outing was his third since a July 4 Florida Complex League outing opened a rehab assignment, which can last up to 30 days and offers a potential timeline. For Ryu, that assignment can run through Aug. 2, enough time to both make three more starts and get up to 100 pitches.
In theory, the Blue Jays could also bring Ryu back early if Gausman’s left side discomfort doesn’t ease before the weekend, but that isn’t ideal for the 36-year-old recovering from Tommy John surgery.
GM Ross Atkins said recently the club wouldn’t activate Ryu unless he was fully built up and while plans change, he is also still regaining arm strength.
With the Bisons on Saturday, he averaged 87.9 m.p.h. with his four-seamer, still 1.4 m.p.h. off his 2022 average before blowing out his elbow, although he topped out at 89.8. His cutter, sitting 85.2, is still off his previous average of 86, while his changeup and curveball are both down, as well.
That’s normal but reinforces why the Blue Jays should be patient.
Another thing to consider is that they need to be fair to the player, a pending free agent, while trying to recoup some value for the $20 million he’s earning this season, so there’s a lot to balance on a matter coming to a head soon.
Quotable
“If you look at our team approach and stuff like that, you’d probably find that we’re in advantage counts, something that we’re defintiely trying to get focused on, of getting into those 2-0 advantage counts and then go from there. It’s been a great job on everybody’s behalf, one-through-nine in the lineup, to be selective but be aggressive, kind of hone in on the heart of the plate.” — Danny Jansen on the Blue Jays’ approach against the Arizona Diamondbacks.
