TORONTO – Chris Bassitt’s locker-mates during his days with the Oakland Athletics were Marcus Semien, Matt Olson and Matt Chapman. Inside the New York Mets clubhouse, it was Pete Alonso and Jeff McNeil. With the Toronto Blue Jays the past two years, however, he found himself neighboured by his fellow starters in a room largely split between pitchers in one half and position players in the others.
“This was the only clubhouse I’ve been in that didn’t have” players from different parts of the team mixed together in their locker assignments, said the veteran right-hander. “You have better baseball communication, you have better understanding of your teammates (when groups are scrambled). I can see things from pitcher perspective. I’m talking to a position player, they’re seeing things that I’m doing. The communication and the conversation is a lot more positive and more constructive to winning.”
To that end, Bassitt suggested a wide-scale clubhouse reset to a few of his teammates during the off-season, they fully endorsed the idea and then they took it to manager John Schneider, who “was all for it, he loved it.” While the spring training locker-room in Dunedin, Fla., was almost totally split by player group, once they arrived in Toronto, the alignment was completely different.
“Bassitt called me and asked me my opinion on it and I was on board with it,” said Bo Bichette. “It seems like a small thing and it might be a small thing. But just to get everybody talking, get everybody on the same page instead of having, I guess, departments, it’ll be good for the team to get to know each other in every part.”
Small or not, the motivation behind the clubhouse shuffle is demonstrative of the way the Blue Jays are seeking every little edge they can find this season. Doing that on the field is what matters most, of course, and the Blue Jays were certainly opportunistic Friday night in an 8-2 thumping of the Baltimore Orioles.
The heavy lifting came in the fourth inning when none of their five runs came home as the direct result of a base hit. Nathan Lukes’ bases-loaded walk cut into a 2-0 deficit, Alan Roden’s sacrifice fly tied the game, a Charlie Morton wild pitch allowed Will Wagner to scurry in with the go-ahead run, Vladimir Guerrero Jr. padded the lead with another sacrifice fly before a Jorge Mateo throwing error after an Anthony Santander single brought home Bichette.
While the Blue Jays continue to seek more big-blow damage, the inning was an example of the use-the-right-club-for-the-moment approach they want their hitters employing simultaneously.
“Without home runs, those were really, really good at-bats,” said Schneider. “Underrated at-bat from Lukey, 3-2 walk, it’s hard to take 3-2. A lot of guys, historically around the league, they chase 3-2. That kind of set the tone for Alan and on down the road when you turn it back over. Everyone did a really good job of doing what the situation asked for.”
Runs arrived in a more traditional way in the sixth inning, when Bichette added an RBI single that made it 6-2, and in the seventh, when Ernie Clement ripped a two-run double to further bolster the advantage before a crowd of 26,289.
All of that backed a resurgent Kevin Gausman, who topped out at 97.8 m.p.h. with his fastball and sat 95.4 – a healthy 1.4 m.p.h. above his 2024 average – as he held the Orioles to two runs and three hits on six strong innings. He used it as his primary weapon during an outing in which his splitter generated only two of his 11 whiffs, while he sprinkled in 11 sliders that produced a called strike, four foul balls and one groundout.
“I’ve always said I’m only good if I can command my fastball,” said Gausman. “You could tell that they had an approach and kind of stuck to it. And we did our best to kind of manoeuvre through that. But it was coming out good, and that’s why we threw more of them.”
Gausman’s fastball velocity was a moving target last season following a truncated spring training due to a shoulder issue, all of which prompted him to bulk up over the winter with the goal of remaining above 200 pounds this season.
“It helps his delivery and that’s his biggest key,” said Schneider. “When his delivery is in synch, he’s good. And when you’re fluctuating with your weight, I feel like you can get out of whack a little bit and just with your body awareness. … It’s not going to make him throw any harder, I don’t think, but just being a little bit more consistent with how he’s moving down the mound.”
The late add-on runs made for a low-leverage finish in the final innings, although lefty Brendon Little left the game in the middle of an at-bat to Colton Cowser after a left lat cramp prevented him from properly throwing a curveball. He’ll be re-evaluated on Saturday.
Little’s locker, which had been clustered among the relievers last year, is now just past those of Daulton Varsho and George Springer, who had two of the Blue Jays’ 14 hits. When the outfielder was with the Houston Astros, he remembers their clubhouse being arranged by “outfielders with the outfielders, infielders with the infielders, starters and catchers on one side, and relievers all in a row.”
“When they have the position guys with each other, it’s because you can talk about what you’re going to do, hitting fielding all that stuff,” said Springer. “Now that I’m near Little, it’ll be cool to see how he goes about his day, to see how he prepares. Being a reliever, you’re on every night unless you’re down. So being next to somebody that’s going through the same kind of process as I am of being on every night will be cool.”
And, ultimately, that extra bit of insight into all parts of the team is the goal Bassitt was looking for when he was thinking of “little weird things that we can do to improve that people don’t even think about” during the off-season.
“I’d love to be around (Max) Scherzer and Gausy and all them the entire day, but the reality is we spend so much time together that I don’t need even more time with them. I’d rather be around other people that I’m not really around (during daily work),” added Bassitt. “If you’re around the same group, you can complain and not see the whole picture, so to speak. It’s a lot easier for me to be next to a position player and them to keep me in check than being next to Gaus and just talk pitching the entire day. It’s just a different perspective.”
