TORONTO – The Toronto Blue Jays arrived at Tropicana Field on the upswing, riding a recent surge toward meeting their grand ambitions. They return to their temporary Buffalo home in a quandary, one unrelated to their four-game split with the Tampa Bay Rays.
How to approach the next week ahead of the Aug. 31 trade deadline is all kinds of tricky for GM Ross Atkins after Trent Thornton, as expected, became the club’s third starting pitcher to hit the injured list over the past week Monday.
Losing him to elbow inflammation on the heels of Nate Pearson’s elbow tightness and Matt Shoemaker’s lat strain moved the need for more rotation innings from looming issue to an urgent problem. Chase Anderson, who threw a season-high 78 pitches his last time out after opening the season on the IL, starts Tuesday but he’s followed by a couple of TBAs around Hyun-Jin Ryu’s next outing Thursday.
That’s the kind of thing that can undermine a tenacious group that continues to grind out games and deliver results, rallying for a 6-4 win in the finale versus the Rays on Randal Grichuk’s three-run homer in the seventh.
The Blue Jays head into a seven-game homestand against Boston and Baltimore at 14-13, in possession of a playoff spot, and with some critical decisions to make.
“Honestly, I feel like today was the biggest win of the year,” said manager Charlie Montoyo. “I might be saying that every day from now on. But against that team, the way they played, as good as they are, coming here and being 2-2 and playing four good games against them … and then losing our pitching and everything that’s going on – that’s why I felt like today was the biggest win of the year.”
Anthony Kay, who’s been a good weapon out of the bullpen, and Jacob Waguespack are the likeliest candidates on the current roster to start, especially after Thomas Hatch delivered another two innings of quality relief behind Tanner Roark, who allowed three runs over five innings.
Hatch may factor for the Blue Jays on Friday, but he, Kay, Waguespack and Julian Merryweather are all 40-45 pitch max guys right now, so there isn’t an arm or two the club can concentrate some bulk in. There’s not much to pick from at the alternate training site, either, and there will be a comeuppance if they continue to distribute innings the way they are right now.
Hence, if the Blue Jays front office is as aspirational about this summer as its players are, the time is now to work the trade market for some impact innings ahead of next Monday’s trade deadline, not simply a body to absorb the workload.
“We obviously think we have playoff-calibre players on our team,” said Cavan Biggio, the leadoff man and catalyst who scored twice and knocked in a pivotal insurance run. “It’s all about putting it together. We’ve been slowly putting it together from the beginning of the season. Our bullpen has been as good as it can be all year long. We started off slow with the bats and now we’re able to put some consistent at-bats together and put runs up on the board.
“Just putting it all together,” he continued, “I believe that we have a really good chance of making the playoffs.”
Sunday night’s acquisition of slugger Daniel Vogelbach was a zero-risk add that gives Montoyo a power bat for a bench lacking impact, a move easily undone if the 27-year-old can’t quickly correct his .476 OPS. They’ll need something more inspired than a similar lightning-in-a-bottle pick-up to stabilize a rotation that must do more to pick up a terrific but overburdened bullpen.
The question for the Blue Jays, then, is how much do they invest in this weird and uncertain 27-game sample amid a pandemic when an outbreak could undo everything in an instant?
In some ways, the 2020 group is like a promising start-up in need of some venture capital to grow, with GM Ross Atkins and Co., investors who must decide how much money to infuse so the club can scale at a sensible and sustainable pace.
Through that prism, surrendering real assets for a rental doesn’t make much sense, as the Blue Jays may need that prospect capital to help bolster the rotation in the off-season. Spending to get a starter with term makes sense, but that’s going to be tough to pull off with pitching across the game in disarray due to the circumstances created by the pandemic.
So, that leaves a talent-for-talent challenge trade, or trying to use the financial flexibility they have in the coming years to make salary relief the prime return for potential trading partners.
Whatever path they choose will be indicative of not only the trade market, but of how the Blue Jays value the opportunity to take a run at a playoff spot under the expanded format being used this year, with the group they have in place.
Monday’s win was another example of why this group is worth betting on.
They grinded out Blake Snell just enough to keep the Rays ace from completing six innings, a Lourdes Gurriel Jr., solo shot in the with two out in the sixth cutting the Blue Jays deficit to 3-2, ending his afternoon.
After Hatch held it there in the bottom half, they caught a break in the top half, when Santiago Espinal worked a two-out walk and Biggio reached on Mike Zunino’s catcher interference. That brought up Grichuk to face lefty Aaron Loup, and the centre-fielder yanked a cutter just over the wall in left-field corner for a three-run shot that put the Blue Jays up 5-3.
“Randal did a great job, sucking his hands in and keeping it fair,” said Roark. “I didn’t think it was going to stay fair the way he hit it and where the pitch was. That was a pitcher’s pitch in, so that was good to see him keep it straight, keep it fair.”
An Espinal throwing error in the eighth allowed Ji-Man Choi to score and make it a one-run game, but Rafael Dolis held the line and Biggio’s RBI double, after Espinal reached on a Willy Adames throwing error, gave Jordan Romano some extra breathing room in the ninth.
The Canadian locked things down for his second save, as the Blue Jays finished the season at 4-6 against the Rays, four of those losses by one run.
“Early in the season we lost some games that we all believe we should have won, especially early on and especially to these guys,” said Biggio. “Whenever you can get something going your way, mistake or not, it’s huge. Momentum is definitely huge, there’s no crowd, we’re all pretty much playing for each other and the guys beside us. Whenever you can get something to swing your way, no matter what, it obviously helps.”
Some extra depth on the bench would help, too, as would the eventual return of Bo Bichette, but the priority before next Monday has to be more starting pitching to ensure the bullpen isn’t running on fumes in a couple of weeks.
Boosts are due to come. Bichette is expected to return at some point next month, closer Ken Giles continues to throw and Pearson is progressing well after six days without throwing, although word from his second opinion was also still pending. Thornton is also getting a second opinion on his elbow, and given that it’s his second time on the IL, caution will be needed. Shoemaker’s status is “week-to-week,” said Montoyo, and when the remaining runway is only a matter of weeks, he can’t be counted on to return.
Grichuk left the game with lower back tightness after his homer – Montoyo said it was a byproduct of four days on the Trop’s turf and credited his centre-fielder for being in the lineup at all – another speed bump for a club well used to them.
An extra hand or two will help. This group has earned it.
