TORONTO – The Toronto Blue Jays arrived at Tropicana Field on the upswing, riding a 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.
Trent Thornton, as expected, became the club’s third starting pitcher to hit the injured list over the past week in the hours before Monday’s comeback 6-4 win decided by Randal Grichuk’s three-run homer in the seventh.
Losing Thornton 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 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.
Anthony Kay, who’s been a good weapon out of the bullpen, and Jacob Waguespack are the likeliest candidates on the current roster, especially after Thomas Hatch delivered another two innings of quality relief behind Tanner Roark, who allowed three runs over five innings. There’s not much to pick from at the alternate training site, either.
“We’re still deciding about Wednesday,” said manager Charlie Montoyo.
Still, if the Blue Jays front office is as aspirational about this summer as the players on the 14-13 team are, the time is now to work the trade market to add some impact ahead of next Monday’s trade deadline, not simply a body to absorb some of the workload.
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 lightning-in-a-bottle pick-up to stabilize a rotation that has to 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?
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 begin to scale, but at a sensible 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 would make sense, but that’s going to be tough to pull off with pitching across to the game in disarray due to circumstances created by the pandemic.
So, maybe they try for a challenge trade, or try 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 Cavan Biggio reached on Mike Zunino’s catcher interference. That brought up Randal 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.
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.
Some extra depth on the bench would help, as would the eventual return of Bo Bichette, but the priority 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. Thornton is 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, another speed bump for a club well used to them. A hand up will help. They’ve earned it.
