TORONTO — The trade of Nate Pearson to the Chicago Cubs and Ricky Tiedemann’s looming Tommy John surgery were two separate and distinct events Saturday, connected only when viewed within the context of a deeply troubling Toronto Blue Jays whole.
That Pearson, once a consensus top-10 prospect in the game, returned only two low-tier double-A prospects Saturday is a gutting outcome for the club, which had projected him as a future front-line starter, but they couldn’t even turn him into a serviceable reliever. As his star faded, Tiedemann’s rose thanks to a similar upside, but he’s thrown only 79.1 innings over the past year and a half and will effectively be a non-factor in the majors until 2026, at least.
And so, two arms expected to be part of a productive Blue Jays present, and pillars into the future, are out of the picture, the former permanently, the latter for an extended period, two needed replenishments for the core disappearing into the ether.
Isolated on their own, the setbacks might be manageable, but they are far from alone.
Just this season, supplemental parts like Cavan Biggio and Tim Mayza were designated for assignment while two-time all-star closer Jordan Romano underwent elbow surgery and, platforming off a $7.75 million salary into his final year of arbitration, is a non-tender candidate. Orelvis Martinez, the club’s top hitting prospect, should be acclimating to the majors right now but is instead serving an 80-game suspension for a PED violation. The team paid Kevin Kiermaier $10.5 million for one season and couldn’t give him away, despite his ongoing elite defensive value, earlier this month.
Tiedemann isn’t the only pitching prospect to blow out his elbow this season — both Brandon Barriera, the 2022 first-rounder, and Landen Maroudis, a fourth-rounder last year, underwent the hybrid ligament replacement with internal brace procedure. Adam Macko hasn’t pitched since July 2 due to forearm soreness.
With Spencer Horwitz, Leo Jimenez, Addison Barger and Steward Berroa all up, the Blue Jays have already raided triple-A Buffalo’s best talent, meaning there’s little to no depth behind the players that are already here. The acquisition of outfielder Jonatan Clase from Seattle in the Yimi Garcia deal helps a little, but this hasn’t been a great season for the farm system.
All of this further undermines the foundation the Blue Jays sit upon and help explain why it’s collapsing. In the last 10 years, only one of the club’s first-round picks — Alek Manoah, who is currently recovering from Tommy John surgery — has a positive bWAR, so there’s been no renewing a core with expiring contractual control, no depth to fill in when injuries arise and no depth to deal from to help plug holes.
It’s why the Blue Jays are 47-56 even after Saturday’s heartening 7-3 win over the Texas Rangers, behind Kevin Gausman’s second complete game of the season.
The ace right-hander, who’s struggled to find consistency this season, sat 95.1 m.p.h. with his fastball and planned it well with his splitter to allow three runs on four hits and three walks with eight strikeouts.
Daulton Varsho hit a three-run homer in the first and Ernie Clement added an RBI single. Alejandro Kirk singled home another run in the fifth to make it 5-3. Berroa doubled for his first career hit and scored on Horwitz’s sacrifice fly in the sixth while Varsho added another sacrifice fly in the eighth before a crowd of 35,917.
