KANSAS CITY — Brett Cecil, who cried in the clubhouse when he was told his season was over six days ago after he tore his calf muscle during a rundown, has made an improbable recovery and now says he could be ready to return to the Blue Jays if they make it past the Kansas City Royals in the ALCS.
“Everything feels good,” Cecil said. “The way things look now, I’ll be ready for the World Series.
On Thursday, in the left field bullpen at Kauffman Stadium, Cecil threw a normal side session, the same one he’d throw between outings if he wasn’t hurt, with the lone exception being he threw it off flat ground instead of a mound. It was his second consecutive day spent testing the calf and afterwards Cecil said he felt like he could throw off a mound if he wanted to, although the Blue Jays training staff has yet to clear him to do that.
The 29-year-old left-hander said he didn’t feel any pain at all during Thursday’s bullpen session, and that the only abnormal sensation was a weakness in his left leg, which he could feel slightly shaking beneath him when he raised his right leg up to deliver a pitch.
Off the field, Cecil has been mixing treatment with resistance exercises in order to maintain flexibility and rebuild strength in his torn calf. He’s able to perform un-weighted calf raises and pull his foot in different directions while a Blue Jays trainer provides resistance.
Cecil feels the biggest hurdle for him to pass will be running and fielding his position. He’s yet to do either of those things, but he did tell Blue Jays trainers on Thursday that he felt good enough to jog.
“Pitching wise, as long as the strength’s there and everything, I think that will be fine,” Cecil said. “The biggest thing is going to be if I’m able to get sprints in and get that all taken care of. I don’t think that throwing off the mound even now would be a big problem.”
Of course, none of this was planned. Cecil had resigned himself to spending the rest of the post-season as a dugout cheerleader while his calf healed, before returning to live action next spring.
“For a day or two after, honestly, it was excruciating pain,” Cecil said. “There was no thought in my mind of coming back.”
But when the Blue Jays were in Texas for the ALDS earlier this week, Cecil turned a massive corner and began feeling much better. Then, as his teammates took a big lead against the Rangers early on in Game 4, Cecil had a revelation, and couldn’t help but share it with Blue Jays head trainer George Poulis.
“It was right after somebody hit a home run,” Cecil said. “George was right next to me and I looked at him and I said, ‘George, I’m gonna pitch in that World Series.’
“And he just said, ‘OK, sounds good.’”
Adding Cecil would be an obvious boon for the Blue Jays in a potential World Series, as the club is currently carrying only one left-handed reliever, Aaron Loup. Cecil was easily one of the club’s best relief options this season, posting a 2.48 ERA and 70 strikeouts in 54.1 innings of work.
Loup expected to rejoin Blue Jays
Blue Jays manager John Gibbons says he’s expecting Aaron Loup to be available to pitch in the ALCS, which begins Friday evening in Kansas City. The 27-year-old left-hander has been away from the team tending to a personal matter since Monday.
Loup’s presence will be a welcome addition as the Blue Jays have played their last two games without a left-handed reliever. Staff ace David Price filled the role in Game 4 of the ALDS, throwing three innings of relief, while Aaron Sanchez and Roberto Osuna were asked to get some big late-game outs against left-handers in Game 5.
The Royals regularly start several dangerous left-handed batters including Eric Hosmer, Mike Moustakas and Alex Gordon, as well as switch-hitter Kendrys Morales who has been less productive against left-handers than he is against right-handers throughout his career.
ALCS rotation announced
The Blue Jays have set their rotation for their ALCS against the Royals, with Marco Estrada getting the ball for Game 1, David Price starting Game 2, Marcus Stroman getting Game 3 and R.A. Dickey pitching Game 4. Estrada, Price and Stroman will all be pitching on regular rest, while Dickey will have seven days between outings.
“This time of year they’re all banged up. They’ve thrown a lot of innings, every one of them,” Gibbons said. “We think it’s important that they’re fresh starting the series.”
Gibbons said the Blue Jays discussed the option of giving Price the Game 1 start, considering he would be coming off a 50-pitch relief outing four days earlier. But the club decided its best course of action was to get all of their pitchers back on as normal of a schedule as possible on the heels of playing three must-win games to close out the ALDS.
“What it came down to is these guys all have a lot of innings under their belt. Let’s try to get some normalcy back to them a little bit, where you’re not pitching on short rest,” Gibbons said. “Even though David threw 50 pitches the other day, he was also up the night before. That’s wear and tear. So, let’s get him back on his normal day, just like everybody else. With Estrada, we felt that would be the best way to go.”
The Royals will counter with Edinson Volquez in Game 1, Yordano Ventura in Game 2 and Johnny Cueto in Game 3.
Blue Jays mulling ALCS roster options
The Blue Jays won’t release their ALCS roster until Friday morning, but Gibbons indicated on Thursday that it would likely be extremely similar to the one the team used against the Texas Rangers in the ALDS.
“It’s probably going to be very close to the same,” Gibbons said. “There may be a minor adjustment, we don’t know yet. But I’d anticipate pretty much the same.”
The minor adjustment the Blue Jays are contemplating could be many things. One candidate to be left off the ALCS roster is Ryan Tepera, who joined the Blue Jays in place of Brett Cecil after Game 2 of the Rangers series but never got into a game. Tepera could be jettisoned confidently as Liam Hendriks is a much more proven right-handed reliever who should be plenty fresh as he faced just two batters during the ALDS.
Meanwhile, the Blue Jays could add knuckleball-specialist catcher Josh Thole to the roster to allow Gibbons to use Dioner Navarro as a pinch-hitter without fear of burning his backup catcher. The Blue Jays could also be looking to add a second left-handed reliever to their bullpen in place of Tepera, in which case Mark Buehrle or Jeff Francis would be the most likely candidates to file that role. Thole and Buehrle are both currently with the team in Kansas City; Francis is not.