Big league teams are constantly tinkering with bullpens, calling up a lefty specialist here or a long reliever there. For the most part, bullpens are made to be re-made. But the Toronto Blue Jays have had to do more than their share of adjusting on the fly this year, which reflects a bullpen that still has an array of question marks.
Many executives, including Blue Jays team president Mark Shapiro, consider the 40-game mark meaningful, since after a quarter of the season trends will start to emerge. Viewed from that perspective, the Blue Jays’ bullpen issues can’t simply be dismissed as small sample flukes anymore.
The Blue Jays’ 13-2 loss Monday was by no means the bullpen’s fault — the offence hasn’t masked other flaws often enough this year and J.A. Happ turned in his worst start of 2016 — but team decision makers may still have to contemplate roster moves after asking the bullpen to cover seven innings.
Short term, their hand could be forced if, as expected, MLB suspends Jesse Chavez Tuesday for hitting Prince Fielder in an emotional game against the Texas Rangers Sunday.
There are bigger-picture questions in play, too. Bridging the gap to Roberto Osuna remains a nightly challenge for manager John Gibbons, whose top setup arms, Drew Storen and Brett Cecil, struggled early, unable to fill in for Aaron Sanchez in the late innings.
If Sanchez wasn’t pitching so well as a starter, there would surely be talk that he belongs in the bullpen. That transition’s still expected later, but in the meantime the Blue Jays must find other solutions.
While Storen struck out the side Monday, the Blue Jays haven’t seen shutdown stuff often enough from the right-hander, whose fastball velocity has dropped off by 2 mph compared to last year. Cecil pitched better than his 0-5 record and 5.23 ERA would indicate, but he’s now on the disabled list with a triceps injury.
Thankfully for the Blue Jays, Gavin Floyd and Jesse Chavez have both pitched very well in relief, recent losses notwithstanding, and look like excellent offseason pickups. Joe Biagini, the Rule 5 pick who logged two more scoreless innings Monday, looks like a keeper and Osuna has pitched as well as the Blue Jays could have hoped.
Still, at this rate, the Blue Jays will want to keep close tabs on trade candidates with a view toward fortifying their bullpen the way they did with Mark Lowe and LaTroy Hawkins in 2015. The trade market rarely picks up before mid-July, so expecting quick fixes would be unrealistic.
In the meantime, the Blue Jays are left making sense of a bullpen that has allowed 44 per cent of inherited runners to score, second worst among all MLB teams. There’s no way those struggles persist to the same degree from here on, yet they’re simply the most obvious part of the problem.
Chad Girodo throws against the Oakland Athletics. (Frank Gunn/CP)
With three left-handed relievers on the disabled list, the Blue Jays don’t have a clear answer for lefty sluggers like David Ortiz and Chris Davis late in games. Rookie Chad Girodo has pitched well at times, earning more trust from Gibbons, but he’s still just eight games into his big league career. The Blue Jays like Floyd’s curveball against lefties, but you have to squint pretty hard to see Floyd, a right-hander with a starter’s arsenal, as your long-term choice for neutralizing lefties.
While there’s help on the way, Toronto’s lefty relief options are limited for now. Aaron Loup just started a rehab assignment that he has 30 days to complete (he faced five batters and allowed four runs his first time out). There’s still no timetable for Franklin Morales, whose $2-million contract becomes guaranteed Wednesday when he’ll have spent 45 days on the Blue Jays roster (two long-forgotten relief appearances and an extended DL stint).
If the Blue Jays’ triple-A roster were brimming with dominant extra arms it’d be a different story, but they’ve already tried out the likes of Pat Venditte and Ryan Tepera without overwhelming results. The latest addition to the bullpen, Dustin Antolin, made his big league debut Monday, and allowed three runs on four hits in two innings.
When asked before Monday’s game if he’s expecting more tweaks, Gibbons acknowledged that the Blue Jays are still searching. “We may make some adjustments on the fly,” he said.
It wouldn’t be the first time, but it’s nobody’s idea of plan A, either.
