BALTIMORE – Walking through the visitors’ dugout at Camden Yards, Yennsy Diaz spotted Bo Bichette sitting on the bench, ran over and wrapped him up in a playful bear hug.
"Yennsy Diaz, major-league pitcher!" teased the rookie Toronto Blue Jays shortstop, who beat his former teammate at low-A Lansing to The Show by an entire five days.
The 22-year-old right-hander, promoted Saturday from double-A New Hampshire to replace Nick Kingham, who hit the injured list with an oblique strain, simply flashed a big grin.
Pretty good ring to it, right?
"It feels great, unbelievable," the 22-year-old right-hander said, his answers partly in rapidly improving English, partly through interpreter Hector Lebron. "I’m grateful for the opportunity that’s been given to me. I’m going to take advantage and work 100 per cent at this."
Diaz’s addition wasn’t simply another move for stopgap innings amid the seemingly daily roster churn for the Blue Jays, but also an intriguing promotion from the club’s promising group of arms at New Hampshire. Diaz, Patrick Murphy, Hector Perez and top prospect Nate Pearson are the wave behind the options largely exhausted at triple-A Buffalo, and offer the potential of real depth and potential impact in 2020.
For now Diaz – owner of a 4.15 ERA with 88 strikeouts in 112.2 innings over 21 games, 19 starts – slots into the mix as a reliever. The Blue Jays, you might have heard, only have four starters in their rotation, but they want to assess him while he gets his feet wet before expanding his role.
"He’s got power stuff and it can play at this level," said pitching coach Pete Walker. "We’ve really got to see him pitch and go from there. But (starting) is always a possibility."
Being careful with the kids isn’t a bad thing, especially given that with Diaz in tow, the Blue Jays now have the second youngest roster in the majors at 26 years and 203 days, trailing only the San Diego Padres.
The average age of each major league roster
Team | Years | Days | Team | Years | Days |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
1. San Diego Padres | 26 | 109 | 16. Los Angeles Dodgers | 28 | 203 |
2. Toronto Blue Jays | 26 | 203 | 17. Miami Marlins | 28 | 208 |
3. Baltimore Orioles | 27 | 136 | 18. New York Mets | 28 | 260 |
4. Kansas City Royals | 27 | 220 | 19. Philadelphia Phillies | 28 | 275 |
5. Pittsburgh Pirates | 27 | 344 | 20. Colorado Rockies | 28 | 294 |
6. Detroit Tigers | 28 | 73 | 21. Minnesota Twins | 28 | 319 |
7. Los Angeles Angels | 28 | 79 | 22. New York Yankees | 29 | 113 |
8. Chicago White Sox | 28 | 90 | 23. San Francisco Giants | 29 | 122 |
9. Cincinnati Reds | 28 | 121 | 24. Milwaukee Brewers | 29 | 184 |
10. Texas Rangers | 28 | 150 | 25. Arizona Diamondbacks | 29 | 184 |
11. Tampa Bay Rays | 28 | 154 | 26. Chicago Cubs | 29 | 205 |
12. St. Louis Cardinals | 28 | 178 | 27. Atlanta Braves | 29 | 260 |
13. Boston Red Sox | 28 | 183 | 28. Oakland Athletics | 30 | 128 |
14. Cleveland Indians | 28 | 188 | 29. Houston Astros | 30 | 147 |
15. Seattle Mariners | 28 | 194 | 30. Washington Nationals | 30 | 159 |
There are growing pains inherent to that, some of which were on display Saturday in a 6-4 loss to the Baltimore Orioles that ended a season-high five-game win streak for the Blue Jays.
"We didn’t make a couple of plays and they took advantage of it," lamented manager Charlie Montoyo.
Derek Fisher – acquired from Houston for a package including Aaron Sanchez, who debuted with six innings of a combined no-hitter by the Astros against Seattle on Saturday – whiffed on a fly ball to right and left the game after being struck in the face. He was left with a golf-ball sized welt under his right eye and was taken to hospital for a CT Scan.
In the bottom of the fifth inning, Vladimir Guerrero Jr., whiffed on an excellent relay from Teoscar Hernandez in centre field, failing to get Stevie Wilkerson for what would have been the third out of the inning. Trey Mancini hammered the next pitch – a fastball up and away – from Thomas Pannone into the centre field seats to put the Orioles up 4-2.
"I made a pitch up in the zone and he made a good swing on it," Pannone said of Mancini. "That play that Teoscar threw into Vlad, that’s a tough play. You’ve got the runner coming at you in your face, Wilkerson’s pretty fast, bang-bang play and that’s how the game goes. I don’t think my mind was on that play at all, I was on the next pitch, Mancini’s definitely the best hitter in that lineup and he’d seen my fastball a lot. I made the pitch and he put a better swing on it."
In the seventh, Bichette was cut down at home with what would have been the go-ahead run and Lourdes Gurriel Jr., then struck out to leave Freddy Galvis stranded at third.
"Usually, young guys don’t make the routine plays and make the tough plays," Montoyo said before the game. "So far, I’ve been really happy to see the routine plays being made by the kids. Vladdy needs to get better at that, as we all know, but he’s gotten better. And so far, Bichette’s made every play."
The trade-off comes in the flashes of brilliance young players show.
Bichette added two more hits and continues to look like a legit dude who’ll dramatically change this team for the better.
Guerrero ripped one of those line drives teammates and coaches would rave about while he was in the minors, the ball just sailing and sailing until it zipped over the head of left-fielder Anthony Santander for an RBI double in the first. He added a base hit off the bat at 115.5 m.p.h. in the eighth, the game’s hardest hit ball.
Reese McGuire, up from triple-A covering for the injured Luke Maile, belted a two-run homer in the seventh that tied the game up 4-4.
"First time facing (lefty Richard Bleier), ended up being in that two strike-count, threw (the slider) and it was just up enough to put a good swing on it," said McGuire. "Once I hit it, I thought it had a chance."
Gurriel made a pretty sliding catch in the seventh to save at least one run.
Pannone struck out eight batters through the first four innings, establishing a new career best, and finished with nine over six innings of four-run ball. He generated 11 swinging strikes, six with his curveball.
"I was executing my fastball pretty well early on in the game, curveball was good, I made a lot of good two-strike pitches with that," said Pannone. "Had a good game-plan with Reese, love throwing to him, he steals me a lot of strikes down in the zone, I know he did a couple of times tonight, so a good game-plan going on with him and the strikeouts were flowing."
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Diaz now jumps into the fray.
He believes an improved focus on the mound and more consistent work routines helped him make the jump this season. His fastball and changeup are his primary weapons while he’s improved on his curveball, a pitch he used to aim but that now he "throws."
The Blue Jays added him to the 40-man roster back in the fall because he’d made his way into their plans. He attended the club’s rookie camp in Toronto during the winter and then big-league camp in the spring, climbing up the depth chart step-by-step.
"I really worked hard during the off-season," he said. "I trust myself and I really believed that this is what was going to happen this season."
Like so many other Blue Jays, started in the minors now he’s here.
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