TORONTO — The choice is down to either top prospect Drew Hutchison or journeyman Jesse Chavez for the fifth starter’s spot in the Toronto Blue Jays’ starting rotation, and the decision may not come until later this week.
General manager Alex Anthopoulos narrowed it down to those two candidates and eliminated Joel Carreno when he said Wednesday "that’s the most likely outcome," before adding an intriguing caveat that "there’s still a chance that guys can get claimed on waivers, an outside chance there’s a trade."
"I don’t expect that to happen,” he continued, "but that’s part of the reason we’re waiting a bit, but most likely it ends up being one of those two."
The Blue Jays will need a fifth starter for the first time since the opening week of the season on Saturday when they take on the Royals in Kansas City. The job would have belonged to Dustin McGowan, but he is on the disabled list with plantar fasciitis and just resumed throwing Monday on a day-on, day-off program.
McGowan is basically starting from scratch, meaning he’ll likely need something in the area of six weeks to build himself back up, setting early June as a rough target for his return. That creates an extended opportunity for whoever fills the void, since the Blue Jays would like whoever it ends up being to take the job and run with it.
"As much consistency and continuity that we can create the better," said manager John Farrell.
A reading of the tea leaves suggests Hutchison will get that opportunity.
The 21-year-old currently with double-A New Hampshire impressed during spring training, with the Blue Jays purposely giving him a late pre-season start in Fort Myers, Fla., against Boston to prepare him for a hostile road pitching experience.
At the time Farrell suggested he still had nuances of the game to work on, but said Wednesday that Hutchison has made progress.
"His development plan includes a more consistent slider (and) with any young pitcher coming to the big-leagues, their ability to control the running game," said Farrell. "While those were outlined development needs, there are a number of positives that are already in place including fastball command, good composure, changeup, the ability to attack left-handers and right-handers with consistency.
"That’s on Hutch."
Anthopoulos hit on many of the same points, using the promotion of Henderson Alvarez last year as a comparable.
"In a perfect world could he get a few more starts to tighten up his slider a little more, tighten up his changeup a little more? Sure, but are those things he can still do here? Sure, and he’s throwing the ball well enough," Anthopoulos said of Hutchison. "If there was a major developmental component he wouldn’t even be a candidate. He’s a strike thrower, he’s got a slider, he’s got a changeup, he just needs to be more consistent and rather than hitting on his slider one out of every four, you’d like it to be one out of every two."
Chavez, meanwhile, catapulted himself into the conversation with a strong outing for triple-A Las Vegas on Monday, according to Anthopoulos. A converted reliever picked up on waivers from the Royals in October, he "made a good push with his last start, he pitched great, and the staff was very excited about him," the GM explained.
"I’m not saying that to lead the witness or to drop the hint, but it’s the truth," he continued. "He wasn’t as strong a candidate until that last start, he really looked good."
That helped him move ahead of Carreno, who threw six innings of four-run ball against the Cleveland Indians on April 8 and was demoted to Las Vegas afterwards. He was scheduled to start Wednesday night for the 51s at Salt Lake City, making him unavailable for Saturday.
"He was a candidate," Anthopoulos said of the right-hander. "The other two guys have just thrown a little bit better at this point."
