TORONTO — Like pretty much everyone else in baseball, John Axford took note of how the Tampa Bay Rays started reliever Sergio Romo on back-to-back days over the weekend, the latest new-age concept to get a trial run on a big-league field.
“I don’t know what ways this game is going in at times now, especially with bullpens and the way they’ve been utilized, coming from extended lengths, to shortened lengths to maybe extended lengths again? I don’t really know,” says the Toronto Blue Jays reliever. “All I know is I’ve been talking to every team about getting a GS (games started) under my name in my career at some point, so it would be cool to get that one time.”
Axford’s wish isn’t going to happen, at least with the Blue Jays, and kidding aside, the Rays’ experiment is proving to be the latest divisive approach to challenge the way the game has traditionally been played.
Bullpen days, long a measure of last resort for teams in a bind, have been a matter of course this season for the perpetually unconventional Rays, who planned to go with a four-man rotation out of spring training before injuries to Nathan Eovaldi and his replacement Yonny Chirinos forced them to get even more creative.
Starting Romo on consecutive days was just the latest iteration of their freelancing, but was not without some compelling reasoning. Romo is particularly tough on righties and the Angels stack four righties atop their batting order: Ian Kinsler, Mike Trout, Justin Upton and Albert Pujols.
Why not match power on power out of the gate in an attempt to keep a productive foursome from giving their team a jump out of the gate?
“It’s a very interesting strategy. In the right format it’s something you definitely would consider,” says Angels manager Mike Scioscia. “They were driven to this for a number of different reasons and it makes sense, it really does.”
Especially since there’s no logic in teams adjusting their batting orders to counter such a strategy unless they have proper platoon options that are worth keeping up high in the batting order.
“You might be able to get some individual matchups but the one thing you don’t want to do is take at-bats away from the guys atop your order,” says Scioscia. “If you start to juggle everything down and say, well you’re going to hit in the second inning because of this, they might not get that extra at-bat (later in the game), which is really important.”
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The Rays found some success with the idea, as Romo struck out the side in a clean first during the first start and punched out three more around a pair of walks in the second outing as they split the games with the Angels.
Not everyone is convinced.
Blue Jays manager John Gibbons, describing himself as a “purist” who “likes the game the way it is” made clear that it’s not a strategy on his radar.
“The game’s been going on a certain way (for a long time),” said Gibbons. “Now, some of that stuff has taken over the game, but (the Rays) have got to do what they’ve got to do. It worked. You’ve got to have a reliever that’s for it, you can’t do it with all your starters. You don’t see it happening with (Chris) Archer, (Blake) Snell and those guys. But they’re doing the best they can with what they have. I’m not a fan of it.”
While certainly there are lots of people who feel the way Gibbons does, players, coaches and front offices have come a remarkably long way over the past decade.
Defensive infield shifts, for instance, were once heresy, but have become so normalized that teams now adjust positioning by count. Taking things further, some teams have even experimented with outfield shifts this year, with the Blue Jays seeing it first-hand in Minnesota earlier this month when the Twins emptied the left side of the infield against Justin Smoak and lined up four outfielders.
Taking 3-0 was the standard for decades but increasingly clubs are green-lighting hitters in the ultimate advantage count. The launch-angle revolution at the plate, cutting back on starters facing a lineup the third time through the order, and increasingly specialized bullpen use are among other ways the game has changed.
In that vein, realigning a reliever’s usage to optimize matchups right out of the gate doesn’t seem all that outlandish.
“I don’t see what area we haven’t exploited or changed in some way,” says Blue Jays pitching coach Pete Walker. “I think guys are more open to stuff nowadays, in general. I don’t think it would blow guys away like it would have 10 years ago. Guys are seeing it, seeing teams being creative in certain areas, nothing is really shocking. Do I think more teams might do it down the road? Yeah. They’re having good results with it.
“But over the course of the season, the jury is still out on how it affects guys.”
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Walker hasn’t given the idea of starting relievers based on matchups an in-depth analysis because the Blue Jays have enough starters to cover their needs. One thing he does note is that “optimal opportunities are important but I do think there’s a human element.”
Blue Jays reliever Ryan Tepera believes such an approach requires adjustments for both relievers and starters and that starting pitchers were likely to have more trouble given how they are generally so routine-oriented.
Asked how he’d react to such an assignment, Tepera chuckled.
“Obviously, I would do what they say. I’m going to take the ball and go out there and give them what they want, whether it’s one or two innings to start the game,” he says. “I think it’s kind of a funny ordeal, but you know what? If it works, it works. Whatever gives teams the best chance to win. And obviously they think that’s the case.”
Rays manager Kevin Cash has made clear that they will use the strategy again, and eventually you’d think some other teams without a reliable starter to lean on will, too.
Tepera simply plans to keep adapting as baseball keeps evolving.
“When I first got drafted in 2009, my first professional game in the minor-leagues was still your classic baseball game,” he says. “Over that time, the game has just changed in different ways. With the numbers, the analytics and the way people assess those numbers, it’s just a different game now. It’s become more analytical.
“There are some things I do like and some things I don’t. You can overthink the game too much.”
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