During the final week of the season, general manager Ross Atkins and manager Charlie Montoyo held meetings with each member of the Toronto Blue Jays to discuss how things went in 2019, listen to the player’s assessment of his performance and talk about how best to push things forward. Since those conversations aren’t available to the public, we decided here at sportsnet.ca to conduct our own exit interviews for fans to digest.
Monday, in the first instalment, the Blue Jays’ starting pitchers evaluate their seasons. On Tuesday, we’ll hear from the bullpen, followed by the catchers on Wednesday, the infielders on Thursday and the outfielders on Friday.
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The comments from Vladimir Guerrero Jr., Elvis Luciano, Wilmer Font, Richard Urena, Breyvic Valera and Yennsy Diaz were made through club interpreter Hector Lebron.
Starting Rotation
Ryan Borucki
0-1 | 10.80 ERA | 3.150 WHIP | 6.2 IP | 6 BB | 6 K | -0.4 WAR
“It was more of a learning experience, dealing with adversity. I’ve dealt with adversity, but never at the big-league level. It’s a little bit different with the expectations. I’m a big believer in ‘Everything happens for a reason,’ and something happened. My arm just wasn’t ready to go, just I’m going to take that as a little bit of a wake-up call to take care of the things you’ve got to take care of. I’m just excited to get back to work. You can’t take certain things for granted. When you’re going good, I feel like a lot of people – not just me, but a lot of people – keep doing (what they’re doing). I’m not saying I cut corners, but sometimes you don’t really think about certain things. I’ve just got to get back to doing everything that I did to make sure I was healthy all the time and be smart with everything.
“It goes from workouts to controlling my volume of how much I’m throwing, how much I throw in bullpens. I was working on my slider a lot and I was feeling so good. I was like, ‘OK, I can throw again today,’ and I just stacked that up especially in spring training when my arm wasn’t fully ready to go or in mid-season form. That was my bad because I felt so good. I pushed too much and my body was like, ‘Hey, you’ve got to cut this out.’ Next year, clean slate. It’s going to be a big season for me. I’m excited to get back and play.”
Clay Buchholz
2-5 | 6.56 ERA | 1.492 WHIP | 59 IP | 16 BB | 39 K | -0.3 WAR
“I’m probably as different of a person you could ask this question of because my last two off-seasons, some things happened that were unexpected. Going into this off-season, I’m not going to think of anything. I’m going to take a break, get back to work and hopefully my agent can fire something up and get me to go with a team somewhere. After the last two off-seasons, expectations are out the window after the last game of the season for me. I’m not going to stress over anything. There’s no need to stress. Everybody knows how young the game is getting. That’s the evolution of the game right now. So, I’m going to try to be ready and if somebody gives me a phone call we’ll go from there.
“Overall, I feel like it was good for me to be able to come back (from injury) and try to contribute. It would be a little different if the team was going through a playoff hunt trying to win a pennant. I think that would have probably elevated your game a little more. Other than that, I felt good with how I responded to three months in Florida and getting a shot to throw every five days.”
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Anthony Kay
1-0 | 5.79 ERA | 1.429 WHIP | 14.0 IP | 5 BB | 13 K | 0.1 WAR
“With getting traded, this year’s definitely been a little bit of a whirlwind. I wasn’t really expecting to reach the majors this year with the rotation that the Mets had. But once I got traded, I was one of the older guys in the minors. So, I was thinking hopefully I’d make it up here by September and fortunately I did. I never even thought about the possibility of being traded, honestly. It’s crazy how it works out. It was definitely an interesting experience. I’m really happy to be here — it’s a good organization to be in. We’ve got a lot of young talent. It’s going to be exciting when we put it all together. This off-season, I just want to get more consistent with my delivery. Sometimes I fall off a little bit. That’s one thing I want to really focus on – just staying on line and consistent with it.”
Matt Shoemaker
3-0 | 1.57 ERA | 0.872 WHIP| 28.2 IP | 9 BB | 24 K | 1.2 WAR
“I just really want to build off what I was doing when I was playing. Freak things happen. It really sucks but you get through it. I’m feeling great and I’m going to be stronger for it. Reflection-wise it’s, ‘Hey, what did I do to put myself in those positions and, at the time, a good physical position, a good mental state?’ Do all that stuff and repeat as much as possible and plan to keep getting better.
“For me personally and pitchers generally, if you execute pitches and fill up the zone, if you throw a lot of quality strikes and use all your off-speed pitches for strikes — those are recipes for success. I was doing those things. Mentally, I was in a good spot. Physically, release point felt really good. Certain pitches and the movements, all that stuff felt good. The results were there. The biggest thing is to build off those things.”
Trent Thornton
6-9 | 4.84 ERA | 1.406 WHIP | 154.1 IP | 61 BB | 149 K | 1.8 WAR
“I had to make a lot of adjustments throughout the year and I felt down the stretch I was able to make those adjustments a lot quicker. I felt like I was pitching a lot better – more consistently, at least. Toning down my delivery, too, a little bit. New curveball grip, new changeup grip came in clutch for me. I want to continue to maintain and improve those pitches.
“Before I would categorize myself as a thrower. I thought I was a pitcher. But I learned so much this year through Pete Walker and Clay Buchholz and Clayton Richard, and a bunch of other guys, that I feel like I’m becoming a more complete pitcher. Am I where I want to be? Not yet. But I’m making the right progressions to get there.
“(My off-season focuses include) changeup, curveball and then a little more of an elevated fastball. And then working my butt off in the weight room, making sure my conditioning is good. Taking a decent amount of time off just to rest my body because this was my first year in the big-leagues. But I’m ready to take a little break and then get to work.”
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Jacob Waguespack
5-5 | 4.38 ERA | 1.333 WHIP | 78.0 IP | 29 BB | 63 K | 1.0 WAR
“I have high expectations for myself and I’m my own worst critic. I’m hard on myself because I know I have a higher ceiling. What I’m most happy with is I come out each and every day and I like to believe I’m a good teammate and supportive of other guys. I come out prepared, my routine is good and I stick to it. I bring a lot of focus and intent to my workouts and my arm care which keeps me on the field. That relates to the field as well. I’ve given our team a chance to win most outings. Obviously, you’re not great every time, but I think I’m going out and competing — that’s all you can ask for as a player.
“The competitor in me knows how much better (the season) could have been, so that always eats at me. That’s why I watch video and work with Pete (Walker) and Doug Mathis (triple-A Buffalo pitching coach) about what I can get better at. I’ve left (appreciating the season) for my family and my support system. They’re the ones who can say, ‘Hey, take a step back and you’re actually holding your own against the New York Yankees and Boston Red Sox and the Tampa Bay Rays.’ I definitely look at positives and I’m getting better at giving myself a little credit. But I also think I haven’t done it alone at all.”
T.J. Zeuch
1-2 | 4.74 ERA | 1.456 WHIP | 22.2 IP | 11 BB | 20 K | 0.3 WAR
“Obviously, the year didn’t start the way anybody would want it to down in spring training, missing the whole thing and then dealing with that lat strain for the first couple months of the regular season. Once I got up to Buffalo I thought my first start was pretty good. But then after that, to be honest, it was pretty bad. Too many walks, not throwing a lot of good pitches. The one thing I was proud of this season — obviously, second to making it up here — was the (release point) adjustment I made down there and being able to put the thought of being able to make it to the big-leagues in the back of my mind. Making better pitches, not walking as many guys to give myself the best opportunity to be up here.
“Being up here is obviously a dream come true. It’s been a phenomenal experience just being around guys who’ve been around the league a long time like Buch (Clay Buchholz), Smoakie (Justin Smoak) and (Ken) Giles and listening to how they go about things and watching how they go about things.”
