Sam Gaviglio continues to show promising stuff with win over Yankees

Justin Smoak hit a three-run homer as the Blue Jays put up five runs early and hung on against the Yankees for a 6-2 win.

TORONTO — Exactly one year ago, while pitching for the Seattle Mariners, Sam Gaviglio was shelled by the Oakland Athletics. He gave up seven runs on 9 hits that day, including a three-run Khris Davis bomb that travelled awfully far, and a Bruce Maxwell solo shot moments later that went even farther. The outing pushed his season ERA to 4.31. After the game, the Mariners demoted Gaviglio to triple-A, where he spent the majority of the next two months before Kansas City plucked him off waivers. He finished his season pitching mop-up duty out of the Royals bullpen.

Sonny Gray watched Gaviglio’s disastrous start from Oakland’s dugout. He’d pitched for the Athletics the night prior and done so extremely well, holding the Chicago White Sox to two runs on three hits over six steady innings. It was his third quality start in a row, and part of an 11-outing run in which Gray posted a 1.95 ERA. Midway through that stretch, he was traded to the New York Yankees and helped his new team reach the playoffs. He finished his season with five strong innings in Game 4 of the ALCS.

It’s not like the two 28-year-olds have reversed roles in the 365 days since. But things do look awfully different today. And the fact that Gaviglio out-pitched Gray by a considerable margin Friday night at Rogers Centre is certainly not something one could have predicted a year ago — or even months ago.

Gaviglio was steady, allowing only one earned run over 4.1 innings against MLB’s third-most prolific offence. Meanwhile, Gray combusted, throwing 62 pitches over two calamitous innings, allowing five runs on six hits and not returning for the third. Those two outings laid the groundwork for what was eventually a 6-2 Blue Jays victory.

And while we’re at it, let’s play a game. Which one of these pitchers is Gray, the 2015 all-star with a career 3.45 ERA over 123 starts coming into this season, and which one is Gaviglio, the soft-tossing journeyman who entered 2018 with a 4.36 ERA across his 16 major-league appearances?

2018 MLB Stats

GS IP ERA WHIP K/9 BB/9 GB% BAA
Player A 17 84.2 5.85 1.51 8.19 4.04 47.7 .271
Player B 9 52.0 3.81 1.20 8.83 2.94 50 .235

Quelle surprise — player A is Gray and Player B is Gaviglio. While Gray has pitched more at the major-league level this season — thanks to not spending the first six weeks of his year in the minors like Gavligio did — he hasn’t been nearly as effective as Gaviglio. And Friday was no different.

After striking out Russell Martin to escape a bases-loaded jam in the first, Gray allowed three of the first four batters he faced in the second to reach, watching a pair of runs score in the process. He struck out Teoscar Hernandez for a second out, but then put two runners on before spinning an 0-1 slider right over the plate for Justin Smoak.

The Blue Jays first baseman hit that slider so hard he’d barely left the batter’s box by the time it reached the right field seats. It took only 4.5 seconds to travel 404-feet. The Blue Jays had five runs before Gray had his sixth out.

“He was throwing a fastball away to us lefties that was kind of cutting,” Smoak said. “So, I was honestly just looking out over the plate. And I got one there in there middle.”

Gaviglio, meanwhile, made the Yankees imposing lineup look anything but. He struck out a pair in the first, and another in the second, allowing only a single and two walks to reach. He surrendered a two-out solo shot to Aaron Hicks in the third, but got the next batter — some guy named Giancarlo Stanton — to strike out chasing a slider. He returned to pitch a perfect fourth, inducing a pair of groundballs before striking out Greg Bird.

Gaviglio did run out of steam in the fifth, loading the bases thanks to a pair of soft singles and a fielding error by third baseman Yangervis Solarte. He then walked in a run before he was lifted at 101 pitches, replaced by Joe Biagini who struck out Stanton and got a lineout from Didi Gregorius to keep the runners right where they were.

But considering the quality of the opposition he was facing Friday, and how low reasonable expectations were for Gaviglio when he was acquired from the Royals for cash near the end of spring training, this is pretty promising stuff for the Blue Jays. It’s promising stuff for him, as well. After all, he hasn’t forgotten what happened on July 6, 2017.

“Yeah, I reflect on that sometimes,” Gaviglio said. “I struggled last year — I think I learned from that. You know, your first year in the big leagues, it’s a bit of a shock. Who you are, what kind of player you are — that doesn’t change. But it is a change as far as everything around you. The game’s the same, but it’s easy to get caught up in the results.

“I’ve just gone through that learning experience. Mechanically, I got a little bit out of whack last year and I think I had to go down to triple-A to straighten some stuff out. I wasn’t the same pitcher when I got optioned down after that start against Oakland as I was when I got called up. I was really struggling. But I think this year I’ve shown that I have better stuff and that I learned from that.”

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The Blue Jays have to be wondering if they have something on their hands. Gaviglio’s no one’s ace. But he’s been serviceable more often than not, and with an ERA sitting at 3.81 after 11 outings this season, he’s looking pretty good for a fifth starter. If he keeps this up, he could be looking at a major-league swingman role next season at the very least.

Gray, meanwhile, is a complete quandary for the Yankees, who surrendered three prospects — including two of their top 15 at the time per MLB.com’s ranking — to acquire him. He’s allowed four runs or more in four of his last five starts, and has completed six innings only seven times this season. Friday was his shortest outing since 2016.

Of course, this can only be good news for the Blue Jays, who hold the top starting pitcher known to be available ahead of the July 31 non-waiver trade deadline — J.A. Happ. The Yankees rotation is in clear need of an upgrade, and the club possesses an enviable stockpile of talent at the upper levels of the minors, which is why New York has been steadily linked to Happ for weeks. That speculation will only grow as Gray’s struggles continue.

And in Gaviglio, the Blue Jays may hold an intriguing piece for 2019. Of course, how he holds up over the final two months of the season will go a long way to determining that. He’s still predominantly a two-pitch pitcher, and neither of those offerings — an 89-mph sinker and 83-mph slider — are particularly devastating. But he’s been quietly working to improve his change-up during side sessions, tweaking the grip on a pitch he’s used less than 10 per cent of the time this season.

“I think my change-up’s going to come around,” he said. “I think that’s going to be an effective pitch moving forward.”

And, hey, results are results. In Gaviglio’s case, they’ve been well above expectations so far. And as long as he keeps getting them, he’ll continue proving that a lot can change in a year.

“Last year, my outings were going real good, real good — and then I started to struggle a little bit. And I think I learned from that. I think that’s why this year I’m not struggling the same way I was last year,” Gaviglio said. “It’s easier to learn from those rougher outings and mistakes as opposed to the times when you’re rolling and pitching good. But every time I take the mound is an opportunity and a learning experience. I just want to keep moving forward.”

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