TORONTO — The off-season officially arrives in just two days for the Toronto Blue Jays and the organization has already begun conversations with some players to map out their winter work.
This off-season will be different than others in that it’s muddied by the Dec. 1 expiration of the current CBA and the potential of a lockout, which would ensure organizations can’t be in touch with players. Because of that, there’ll be increased importance on the personalized plans that manager John Schneider and Blue Jays’ staff devise for players.
“We have to kind of nail everything with these guys in terms of what the plan is, when they do start ramping up, and then, depending on lockout or not, there's gonna be a lot of responsibility on the guys to be really diligent,” Schneider said. “We'll try to stay in touch with them as long as we can, but I think that's the goal right now is making sure that everyone's on a good path going forward.”
The path of Blue Jays right-hander Jose Soriano, who was roughed up by the Cincinnati Reds in Friday’s 6-5 win at Rogers Centre, remains especially intriguing. Toronto acquired the talented 27-year-old from the Los Angeles Angels during a buy-sell deadline and he’s expected to be a linchpin in the 2027 starting rotation.
“We are excited as hell about the potential with him going forward,” said Schneider.
The Blue Jays are admittedly still learning about Soriano, but the manager said the plan for him over the coming months is clear.
“It just kind of comes down to getting ready to try to throw 200 innings [and] understanding when to deploy your pitches,” said Schneider. “That's the biggest thing we've talked about with him is getting in the zone a little more and when to throw each one of his pitches. So, that'll continue to be the focus.”
Soriano’s brief time with the Blue Jays has featured a blend of excellent and poor performances. Friday marked his 10th start with the club, and it fell into the latter category. Soriano retired the first four hitters he faced before Eugenio Suarez blasted a hanging knuckle curve off the facing of the second deck in left field. Then, in the third inning, the Reds strung together four singles and a double off Soriano to push their lead to 5-2.
In total, the right-hander surrendered five runs on eight hits over three innings, with no walks and two strikeouts. He tossed just 48 pitches (36 strikes) as the club sought to limit his outing.
The Blue Jays offence, meanwhile, battled back late in the game with Kazuma Okamoto’s bases-clearing double in the seventh inning tying the game before Nathan Lukes’s opposite-field single plated the go-ahead run.
Okamoto also contributed an RBI double in the opening frame and has 26 two-baggers to go along with 33 home runs and 92 RBIs during his first season outside of Japan.
“Obviously I learned a lot,” Okamoto said through interpreter Yusuke Oshima. “The numbers are numbers, but yeah, I can also improve on the numbers, as well.”
“It's been impressive,” said Schneider of Okamoto. “It's a long season for him, long season for everyone, but especially him in his first year over here. He's been fantastic. He's just preparing, adjusting and showing off the hitter that he is.”
Meanwhile, Soriano, pitching in his fourth big-league season, has also enjoyed a breakout of sorts this year. He allowed just one run over his first 37.2 innings to become the first starting pitcher in MLB history (excluding openers) to allow one or fewer runs through his first six starts of a campaign.
That stretch was unsustainable, of course, and he’ll finish the season with a 3.91 ERA over 32 starts and 177.1 innings.
“I don't have the results of what I [would like to] finish the season, but I feel good about how I pitched this year,” Soriano said. “I threw more innings than I have [before]. Basically, career highs in everything. I finished the season healthy; that's the most important part. I feel good about it."
Soon after the Blue Jays acquired Soriano, the organization urged him to alter his pitch usage to become more efficient and pitch deeper into games. Over 123 innings with the Angels, Soriano threw his four-seamer 23.8 per cent of the time and his sinker 26.7 per cent. However, with the Blue Jays, those figures were upended. Entering Friday, Soriano had lowered his four-seamer usage to 14.2 per cent and dialled up his sinker to 37.5 per cent.
The Blue Jays have been happy with Soriano’s receptiveness to new ideas, and the right-hander said he has no problems continuing to tweak his pitch usage going forward.
Against the Reds, the strong variance of his arsenal was present again, yet it didn’t yield results. On the other hand, the Blue Jays can point to outings like the one Soriano produced a few weeks ago in Sacramento when his effective sinker led him to record 16 outs via ground balls while pitching seven innings on 89 pitches.
The challenge for the Blue Jays and Soriano going forward will be to generate more outings like that and strike the right balance to leverage an arm with elite potential.
That work is already underway and will certainly progress in the weeks ahead.
“Guys with that kind of talent and those kinds of pitches, you have to let them kind of do their thing,” said Schneider. “But I think our job is to find the best way to just use him.”
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