Blue Jays' pitching staff dealt another costly blow with Hatch injury

Thomas Hatch had to exit the game with elbow/forearm discomfort as the Toronto Blue Jays were beat by the New York Yankees 1-0.

TORONTO – Soreness and pain are a pitcher’s constant companions and it is on the finest of lines that the distinction lies between the usual wear and tear and signs of impending danger.

Thomas Hatch walked that precarious edge Wednesday, shaking out his arm and flexing his hand on a few offerings before a 95.5 m.p.h. sinker caused him to grimace and immediately call out to the Toronto Blue Jays dugout.

Trainer Voon Chong along with manager Charlie Montoyo and pitching coach Pete Walker rushed out to the mound and Ty Tice was quickly summoned to take over. The initial diagnosis from the club is elbow/forearm discomfort and Hatch was slated to undergo an MRI to determine the severity of the problem.

More will be known once the results come back, but for a 26-year-old in pursuit of a big-league job, the overwhelming instinct would be to push through pain and keep on competing. And it’s there that differentiating between something you push through, and something you back off on becomes all the more complicated for a pitcher.

Are there ways to help pitchers judge? The Blue Jays declined requests to make Walker or bullpen coach Matt Buschmann available, whom Montoyo said would be better suited to answer.

“From what I know, though, it seems like when (Hatch) stopped, that was the right time to stop,” said Montoyo. “I can only speak to what happened to Thomas today. But how I felt and how Pete Walker felt when that happened, everybody gets sick to your stomach. We right away went to the trainer's room to see how he was doing. That's why we know that it was smart that he got out when he did. And now, of course, we've got to run through tests and stuff to see how he's doing.”

There are wider-scale roster repercussions in where that lands, especially with Montoyo conceding that “it’s unlikely” Nate Pearson, who re-aggravated a groin strain during a bullpen Tuesday, will be ready for the start of the season.

Pearson reported feeling better Wednesday than he did when he initially strained the groin earlier this month, but the Blue Jays “have to be really careful that it doesn't happen again,” said Montoyo.

Hatch had been in the running for a rotation job or a long relief role, and he is certain to miss some time. His absence helps clear the path for one of Anthony Kay, T.J. Zeuch or Trent Thornton, who is slated to make his spring debut Friday, and underlines the importance of the pitching depth the Blue Jays have lauded all winter.

Pivotal in their upcoming decisions will be how to maintain as much of it as they can, especially with their non-roster invitees on minor-league contracts. Three of them followed Tice in Wednesday’s 1-0 loss to the Yankees: Tommy Milone, who allowed an unearned run on a hit and two walks in 2.2 innings; fellow lefty Francisco Liriano, who worked around two hits in 1.1 innings; and righty A.J. Cole, who walked one in an otherwise clean eighth.

Liriano has an out in his deal on March 25 and Milone’s comes two days later, meaning the Blue Jays will have to give them some clarity on their status in the coming days. Cole’s out is set for May 15, so they have a bit more time with him.

As things stand, Liriano seems best positioned to break with the club, although Cole is firmly in the mix, too. As the past couple of days have shown, attrition can thin out depth awfully quick, which makes retaining it a driving factor in roster calls.

With Hatch, the Blue Jays are clinging to hope that the injury isn’t as severe as the one Tim Mayza suffered back in September 2019, even though they had a similar look and feel. Mayza needed Tommy John surgery and is only now rounding back into form, while Montoyo said Hatch “didn’t feel a pop, he just didn't feel comfortable finishing a pitch.”

The fateful moment came on Hatch’s 48th pitch of an outing in which his fastball averaged out at 94.9 and topped out at 96.3.

Potential signs of discomfort began in the third during a leadoff walk to D.J. LeMahieu.

Watch the subtle way he spreads his fingers after this 1-0 slider to LeMahieu.

He does the same thing after missing with a four-seamer on the next pitch.

And then again on another four-seamer for Ball Four.

Hatch logged important relief innings for the Blue Jays during the shortened 60-game season last year “and he did great, so going into this spring training, I already liked the kid,” said Montoyo. “Now we want him to be a starter and he had pitched well so far. Even today, he did before that happened.”

When he’s able to resume that progress is unknown, and while Montoyo correctly notes that “anytime you lose anybody, you feel it,” this one hurts.

Ahead of a season in which pitchers will be pushed more than ever by the jump from a 60-game season to the usual 162-game grind, the line between normal pain and risky pain could become more blurred than ever. Each arm down, whether talented as Hatch and Pearson or not, takes away from a resource there is just never enough of.

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