TORONTO – Over the course of the last three years, the pitcher with the best ERA in baseball has been Jacob deGrom. With Cy Young Awards in two of those years and a near-miss in 2020, deGrom is as good as it gets – arguably on a level of his own.
Next on the list, right behind deGrom’s 2.10 ERA, is Hyun Jin Ryu at 2.30. Now, Ryu hasn't logged nearly as many innings, but the point is he’s probably better than he gets credit for even after a strong Toronto Blue Jays debut in which he placed third in AL Cy Young voting.
As he enters year two of his four-year, $80 million deal, Ryu is once again central to the Blue Jays’ hopes of returning to the post-season – perhaps even more so now that Nate Pearson is sidelined with a right groin strain team decision makers are describing as minor. If any pitcher on this Blue Jays staff has a legitimate chance to pitch 180 innings this year, it’s likely Ryu, who did so twice with the Dodgers.
First things first, though: a 2021 spring debut against the Orioles. All things considered, the outing went well with one earned run allowed over two innings of work on Friday. And while some pitchers might need weeks to re-gain comfort with their off-speed stuff, a finesse pitcher like Ryu has that feel from day one.
"To be honest, I could throw all of my pitches – all of my secondary as well,” he said via interpreter after the Blue Jays beat Baltimore 13-4. “At this time of the camp, I'm just worried about my pitch count. I just want to make sure that my pitch count is up. I could throw all of my secondary pitches at any time right now, so it's not a big deal for me."
Of the 30 pitches Ryu threw, nine were change-ups, five were curves and three were cutters, so he definitely wasn't over-reliant on his fastball, which topped out at 89.8 m.p.h. After throwing in the game, the left-hander then threw 15 more on the side in an attempt to build up more stamina. He expects to pitch three innings in his next start as he builds toward a likely opening day assignment against the Yankees.
From behind the plate, catcher Danny Jansen saw some encouraging signs from the 33-year-old Ryu as he pitched to opposing hitters for the first time this spring.
"You just look for fastball location,” Jansen said. “I wasn't really watching the radar gun. I know he wasn't worried about it. He just wants to get his feel, his release point down to the exact same spot. It's really that: the repetitiveness. And today he was throwing pretty much every pitch where he wanted to, so it's awesome to see."
In the second inning, Jansen took Matt Harvey deep for his first home run of the spring, an opposite-field shot that validated some of the catcher’s winter preparation.
"That felt great," Jansen said. "Not only getting the barrel to it, but hitting the ball to right field like that. I spent all off-season working on a high finish and my ability to stay in the zone longer with my bat and stay up the middle and have better direction all around the field instead of just to left field, so it was awesome seeing that."
Yet it was outfielder Josh Palacios who had the biggest offensive day of all. After entering the game as a pinch-runner for Randal Grichuk, the 25-year-old prospect went three for three with a home run of his own and five runs driven in.
With four established outfielders for three starting spots, there’s no clear path for a big-league job for Palacios right now. Even in the minors, Jonathan Davis could be ahead of him on the depth chart.
Yet the Blue Jays liked Palacios enough to add him to the 40-man roster over the winter and Friday’s performance made an impression on manager Charlie Montoyo. In the course of a long season, you never know: the Blue Jays might need to call on Palacios.
"He's going to be an option," Montoyo said. "Of course we know who's going to make the club when it comes to our outfield, but to have a guy like that and what he's doing right now, it's great to see."
Performances like that are the welcome surprises that sometimes emerge during spring training. But most important of all was the return of Ryu, the clear ace of a Blue Jays staff that includes few sure things.
"To be honest, I don't really think about that too much,” Ryu said. “Our pitching staff – the starters, the relief guys – they all have all of this potential, so I don't think it's that big of a responsibility. At the end of the day our pitching staff's pretty good, so I'm not really too worried about the responsibility."
