SARASOTA, Fla. – If Yusei Kikuchi’s spring debut was a little surprising, his encore Tuesday was quietly encouraging.
Facing the Orioles on three days’ rest, the left-hander pitched two hitless innings while consistently attacking the zone on his way to two strikeouts. Aside from a four-pitch walk to Ramon Urías that opened the second inning, he executed his plan of challenging opposing hitters with stuff that’s indisputably lively.
From the mound, Kikuchi could tell the reactions were different from the Orioles, a team he faced six times last year.
“I was able to attack the zone pretty well,” Kikuchi said through interpreter Keito Ebino after a 2-1 Toronto win that came within two outs of being a Grapefruit League no-hitter. “That was the main focus in the off-season and what I've been doing all season so far. Being able to have that two outings in a row just makes me really comfortable.”
After the four-pitch walk, manager John Schneider and pitching coach Pete Walker exchanged a look in the Blue Jays’ third-base dugout. In 2022, Kikuchi would sometimes spiral in moments like this. How would he respond this time?
“Pete and I were talking about that after the walk,” Schneider recalled. “What's he going to do? Then right back and (there’s) strike one. Got right back into rhythm. He's in a good spot. He's confident.”
Outings like this make Kikuchi the clear frontrunner for the Blue Jays’ fifth starting job, not only because of the results but because he’s repeating his delivery more consistently. Whether that’s due to the pitch clock, changes in his own mental approach or some combination thereof, the result for the Blue Jays is ideal: he’s no longer overthinking his mechanics.
“That’s just not happening this year,” he said. “Everything is clear and I’m just more comfortable on the mound.”
Timelines in place for star debuts
After missing the early stages of spring training to be present for the birth of his first child, Alejandro Kirk is expected in Blue Jays camp Thursday. Since the 24-year-old catcher won’t be playing in the World Baseball Classic, his attention can shift fully to the Blue Jays with four weeks remaining before opening day.
“Happy we could do that for him,” Schneider said. “He’s in a good spot. It’ll just be a little bit of a slower or quicker ramp-up, depending on how you want to look at it.”
Kirk has been catching high-velocity pitching machines and throwing to bases during his workouts in California, so he’s not starting from scratch. Next up, he’ll catch some pitchers on backfields and face live pitching before making his spring training debut. If all goes well, he could be in games by early next week – maybe sooner.
“It shouldn’t be too terribly long,” Schneider said.
Meanwhile, Alek Manoah and Kevin Gausman are slated to make their spring training debuts Thursday and Friday, respectively.
As for fellow starter Chris Bassitt, he debuted Tuesday with two innings against the Detroit Tigers. A veteran of eight big-league seasons, he’s content to build up slowly, knowing that his most important games are weeks if not months away.
“I've been through this enough where I know how long the season is,” Bassitt said. “If I'm absolutely full bore right now, I don't know how good I'm going to be come October.”
Rookie contributions welcome
Late February is far too early to draw sweeping conclusions about players, but the early returns have been encouraging from young pitchers like Ricky Tiedemann, Bowden Francis, Hayden Juenger and Sem Robberse.
Though none are favoured to break camp with the team, all have intriguing stuff. And even setting the radar gun aside the Blue Jays hope to create a welcoming environment for the young players pushing toward the big-league roster.
“Gone are the days of, you know, making him do this or that or carry this or that,” Schneider said. “When you do arrive, whether it's camp or season, you're here for a reason. We know about you, we're familiar with you. And if they can kind of feel that when they do arrive, I think the best version of them comes out.”
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