TORONTO — Back during spring training, the rough plan the Toronto Blue Jays sketched out for Ricky Tiedemann had the electric-armed prospect pitching in bulk early, making up for lost time, before assessing where his progress and organizational need should take him. Barring setbacks, the thinking was such an approach would save some innings for a late-season boost, whatever role needed, amid an expected playoff push.
Though the route veered off track for both player and team along the way — Tiedemann suffering a setback with his elbow in the spring and only recently getting up to speed; the Blue Jays falling to the furthest edges of contention before rallying to relevance — they both arrived at the anticipated destination Saturday afternoon.
Recalled in the morning to help with a bullpen day, Tiedemann threw 1.2 innings in his big-league debut to help the Blue Jays beat the New York Yankees 4-1, extending their recent surge in the American League wild-card standings, pre-season vision becoming reality.
“It's a great feeling no matter what route it took,” said Tiedemann. “Being able to get to this point is something special, at least for me. And continuing to go out there and perform and put up innings and post numbers is really all I need to be focused on and let everything work itself out.”
Pitching between opener Braydon Fisher and bulk-arm Simeon Woods Richardson as part of a seven-reliever bullpen game, Tiedemann allowed one run on George Lombard Jr.’s RBI single while striking out two, flashing the dominant fastball-slider-changeup combo that can make him a weapon between now and the finish line.
Combined with another day of collective-approach offence, grinding out one run off Cy Young Award contender Cam Schlittler on Alejandro Kirk’s RBI single in the third before squeezing out three more versus the bullpen in the seventh and eighth innings, it added up to a 13th win in 19 outings for the Blue Jays (61-64), who grabbed hold of the third wild-card spot, pending the results of the day’s later games.
Louis Varland locked down a second straight win over the Yankees (68-55) with an overpowering ninth before a crowd of 42,580. Dylan Cease starts Sunday versus Ryan Weathers with a chance at the sweep.
“It's going to be a grind,” manager John Schneider said of the race ahead. “A lot of games left and we've got to keep bringing this same kind of feel, same kind of intensity every single day. But, definitely, it feels different than it has for a lot of the year and it feels pretty damn good.”
After the game, Tiedemann took to the field with his dad, Richard, two older brothers, wife and her sister for some pictures and then made an emotional FaceTime call to his mom, Mimi, who is back home in California recovering from a double mastectomy. She'd recently been diagnosed with breast cancer and had the surgery last week, leading the rookie to call his debut "a gift."
“She's doing good. They caught it early on and we're figuring it out. She was watching it on TV,” he said. “I showed her the field, showed her everybody that was here. It was good. It was special.”
While Tiedemann became the latest newcomer to the Blue Jays roster to make an immediate contribution, he wasn’t the only one Saturday.
Charles McAdoo, starting at first base after Vladimir Guerrero Jr. was placed on the seven-day concussion IL, ripped a go-ahead RBI double in the seventh and added a run-scoring single in the eighth before Nathan Lukes’ run-scoring groundout later in the inning made it 4-1.
Brett Bateman, meanwhile, reached base three times and scored in the third, continuing to provide a package of on-base skills, disciplined at-bats and quality baserunning that consistently help set the table and serve as a catalyst for the lineup.
“Just like a small dude with little-to-no juice is what people call it, but getting on-base, being scrappy, that's what sparks people,” said Bateman. “It's not always the big hit, it's putting really good at-bats together. That's what we've done really well and that's why we're winning baseball games right now, because we're putting really, really good at-bats together, stringing hits together. The bullpen's been absolutely amazing, too. These guys are shutting the door, giving us, especially late in games, a chance. …
“That's a team that's dangerous in the playoffs, gets zeroes on the defensive side, string together a few hits putting good at-bats together, that's a team that you don't really want to play.”
In that way, the Blue Jays are becoming more reminiscent of the group they were a year ago, with a wide array of skill-sets deployed in optimized matchups. Against Schlittler, they were able to push him out of the game after 5.1 innings at 97 pitches and then do enough damage against the bullpen to pull out the win.
“It's going to take everybody,” said Schneider. “How the roster is built right now, it really just keeps guys knowing when they're going to be in there, knowing what they're going to be asked to do and then not trying to do anything other than that. That's what you hope for. We were like that a lot last year.
“It's been, a little bit earlier in the year, difficult with injuries and things like that, but I think everyone understands what we're asking out of them and really buying into it and being ready for it.”
That includes Tiedemann, who in 2024 was pushing toward the big leagues before his elbow blew out, requiring Tommy John surgery. He came into spring training in a good spot, but then had a flareup with his elbow and rather than making up for lost time in bulk outings building up his volume, the Blue Jays decided to shorten him up for shorter outings to try to ease the physical burden.
He’d logged just seven competitive innings before the promotion, putting him in a difficult spot, but his stuff plays. Before arriving, he’d been pitching once every three days and the Blue Jays debated whether he’s ready to pitch more often to avoid overburdening the club’s other relievers.
But against the Yankees, once he’d settled into his outing, he showed how his stuff plays, getting Austin Wells to wave over a slider to end the third and then making an adjustment to get Ben Rice looking at a changeup with his final pitch in the fourth.
"Going into it we had talked about keeping the slider, working it outside, getting it to the left knee of the catcher, especially on all those lefties,” said Tiedemann. “Being able to do that and execute those was big but at the end, you could tell their guys were kind of staying off fastball and going for all my sliders. So, last pitch, shook off and went changeup for the back door and it worked out.”
For him and the Blue Jays, amid a stretch that’s put them back in control of their own fate.
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