A Toronto Blue Jays Bullpen Conundrum
As General Manager of the suddenly rejuvenated Toronto Blue Jays, Alex Anthopoulos is living in the present and relishing every moment of it. He has earned it. His club is headed to their first American League Championship Series after 22 long, arduous seasons. Now that the Jays clinched an epic ALDS game five for the ages with no doubters, a bat flip and a raucous crowd at Rogers Centre, it’s time they game plan for the Kansas City Royals.
Versus righties, the Royals had the second highest team average (.266) of any team in the American League’s regular season. When facing lefties, they ranked third with a .272 AVG. Only the Tigers and Blue Jays were more efficient against southpaws in 2015. Left-handed pitching is not the way to neutralize a Royals lineup, but in situational match-ups when the pressure is immense, it could save the day.
Brett Cecil won’t play again in 2015. Aaron Loup missed games four and five of the ALDS due to family matters. His status for the ALCS is up in the air. Even if he is available, what kind of mentality will he bring with him to the mound?
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The best left-hander on the Blue Jays’ staff is their ace, David Price. He appeared out of the bullpen in game four after earning the start in the series opener. Both appearances were less than stellar, and he earned his only career postseason win in that relief appearance (3 IP, 6 H, 3 ER). All of this means two things: One, the Royals will be getting a heavy dose of right-handed offerings in the ALCS because, two, Loup and Price are the only active southpaws on the 25-man roster.
Another circumstance of the Blue Jays that may make some uneasy are their best two relievers this postseason. The duo of Aaron Sanchez and Roberto Osuna have held down the eighth and ninth innings of ball games nicely thus far. A lot of fans would suggest it ludicrous the notion of calling those two pitchers question marks for the club, because they’ve been mostly lights out since the passing of the All-Star Game. However, the fact remains, both are rookies with 43 years of age between them and only one full season each of MLB experience under their belt. Jays fans saw first hand what an extremely high leverage situation did to a relatively inexperienced Sam Dyson in the seventh inning of game five.
When I refer to the word conundrum with Toronto’s talented young arms, I am not only pondering present tense. Everyone is caught up in the postseason run, and rightfully so. I myself am a lifelong fan and would love to see them win it all. But I’m also thinking about the future. Anthopoulos pulled off amazing deals to land Price, Josh Donaldson and Troy Tulowitzki. In doing so, he gave up a promising arsenal of arms within the organization in Daniel Norris, Sean Nolin, Kendall Graveman, Jeff Hoffman and Miguel Castro.
That is a high number of potentially valuable pitchers to part with. Looking ahead to 2016, myself and every other Jays fan (bandwagon jumper or not) would enjoy the trend of October baseball in Toronto to continue. All those prospective pitchers now gone, the only sure thing for the Jays’ rotation next season is Marcus Stroman. Price and Marco Estrada will be free agents. R.A. Dickey has a $12 million team option, Mark Buehrle will be a FA pondering retirement and Drew Hutchison is as schizophrenic a starter MLB has seen over the last two seasons. Even Mark Lowe is a free agent in 2016.
At the detriment of again having to re-build the bullpen in 2016, moving Sanchez back to the rotation and stretching out Osuna in the offseason to prime him for rotation work next year are options. But in doing so, the Jays will need to find a new setup man and replace someone who could possibly be a Hall of Fame closer in Osuna, should his career trajectory allow for it.
Best case scenario — the Toronto Blue Jays win the 2015 World Series, causing the likes of Price and Estrada to re-sign in the offseason because they enjoy the clubhouse culture and dynamic of the organization.
There are other options with names like Liam Hendriks, Ryan Tepera and Bo Schultz being available next season. However, if the Jays can’t re-sign some big names and payroll won’t allow for them to attract other new ones leading up to winter meetings, Anthopoulos and Co. will have an interesting time figuring out how to use Sanchez and Osuna down the line.