Toronto Blue Jays need to hit panic button on starting pitching

The Toronto Blue Jays’ Marcus Stroman is the only consistent starting pitcher on the team this season. From blisters to absolutely poor play, the Blue Jays need help from a pitcher who is not already in the bullpen.

Francisco Liriano does not look likely to change that for the blue birds in the near future. Two days ago, Richard Griffin of The Toronto Star thought as much as many others, reporting that the Toronto Blue Jays “may also have lost left-handed starter [Liriano] to injury, one day after righty Aaron Sanchez had turned in an encouraging six-inning effort coming back from finger issues. The initial diagnosis for the 33-year-old was neck tightness that did not appear serious.”

John Lott of The Athletic updated Liriano’s status yesterday, reporting his neck had improved and there was no need for an MRI. The team is calling him day-to-day.

However, Blue Jays manager John Gibbons admitted that Liriano didn’t look himself in the outing, showing an unusual lack of command. The skipper hoped, however, that the issue would prove to be a minor one.

Giving up five runs on two hits in just over two innings seems a bigger deal than Gibbons suggests. Ben Nicholson-Smith of Rogers Sportsnet stated that, in a contract year, it appears unlikely the Jays would be able to demand much for Liriano in a trade, given his performance, salary and now questionable health.

And Liriano is not the only concern for the team.

If anything, Liriano is the only pitcher without a losing record (5-5) not named Marcus Stroman. The StroShow is 9-5 with a 3.28 ERA in 18 starts. Not exactly dominant, but he has given many quality starts to the Blue Jays, even in those no-decisions.

Many of the other starters on the Toronto pitching staff have spent time on the disabled list, but they have not done consistently well enough, even after they have returned. The 25-year-old phenom known as Aaron Sanchez has had a split nail and a blister hamper his season, making just seven starts and going 1-2 with a 3.94 ERA. J.A. Happ is 3-6 with a 3.54 ERA and Marco Estrada, once considered the best starting pitcher in the rotation, is sitting with a disappointing 4-6 record and a 5.33 ERA.

Joe Biagini was supposed to be the only question mark in the rotation, which has turned up negative as he earned a 2-7 record and a 5.60 ERA.

For a team that was in the playoffs last season, having pretty much the same starting rotation was to be the strength of the team. Sure, Edwin Encarnacion‘s big bat took its talents to Cleveland, but the pitching was to keep the Blue Jays in games until they found how to replace him.

Instead, Justin Smoak has filled in quite nicely almost immediately, earning him an All-Star appearance this season; yet, the Blue Jays are dead last in the American League East division (42-49 record), almost dead last in the entire league, with many Toronto fans asking themselves why they jumped on the Blue Jays bandwagon a couple of years ago only to be one of the biggest MLB disappointments in recent memory.

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As a team, the Blue Jays starters are in 23rd place for ERA (4.79) and 24th place for opposing batting average (.273). When one is getting slapped around the ballpark hard, one cannot expect to last long in the game. To that end, the Blue Jays starters have only gone just over 486 innings this season, due to injury or poor play, earning them 26th place out of 30 teams. How does the Blue Jays brass expect to win games when their bullpen has already pitched over 330 innings, fifth highest in the majors?

Stroman is doing his part, tossing 112.1 innings and trying to reach further into games to give the Jays relievers at least a bit of a break. However, his .267 opposing batting average is still higher than it was in each of his first three seasons with the ball club. According to MLB.com, Stroman has been living at the knees, throwing the majority of his pitches low in the strike zone with a filthy slider.

For the most part, that can be true of many of the Blue Jays pitchers who have kept home runs to a minimum; the problem is situational hitting. When runners are in scoring position, the Blue Jays staff is eighth worst in total earned runs given up (295) and have walked 100 batters.

The starters are playing poorly and the bullpen is officially overworked. What does that spell? Disaster, when one takes into account that the only top youths on the team to trade away are Stroman and Sanchez. The Blue Jays need Stroman (and a much-improved and healthy Sanchez) to get through this rough time and keep season-ticket holders coming to the Rogers Centre; yet, someone like Stroman is exactly what other teams are looking to trade for before the upcoming deadline.

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A definite ‘do-or-don’t’ conundrum like no other the franchise has seen in quite some time. If the brass trades Stroman to make improvements in their batting lineup or in some prospects, the Blue Jays can kiss any chance of the postseason, for even the next few seasons, goodbye. They can score as many runs as they want, but they will still lose if there is no solid arm to stop the opposition.

And, if anyone is keeping track, the Blue Jays are in 26th place in runs scored. So, don’t hold your breath for a miracle, Jays fans.