This Week in Blue Jays: Amid a stretch of challenges for the offence, team tries to stay positive - The Athletic

2022-05-21 21:58:31 By : Ms. Aimee Zhang

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — This Blue Jays club is no stranger to challenges.

It was a different variety over the past two years, brought on by the fact that the Blue Jays couldn’t play home games in Toronto and instead had to split time between Buffalo and Dunedin, Fla., where sometimes crowds leaned heavily toward the visiting team. They had to move two times in a season and play in three ballparks in 2021, something no other club had to do. It was a stressful situation that wore on them. They also faced hardships on the field. Last year, the bullpen largely grinded through May and June. For a while, it felt like the Blue Jays were blowing a late-game lead every other game.

With expectations high this season, the Blue Jays have been met with their first bout of difficulty. After a fairly smooth start to the season, when it was undefeated through its first seven series, the club has been mired in a recent losing spell, dropping its past four series and losing nine of its past 12 games, including 3-0 to the Tampa Bay Rays on Sunday.

The primary issue — and it was one when the Blue Jays were winning games, too — is that the offence hasn’t been scoring often enough. Sure, offence is down across the majors, but the Blue Jays are now performing below average, even relative to the entire league, with a 98 wRC+, which means they’re two percent below the MLB average offence this year.

The team knows it’s in a funk. We’ve seen outward displays of frustration, most notably Vladimir Guerrero Jr. breaking a bat, then snapping it over his leg in New York. After a loss to the Yankees last week, the club held a players-only meeting, led by George Springer, with one of the messages being to stay the course because even great teams go through losing streaks. Before the season, no one would have predicted the Blue Jays offence would have been the element of the roster to struggle so much to start the year, especially not after the team ended last season as one of the most dangerous hitting clubs in the league. But this is the challenge Toronto has to overcome.

In recent losses, the pitching has held up and defeats have often fallen on the offence’s inability to score — especially with runners in scoring position — but this is a team that wins together and loses together. And if the Blue Jays are going to find a way out of this funk, they’ll need to stay united.

“I know who’s in that locker room. I think they just need to kind of regroup,” said starter Alek Manoah, who pitched six innings Sunday, allowing three runs, though only one was earned, on five hits. “There’s a lot of outside noises right now, just stay within themselves. These guys can bang. … We’re just going through a little phase right now. This clubhouse is going to stay together, it doesn’t matter how good we pitch, if we don’t win a ballgame, it doesn’t matter. But we’re going to stay together and that offence is going to show up.”

For a moment, it looked like the offence was finally showing up. In the eighth inning Saturday against the Rays, Toronto scored four runs thanks to home runs by Teoscar Hernández and Danny Jansen, who was freshly back in the lineup after a stint on the injured list. There was some hope the four-spot — which had to feel like more given how quiet the bats have been — in the eventual 5-1 win would be the catalyst that finally awoke the team’s bats for good.

“I think it’s been a long time coming,” Jansen said after the win. “This team can really hit, and I think that obviously it’s still early and I think that everybody’s just kind of getting into the swing of things now and, myself included.”

But by Sunday it was again a sluggish performance from the lineup. Toronto managed just five hits and was shut out by Rays starter Jeffrey Springs and Tampa’s cast of relievers. The Rays managed only six hits, but they capitalized on some sloppy play by the Blue Jays in the seventh inning, including a throwing error by Matt Chapman and a wild pitch from Manoah — who was otherwise good over six innings and deserved some run support — and scored the three runs they needed to win 3-0. Thus ended a dreadful 2-7 trip for the Blue Jays.

“It goes back to what I was saying in spring training, you got to play defence and you got to pitch to win games in this league and, I mean, I didn’t expect our offence was going to struggle like they have but that was an example today,” manager Charlie Montoyo said. “We didn’t really hit, we didn’t play a clean game, and Manoah was great again. He gave us a chance.”

Over the course of the three games in Tampa, the Blue Jays scored just seven runs. Their hitting with runners in scoring position remains practically non-existent and is the worst in the majors (as if you needed reminding). Montoyo remains confident the bats will eventually come around — and the players’ track record would suggest that, too — but certainly, it’s been tough to watch lately and likely even tougher to play through.

But, again, this isn’t a team unfamiliar with being in a tough spot and having to find a way to win, even if the particulars were different. Amid a slump like this, drawing on some of that experience can be instructive. But, at the end of the day, the team has to find a way to score runs.

In the meantime, players said the club is positive this bout of difficulty will end and can only make the team stronger in the long run, so long as it finds a way to battle through as it’s done before.

“We got 162 games, not by choice so we got to go out there and play no matter what,” Manoah said. “Trying to think about the negatives, trying to dwell on the negatives, that’s going to be tough to do that for 162 games, so we’re just going to grind it out and these guys will continue to grind at-bats and I think as long as we play hard, we should be fine.”

For those who had been calling for a lineup shuffle, the team did it, though it may take longer than two games to show returns. Springer’s absence Saturday after he rolled his ankle Friday prompted the changes in the batting order because the club needed a new leadoff man — Chapman got the call for a day — but it also served as a good excuse for Montoyo to mix up the order in an effort to awaken the offence.

When Springer returned to the leadoff spot Sunday, Montoyo kept the new-look top four anyway, with Guerrero hitting second, Hernández hitting third and Bo Bichette hitting in the cleanup spot. Santiago Espinal, one of the team’s most consistent hitters this year, moved up to fifth, and Lourdes Gurriel Jr. dropped down to the seventh spot, where he performed well last year, hitting .294/.324/.520.

Moving Guerrero to the two-hole was noteworthy, but it makes a lot of sense so long as he can get into a groove there. The Blue Jays first baseman was comfortable hitting third, but he’s been struggling at the plate of late — though a scuffling Guerrero is still above average — and it seemed like an opportune time to get him swinging in another spot to try to spur him on. Might as well try something new, right?

There are plenty of baseball reasons to want Guerrero hitting second. Over the course of the year, it gets him more at-bats and the Blue Jays should want him hitting as much as possible. Modern lineup construction thinking also suggests a team’s best hitter should hit second, to limit the times he comes up with two outs and no one on — which statistically happens more often to someone hitting third. Moving Bichette to fourth should, in theory, help drive the offence, too. Although he’s not a traditional power hitter, he does typically hit for average and should be able to drive in runs hitting behind Springer, Guerrero and Hernández.

The differences between one lineup and the next are fairly insignificant, but with the offence performing as it has thus far, this change was certainly worth a shot.

It was hard to know which Hyun Jin Ryu the Blue Jays would get Saturday against the Rays when he made his return after nearly a month on the injured list with left forearm inflammation. Would it be the guy who can dice through a lineup with his precise command? Or the guy who was getting punished for leaving fastballs over the plate?

Fortunately for the Blue Jays, they got the former version of Ryu. It was an encouraging sign, especially if the veteran lefty can build on it. Over 4 2/3 innings, he allowed one run on four hits with three strikeouts and a walk. The lone run came off a Yandy Díaz home run in the first inning. Ryu induced eight swings-and-misses, including four on his changeup, which he said he was happy with (outside of the one Díaz hit out of the park.) His fastball got three whiffs and five called strikes and the velocity was up to averaging 90.3 mph, up slightly from his previous outings, another encouraging sign.

From behind the plate, Jansen saw what he liked to see from the left-hander, saying “it was refreshing to see him and to be back there with him.”

“I was happy with it,” Jansen said. “It’s a home run to start the game. It was changeup up and out, and he put a good swing on it. And then, after that, he was cruising along, attacking the zone. His misses weren’t big, misses were nice. To (Brett) Phillips there was a couple of fastballs that were just right there and that’s the all-tell for me when he’s locating that pitch — away to a lefty, in to a righty.”

After two rough starts to the season — which seemed like a continuation of his second half last year — Ryu went on the IL with the forearm issue. During his time away, he said he worked on his mechanics, which he said felt off to start the year and contributed to his struggles.

“I was rushing everything, which resulted in a lot of pitches just above the plate and over the plate,” Ryu said via his interpreter, J.S. Park. “And I mean, the last couple of weeks I’ve had some bullpen sessions and live pitching sessions trying to work on my mechanics to make sure that I was balanced properly and wasn’t rushing anything.”

Montoyo was pleased with what he got from his starter and said he “looked like the Ryu that we know.”

After a 4 2/3-inning, 71-pitch performance, it’s hardly time to declare that Ryu’s issues are well behind him. We’ll need a larger sample to determine that, as Ryu chips away at lowering his 9.00 ERA. But, if he can get to a place where he’s giving the Blue Jays five or so solid innings every fifth day, they’d have to be pleased with that. With Kevin Gausman, Manoah and José Berríos leading the rotation, the Blue Jays don’t need Ryu to be an ace. But they need him to at least be effective enough to go out every five days and give them a chance to win. His first outing back showed he can still do that. Now, he’ll need to show he can do it again.

LHP Yusei Kikuchi (1-1, 4.15 ERA) vs. RHP Chris Flexen (1-5, 4.24) RHP José Berríos (2-2, 5.82) vs. RHP Logan Gilbert (4-1, 2.13) RHP Kevin Gausman (3-2, 2.40) vs. LHP Marco Gonzales (1-4, 3.38)

LHP Hyun Jin Ryu (0-0, 9.00) vs. RHP Luis Castillo (0-1, 5.59) RHP Alek Manoah (4-1, 171) vs. RHP Hunter Greene (1-6, 6.21) Kikuchi vs. RHP Connor Overton (1-0, 1.59)

This is the first meeting between the Blue Jays and the Mariners this year. A year ago, the Blue Jays went 2-5 against the Mariners. The good news for Toronto is one of the Seattle pitchers it had issues timing up last year is now with the Blue Jays. Kikuchi will get the chance to face his former team to open the series at the Rogers Centre.

The Reds come to Toronto for the first time since 2017. Cincinnati is off to a woeful start. The Blue Jays should be able to capitalize on this soft part of their schedule (in theory). A question for this series is will local boy Joey Votto be with the Reds? The first baseman has been on the COVID-19 IL since May 3. He began a rehab assignment with Triple-A Louisville over the weekend, but there’s no definite timeline for his return. Coming back for his hometown trip would be nice — and possibly the last time he’d play in Toronto — but his health will determine that.

New Hampshire Fisher Cats (Double A)

Hayden Juenger pitched two innings Sunday, giving up two runs on five hits with two walks and a strikeout. His ERA is now 3.80 after seven starts. He has 28 strikeouts in 21 1/3 innings pitched. A sixth-round draft pick of the Blue Jays last year, Juenger has been a player to watch this season. Baseball America moved the right-hander into the team’s top 10 prospects and wrote that “scouts view Juenger as one of the top players in the system at present and like his velocity and feel for a pair of secondaries.” He’s been sitting 94-96 mph and topping out at 97 mph with his fastball. He’s been limited to two- and three-inning starts as they build him after he spent his last year in college working as a reliever.

After dominating in Low A, pitchers Ricky Tiedemann and Yosver Zulueta have been promoted to High A. Tiedemann had a 1.80 ERA over six starts with Dunedin. In 30 innings, he had 49 strikeouts and allowed 13 walks. He gave up just 11 hits and one home run. Zulueta had a 3.00 ERA over three starts and struck out 23 with three walks over 12 innings. Both will now get a stiffer challenge in High A.

Dunedin Blue Jays (Low A)

Nick Frasso, the Blue Jays’ fourth-round draft pick in 2020, made his season debut for Dunedin on Saturday. He was returning from surgery in 2021 to have his UCL repaired with an internal brace, per MLB.com’s Keegan Matheson. In three shutout innings, he had eight strikeouts and allowed just a single hit. He topped out at 100.3 mph with his fastball and averaged 97.5 mph. It generated 12 whiffs. He also got six swings-and-misses on his slider. Frasso combined with Dunedin pitchers Dahian Santos (10 strikeouts) and Braden Scott (6) for 24 strikeouts and allowed just two hits in nine scoreless innings against Tampa in a 1-0 win. Per MLB Pipeline, it was the most strikeouts by a minor-league team since at least 2005.

Buffalo hosts Syracuse (NYM) New Hampshire at Erie (DET) Vancouver hosts Tri-City (ANA) Dunedin hosts St. Lucie (NYM)

• An encouraging sign from Jordan Romano came Saturday, with the closer’s velocity back to normal. He hit 97.8 mph on his fastball and averaged 96.7 mph. Romano looked more like himself, too, especially after the rough last outing he had in New York, where he blew his second save of the season.

• Hernández hit a home run to centre field Saturday, his first long ball since he returned from the IL. The right fielder said it’s been a bit frustrating trying to get his timing back after he missed 21 games with a left oblique strain. But he was at least encouraged by the ball he hit out Saturday. “I want to get my timing right away, but at the same time, I know it takes time to get my feeling, to get consistent again. But I’m going to keep working, I’m going to try to find it and try to keep it for the rest of the season.”

• Springer was back in the lineup Sunday as the designated hitter after he missed Saturday’s game because of a sprained ankle he suffered while falling into the centre-field wall Friday night. There is a chance he will be back in centre field Monday against the Seattle Mariners in Toronto, Montoyo said.

 (Photo of Raimel Tapia: Julio Aguilar / Getty Images)