Back end of Blue Jays rotation keeps team afloat

Berrios and Kikuchi performance match any 4-5 starters in MLB

As spring training played itself out in Florida this year, the Blue Jays’ biggest pitching question may have been which of their two starting aces deserved the opening day assignment, Alek Manoah, the young, on-the-rise all-star who finished third in ‘22 Cy Young voting, or Kevin Gausman, the consistent veteran with the big contract, who had signed a hefty, five-year free-agent deal prior to ’22.

On the other end of the spectrum, the Jays’ two biggest pitching concerns, issues that many believed might serve to determine the team’s ability to compete in the uber-tough AL East, were the swing-and-miss ability of the bullpen and a hoped-for and much-needed bounce-back by the bottom two men in the rotation. The team needed a rebound after disappointing performances by Jose Berrios and Yusei Kikuchi.

Currently, after seven full turns through the rotation, there is enough data to make reasonable observations. One thing that was predictable is that all five starters – Manoah, Gausman, Chris Bassitt, Berrios and Kikuchi – have been healthy enough to each make their seven scheduled starts. None of this quintet had been overly spectacular during their careers, or in fact this year with at least a couple of clunkers each, but all have been mostly healthy, taking the ball every 5-6 days, which is a hugely underrated asset in determining a starting pitcher’s value.

But what no one would have predicted for this group is that Berrios and Kikuchi have cumulatively out-pitched Manoah and Gausman through the first 41 days of the season, leading to the Jays owning the fourth-best record in the AL, tied for sixth best in major-league baseball, with the Dodgers.

When the undefeated Rays came to the Rogers Centre in mid-April, it was Berrios and Kikuchi that defeated them back-to-back, showing the baseball world that this Jays team was to be reckoned with. When the team needed a couple of wins in Pittsburgh to right the ship from a disastrous four-game set in Boston, it was Berrios and Kikuchi that went deep into their starts for the win, saving the bullpen arms headed into an off-day and to Philadelphia.

“This team has the best two or three starters,” Berrios said of his teammates at the top of the rotation, in a recent conversation. “They are able to go out there and compete and be successful. We have myself and Kikuchi in the fourth and fifth spot. We have been pitching the ball pretty well. Once you had three, now you have five. It’s more opportunity, confidence, whatever you want to call it, to make that special thing happen.”

Numbers back him up. While the Jays were 8-6, combined, in the first 14 starts by Manoah and Gausman, they were 9-5 in the same number of outings by the once worrisome bottom two. While certainly, the quality of the opposing pitcher matchups has been higher for the top two starters than it would have been for the tail-end guys, the duo of Berrios/Kikuchi still stack up well when it comes to most other numbers.

In 78.0 combined innings, Berrios and Kikuchi have posted a 4.15 ERA, with 76 hits and 15 walks. Meanwhile, in 78.1 combined innings, Manoah and Gausman have posted a 4.25 ERA, allowing 82 hits and 28 bases-on-balls. Without the 4-5 starter contributions, the Jays’ improved outfield defence, baserunning and vaunted attention to detail may still not have added up to being legitimate contenders.

“When people can’t control things, they start overthinking and having doubts,” Berrios admitted, mainly referring to last season. “That’s normal. But myself, I know, and also Kikuchi, we are confident and keep believing in ourselves. We work. We make adjustments. We’ve been working so hard this off-season. That’s why we’ve had better results, better outcomes on the field.”

Berrios, still not yet 30, had been an ace and a workhorse for the Twins until the surprise trade at mid-season, in 2021. After signing a big off-season deal and being the opening day starter for the Jays in 2022, he proceeded to fall flat on his face, with eight brutal starts out of 32, making constant adjustments in working with pitching coach Pete Walker in constant attempts to correct the head-scratching ineffectiveness he had all of a sudden encountered.

“With the years, we start getting old and have to make adjustments,” Berrios explained. “But it’s easy when you start to know yourself and you know what you need and what you don’t need. We are human and make some mistakes, but I’ve been able to make that adjustment really quickly and it helps me maintain myself out there healthy and strong.”

The 29-year-old native of Puerto Rico never doubted himself even during the darkest of times in 2022, because while his own numbers were terrible, his team won 23 of the 32 games he started. That team win total was Top 5 in the AL. With so much technology (maybe too much) available to help them, Berrios and Walker tried everything. Where to set up on the rubber, how high to bring the hands in the wind up, how far back to step in the delivery with nobody on base ands many others, some far more subtle. They even went to the point, for most of last season, of having Jose pitch with a mouthguard for the first time, which he often flailed about like Steph Curry at the foul line. It quietly disappeared, earlier this year.

“Last year I was doing it because I think I was tipping,” Berrios explained of the suspicion teams used video to decipher facial expressions for certain pitches. “This year, normally when I’m done pitching, I eat sunflower (seeds) or bubble-gum. So that helped me when I get … not worried, but more anxious, to calm myself down. I do that during the game. I chew bubble-gum when I’m pitching my game That’s what I’ve been doing, using gum for pitching and I’ve been pitching the ball pretty well.”

Berrios over the past 18 months has viewed his career from both the top and from the bottom, with the big contract celebration with family and then when his personal numbers inexplicably blew up in the first year of the new deal. But he has never stopped paying attention to what goes on in the clubhouse and on the field. He believes this Jays rotation has a chance to be special, top to bottom.

“We have the ability,” Berrios said. “We are healthy, strong and pitching well. We’ve got the opportunity and the ability to win. The defence and the offence have been doing their job. “Obviously last year, I had doubt in my mind. I wasn’t throwing the ball the way I wanted. I went out and competed pitch-by-pitch even if the results weren’t what I wanted. I’ve been able to keep throwing every five days, but my team helped me out and we were able to win a lot more than we lost (in ’22). This year we have to win, so now it’s up to me to throw better pitches and I’ve been doing it so far.”

Meanwhile, the forgotten man in this conversation, the reliable third starter Bassitt keeps trying to find ways to incorporate all eight pitches into his in-game repertoire while settling into a mid-rotation role which he fits very well. The Jays this week conclude their three-city road trip with a pair in Philly and come home for the weekend having contested 25 of 37 games away from the renovated Rogers Centre. But despite the majority of road games, they are hanging in.