Blue Jays at Tampa Bay – Summary of opening weekend
Split leaves unanswered questions unanswered
JAYS/RAYS SERIES SPLIT AT TROPICANA FIELD
The Blue Jays opened the 2024 season with a four-game Easter weekend set at their historical House of Horrors, Tropicana Field, emerging with a split. Nothing that unfolded over the course of the opening series served to change my mind about the belief the Rays are going to struggle to contend this season. This is a Rays team that under manager Kevin Cash has finished above .500 in each of the last seven seasons, reaching the post-season in six. But 2024 looks to be a struggle.
Why? Start with the fact they are without starters Shane McLanahan and Tyler Glasnow, plus shortstop Wander Franco and several key bench players from a year ago. The marathon will wear them down.
Fans and media forever rave about the Rays farm system and their ability to develop homegrown players to fill in on a strict payroll budget and to compete year-after-year even though they are among the lowest income organizations. That’s a tough financial working model to sustain. That cycle may be ending.
The Rays’ opening day payroll, according to Cot’s website, sat at $98.1-million, with RHP Zach Eflin ($11M) as the only player over $10M. Consider, also, that the 13-man pitching staff this weekend featured zero homegrown Rays, with six free-agents, five acquired via trade and two on waivers. The position player group, on this opening weekend, had just two players signed and developed by the Rays. For those interested, by comparison, the Jays roster has six of 26 currently active, homegrown, players, including two pitchers.
BLUE JAYS ROSTER
The final cutdown moves for the Jays just prior to Thursday’s opener included one surprise, with RHP Wes Parsons taking one of the pitching spots left open by IL’d RHPs Jordan Romano and Erik Swanson. The alternative could have been to carry RHP Yariel Rodriguez, who is already on the 40-man roster and is signed for four years with $32M guaranteed. In addition, adding DH Daniel Vogelbach to the four-man bench group forced the Jays to DFA No. 17 prospect RHP Yosver Zulueta, in order to clear a 40-man spot. The 26-year-old Cuban was quickly picked up by Reds.
GAME 1, BLUE JAYS 8 – RAYS 2 ATT: 25,025 WP-Berrios LP-Eflin
The Jays played an almost perfect game defensively, which is now going to be a nightly key to winning for a team that won 89 games a year ago, but did not improve offensively, unless, by their own admission, that improvement comes from within.
The only notable blips on defence came on consecutive plays by RF George Springer in the sixth inning, after the Jays had just built a 6-1 lead. Leading off the inning, Springer allowed a Rene Pinto, deep, opposite field flyball to kick up coconut shards in the middle of the warning track for a double. Given the ballpark and the time of day, Springer may have had trouble with the roof. Then on the next play, George came in and dove on an uncatchable line drive by Yandy Diaz that rolled to deep right, playing it into a double. Instead of first and third, with a double play possible, it became an RBI, with a runner on second. During the post-game interview, Springer admitted to Hazel Mae that he needs to buy Berrios a gift to make up for it.
The rest of the defence was flawless, often balletic. Vlad started a perfect reverse double-play, stepping on the bag then chasing Yandy Diaz towards second and flipping to Bo Bichette for a one-throw rundown. Guerrero also made two slick catches in four territory one off Isaac Paredes near the screen and then on Pinto down the line, directly over his shoulder. The most impressive play was a Cavan Biggio catch and tag on one-hop throw by Alejandro Kirk simultaneously tagging Caballero’s left leg in the fifth when the game was tied 1-1. Leading off, Cavan then homered in the sixth, keying a five-run inning. Isiah Kiner-Falefa blocked a two-hop rocket off the bat of Harold Ramirez and recovered for the out at first, then Bo ended the sixth inning with two men on, with a backhand play up the middle against Paredes.
One of the most glaring issues in ’23 had been the lack of production with runners in scoring position (RISP). In this opener, the Jays were 3-for-9, with three walks and a double, with a .944 OPS.
GAME 2, BLUE JAYS 2 – RAYS 8 ATT: 18,653 WP-Civale LP-Bassitt
The Jays struggled defensively after their brilliant effort with the leather on opening day. Given a heart-on-his-sleeve starter on the mound, RH Chris Bassitt, who also has the self-imposed pressure of calling most of his own pitches, the results were ugly.
Bichette during this game was charged with two errors, but the reality is that it could easily have been zero if teammates had helped him out.
In the third, leading 1-0, Bassitt clipped Jose Caballero on the back of the hand, placing runners on first and second. Bichette fielded a high hopper from Diaz that he reached down and left on the ground, leaning back to pick it up, then flipping to Biggio at second base, with everyone safe. How could that have been avoided? The key advice for infielders at any level is to make sure you get one out. Once Bo had left it on the ground, Cavan knew he would not be able to turn two and should have morphed into first-base mode, stretching out to reach the flip from Bo. It was bang-bang as it was, but a stretch would have at least gained an out.
Bo’s second official error in G2 was on a Diaz grounder into the hole off the bat of Diaz. Bichette fielded heading into left field, turned and bounced a one-hop bullet to Guerrero, who stretched too early and was unable to adjust for the hop to his right, a play he normally makes. But the two errors in the boxscore shroud within a horsehide fog the real improvement exhibited by Bo, defensively, over the past year.
More subtle defensive mistakes, not reflected in the boxscore, included by Vlad on a hard grounder to the baseline, making a diving stop, rolling over and throwing high to Bassitt. The play was ruled a base-hit, though a good throw from his butt gets Lowe by four strides. Arozarena followed with an RBI single, adding to Bassitt’s frustration.
Offensively, for the second game in a row, Springer, in his second at-bat, homered. He became the first Jays to homer in the first two games of any season since Vernon Wells did it in 2010. He did not hit his second homer until April 11 last year.
GAME 3, BLUE JAYS 1 – RAYS 5 ATT: 18,905 WP-Littell LP-Kikuchi
Three bench players earned their first start of the season, facing RH Zack Littell. They were 3B Ernie Clement, DH Vogelbach and C Brian Serven. The 28-year-old Serven, filling in for IL’d Danny Jansen, is not expected to provide much offence, but should be able to help lead his starting pitcher to a quality start. Vogelbach, for his part, is a one-trick pony, not expected to play the field at first base, but he needs to provide some power and bat discipline off the bench. For the 26th roster spot, he beat out 1B/DH Spencer Horwitz, OF Nathan Lukes and an injured 1B/DH/CDN Joey Votto. The 31-year-old Vogelbach needs to produce in order to remain.
On the hill, after a huge rebound season in ’23, Kikuchi struggled through spring training and MGR John Schneider was hoping that once the season began, that he would shorten the amount of his new-pitch experimentation and return to what worked a year ago. After struggling through four innings on 81 pitches, missing his spot by a lot and not threatening the strike zone on many pitches, Yusei was allowed to go out to start the fifth. Randy Arozarena homered with one out and Paredes ripped a single to left and Kikuchi was done. The Rays started nine righthanded hitters vs. the Jays’ veteran lefthander. They were able to do this because they have no true star lefthanded bats that need to play every day, so the response by Schneider the next time Kikuchi is needed against the Rays may be to use a RHP opener, perhaps Trevor Richards for one time through the order, then bring Kikuchi in.
As for the recent game-by-game slow-start history of 2023 that they are trying to overcome, over three starts, first time through the order the results were zero runs, with a 9-man combined result of 3-for-26-.115, with one walk and 12 strikeouts. Also, in the two losses, Games 2-3, the Jays with RISP were 1-for-10-.100, with a sac-fly.
SUSPENSION: Genesis shove leads to dugout Exodus. Leading 3-1, with two outs and a runner on third in the seventh, Caballero dropped a surprise bunt for a single that 3B Turner threw down the right field line. Springer fired to Bichette at third, who tagged Caballero gently to end the frame. As he jogged through the bag, he bumped into Cabrera, who was very, very far away from where he should have been backing up third base. The bump turned into nose to nose hands thrown in the air dismay, for whatever reason. Cabrera then shoved Caballero hard, open hands sliding up under the chin, pushing his head back, and walked away. The next day MLB announced Genesis was suspended for three games, a penalty the Jays are appealing. My opinion is maximum one game, with a healthy fine. He walked away from the confrontation and did not ramp up the on-field unpleasantries. Maybe he was upset by the situation around the bunt, but his understanding of defensive fundamentals sucked.
GAME 4, BLUE JAYS 9 – RAYS 2 ATT: 14,875 WP-White LP-Armstrong
Kevin Gausman made his case for jumping back into the rotation a week ago in the final exhibition against the Pirates, throwing 52 healthy, effective pitchers, then came back and proved his point on Sunday at the Trop. The ace righthander bumped himself up to 69 pitches on Sunday and worked into the fifth inning, with a 7-1 lead. His next start will be the weekend at Yankee Stadium, likely on Saturday.
Coincidentally, the last two men out of the Jays bullpen were White and Green, with both combining to close out what was a comfortable victory to split the series. What has not been determined is which of Yimi Garcia or Chad Green will be called upon to pitch any ninth inning with a 1-3 run lead in the absence of regular closer Romano. None of the four games were close enough to force that decision.
Bichette was a late scratch on Sunday with neck spasms, perhaps suffered as collateral damage from the G3 dustup between Cabrera and Caballero. He was right behind Caballero when his head was pushed back. Filling in admirably at short was Clement, who, day-by-day is solidifying for himself an important role on the four-man bench. It was an interesting defensive alignment on this day, with Turner at third, IKF at second, Biggio in right (vs. a lefthander), Varsho in centre, Schneider in left and Springer as DH. This is what 21st century bench versatility is all about.