Bowden Francis forcing his way into Blue Jays rotation picture

Bowden points to patience and life lessons as the keys

Blue Jays fans feel like they know starters Kevin Gausman, Jose Berrios and Chris Bassitt. But who is this guy, Bowden Francis? Let’s see. Imagine a NASCAR event in which a massive pileup on the final laps opens up the track and suddenly an unheralded driver from off the pace, skillfully wends his way through the wreckage to take the checkered flag. Sure, that unheralded driver was good enough to be entered in the race, but he needed help to break through. Though the driver caught a break, now that he’s tasted success and is in the spotlight, the driver needs to work as hard or harder to maintain it. Consider Bowden Francis the horsehide equivalent.

On Saturday afternoon facing the Angels, a team he had defeated 12 days earlier, the quirky, wholly holistic, 28-year-old righthander, making his eighth start of the season in his 22^nd appearance, carried a Blue Jays no-hitter into the ninth inning, before a leadoff home run by Taylor Ward ended his bid and his afternoon. Chad Green finished up the ninth for the save, while Vlad Guerrero Jr. doubled, homered (No. 27) and drove in a pair.

But the day belonged to Francis. He threw a career high 117 pitches, while manager John Schneider, to his credit, was going to allow Francis to finish the game no matter the count. Why not? It’s likely the only history this Jays team will be making over the final 34 games as they look to the future.

Perhaps it’s true that the Yusei Kikuchi trade may have opened the door for the Francis opportunity to make what will likely be a final third of the season 10 starts, but it wasn’t just Saturday that he has been good. Bowden was coming off AL Player-of-the-Week for a pair of dominating wins, in Anaheim and then at Wrigley Field.

The fact is, he’s been dealing and dominating since July 29. Over his last six games, five starts, since being recalled back to the majors, Francis is 3-1, 1.91 ERA, with 33.0 innings, 15 hits, five walks and 36 strikeouts.

After opening the season slowly, with a failed stint in the April rotation as a fifth starter, that was followed by a 34-game stint on the IL, with right forearm tendinitis. That was then followed later in the year by a trip down to AAA-Buffalo with an organizational goal of stretching him out as a post-Kikuchi starter.

Francis’s intention is now to finish strong and be regarded, securely, this winter as a trusted member of a revamped Jays rotation in 2025. The key is to never be satisfied.

“Always try to take something out of each start to work on and learn and grow,” Francis said on Friday as he prepped for his near-historical start. “The fact is there’s growth in anything, good or bad, and you just have to be in the present to realize it.”

Francis has altered his repertoire, at least as far as the percentage of pitch usage, since early in the season. He is relying much more over his last five starts on a simple combination of four-seam fastball and a splitter that he had been working on at spring training and now has become a not-so-secret weapon. Further, and maybe the key, is that he has been keenly observing the three veteran teammates in the Jays rotation, with special attention to Gausman and his particular game-plans.

“It’s cool to watch,” Francis admitted. “I’ve been watching closely how Gausman uses his stuff and how he attacks hitters. I think he’s one of the highest (percentage) strike throwers in the game. I think that’s something I take pride in, just attacking. Never be scared.”

Let’s go back and explore how he has arrived at this stage of his career. It’s been a long and grinding road for the young hurler, growing up in northwest Florida, named after Florida State coaching legend Bobby Bowden. But in baseball, that’s simply a fun fact, but you need to stand out for more than just a unique moniker.

There have been plateaus to Bowden’s career, each of which has made him stronger and more resilient, as he moves to the goal of silencing the doubters. He was asked about his mindset and his reaction to each stop along the way.

Not drafted out of High School: Francis was a pre-season all-America and all-Florida pick in 2015, heading into his senior year of high school, but went undrafted.

“I always felt a little overlooked,” Francis admitted. “I always felt like I always had the pitch-ability. I didn’t have crazy numbers on the radar gun (89-92 mph) and never had the wipeout pitch, but I feel like I had pitchability and I had a (physical) frame. I felt like I was in a good position (out of high school). I felt like I was getting enough outs.”

Junior College and the Draft: After the disappointment of not being drafted from high school in 2015, Francis registered at the baseball factory that is Chipola College, the school that churned out Jose Bautista, Russell Martin and Buck Showalter among others. He was drafted in the 18^th round of the 2016 draft by Arizona, but chose to return for his second and final season at Chipola.

“Just being close to home and knowing that (Chipola) has a jump-pad for pro ball, all the connections that the coach had. Just being comfortable with going to a smaller school, I think it was an easier transition.”

The 2017 college season raised Bowden’s MLB profile in his third shot at being drafted, but he was still only a seventh-round selection of the Brewers, signing quickly and reporting to their Arizona development complex. It was always going to be a struggle for the 21-year-old, soft-spoken Floridian.

“I just really wanted a shot, I didn’t really care where it was,” Francis said. “I think (from high school to college) I had learned just to compete and matured as a human, too. I got stronger. I got more confidence pitching to higher level guys. A lot went into it, but I think just maturing. I would say the bottom level of my stuff came up more. I was still 89-91 (mph). I’d hit 92.”

Five seasons to reach Brewers Triple-A then came the Jays trade: It took four long years in the Brewers system, including missing a full year as the entire 2020 minor-league season was cancelled due to COVID, for Francis to finally reach the Brewers’ Triple-A affiliate at Nashville. Then, after seven starts in Music City, it was on July 6, 2021 his life was uprooted, as he was dealt along with RHP Trevor Richards to the Blue Jays for 1B Rowdy Tellez. He reported to Buffalo.

“I had felt a little stagnant with that organization,” Francis admitted. “I felt they were viewing me as the same as they were when I was just drafted in 2017. I just felt like it was stale and I was really excited when I found out I was traded over here. The Jays made sure that I knew there would be a possibility I’d get (40-man) rostered and it happened in the off-season.”

He pitched well for the Bisons in the second half of ’21, then in ’22, the righthander was called up for a lone major-league appearance on April 27, in his MLB debut.

After that relief appearance, when he was returned to Triple-A, he admits that he was disappointed and also that he was not very good. He bounced back in the final month with the AAA-Bisons and was so excited about showing the Jays who he truly was, that he accepted an invitation to the Puerto Rican Winter League, making nine solid appearances with a 1.51 ERA in 36 innings. More young players should do that.

“I had a good last month of the season, so it kind of sparked some excitement just to go down to Puerto Rico and show them it wasn’t some kind of fluke,” Bowden explained. “Kind of get this thing back to where I was…get back to starting. I was just kind of floating between the pen and starting that year and I wanted to show them, keep trucking along, keep starting.”

Rookie Jays ’23 MLB season on the surface looked promising:

“I never thought my year was ‘all that’,” Francis surprisingly observed of his seemingly positive stat line from 2023. “The numbers looked good, but I knew the situations that I was throwing in weren’t any kind of leverage, so, I knew it didn’t hold the weight that a lot of the other guys had. I felt like I had a good showing to give me another chance for the next year (‘24). But I never thought I had it made.”

That’s a rare attitude and ability for a young major-leaguer to simultaneously come to grips with the reality of his situation as a 27-year-old, dime-a-dozen swingman. Then to change it.

The ’24 spring bid for the rotation: Francis, in Dunedin, had exactly the type of spring training he needed in ‘24. He stayed healthy, made five appearances, threw 18.2 innings with a 3.38 ERA and built upon the momentum of his 20 low-leverage game appearances in 2023 to make his case for the rotation. It was close. Then came the NASCAR wreckage through which Francis had to navigate. Alek Manoah was injured. Ricky Tiedemann was injured. Wes Parsons failed. Mitch White was dealt. Paolo Espino was Four-A. Finally, Yusei Kikuchi was traded to the Astros.

Even with all that, it had been a visible struggle for Bowden in ‘24, with his injury, then his demotion and, always dissatisfied with his repertoire, his constant tinkering with pitching coach Pete Walker and staff on refining his pitch usage. But he’s now where he needs to be and approaching where he wants to be.

“I’m just trying to learn and navigate the season,” Francis gave a mental shrug. “You can never get too high and you can’t get too low. I wasn’t panicking. I was trying to learn and grow from the tough ones. When you’re going good, you also reflect and realize that the (good times) don’t last that long and you know that you have to work, no matter what the numbers are.”

The numbers as a starter and each start building on the previous starts, are looking good. He has up to five more ’24 starts to impress and build on his current success.

Oh yes, there is one important plateau to his career that he wanted to credit and that we would be remiss not to mention. It’s the relationship away from the ballpark with wife Jenna and the additions to their lives of son Booker and daughter Jojo.

“Getting married was huge,” Bowden acknowledged. “We got married in ’21, had a baby. I just think my perspective on the game changed. And life. I had someone else to lean on and I had another reason why I’m doing what I’m doing.

“The kids? They don’t really care about that (on-field) stuff, so as long as I’m taking care of business and get home… Life is bigger than all this.”

Indeed it is. For the Jays to compete in 2025, after the disappointment of ’24, they will need players on the current roster to step up. Francis can surely be one of those.