Jays Bullpen Blues: The Blue Jays bullpen situation has gone from bad to worse. On Saturday, prior to the game vs. the Yankees, the club designated for assignment Tim Mayza, the team’s long-time lefthanded reliever and announced that closer Jordan Romano, currently on the IL, is being shut down, once again, with what he reported as right elbow discomfort. He will visit noted orthopedist, Dr. Keith Meister, in Dallas on July 2 who will then determine the next steps.
Romano had been shut down, previously, in the time since being IL’d on May 29, but had recently reached a throwing program of 90-120 feet on flat ground. The next step would have been throwing bullpens from a mound. Fellow leverage reliever Yimi Garcia is continuing to progress but has not yet thrown a bullpen on the road to returning as the new Jays’ closer.
In Mayza’s case, the dagger came when the struggling lefty allowed five straight hits on Friday, without recording an out vs. the Yankees and saw his WHIP rise to 1.945. Appearing in 35 games this year, he was 0-1, with an 8.03 ERA, allowing six of 16 inherited runners to score. His sinker velocity dropped from 93.4 in 2023, to 91.9 in the first half of this season. Nobody had an answer.
“It was tough,” manager John Schneider said of conversations with the 32-year-old, who has been with the Jays since being selected in the 12th Rd. of the ‘13 draft.
“Talked to him last night and again this morning. It’s been a tough year for him, obviously. He’s a class act as a player, teammate, husband and father. He’s done a lot for this team. Being a stabilizing guy down in the bullpen, but, yeah, it was tough. He handled it professionally, like everything else he does.”
Given that Mayza is healthy, there were not many options for the Jays to consider with Mayza. The Pennsylvania native had accumulated five years of major-league service earlier this season, so he was fully in control of his minor-league options and assignments. The Jays’ DFA means that if they can’t trade him in the next week and, then, if he clears waivers, it is possible he could be asked to report to Triple-A Buffalo with the goal of getting back to the form he displayed as one of the top lefties over the previous three seasons.
“Timmy will catch on somewhere,” Schneider said with confidence. “I think. It’s frustrating that it’s not with us. That was our option, there. I think just the need for lefthand pitching (in the majors), a guy with his track record. This year’s been really strange and tough for him. We’ll see if someone takes a chance on him.
“The velo was a big thing with him. We tried a lot of things, from delivery, to introducing a new pitch and when you’re that type of pitcher, kind of contact reliant, and you don’t really have your velo, it makes it a little bit tough. So, it was kind of an uphill battle from the get-go. If his stuff is 94-95-96 like it has been, obviously it’s a different story, so it was a combination of matchups and stuff.”
Crisis, What Crisis? The absence from the current Blue Jays’ bullpen of Romano, Garcia, Mayza and Erik Swanson, currently optioned to AAA-Buffalo and struggling, means that the Jays are absent their four top relievers from a year ago, meaning that after it happened that Friday’s starter, Yusei Kikuchi surrendered the lead in the sixth inning on a three-run homer by Juan Soto, manager Schneider was forced to look to the bullpen and bring in righthander Nate Pearson, who allowed two hits, then a three-run blast by Gleyber Torres. It’s a position of leverage that Pearson would not normally have been in. Kikuchi had thrown 84 pitches, so the question becomes would the Japanese lefthander’s 85th pitch been a better option than having Pearson come in and have the Yankees extend their lead to 7-3?
“That’s the stuff I lose sleep over,” Schneider admitted. “His 85th could be better than Nate’s first pitch. It could be worse. I think with the way Nate had been throwing the ball with that string of hitters (Aaron Judge, J.D. Davis, Torres) coming up, I thought it was the best chance to keep the game right there. Those are the situations where if it isn’t Yimi, if it isn’t Jordy, or Swanny, you’ve got to come in and squash that right there. Sure, Yusei could have broken another bat of Judge and got a strikeout and a popup and then it’s a different game for sure.”
These are decisions that are going to make it tough for the Jays. You may see more starters throwing over 100 pitches to lighten the load on a beleaguered relief corps.
“It makes it tough,” Schneider said. “It’s always an opportunity for guys to step up … and guys have in certain moments. You hope for those moments to be more consistent, but it’s hard. If everyone is healthy and performing, it’s probably Yimi coming into the game in the sixth inning (on Friday). We lost Chad (Green) for a couple of weeks, so it’s been tough.”
Jansen on paternity leave standby
On the Jays’ taxi squad for Saturday’s game was catcher Brian Serven, who will be activated whenever it is that Danny Jansen’s wife, Alexis, goes into labour.