Max Scherzer’s accelerated timeline opens door for Blue Jays to use six-man rotation
Forget slow-playing, Max Scherzer is aiming to be ready by Opening Day.
Now back with the Toronto Blue Jays for Year 19 in the Show, Scherzer has openly declared that he expects to be fully stretched out when the curtain rises for Game 1 of 162 against the Athletics at the Rogers Centre on Mar. 27. That’s likely much sooner than the organization initially anticipated, meaning, if all goes well, they could have seven healthy MLB-calibre starters available by the end of spring training.
“I feel healthy. I feel good. I just want to pitch,” Scherzer told reporters at the player development complex on Tuesday, including MLB.com’s Keegan Matheson.
From there, Scherzer will continue building up as a starter over the final two-plus weeks of camp, likely aiming to be stretched out to 75-80 pitches by his final spring outing. After that, if he continues to check all the health-related boxes, then it’ll be up to the Blue Jays to determine where and how the future Hall of Famer fits into this crowded rotation.
At the moment, with the season opener still 23 days away, having too many quality starters is a great problem to have — one that all 29 other clubs would love to have. But it’s a complex problem that still lacks an easy solution if Scherzer remains on track for Opening Day.
“I’m just focusing on myself, making sure I’m healthy and that I can go out and pitch the way I can,” Scherzer said. “If I can go out there and be myself and who I can be — there’s times we saw it last year — then I can definitely help the ball club win. That’s why they called. They wanted to see where I was at, I told them I feel good and that I’m ready to go. That’s why we got a deal done.”
There’s a strong possibility that Yesavage, who remains without a timeline for his spring debut, won’t be fully stretched out by the end of camp as the franchise deliberately manages his workload. Since Lauer is already projected to open this season in the bullpen, they could pair those two together over the first few turns through the rotation, using the latter in a piggyback role — just as they did with prospect Gage Stanifer at Single-A and High-A last season.
However, that still doesn’t solve the problem of how Toronto creates room for Scherzer.
One option could be to open the season with a six-man rotation, since the Blue Jays are scheduled to play seven straight games (three each versus the Athletics and Rockies, one against the White Sox) before their first off-day arrives on April 3. Afterwards, they’ll play another five games before receiving a day off on Apr. 9 following the World Series rematch series against the Los Angeles Dodgers.
This plan wouldn’t be perfect, especially with Lauer piggybacking Yesavage while the club is already down to seven relievers in the ‘pen, but it’d at least offer a short-term solution for the current rotation dilemma. It’d also provide extra rest out of the gate for a veteran rotation slated to include four 30-year-olds (Gausman, Cease, Ponce, Berríos) and one 40-year-old (Scherzer).
When fully healthy, the Blue Jays are eight starters deep, even before needing the likes of Adam Macko, Lazaro Estrada or Chad Dallas from Triple-A. There are a lot of moving parts here, and understandably so. Thus, it’ll more than likely remain a fluid situation until injuries, poor performances, or another entity altogether — perhaps a trade — presents a more long-term answer.