As injuries limit options Blue Jays season-opening rotation is set

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There will come a time this season when determining the best way to spin the Blue Jays starting rotation could be a challenge for manager John Schneider and his staff, given the overflow of big league arms on the roster.

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That time is not now, however.

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So when manager Schneider revealed how he would roll out the rotation to start the season, the only element of mystery was the order.

That was removed on Saturday when Schneider unveiled the team’s plans to follow Kevin Gausman, who will take the ball for Friday’s celebratory home and season opener against the Athletics at the Rogers Centre.

Next up will be newcomer Dylan Cease, followed by Eric Lauer and another free-agent signing, Cody Ponce, who will make his Jays debut in the first of three against the Colorado Rockies.

Ageless Max Scherzer will round out the group as a guy who may prove to be one of the most important signings, especially for the first month of the season.

Few would have had those five as the likely rotation at the start of spring training, especially given the eight potential starters on the roster. But that depth has been put to the test off the hop due to injuries to three pitchers who all would have been in the mix if healthy.

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“I’ve been around long enough and we have as an organization to understand you need a lot of arms,” Jays pitching coach Pete Walker told the Toronto Sun earlier this week. “We feel really good about the group that we have.

“We’re going to use all of these arms this year.”

And right from the start, it turns out.

What about the other three?

It has been apparent through most of camp that all but Lauer would have a strong shot at being part of the first spin through the rotation. But thanks to injuries to three prominent arms on the roster, Lauer is in the mix and will look to resume the vital impact he had on the team when injuries depleted the rotation last summer.

First up among the wounded is Shane Bieber, who exercised his player option to remain with the Jays for another season. The former Cy Young Award winner has yet to throw off a mound as he nurses a sore forearm. Given that condition, he’s not likely to appear in games until May at the earliest.

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“(Bieber) is feeling good, hitting every benchmark he needs,” manager John Schneider said earlier this week. “No timeline, but we’re looking at (throwing) from the mound here fairly soon.”

Next up (or down, rather) is 2025 opening day starter Jose Berrios, who was diagnosed with a stress fracture in his right elbow, ruling him out for the start of the season.

And finally, last year’s breakout rookie Trey Yesavage who has been slow-played all spring and as time ran out, finally forced some transparency from the team when Schneider admitted the 22-year-old reported to camp with a shoulder impingement.

The good news for the Jays’ 2024 first-round draft pick is that the pain is gone and he can soon get more aggressive in building up for a 2026 debut.

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What’s with the order?

As long as his health cooperated, Gausman was always going to be the opening day man and given that Cease is the highest-paid free agent pitcher in franchise history, it makes sense he would follow.

The bonus of having the two top arms up front, however, is that their third starts will come during a much-anticipated rematch with the World Series champion Los Angeles Dodgers in an April 6-8 series at the Rogers Centre. If everything remains in this rotation, Scherzer would be on the mound for the first game of what promises to be an emotional series against the Dodgers.

Lauer, who began spring training projected as a long reliever in the bullpen, prepared for the starter’s assignment given the potential for slow camps/injuries from others, leading to precisely the situation the team finds itself in.

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To help ready himself for Sunday’s finale of the three-gamer against the Athletics, Lauer will remain in Florida to pitch in an intra-squad game at TD Ballpark on Monday.

“It’s why you build up everyone you have available for that rotation spot,” Schneider said this week. “A month ago, we were talking about all the starters we have and baseball has a way of working things out.

“When guys start coming back and join the team, you want to see whose the best fit for those times. But we’re comfortable with all of these guys being starters.”

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