Assessing Blue Jays’ fifth starter options following Patrick Corbin’s move to bullpen
TORONTO — Patrick Corbin has officially moved to the bullpen, meaning the Blue Jays’ starting rotation is back to four starters again — a phrase that’s been uttered far too many times this season.
With a pair of scheduled off days upcoming, plus next month’s All-Star break, there’s a way for the Blue Jays to make it through these next few weeks without a traditional fifth starter — and that appears to be their current plan, at least for now.
But plans can change, as this season has often reminded us.
Further taxing an already heavily-used bullpen certainly isn’t ideal. Most of these guys probably have that week-long break during the All-Star Game festivities circled on their calendars. There will come a time when a 5-6 inning starter will be needed again — whether that’s before or after the unofficial mid-season break is now the ultimate question.
In any case, when that time arrives, here are some of the options that’ll be under consideration.
Spencer Miles
Miles is currently Toronto’s Plan A, if you will. He’s the guy they’re banking on saving this rotation for a second time this season.
“There’s a few guys that can come up and kind of do that role. We just think Spence can do it pretty well right now,” Schneider said.
The 25-year-old rookie has been fantastic for the Blue Jays. He doesn’t come close to resembling a Rule 5 selection who entered this year with an injury-plagued resume, with all but 14.2 career innings of experience in pro ball. With his 3.00 ERA, 3.10 FIP and 16.5 per cent strikeout-minus-walk rate in 51.0 innings, he’s been one of this franchise’s best off-season steals.
Miles, who threw a career-high 73 pitches in his most recent bulk appearance on June 6, will enter out of the bullpen during Wednesday’s Canada Day game — that’ll be opened by Braydon Fisher. But once the former is fully built up again, there’s an argument to be made about turning him into a full-blown starter — albeit in the short term.
Max Scherzer
“He’s feeling good. He feels like the injection kind of did what it should, in terms of like freeing up everything kind of in that area, and the left side of his body,” said Schneider, adding that Scherzer will need to make multiple Triple-A rehab starts before returning.
“His arm has been feeling good, it’s just been stuff around it. So, he’s encouraged with how he feels physically, but understands you need to get some volume built back up and execute some pitches.”
We’re a long way off from any sort of finish line with Scherzer, who last started almost three weeks ago before returning to the injured list earlier this month. Having said that, could he be close to returning in two or three weeks? Perhaps. It’ll all depend on how the 41-year-old’s body responds, and that’s been incredibly tough to predict this season.
Then comes the results part of the equation. The Blue Jays still want to manage Miles’ workload carefully, and understandably so. If he’s offering them something Scherzer isn’t, though, how far they are willing to push the rookie hurler becomes the next big question.
Chad Dallas
Down on the farm, Dallas represents the most immediate option in terms of bulk for the Blue Jays. Having already been up with the big-league club a few times earlier this year, there’s also a sense of familiarity already established, too.
“We know him and trust him, and yeah, he’s definitely on the radar too,” Schneider said.
He could probably use a few more starts down there before any traction regarding a call-up materializes. Even then, the Blue Jays’ brass may prefer to utilize him out of the ‘pen in bulk innings again.
Jake Bloss
The stuff is recovering extremely well, with Bloss regularly sitting 96-97 m.p.h. on the heater and 88-89 m.p.h. on his slider. But there are still two hurdles he needs to climb: 1. Complete his starter’s build-up (he hasn’t pitched deeper than 4.1 innings thus far), 2. Blow them away with the results.
“I think [he] still kind of needs to pitch a little bit and build up not only pitch count but execute and things like that,” Schneider said. “We obviously are tracking what he’s doing, but I think [he’s] probably a couple of starts away from, performance-wise, being an option.”
Once that happens, it shouldn’t be long before Bloss makes his long-awaited Blue Jays debut — the lone remaining piece from the 2024 Yusei Kikuchi trade who’s yet to achieve that feat.