Long Weekend Up (Part II): Long Weekend Down...
On a tragedy in the Blue Jays family, a wayward Thomas Hatch, Kevin Gausman's lucky non-break, acquiring Anthony Banda, Jansen and Garcia nearing returns, lots of bullpen talk, and more!
The Blue Jays started their five-game long weekend series with the Rays on a real upswing, taking Thursday’s opener 4-1 and Friday’s game 9-2 behind important, step-forward pitching performances from Yusei Kikuchi and José Berríos — games that I wrote about in part one of this two-part Weekend Up! series.
Unfortunately, the second part of the series did away with those good feelings. Three games marred by a tragedy in the Blue Jays family, a near catastrophe on the mound, and the club’s continuing lack of pitching depth laid bare. It was not fun.
But I suppose we need to talk about it. Here’s Three Down…
Down: Sunday: Blue Jays 3 - Rays 7
We’ll do this one backwards and start with Sunday’s game, because it wouldn’t feel right to squeeze something like this into the middle of a bunch of baseball analysis. Midway through game two of Saturday’s doubleheader, Blue Jays first base coach Mark Budzinski left the game, accompanied by manager Charlie Montoyo, for an unannounced reason. Montoyo returned, but Budzinski did not. The Jays closed their clubhouse to media afterwards, but on Sunday morning made the unfathomably heartbreaking announcement that Budzinski’s eldest daughter, Julia, a 17-year-old high school student in the Richmond, VA, area, had passed away.
Local reports are saying that she died in a boating accident on the James River, which runs from the Appalachians through Richmond, then Hampton Roads and into the southern end of Chesapeake Bay. Budzinski has taken a leave of absence from the team to be with his family during this unspeakably awful time. The Blue Jays, after reportedly considering forgoing the game — “The loss resonated so deeply within the Blue Jays clubhouse that the idea of not playing came up,” wrote Ben Nicholson-Smith of Sportsnet, “but in the end, the Blue Jays played, losing their third straight game to the Rays” — held an emotional moment of silence on the field before the first pitch on Sunday.
The team did play, but obviously with very heavy hearts.
“There’s good men and great men. He’s a great man,” said manager Charlie Montoyo when meeting with media following Sunday’s game. “You’d ache for anybody, but he’s a special kind of person. Brave. The only thing I can share about what happened: even before he left, he wrote a note for me to read to the team while going through that tragedy. That tells you everything about Mark Budzinski.”
“It’s really tough. It’s not a situation that I bet any of us have ever been in where someone so close to home has such a tragic loss. It hits everyone a little different, especially those of us with children. It definitely weighed on us,” Sunday’s starter Ross Stripling said afterwards. “He was heavy on everyone’s hearts today.”
Both Budzinski and Jays GM Ross Atkins were selected in the later rounds of the 1995 draft by Cleveland, at a time when current Jays president Mark Shapiro was the club's director of player development. Budzinski and Atkins would become teammates as 21-year-olds with Watertown of the New York-Penn League that summer, rising together through that system — A-ball in Columbus, GA, in 1996, High-A in Kinston, NC, in 1997, and Double-A in Akron, OH, in 1998 — and living for three years as roommates before their paths diverged, with Budzinski moving up to Buffalo in mid-1999 (eventually earning a brief cup of coffee in the majors with Cincinnati in 2004) and Atkins ending his playing career after a second season in Akron.
Per the Washington Post, Budzinski spent several years out of the game, working as a real estate agent, before being drawn back into baseball when Atkins was himself an executive in Cleveland, and joining his longtime friend after Shapiro made Atkins the Blue Jays' sixth GM in late 2015. Through the club, Atkins issued a statement on the tragedy.
Tigers manager A.J. Hinch, a teammate of Budzinski’s for two years in the Phillies’ system in the mid-2000s, also expressed his sorrow at the news.
"He's someone I consider a dear friend. His daughter is the same age as my daughters. Tough morning. Baseball is a big family,” Hinch said on Sunday. “Keep him in your thoughts."
Jays fans, in addition to the players and staff, will certainly be doing that. It was unmistakable to see this weekend just how beloved “Bud” is by anyone who seems to know or have ever been in contact with him, and just how hurt this team was by such an awful and cruel loss of someone so young. My deepest condolences to the Budzinski family.
Down: Saturday (Game Two): Jays 5 - Rays 11
Thomas Hatch battled shoulder inflammation that affected his command over the first three months of the 2019 season, but by the time that summer’s trade deadline rolled around he was on a very nice little run of five starts in Double-A for the Cubs. The Blue Jays evidently liked what they saw, acquiring him for reliever David Phelps (who has since returned to the team). After arriving in the Jays organization Hatch was sent to New Hampshire, where, as he explained to Sportsnet's Arden Zwelling back in the spring of 2020, then-pitching coach Vince Horseman especially liked his little-used changeup, and encouraged him to make more use of it. Something clicked, and Hatch pitched to a 2.80 ERA over six starts in the final month of that year for the Fisher Cats, striking out 34 while allowing just 25 hits and two walks over 35 1/3 innings.
That stretch appeared to be a springboard to success for Hatch, who made the jump to the big leagues as a reliever in the pandemic-shortened 2020 season and more than held his own. Over 17 appearances, all but one of which was out of the bullpen, Hatch pitched to a 2.73 ERA. There were some less great signs in that season, particularly 13 walks in 26 2/3 innings, which led to a 4.14 FIP, but considering the command he had shown in 2019 it appeared as though the Jays had really found something there.
There may still be, but Hatch hasn't exactly been on a rocket ship to big league success since then. His 2021 started with him being stretched out as starting depth for the Jays — and with Tanner Roark pencilled in for a rotation spot, and Alek Manoah not quite yet on the big league radar, the chance of him taking a job and running with it felt reasonably high. Unfortunately, he was pulled from a spring outing due to elbow discomfort (ultimately diagnosed as a right elbow impingement), landed on the 10-day IL to start the year, then had a setback that forced him to the 60-day IL. He didn't get to the point where he was throwing five innings in the minors until the end of June, and while he was decent enough for Buffalo (70 Ks in 64 2/3 innings, with 19 walks and a 4.04 ERA) the arrivals of Manoah and José Berríos, as well as the ever-present spectre of Nate Pearson, mostly kept him on the outside looking in.
Though a potential reliever with a high-spin fastball that averaged 95.5 mph when he pitched out of the 'pen in 2020, and an 88 mph cutter that has now supplanted the changeup as his most-used secondary pitch — or at least did on Saturday, when he used it 41% of the time, which was more than even the fastball (31%) — the Jays were thin enough in the depth department this spring to have Hatch go back into the rotation, and back to Buffalo for another year. He was called up as a spot starter for the second half of Saturday's doubleheader, then optioned back down on Sunday to make room for Trevor Richards, who was activated off the injured list. The results tell you exactly why.
The Jays desperately needed innings, so Hatch was hung out to dry to the tune of 10 runs on two walks and 12 hits — three of which were home runs — over 4 2/3. He faced 26 batters and exactly half of them put the ball in play at 95 mph or higher. He was, in a word, awful. This was not the Thomas Hatch that Jays fans remember having such high hopes for.
In his reasonably successful 2020 turn, Hatch threw the first pitch of an at-bat into the zone strike 40.4% of the time. On Sunday that number was nearly 70%. In total, 18 of the 26 batters he faced saw a first pitch in the zone, with seven of those pitches going right back the other way for hits, and one of them hitting batter. I can understand why a guy who walked six batters in 9 1/3 big league innings last season would have wanted to use an audition like this to show that he can throw strikes, but the Rays were very much not being fooled by this approach.
It was more than just approach that did Hatch in on Saturday, though. Hatch was inconsistent with the location of his changeup and his sinker, missing both pitches to the arm side and regularly failing to get them down as well.
He didn't want to come inside with the fastballs to lefties or right-handed hitters, generally pitching to the outer half of the plate with those regardless of which side of the plate the hitter was standing on. This would have been more effective to right-handed hitters if he'd been able to find the sweet spot at the bottom outside corner with the cutter, but mostly those were either too far into the the other batters box, or backed up over the plate. Not a recipe for success.
Against left-handed batters the story of Hatch's day gets a bit weird. Back in 2020 he only threw the cutter to lefties 7% of the time. On Saturday it was his most-used pitch to them, at 46.3%. The changeup, which once seemed to unlock his potential, was thrown just 14.6% of the time to left-handers — perhaps because, as noted above, he couldn't get it to where it needed to be. Only one of the five he threw to lefties ended up where he had his most success with them in 2020 — below the zone and over the plate — with the rest ending up outside.
The cutter, rather than being any kind of a new weapon against left-handed hitters, mostly just induced foul balls. Far too many of them caught far too much of the plate.
A pitch averaging 88 mph and staying out over the plate that frequently is not going to be particularly helpful — especially when the fastball is not finding the edges either, and the sinker and change aren’t working at all. Lefties slashed .333/.429/.833 against Hatch in this one — numbers that look downright respectable compared to how right-handers fared, as they slashed an absurd .727/.750/1.182.
You hate to see it. You especially hate to see a guy who clearly doesn't have it working forced to labour his way through as many innings as Hatch did. It looks like it’s back to the ol’ drawing board for both him and for the team as they continue searching for improvements on the depth arms that are so plainly failing them right now. Asking this much of Thomas Hatch on Saturday was almost as bad as having to let Ross Stripling try to face batters a third time on Sunday, with Trent Thornton the club’s next line of defence. The Jays simply don’t have a ton of pitching depth right now, and it shows. Of course, that situation was made worse by what had happened in game one of the doubleheader…
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Down: Saturday (Game One): Jays 2 - Rays 6
Kevin Gausman allowed four hits and a walk during just two innings of work in Saturday's first game, which now looks pretty brilliant in comparison to the pitching performances we'd see from the Jays over the rest of the weekend. It took him 42 pitches to get through two, but only two of the hits against him were particularly hard off the bat. He was battling, and looked poised to keep going toe-to-toe with Rays ace Shane McClanahan across many more innings.
And then, on the last play of the top of the second, Wander Franco smacked a low fastball straight back at Gausman, catching the right-hander on the top of the ankle.
Catcher Gabriel Moreno came out to make an inning-ending play, but all eyes were already on Gausman, who crumpled to a heap instead of pursuing the baseball, unable to put any weight on his right leg.
It was a scene reminiscent of Roy Halladay taking a Kevin Mench liner off his leg in the third inning of an early July game at what was then called Ameriquest Field in Arlington, Texas, back in 2005. Doc led the American League in ERA going into the All-Star break that season, with a mark of 2.41. He wouldn’t pitch again that season.
One can’t help but wonder if that scene was also flashing through the mind of Jays pitching coach Pete Walker, who was not only a teammate of Halladay’s that year, but pitched that day, as what had been a 6-2 Jays lead heading into the third became a 7-6 loss at the hands of the Texas Rangers. Walker gave his team two scoreless innings of relief.
He knew, then, the awful sort of situation that Casey Lawrence had been thrown into. The veteran minor leaguer has a 2.22 ERA over 12 starts this season for the Bisons, with solid, if unspectacular, peripherals. He is by nobody's definition a good enough pitcher for a major league team with championship aspirations to be leaning on in anything but an emergency. But this, of course, was an emergency.
Lawrence gave the Jays 5 2/3 innings, striking out six and walking only one, but allowing six earned runs on seven hits (including a pair of home runs) in the process. As with Hatch's performance later in the day — and as with any game in which a team is forced to fish for innings from guys who are as far down the starting pitching depth chart as these two are — it was as unfortunate as it was unsurprising.
The highlight of these three games came later on in this one, when it was quickly announced that Gausman had been taken for X-rays, which had come back negative. He’s been diagnosed with a right ankle contusion, and while he’s not out of the woods just yet, at the time of this writing it seems possible he could even make his next start. Sportsnet’s Arden Zwelling tells us that Gausman says the ball hit off the padding on his high top cleat, and that he believes that’s what saved his ankle from being broken. He’ll likely skip his between-starts bullpen, but we’ll see from there. Gausman’s next scheduled turn in the rotation would be Friday Thursday night in Seattle. (Update: Apparently I can’t count.)
Some highlight, huh?
*[Insert Obligatory Banda-aid on a Bullet Wound Joke]*
Judging by some of the trades they’ve made in the recent past, the Pittsburgh Pirates may not have any earthly idea what they’re doing when it comes to running a baseball team — and in particular, when it comes pitchers. I wouldn’t bank on the Blue Jays getting anything approaching even the same universe as a Gerrit Cole-like steal now that the club has acquired reliever Anthony Banda for cash considerations, but could they have potentially found a future Clay Holmes to stash in the back of their bullpen? Also probably not!
Still, Banda is an intriguing enough arm to at least write a few words about here. A left-hander with an ugly 6.41 ERA over 19 2/3 innings this season, there are actually some genuinely important boxes Banda ticks for these Jays — namely that he averages 95.3 mph on his fastball and has struck out 22 batters over that span, with just five walks. That gives him a 3.78 FIP, which would be fifth among current Jays relievers with at least 10 innings this season (sixth once Yimi Garcia returns), slotting him between Tim Mayza and Matt Gage on that front.
That’s not super exciting, obviously. Nor are his Statcast numbers. But, again, they’re indicative of the fact that something might be there…
Putting up rankings like this seems somewhat difficult to do, I’d think. Batters aren’t hitting Banda hard, he’s doing a slightly above average job of avoiding barrels, he’s not walking guys, he’s getting guys to swing at pitches outside of the zone, and throwing pretty hard. He’s also not getting swing-and-miss, and isn’t limiting bad contact, just hard contact. That his BABIP sits at .463 for the season does not ease the confusion.
The thing that really stands out, looking beyond these percentile rankings, is the fact that the expected batting average on Banda’s fastball against left-handed batters is .726! This has led to him abandoning the pitch and going with a sinker that has some nice arm-side run instead. It should be interesting to see if the Jays get him back to the fastball and try to tinker with that, or if they’re interested in the possibilities of the sinker. Either way, it’s not like he’s pushing anybody great out of a job here. Buffalo’s screwball artist, Adrian Hernandez, is on the IL Matt Gage has been decent — and, much like Max Castillo, who is in the same boat, deserves a better fate — but can be optioned. Trent Thornton may be plucky and willing to take the ball, but he remains a landmine waiting to be stepped on. And Sergio Romo has looked fine in limited action but is still a long way from locking down a job here. A look at Banda couldn’t hurt! Though the fact that he’s out of options means it might be a short one.
Other notes
• Sticking with the bullpen, as noted above, Trevor Richards was activated on Sunday. The Jays also had three pitchers who were with the club over the weekend wind up in Buffalo: Lawrence was brought up temporarily, as the 27th man for the doubleheader, and then sent back down. Hatch was brought up to take the spot of Max Castillo, who is back with Buffalo. And then Hatch lost his spot and was optioned to Buffalo when Richards was activated. One more reliever will lose his spot when Banda arrives — assuming they don’t immediately try to sneak him through waivers or something — with Gage seeming the most likely casualty.
• Also worth pointing out here is that Banda is already on the 40-man, having taken the place of Julian Merryweather, who was transferred to the 60-day IL. With Merryweather having last pitched on June 13th, this means that we won’t see him back until mid-August at the earliest. I’d say “ugh,” but does it really even matter at this point?
• Relief help is coming in at least one somewhat reliable form, as the Buffalo Bisons announced here on Monday that while the Jays have made their way out to Oakland for the start of this week’s west coast road trip, Yimi Garcia and Danny Jansen have both stayed back east in order to begin rehab assignments in Triple-A.
• In yet more news on the relief front, potential late-season weapon Yosver Zulueta made his Double-A debut back on Thursday. The tools are certainly there, but it was a debut to forget for the 24-year-old from Cuba, as he struggled — as did the defence behind him — before a packed house in Portland, Maine, that was there to see his opposite number: the Red Sox’ rehabbing ace, Chris Sale. Future Blue Jays has the details.
• Canadians always seem to love it when the American media takes notice of us, or “our guys,” and with Alejandro Kirk steaming toward the starting gig behind the plate for the American League All-Star team later this month, the folks down south are definitely taking notice. Neil Paine of FiveThirtyEight looks at the Jays’ breakout star — and best player here in the first half of the 2022 season.
• After sweeping the Blue Jays in Saturday’s doubleheader, Rays manager Kevin Cash had this to say to reporters — including Mark Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times — about it: “Toronto is a good club. We’ve got a good club. We’re just young and weren’t doing things that maybe we were capable of. Kind of all came together for us throughout the course of a long day.”
Oh yeah, Kevin. I’m sure it was that and not Gausman getting knocked out in the second inning of game one, and then the ninth best starter on the Jays’ pre-season depth chart getting the ball in game two.
• Lastly, with the Blue Jays on the west coast this week, we’re going to schedule Blue Jays Happy Hour so as to avoid any especially late nights. Nick and I will be back live on Thursday, and again on Sunday. Be sure to get Callin and follow Blue Jays Happy Hour so that you can join us next time. And if you’ve missed any of our recent shows, you can find us on your podcast app of choice — like Apple, Spotify, or Google.
(NOTE: If you had us on your podcast app before we made the move to Callin, you'll need to subscribe again using these links — essentially like it's a brand new show.)
Next up:
Monday, 9:07 PM ET: Jays @ A’s (Alek Manoah vs. Cole Irvin), TV: Sportsnet, Radio: Sportsnet 590
Tuesday, 9:40 PM ET: Jays @ A’s (Yusei Kikuchi vs. Adrián Martinez), TV: Sportsnet, Radio: Sportsnet 590
Wednesday, 3:40 PM ET: Jays @ A’s (José Berríos vs. James Kaprelian), TV: Sportsnet, Radio: Sportsnet 590
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So tragic. I can't stop thinking about how he must have felt when he got the news. Any parent can relate to how truly soul destroying losing a child would be. Fantastic quote from Charlie and the Jays handled it well overall.