Here on Wednesday afternoon the Jays are sending Hyun Jin Ryu to the hill to try to win their series in Texas and put the bad memories of Tuesday night in the past. I, however, am not quite ready to move on.
But first, before I hit publish, indulge me for a second while I attempt to make a living. Because the thing is, if you appreciate what I’m doing here in this little corner of the internet, I would love it if you’d tell a friend.
And if you’ve been sent here by a friend, or are an existing subscriber who would like to upgrade to a paid membership so you can comment, ask questions the next time I open up the ol’ mail bag, or just plain old support what I do, click below to become a subscriber.
Diesel engine derailed
You have to feel for Tanner Roark. Perhaps not quite so much as to insist that fans don’t vent their anger about another dog’s breakfast of a start in the “wrong” ways, but still! It must have been an awfully lonely place out on that Globe Life Field mound on Tuesday night. I can’t put myself in his head, but how could it not have felt like a whole winter of work had amounted to nothing? How does your entire career not flash before your eyes at that point?
Because it should have.
The eventual 7-4 score line of the Jays’ loss in Texas did not do justice to the magnitude of Roark’s awfulness. But you know what did? The feeling of calm relief that I, and I’m sure thousands of other Blue Jays fans, felt when Roark was finally, mercifully lifted and replaced on the hill by Tommy Milone.
Tommy Milone! A 34-year-old lefty whose fastball averages 84! A guy with a 5.80 ERA over nearly 300 innings since the start of 2016! A guy the Jays took a late winter flyer on by offering him a minor league contract with an invite to camp, and who didn’t even make the club’s opening day roster!
Look, no one can question that Roark been trying to emerge from the funk he’s been in since he joined the Jays last spring. Or, more precisely, since things really began going sideways on him in the second half of 2019. I’m sure he has. But, as former Blue Jays MVP third baseman Josh Donaldson once famously said, “this isn’t the ‘try’ league; it’s the ‘get it done’ league.”
Roark hasn’t got it done for an increasingly long time now.
I’m not sure if he has any real defenders left at this point, but if he did they may call this “just one bad start” so far here in 2021, or insist we give him a break for his awful 2020 because of his track record. But we can’t forget that when the Jays signed him in order to raise the floor of their rotation in December 2019, it was in the hope that he would bounce back from a pretty awful end to his season that year and return to being the successful mid-rotation pitcher he’d been up until that point in his career. He’s done neither. Roark posted a 5.42 ERA in 15 stars over the last three months of 2019. He had a 6.80 ERA in 11 starts last season. He had an 8.80 ERA over 10 2/3 innings this spring. And now this: five runs on six hits over three innings, with two strikeouts, no walks, three home runs allowed, and a whole lot of hard contact.
You could, correctly, point out that Roark’s defenders did him few favours in this one — in the first inning, third baseman Cavan Biggio couldn't handle a hard grounder from Rangers shortstop Isiah Kiner-Falefa and two outs later Nate Lowe hit his first of two bombs off Roark, then in the third Lowe homered again, one batter after shortstop Bo Bichette couldn't get a tailor made inning-ending double play ball out of his glove, having instead to settle for just one out — but that doesn’t change the fact that yet again he really had nothing.
After the game, he admitted as much himself.
“Nothing was working,” Roark told reporters. “Three home runs in three innings is not very good, so nothing was working.”
You hate to see it. But you also hate to think that the Blue Jays’ brain trust might still be considering giving him more than the smallest amount of leash going forward. If even that much.
This is a team that made a point of putting their best players on the opening day roster rather than getting too cute about asset management. Reliever Tim Mayza and catcher Alejandro Kirk could have been optioned to the minors but were chosen over Francisco Liriano and Reese McGuire on merit, despite the fact that it meant losing Liriano and placing McGuire on waivers.
That’s a clear signal that the Jays are trying to be a win-first organization here in 2021.
The Blue Jays should be a win-first organization in 2021. They need to be one, because if they’re going to be in the playoffs six months from now, it’s likely that they will have got there by only the thinnest of margins.
But how they handle this Roark situation could tell us a lot about how fully they’ve actually embraced that concept.
When Robbie Ray gets the green light to come off of the injured list in the coming days, will the Jays still be able credibly count Roark among their top five active starters?
How do you look T.J. Zeuch in the eye and send him to the minors or the taxi squad while you keep Roark in the rotation? How do you do that when he certainly knows he would have been sent down if he’d pitched like Roark did?
How do you tell Trent Thornton he’s staying in the bullpen, or Anthony Kay that he’s staying in the minors, because Roark is going to be sent out again on Sunday to give up pissbombs to Mike Trout and Shohei Ohtani all over TD Ballpark (and oh, by the way, Ohtani will also likely be pitching)?
If what happened in Texas on Tuesday had really been just one bad game, perhaps the answer would be different. But it’s been over and over, and I’m not sure what anybody thinks another start or two is going to prove. The Jays don’t just need innings from their pitching staff, they competitive innings. And with Ray, and Nate Pearson, and Thomas Hatch on the mend, Kay available, and Thornton, Zeuch, and, yes, even Milone all being more confidence-inspiring options at the moment, do we really need another soul shattering start from Roark before the chute gets pulled?
The fans sure don’t. And if Roark’s name was, say, Sam Gaviglio, and he was making the league minimum instead of $12 million, I suspect management wouldn’t either.
One wonders what the players on the club might think, and what problems that may be causing. You can’t have their hard work undermined by Roark’s ineffectiveness.
And though it maybe seems odd that the team would move so quickly to cut bait on that kind of money, it’s not like they haven’t in the very recent past. At the end of March 2019, in a much different situation for the club in terms of trying to be competitive, the Jays sent Kendrys Morales and $10 million to the Oakland A’s in exchange for prospect Jesus Lopez and some international bonus pool money (which was ultimately used to sign a very intriguing pair of Dutch arms, Jiorgeny Casimiro and Sem Robberse).
It can’t be a great feeling to give up on a guy and a big contract that has rather embarrassingly gone awry like that, but Ross Atkins has done it before. He needs to do it again. That’s why he gets paid the big bucks.
Hey, and speaking of which!
Ross Atkins gets a contract extension
On Wednesday morning it was announced that the Blue Jays have come to an agreement with GM Ross Atkins on a five year contract extension. The timing is pretty funny, given the way one of his major free agent signings continued blowing up in his face (and on the mound) last night in Texas. But Roark aside — and Kendrys Morales aside, and the Jays’ continuing search for better pitching options aside — it’s pretty hard to argue that it isn’t merited. The Jays are in a very good place now, and look like they’re primed to be even better in the future.
Just consider, for example, where the team is compared to the organizations they faced in the playoffs at the end of their last championship window. Would you rather be the Jays or the Texas Rangers? Kansas City Royals? Baltimore Orioles? Even Cleveland, a team that continues to be competitive despite itself thanks to a particularly weak A.L. Central, isn’t in the kind of shape that the Blue Jays are in.
Yes, there are other teams in the majors, too. And in the A.L. East. The Yankees and Rays are a problem. The Red Sox, inevitably, will be again. But the Jays turned things around about as quickly as could have been hoped and now seem to be primed to battle with those teams for years to come. And though it took quite some time to get here, more and more fans seem to be recognizing that fact.
I mean, when people are looking at the performance of Julian Merryweather and actually starting to reevaluate their opinions of the Josh Donaldson trade, you know things are going well.
“Simply put, Ross makes the Blue Jays better,” said club president at CEO Mark Shapiro, according to the club’s release. “I am extremely pleased that he will continue leading our Baseball Operations group during this exciting era for our players, staff, and most importantly, our fans, as we move closer to building a sustainable championship contender for years to come.”
“Coming to Toronto with my family has enriched our lives in countless ways and having the opportunity to remain a Blue Jay is something I do not take for granted,” said Atkins, per the release. “I want to extend my heartfelt thanks to Edward Rogers and the Rogers executive team, Mark Shapiro, and the talented individuals that I am fortunate enough to work with every day. I cannot wait to continue our pursuit to bring World Series Championships back to Canada and celebrate with our fans when that day comes.”
Shi Davidi of Sportsnet reports that Atkins’ deal actually doesn’t begin until the end of this season, meaning that this particular asset is now under “club control” through the end of the 2026 season — one year longer than Shapiro.
In other words, it’s good news for the long-term stability of the front office, which is something Shapiro obviously values a lot.
“Continuity gives you the ability to course-adjust and to adapt a plan, because a plan will almost certainly have to be adapted and adjusted,” he told Sportsnet.
Now, on a less celebratory note, I think it needs to be pointed out somewhere here that this is a move the Jays are making just a little over a month after Shapiro had to meet with his staff to address this winter’s allegations about Mickey Callaway — a journeyman pitcher who Atkins, in his capacity as Cleveland’s farm director in 2010, under Shapiro as GM, hired as a minor league pitching coach. Callaway’s alleged history as a serial harrasser was called “the worst-kept secret” in the Cleveland organization by an employee, according to the Athletic’s reporting. Yet, according to a 2017 column by Joel Sherman of the New York Post, Atkins long remained a big believer in Callaway, pushing him to be hired as Terry Francona’s pitching coach in 2012, and praising his hire by the Mets that fall.
Atkins told reporters last month that he was “not aware” of the allegations against Callaway during his time in Cleveland.
“There is no chance that we would have overlooked that if we had had any signs of that type of behaviour,” he added.
Indeed, both Atkins and Shapiro have said the “right things” during this process. As such, the issue seems to have mostly gone quietly away. And while I’m honestly not sure that anything else necessarily needs to be said about it at this point, giving Atkins an extension so soon in the wake of those reports is a sign that the club — Shapiro, in particular — fully believes him and didn’t feel there was need to wait terribly long to conclude that proper reflection has taken place, and that real changes are being made to ensure that their organization is a place where employees will feel comfortable about coming forward with such allegations — and where such (alleged) behaviour won’t happen in the first place.
I’m glad that the Blue Jays’ top brass feel confident about all that, I just hope everybody else in the organization feels the same way. And while I have absolutely no reason to believe they wouldn’t, I don’t think it would be right to let this stuff slip by unremarked upon.
But, with that out of the way, I do think it’s a good day for the Blue Jays. The relationship between Atkins and the fan base hasn’t always been an easy one, but it really does feel we’re past all that and on the same page. The Jays are a win-now organization and poised to be that for a very long time. In baseball terms, there’s not much more a fan could ask for.
Now if they could just do something about Roark.
Springer injury number two!
Ugh. There was some bad news for Jays fans to come out of manager Charlie Montoyo’s Zoom session with reporters ahead of Wednesday afternoon’s series finale against the Rangers: outfielder George Springer felt tightness in his right quad while running the bases on Tuesday following an impressive live BP session and needed to be sent for an MRI.
This, for lack of a better word, fucking sucks.
Springer, of course, seemed likely to be activated from the injured list ahead of Thursday’s “home” opener in Dunedin after sufficiently recovering from an oblique strain suffered in spring training. That, I’m afraid, now seems quite unlikely.
We’re all understandably anxious to get Springer’s Blue Jays career underway, perhaps none of us more than Springer himself, but obviously caution needs to prevail here. I’m not sure there’s a whole lot more to say about it than that — other than, perhaps, to remind ourselves that durability was never Springer’s strong suit, yet in spite of that signing him made all the sense in the world. You don’t want to see your best player miss games, and it’s especially unfortunate that this is happening right at the very start of his massive new contract, but that’s just the price you have to pay sometimes to have his immense talent in your lineup.
The sort-of good news? Though Springer’s history is littered with various minor ailments, and he has, in fact, twice been on the IL — in 2014 and 2017 — because of problems with one of his quads, both of those issues were on his left side. This is the first time he’s had a right quad problem. The oblique issue was also a first for him. So, at least these aren’t recurring injuries? Right?
Quickly…
• Charlie Montoyo had another couple injury updates in his pre-game Zoom session, informing us that Robbie Ray will pitch a live batting practice here on Wednesday, where he’ll hopefully get up into the 70 to 80 pitch range. That should put him in line to be activated next week when the Jays host the Yankees in Dunedin, though I suppose it’s possible the Jays may try to shield the left-hander from the righty-heavy Yankees lineup and wait until they get to Kansas City in midweek to activate him.
That’s complete speculation on my part, but I’m sure the Jays want to get him rolling again like he was in spring training, so maybe the Yankees aren’t the best assignment to start him with.
Sadly, pitching here on Wednesday means that Ray won’t be able to take Roark’s place in the rotation when his turn comes up again on Sunday.
• About that: Technically the Jays’ starters beyond Thursday, when Steven Matz gets the ball in the “home” opener, are TBA at this point. Fingers crossed!
• And speaking of the “home” opener, the Jays announced Wednesday that before the game they will hold a ceremony to present Teoscar Hernández with his 2020 Silver Slugger award. For many, many reasons it’s obviously a shame that the Jays won’t be playing in Toronto for that, but I can’t help but think of how great it would have been to see Teoscar, after all the heat he’s taken in his brief Blue Jays career, properly fêted by a sellout Skydome crowd.
• Also on the slate for Thursday’s opener: the Jays celebrating their Allan H. Selig Award for Philanthropic Excellence (yes, MLB be seriously named an award after Bud effing Selig), and national anthems performed remotely from back home in Toronto by Forte — Toronto Gay Men’s Chorus, who last did so on Pride Night back in 2019.
• One last non-update: the club still has nothing to tell us about top prospect Nate Pearson, who is currently out with a g-g-groin injury. As I wrote back on Monday, clearly the club is being very cautious with Pearson, and given the fact that his workload was always going to be limited this season anyway, hopefully that’s all this is.
Still, it’s hard not to notice that the Jays are being pretty vague about all this. Here’s what pitching coach Pete Walker said this week when pressed on a Zoom call about the fact that Pearson is still only just throwing on flat ground:
The medical people can answer that a little better than me. I talked to him, he feels really good. Obviously we just don't want another setback with that issue. But I know he feels good, and we're moving him along at a pace that everybody feels comfortable with. So he'll be off the mound soon, and I think once that happens the ramp-up should continue.
Not exactly a lot of concrete information there, is it?
Well said Monsieur Stoeten ...
I was soooo happy when we signed Roark - and thought for sure he’d bounce back for us - but, in hindsight, I can no longer pinpoint what that hope was based on. He had two great yrs as a Nat but otherwise was, at best, average. And hot damn was he ever throwing beach balls last night - Nate Lowe has had a good start but fuckin any major leaguer could have crushed those hangers.