Three Up: Jays @ Braves (3/28/22)
On Shaun Anderson, José Berríos, roster cuts, Ketel Marte, and more!
Another fake Blue Jays game is in the books, as they made the “long” trip to visit our old pal Alex Anthopoulos and his world champion Braves in North Port, Florida, here on Monday.
So let’s talk about it!
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The Blue Jays and the Braves played a game on Monday afternoon. The score didn’t matter. The winner didn’t matter. Here’s three up.
Up: Shaun Anderson
I’m not going to lie to you, when I saw yesterday that Shaun Anderson was making the start today for the Jays, I really only had a vague familiarity with him. Which is a flattering-to-myself way of saying that I forgot they’d claimed him on waivers from the Padres back in November, right at the deadline for clubs to protect players from selection for the Rule 5 draft.
Anderson was outrighted on December 1st, just before the lockout, but cleared waivers and remains in the organization. He is also actually a somewhat interesting arm.
At just 27 years old, Anderson is already a journeyman — drafted by the Red Sox, traded to the Giants, traded to the Twins (straight up for LaMonte Wade Jr.!), claimed by the Rangers, then the Orioles, then the Padres, and now the Jays — but he has some tools: a fastball in the 93-94 range, and a slider good enough that he uses it a ton (over 60% of the time in 2021). He was bashed around last season, posting an 8.49 ERA over 23 1/3 innings, but he does have big league experience. And, as of a couple weeks ago, had been turning some heads in camp.
I think he probably turned some heads in this one, too.
Though Anderson’s performance was hardly perfect — particularly the three walks he issued over three-plus innings of work — he acquitted himself rather well against a Braves lineup that featured some of their top talent: Rosario, Albies, Olson, Riley, Ozuna, Dickerson, Duvall, Swanson, and Contreras.
Two hits over three-plus, with three strikeouts, allowing just one run? That works. Multiple innings from a guy who hasn't started at any level since 2019? That works too. We're just talking about a depth arm here, of course, and just one spring start, but depth guys are important. It's good to see one trending in a good way, and rising to a pretty formidable challenge.
Up: José Berríos
Rather than send presumptive Opening Day starter José Berríos on the road to North Port today, the Jays elected to have him get his work in in a minor league game. Turns out it went quite a bit better than his previous performances this spring.
Granted, it’s a minor league game, but still. That’s much better!
And, it also turns out, this was all basically by design.
Rob Longley of the Toronto Sun is in Dunedin, and spoke to Berríos recently. Regarding his first couple of duds, the freshly minted $131 million man told him, “I have a plan and I’m trying to execute it, build my pitches up and work on my changeup.”
Later, Berríos elaborated:
“It’s a different spring training. I didn’t want to rush the first couple of games and get hurt. As long as my arm is feeling good and I’m throwing my pitches, I’m happy with that. I know I can do more. Much more. The next two starts, that’s when I’ve got to get outs … I can ask myself to do more because now I feel ready.”
Well, he certainly did more it seems. So let’s all take a deep sigh of relief, shall we? (And try to hope Yusei Kikuchi, who I wrote about yesterday, is thinking about things the same way!)
Up: The roster coming into shape
I could have made this one a “down,” because guys were sent down — do you get it? — but I prefer to look at this one in a positive light. (In that spirit I also chose not to write about Tim Mayza here, despite his giving up a pair of home runs in his outing today).
Anyway, on Monday morning the Jays announced several roster cuts… er, reassignments.
Nothing too surprising there, though it’s a bit of a shame for Josh Palacios, who homered in his second straight game yesterday, and could have had a bit more of an opportunity here if not for the arrival of fellow lefty outfielder Ramel Tapia (though it would still have taken an injury from another outfielder to do so).
It’s also probably a “down” for guys like Thomas Hatch and Anthony Kay, who had real chances to force their way into the rotation if they pitched the way we like to think they’re capable. Hagen Danner was a dark horse for a spot as well.
Those guys will get their chances, I’m sure. Though the new rules limiting teams to optioning a player just five times per season could complicate things. Kay, for example, was optioned six times between April 1 and September 22 of last year.
So where does this leave the roster as we head toward opening day? Well, teams will usually to carry 13 position players, because in most months they will be limited to using 13 pitchers. In April there will be no limit on the number of pitchers a team can carry, and two extra roster spots, but I think the Jays are probably already set with 13 fielders.
Outfield (4): Gurriel, Hernández, Springer, Tapia
Infield (6): Bichette, Biggio, Bird, Chapman, Espinal, Guerrero
Catcher (3): Jansen, Kirk, McGuire
We know there are five starters they'll use: Berríos, Gausman, Kikuchi, Manoah, Ryu
That leaves room for ten relievers. Locks there, I'd say, are Cimber, Garcia, Mayza, Pearson, Richards, Romano, and Stripling. So we've got room for three more. RosterResource says Julian Merryweather has an option left, so that puts him into a bit of limbo, but I'd probably guess that he makes it, along with David Phelps — though he didn’t have a great one today, and Anthony Castro is in that mix as well. As a lefty behind Mayza there's Ryan Borucki, who is out of options, and Andrew Vasquez and Tayler Saucedo, who are not. So that's leaning Borucki, even though Saucedo may be the ultimate winner there. (Sportsnet’s Arden Zwelling spoke to Borucki and wrote about his situation here on Monday.)
I'm sure there are names I've missed, but we're just spitballing here and that's how I'm seeing it at the moment
Other notes
• Your dreams of the Jays trading for Ketel Marte were officially dashed on Sunday night, as he signed what seemed like a very team-friendly deal to remain with the Diamondbacks for six more years. Marte had two option years left after this one, which have been bought out, and three additional years added to the deal (which doesn’t kick in until next season). He’ll make an additional $52 million for three free agent years, which seems like far too little for a player of his calibre. But it’s worth remembering that this is a guy who has struggled to stay on the field, only has a couple of great seasons, and Arizona were really in a great situation with those two non-guaranteed options on him still left. To get guaranteed money he was going to need to give something up, and he sure did. Still, it’s life changing money and now there’s no doubt that it’s his. It sure looks weird, but I do get it. Congrats, Ketel.
• Pretty cool to see Albert Pujols back in a Cardinals uniform, I’m not going to lie. The future Hall of Famer also announced that he’ll be retiring at the end of the season.
• Speaking of seeing things, we love a Devon Travis sighting!
• I’ve been pretty harsh on Sportsnet NOW in the past, but I’ve got to say that it’s been working quite well for me this spring. Kudos to whoever got them to finally get their shit together on the back end over there. (Though… actually, knowing a bit about how that industry works, I’d wager it was more likely rushed and never really ready in the first place. Probably not the poor devs’ fault.)
• Lastly, I still haven’t forgotten about your mail bag questions! Feel free to submit some more if you’ve got them. I’ll be getting to this early next week!
Next up: Tuesday: Off. (NOTE: Wednesday’s game against the Yankees is apparently at 6:35 ET!)
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Are the Jays using the 28 man roster to kick the waiving Reese McGuire can down the road or are the jays gonna roll 2 bench catchers for a significant portion of the year do you think?
Loving the Ups on the (fake) games Andrew. The new brief format is excellent. Crazy to be in the place where we're only wondering about a couple or three RPs in the lineup no? No doubt the early-mid to mid-season shakeups will be there, but I'm more excited for those possibilities than anything. I feel like we have got an impressive club that is only likely to get better as the season continues.