Three Up: Jays @ Yankees (3/26/22)
On Pete Walker, Nate Pearson, Rogers Centre renovations, and more!
The dog days of spring keep on rolling, as the Jays and Yankees played in the sun for a few hours today at Steinbrenner Field in Tampa. Beyond some intriguing late-game displays (once again) from Greg Bird and Orelvis Martinez, nothing especially exciting happened. But that doesn’t mean we don’t have, uh, things to talk about.
So let’s talk about it!
⚾ But first let me take a second to try to earn a living. Because if you’d like to receive an immediate email every single time I post something on the site, or would like to upgrade to a paid membership in order to support what I do and help keep these posts free for everybody, you can do all that with just a couple of clicks and I’d be eternally grateful if you did! ⚾
The Blue Jays and the Yankees played a game on Saturday afternoon. The score didn’t matter. The winner didn’t matter. I’m still going to keep titling these recaps “Three Up,” even when our three topics are not all necessarily going to get up arrows — I wouldn’t want do give a hint toward the outcome of the game in an email header, just in case there’s anyone out there watching it on a delay — so here’s three down!
Down: Pete Walker charged with DUI
Well here’s something extremely disappointing. On Thursday night/early Friday morning, Blue Jays pitching coach Pete Walker was arrested in Oldsmar, Florida, for driving under the influence. He spent the night in jail. According to the website of the Pinellas County Sheriff, Walker was booked Friday morning at 2:02 AM and was released on $500 bond at 9:15 AM. Sportsnet’s Arden Zwelling, among others, obtained a more detailed arrest affidavit, reporting that Walker was clocked doing 82 mph in a 45 mph zone. The officer who stopped him said, according to Arden’s report, that Walker was observed to “have ‘a strong odour of alcoholic beverage’ on his breath, poor balance, and glassy, bloodshot eyes.”
Walker admitted to drinking four beers at a “bar/eating facility.” He also, according to the affidavit, refused a breath test, and failed a field sobriety test.
After Saturday’s game he made a brief statement:
"There was a traffic incident on Thursday night that I was involved in. Obviously, I'm very apologetic to the Blue Jay organization, Blue Jays fans, and my family. It's something that I'm working through with my attorney to get resolution to right now. Obviously, my apologies to my three daughters as well. Right now, we're working through that with my attorney for a resolution in this, and that's the only comment I'll have right now.”
I’ve seen replies already criticizing what little Walker said here. Obviously a lot of lives have been lost or changed forever because of the selfish actions of drunk drivers, so I think the passion there is completely understandable. But, legally, I don’t think it would be in his interest to say anything more than this.
The team also has made a statement:
As for whether this will affect his employment with the Jays, it appears that will not be the case:
Now, in case it’s somehow not abundantly clear, I am not a lawyer. What I do know is that the DUI is considered a misdemeanor according to the Pinellas Sheriff’s site, and while for most of us a charge like this would potentially cause difficulties at the border, MLB generally finds a way to make cases like this go as smoothly as they can. The fact that Walker is due to be in Toronto with the Jays in less than two weeks may make that more complicated, but I honestly don’t know. We’ll just have to see how it plays out.
What I do know is that it’s never made any sense to me that teams aren’t more proactive about having car services for players and staff during the spring. That probably sounds like a more elegant solution than it would be in reality — would any of us want our employers to know everything we’re doing off the clock by voluntarily having a car service follow us around?? — and, based on how we just went through a months-long lockout in which the league did everything in its power to curb spending, I think I understand why that would be a non-starter on their end anyway. But embarrassing incidents like this clearly shouldn’t be happening in 2022, even if it certainly does seem like it happens less than it used to.
More importantly, like… get an Uber, Pete! You’re making decent enough money, I’m sure. This trouble isn’t worth it. Nor is the danger you were allegedly putting yourself and others in when doing 82 in a 45 zone after four beers!
Down: Nate Pearson’s velocity
With the recent addition of Yusei Kikuchi to round out the Jays’ rotation, and Ross Stripling’s presence as another potential swingman, this is less of an issue that we may have envisioned it being earlier on in the offseason, but man alive, Nate Pearson really lost a whole lot of velocity after coming back out for a third inning of work in the seventh of this one.
Pearson averaged 97.9 mph on his fastball when in the majors in 2021, though in his lone start, in Houston back in May, that figure was just 95.7. With him being asked to throw multiple innings on Saturday, it’s somewhat understandable that his velocity would be closer to the Houston number — and indeed it was, coming in at 95.2 on the day. But it’s how he got there that’s interesting, and potentially concerning.
In his first two innings of work, Pearson threw just one fastball below 95.2, getting up as high as 98.5 and generally sitting in the 96-97 range. Then this happened:
Uh, that’s kinda weird!
It being spring there can be all kinds of explanations for him getting little tired at the end of his day. He was really being pushed for the first time in a competitive environment, having pitched just two innings in the Grapefruit League prior. He also had a bit of a rough second inning of work, having surrendered a double, single, and home run to Aaron Judge, Josh Donaldson, and Joey Gallo respectively, before even recording an out. Maybe even more important was that he sat for quite some time between his second and third innings of work, as the Jays sent nine to the plate in the top of the seventh, which necessitated a mid-inning pitching change for the Yankees. Plus, we’ve seen that when Nate’s command slips a little bit he has a tendency to dial it back and guide the ball — possibly also a factor. Still, those are some pretty low values for Nate. But I guess that’s why “building up” is a thing.
Regardless, it’s a thing to watch as he continues to get asked to get stretched out, I suppose. (Something I think they ought to be doing with them if he’s not going to be a starter. A multi-inning Pearson coming out of the bullpen could both be an outstanding weapon and get him enough innings to setup another crack at the rotation next spring. Of course, it feels like that ship keeps getting closer and closer to sailing, doesn’t it?)
Down: The Rogers Centre renovation plans
Now, this is somewhat of a qualified down. It’s great that the Jays are renovating the Rogers Centre for a lot of reasons, and a lot is going to be good about what they do with it — both behind the scenes and on the public-facing side. I’m giving this a down because that’s the direction your bank account is going to be going just as soon as these renovations are complete.
We’ll go back to Arden Zwelling of Sportsnet, who was in Dunedin on Friday when Jays president and CEO Mark Shapiro spoke to the media about the plan, and has done a great job unpacking all the details and examining the long-term financial picture for the club.
The lower bowl of seating, we learned, will be completely replaced as part of the renovations. That's a long overdue change, and will be a welcome one. Cushier seats? More room? Drink holders? Proper alignment toward the field of play? All of that sounds great. But, of course, a part of the impetus here is to add premium seating. “Because we have the third-least premium in all of Major League Baseball, especially in the lower bowl,” Shapiro says.
It’s not surprising that a sports team would seek to find more fan dollars with which to power the club financially, but maybe that kind of stuff gets lost in all the bells and whistles of the moment. Shapiro says that a stadium issue still exists here, and that ultimately they’re going to need more people than they currently have to work on finding a way to work out the massive logistical challenges of building one on the current Rogers Centre site, or finding a new place to play that wouldn’t be a step backwards. “This gives us 15 years” to do so, Shapiro says, “without compromising fan experience and without compromising supporting our team, both with the right facilities and the right level of resources.”
When Shapiro talks about “the right level of resources,” I believe he’s referring to nutritionists, analysts, mental performance coaches, etc. But it could just as easily be about the additional revenue these changes are expected to generate. Just look at how they exiled the press box to far out left field if you want to know how serious they are going to be about this premium seating stuff. And I don’t doubt that those new lower bowl seats will be more expensive, too. Plus, if regular seats down there become more scarce, that will inevitably drive prices higher in the 500s. And that’s the plan.
Arden sums it all up thusly:
It's all working in concert to turn the Blue Jays organization into the “juggernaut” Shapiro has said it could one day be. A developmental factory that supplies its roster both from within with emergent young talent and outside with established veteran free agents. A place where premium players such as George Springer and Kevin Gausman want to play. A sustainable winner, the hottest ticket in town, watched by millions night after night. A powerhouse that generates copious revenue, operates as one of the league’s freest spenders and, ideally, raises multiple championship banners along the way.
That sounds awesome. That’s all a fan could ever want. I just hope attending a game in person doesn’t get even more inaccessible than it’s already become.
Other notes
• Speaking of revenues and facilities, as noted in Arden’s piece, the Blue Jays lost a ton of expected revenue over the pandemic years of 2020 and 2021, including having to pay a ton of money to upgrade facilities in Dunedin and Buffalo in order to play most of two seasons on the road. Be sure to keep all that in mind when you’re laughing in the face of crybaby Yankees fans who try to tell you that it’s unfair how some of their irresponsible players are not going to be allowed into Canada to play unless they get their vaccines. Because that talk is only going to get louder as the season gets closer.
• One other revenue-related item that was somewhat buried in Arden’s piece is the fact that Shapiro says the club is close to finalizing a partnership with a sports betting company. Oh boy, more gambling ads!
• Speaking of games becoming more inaccessible to regular fans, I do need to give the Jays some credit for something they rolled out last week. While this is no Toronto Star Pass from 20 years ago, the team announced a ticket promotion called The Leadoff, which for $59 will get fans a 500 level ticket to all 11 April games excluding the opener.
• OK, back to baseball. I mentioned Greg Bird off the top, and with an 8th inning homer off Reggie McClain, he took another step toward potentially making the Blue Jays. He’ll be aided by the fact that April rosters will be expanded, I think, but maybe even not! The two extra spots (rosters will go from 26 to 28 for the month) are probably earmarked for pitchers. Yet even so, a powerful lefty bat off the bench would make sense — even with lefty Ramel Tapia now here in place of Randal Grichuk.
With the homer and a walk, Bird is now 5-for-12 with five walks and a pair of bombs. It's obviously too tiny a sample to get excited about, but he's an intriguing guy. He hits the ball hard, and really has been held back by his inability to stay healthy as much as anything.
• Speaking of Bird, the Jays announced after Saturday’s game that they’ve signed 1B/3B Josh Fuentes to a minor league deal, and I think Josh Howsam may have had the club’s thinking right when he tweeted, “Need someone to play 1B in Buffalo since Bird is going to be on the big league club!”
Fuentes is at least a little bit of insurance for Buffalo. A right-handed hitter, over 149 career games with Colorado (including 95 last year) he has a career wRC+ of 58. But apparently his glove is pretty good.
• Moving on, I also mentioned Orelvis Martinez off the top, as he hit a double today, bringing his spring line to 4-for-12 with four walks and two homers. With just 27 games as a 19-year old above Low-A to his credit, I’d be very surprised if this were really to be the case, but Scott is more plugged in on this stuff than I am and he’s certainly not wrong about how good he’s looked so far this spring:
• Interesting factoid here. (The Jays already had a humidor in 2021, and it certainly didn’t seem to make the ball any less lively, but OK!)
Eno later notes that the most humid ballparks, including Tropicana Field in Tampa, could get an offensive boost "as the humidors will dry the balls out a little." (Important to understand here, humidors bring balls to average humidity, so more humid in dry areas and more dry in more humid areas.)
• A guy who has certainly been on Jays fans’ radar this winter may end up getting locked up for a very long time by his current team.
• I have yet to mention Alek Manoah, who had a nice start in this one, or Josh Palacios, who hit a home run. Fortunately for me, Chris Black gets to them both in an informative Statcast-based thread on today’s game.
• Lastly, I 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: Jays vs. Phillies in Dunedin (Yusei Kikuchi vs. Bailey Falter), 1:07 PM ET, Sportsnet/Sportsnet590
⚾ Be sure to follow me on Twitter // Follow the Batflip on Facebook // Want to support without going through Substack? You could always send cash to stoeten@gmail.com on Paypal or via Interac e-Transfer. I assure you I won’t say no. ⚾
I have exciting news to share: You can now read THE BATFLIP in the new Substack app for iPhone.
With the app, you’ll have a dedicated Inbox for my Substack and any others you subscribe to. New posts will never get lost in your email filters, or stuck in spam. Longer posts will never cut-off by your email app. Comments and rich media will all work seamlessly. Overall, it’s a big upgrade to the reading experience.
The Substack app is currently available for iOS. If you don’t have an Apple device, you can join the Android waitlist here.
With the app, you’ll have a dedicated Inbox for my Substack and any others you subscribe to. New posts will never get lost in your email filters, or stuck in spam. Longer posts will never cut-off by your email app. Comments and rich media will all work seamlessly. Overall, it’s a big upgrade to the reading experience.
The Substack app is currently available for iOS. If you don’t have an Apple device, you can join the Android waitlist here.
The downs are indeed a downer. Plain and simple - that was incredibly irresponsible of Walker. And to drive that fast! Man. I think you nailed it with the ship may have sailed comment about Pearson. Let's hope not, but watching his progress seems to be like being on a treadmill.