It’s exceedingly difficult to win without a reliable bullpen.
It’s almost impossible to win enough to get back into a playoff race in time for it to make a difference, but that’s what the Blue Jays are dealing with right now.
The relief corps, as currently composed, is nowhere near good enough to consistently hold slim leads or, almost as importantly, keep close games close, and that problem reared its ugly head again in the Jays’ 5-3 loss to the Houston Astros at the Rogers Centre on Thursday. The loss closed out a 3-5 homestand and left the Jays nine games under .500 for the first time since 2019.
The bullpen wasn’t the problem Thursday. A solo home run by Jeremy Pe帽a was the only damage against relievers Genesis Cabrera, Trevor Richards and Chad Green over their four combined innings behind starter Chris Bassitt, but the fact that those pitchers were used while the Jays were trailing speaks volumes.
“I think, if they’re available, we’re going to use them,” said manager John Schneider after the game. ”(Cabrera) did a really nice job. Trev has been so good for us, as has Chad. You want to keep it right there 鈥 We’ve got to take advantage of every opportunity right now.”
They do, but using two of the only three consistently reliable relievers the Jays have at the moment (Green and Richards, with left-hander Brendon Little being the other) when the team is behind means they might not be available when needed to close out a win.
As great as it would be to be able to use the best relievers in every close game, leading or trailing, it’s not realistic. Having a high-leverage arm pitching in order to “keep it right there” when you’re down by a run or two is a sign of desperation, and the Jays absolutely are desperate right now.
Green’s outing Thursday was just the fourth time in 21 appearances he has come into a game with the Jays behind, and the first with them trailing by more than one run.
The numbers aren’t as stark for Richards, but at various points this season he’s been a long reliever and a mop-up man as well as a high-leverage late-inning arm.
The Jays didn’t use Little, so at least one of the trusted three will be fresh should the club find itself in a tight game in Seattle Friday night.
The desperation required to deploy relievers the way they were used Thursday stems not just from how the season is going, but from the multiple meltdowns that we saw earlier in the homestand.
Four Jays relievers combined to allow seven runs in a 9-2 loss to the Astros on Wednesday, a game that was tied 2-2 after six innings.
Last Friday, against the Yankees, starter Yusei Kikuchi left while trailing 4-3 with the bases empty and none out in the sixth inning. The Jays lost 16-5. That’s a dozen runs against the bullpen in four innings.
The Jays were supposed to have a shutdown bullpen. They did last year, and brought everybody back with the exception of Jordan Hicks, whose slot was to be filled by a healthy Green.
But Jordan Romano and Yimi Garcia are hurt, while Tim Mayza and Erik Swanson combined for an 8.45 ERA across 52 appearances and lost their jobs.聽
The replacements haven’t gotten it done consistently enough. Nate Pearson and Zach Pop have had opportunities to step into the breach and have combined to post a 5.49 ERA and 1.36 WHIP in 59 appearances.
Cabrera lost his job as the top left-handed reliever to Little even before Mayza was let go. The Jays haven’t brought him into a game they’ve been leading by fewer than three runs since May 15.
Bowden Francis has followed up his 1.73 ERA last season with a 5.80 mark this year, and the rotating door of waiver pickups and DFA trades at the bottom of the pecking order haven’t been much more than cannon fodder. Yerry Rodriguez is likely to be the next one to get a shot, maybe as soon as Friday.
The Jays are not good enough to get back into the wild-card race with the current bullpen, but until they get back into the race聽鈥 or at least close to it聽鈥 it’s unwise to move any potential future assets for immediate help.
“It’s tough, it’s tough for sure,” Schneider said of his bullpen quandary before Thursday’s loss. “You don’t think that you’re going to dip that far into your contingency plan all at once, but that’s kind of where we’re at.”
Where they’re at is needing three weeks of shutdown work from a bullpen that is last in the American League with a 4.83 ERA.
We wish them luck.
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