The Toronto Blue Jays won 89 games and reached the playoffs last season thanks largely to their starting rotation, but that pitching staff has been taking on some water so far in spring training. The latest, and by far most significant, development: On Monday, manager John Schneider revealed ace Kevin Gausman is dealing with a shoulder issue — he described it as “general fatigue” — that has delayed his spring debut. An MRI revealed “no structural concerns or injury,” Schneider told reporters (per MLB.com).
“It kind of just popped up,” Schneider said. “He didn’t really bounce back after his [bullpen session a few days ago]. We’ll see how he is in a couple of days.”
Gausman was scheduled to throw 40 or so pitches in a simulated game Tuesday, though that has obviously been put on hold for now. It’s obviously a good thing that further testing didn’t reveal anything more serious, but shoulder discomfort at this time of year is nothing to sneeze at. Particularly after the last few days, in which Alek Manoah — who allowed four runs and hit three batters in 1.2 innings in his spring debut — has also been dealing with a shoulder issue while Top prospect Ricky Tiedemann nursing a hamstring injury. Here’s how things currently stand in the Jays’ rotation:
Gausman, 33, is entering his third season with the Blue Jays. He finished third in the AL Cy Young voting last year and has been terrific in his two years with Toronto, pitching to a 3.25 ERA and averaging 180 innings and 221 strikeouts per season. He, Bassitt, Berríos and Kikuchi were the biggest reason why Toronto allowed the sixth-fewest runs in the league and were top four in ERA and ERA+. And all four of them also happened to be unusually healthy: The Blue Jays were not only the sole team in baseball to have four starters make at least 30 starts, they were the first team to accomplish the feat since 2019.
Of course, spring training is the time to be cautious, and Opening Day is still more than three weeks away; it’s possible this is nothing, and that Gausman is on the bump come March 28. But this rash of bad news really throws into stark relief the cost of Toronto’s several misses this offseason, both with Shohei Ohtani and also with other names like Cody Bellinger and Matt Chapman. By more or less running things back, the Jays are once again asking a lot from their pitching staff, and one or two cracks in the foundation could send the whole thing tumbling down — with Bo Bichette and Vladimir Guerrero Jr. now just two years away from free agency.
There are no indications as yet the Blue Jays will go outside the organization to bring in pitching help — Jordan Montgomery and Blake Snell remain unsigned, in case you haven’t heard — though a serious injury to Gausman could change things. For now, the team and its fans will just have to wait and hope.
