There is no loss more painful than blowing a late inning lead. Blowing leads – large or small – in the last couple of innings of a game is one of the most demoralizing and heartbreaking ways to lose. Unfortunately for the Jays, they have had more than their share of these kinds of losses within just the last month.
At the start of the year, the bullpen was the strongest part of the roster and was carrying the team for a bit when the offence struggled to score runs. Now, however, the bullpen is far and away the weakest part of the team. The main issue is that the injury bug has taken a massive bite out of the bullpen. The Jays have lost three of their best relievers in Merryweather, Phelps, and Borucki to injuries, and have not been able to find any suitable replacements. Along with injuries, other previously reliable guys like Chatwood and Dolis are not pitching as well as they used to. Jordan Romano has been the only somewhat reliable arm that they have in the pen, and even he hasn’t been dominant. After the starter leaves the game, it is a lot of finger crossing, nail biting and hoping that the Jays can hold on to whatever lead that they have.
The question on everyone’s mind is, how can the Jays fix the bullpen? Unfortunately, the answer isn’t that simple. The most common and likely solution is for the Jays to acquire relief pitchers via trade. However, that is easier said than done. With the trade deadline still six weeks away, teams are unlikely to make trades at this point of the season. Some teams are still trying to figure out if they are going to be buyers or sellers at the deadline, and won’t be wanting to make any big moves just yet. The Jays did make a trade Saturday afternoon with the Mets, acquiring RHP Jacob Barns for single-A RHP Troy Miller. This isn’t going to solve the issues with the bullpen, but the Jays could make some minor moves like this to try to patch up the pen temporarily, but any significant trades can’t be made until closer to the deadline on July 31st.
The other option would be to look to their minor league roster for help. The two players that would provide the biggest impact to the pen would be Nate Pearson and Thomas Hatch. The only drawback is that they are currently being stretched out in the minors to be starting pitchers, and it is unknown if the Jays will be willing to deviate from those plans temporarily by putting them in the bullpen. This wouldn’t be something that is uncommon in baseball though. Often, you do see young pitchers that are projected to be starters start in their team’s major league bullpen before eventually moving to the rotation. Most recently, Aaron Sanchez started his career in the Jays bullpen and was very effective in 2015, before going to the starting rotation in 2016.
Hatch was a very useful arm in the bullpen last year, and Pearson had a positive outing in his one appearance out of the pen in the postseason. At this point, Hatch and Pearson would be significant upgrades over the arms that the pen currently has, and it shouldn’t hinder Hatch’s and Pearson’s development.
A good bullpen is vital to a team’s success, because when games come down to the very last out, you need guys that can close out the game. That also means you can’t only survive with just a lockdown closer. The guys in the middle can be just as important because if a team cannot bridge the gap from the starter to the closer, their best reliever won’t get a chance to pitch. Strong bullpens like the Yankees and Brewers have dominant pitchers like Zack Britton and Devin Williams, who can pitch the middle innings to help get the ball to their closers in the ninth.
No bullpen is perfect, and every pitcher has their good and bad days, but for the Jays bullpen, it has been more bad days than good as of late. There is no easy way to fix it in the short-term – any significant trades won’t happen for at least a few more weeks, so they are going to have to do their best to weather the storm in the meantime. The offence is going to be asked to do a little more, and try to provide their pitchers with as big of a lead as possible; but that is going to be hard to do on a consistent basis. If Borucki and Merryweather can return from the IL soon, and Chatwood and Dolis can find their previous success, the bullpen will be in a much better place. Until then, those middle innings will be quite a rollercoaster, and all Jays fans will be able to do, is hang on for the ride.