PHILADELPHIA -- Bowden Francis was one strike away from the Blue Jays not needing to have this conversation. It all could have gone so differently.
All Francis needed was one more strike to Nick Castellanos to get through his fourth inning of one-hit ball Saturday at Citizens Bank Park, which he could have pulled off on just 52 pitches. Then, it all unravelled.
- Walked Castellanos
- Walked Max Kepler
- Hit J.T. Realmuto with a pitch to load the bases
- Walked Bryson Stott (run scored)
- Hit Otto Kemp with a pitch (run scored)
Twenty-two pitches and two mound visits after Francis could have escaped this whole mess, manager John Schneider had to make the long walk from the dugout to take the ball out of Francis’ hand. The 3-2 loss to the Phillies eventually belonged to Chad Green, who allowed yet another home run in the eighth, but the story is still Francis and his 6.05 ERA.
Can the Blue Jays keep rolling with him in the big league rotation? The first answer came late Saturday from Schneider, who has thrown support behind his starter throughout these first two-plus months of the season.
“Yeah. We need him,” Schneider said. “I’ve said it before, but we need him and he’s been working his [butt] off with Pete [Walker]. He’s got to take what he did before the walks there in the fourth inning and build off of it. We’re going to need him to adjust through this time and keep making those adjustments.”
Let’s start small, then. The hit batters came on a two-seamer that Francis tried to reintegrate Saturday after a long time on the shelf, and while he liked it earlier in the game, that fourth inning probably sends it right back to the shelf. Francis was clearly battling more than just the mighty Phillies lineup in the fourth inning, too, whether that be his own delivery, the pace of the game or the raucous, sellout crowd around him.
“A little bit of circumstance from the environment and I think the delivery got a bit quick there, too,” Schneider said. “It’s loud here, but this is the kind of atmosphere you want to play in. I think it kind of sped up on him a little bit, honestly. I haven’t really [watched back], but that’s what it felt like in real time. The delivery got a little quick and the arm was dragging, which led to some of the misses.”
While Francis said after the game that he didn’t feel overwhelmed by the crowd in any way, he used the same language as his manager -- that his arm was “dragging” -- to describe the fourth. Like Schneider, he was also focusing on the positives after the game. Besides, he was a pitch away from four scoreless innings. There’s still something worth grabbing onto there.
“I think the three [innings] outweigh the ... batters who got away,” Francis said. “I think there’s a lot of positives I can take from that and continue to work with it.”
There’s no obvious answer from here. Francis’ rotation spot comes around next Friday at home against the White Sox and the 27th-ranked offense in baseball. The Blue Jays could give him one more shot, and if that flops, Max Scherzer could be ready to take that rotation spot the next trip through the rotation with Eric Lauer operating as the No. 5.
There aren’t many obvious next options, either. Lefty Adam Macko, their No. 14 prospect, could soon represent that from Triple-A, but he’s still building back his foundation after a knee injury cost him the start of the season. Paxton Schultz, Easton Lucas and others are there, too, but the Blue Jays have already run through so many of these bulk options, often multiple times. There’s even an argument to be made for using an opener in front of Francis.
Like Schneider says, though, the Blue Jays need Francis, not just in 2025 but well beyond this season. They don’t need Francis to be the guy who took the league by storm in the second half of last season, either, posting a 1.53 ERA over his final nine starts while flirting with two no-hitters.
The Blue Jays just need Francis to lean on one of his own mantras -- be Bowden -- and they’re going to keep giving him chances to do that, regardless of where these next steps happen and how long this conversation lasts.