TORONTO -- The Blue Jays couldn’t outrun this forever, and if the next few days go according to plan, they won’t need to.
Friday night’s 7-1 loss to the White Sox was a look at what the Blue Jays have been dodging all season long. Rotation holes have a way of snowballing if you don’t manage them perfectly, which requires a few good bounces along the way.
This rotation has been a man short since the first week of the season, when Max Scherzer went down with a right thumb injury, and just as Eric Lauer claimed a more permanent spot in the rotation, the struggling Bowden Francis landed on the IL with a right shoulder impingement. All along, there’s been one sore spot, one day to plan around, one “TBD” that Toronto’s coaching staff and front office have been forced to put entirely too much thought into.
“The hardest part is holding guys out certain days before to cover innings you may need,” manager John Schneider said. “We’re really just trying to find the sweet spot of pitches and spots to bring guys in based on the score. We’ve done a good job of scoring in those games, and scoring gives the leash a little more length with each guy, but it’s the days before and after that get a little tricky.”
Thursday and Friday presented the perfect storm, showing just how much pressure this “TBD” spot has placed on everyone else, too.
Kevin Gausman made it through just 4 1/3 innings in Thursday’s loss to the D-backs, which forced long man Paxton Schultz to give the Blue Jays 2 2/3 innings on 40 pitches, wiping him out of their bullpen plans for the next day or two. Because of this, Toronto was already playing shorthanded behind Spencer Turnbull on Friday, and when he gave the club just two-plus shaky innings, things started to fray.
Multiple times, Schneider came back to the challenge Turnbull is facing, trying to catch up to the rest of the league after signing with the Blue Jays on May 5 and missing Spring Training.
“It’s not a perfect spot for a pitcher,” Schneider said. “We know he’s thrown 80 pitches in the Minors and can offer that, but at the same time, you’re in the business of winning games every single night. It’s kind of up to him to dictate what we’re going to do.”
Thankfully, or perhaps mercifully, the Blue Jays are about to retire the “TBD” spot. Scherzer should make his next start back in the big leagues -- his first with Toronto since throwing just three innings in his debut on March 29 -- which should immediately shift everything into place, at least for now.
Scherzer isn’t ready to push 100 pitches just yet, but as Schneider put it, he’ll take 75 from Scherzer any day of the week.
“I’m really looking forward to him getting really mad at me when I take him out in a regular-season game,” Schneider said. “He’s ready to do that in the big leagues. Whenever the time comes, it will probably be more than 75 pitches. He’s always told me that he’s very, very honest before each start about what he’s capable of based on how he’s feeling. If it’s 75 pitches in the big leagues, he’s ready to go.”
Right now, it’s looking like Scherzer will pitch either Tuesday or Thursday of next week against the Guardians; there’s just the matter of sorting where he and Lauer fall in the order.
“We’d probably put a day in between them,” Schneider said. “They’re both lined up for Tuesday. We’re going to work around Max. If that means Lauer is a couple of days extra, that’s fine. If it means that Max does a couple of days extra, that’s fine. We’ll cross that bridge Sunday.”
That bridge doesn’t lead to safety, though. Everything else still needs to go right, from Scherzer’s thumb to the veteran trio of Gausman, Chris Bassitt and José Berríos. Scherzer’s return will accomplish one thing immediately, though, which is to simplify the lives of Schneider and pitching coach Pete Walker. They’ll finally be free to manage their bullpen around a “normal” rotation, no longer forced to keep a card or two tucked up their sleeve for tomorrow.
The reality of baseball is that this conversation will surely come back around and Toronto’s depth will surely be tested again. The Blue Jays need a quick break from it, though, and Schneider will welcome the break from saying those three high-maintenance letters: TBD.