JULY 27, 8:50pm: Montoyo confirmed that Pearson will debut Wednesday, per Davidi.
3:35pm: Pearson is indeed still scheduled for his debut on Wednesday, Campbell tweets. Manager Charlie Montoyo still wasn’t ready to announce a move, but did acknowledge the possibility of a call-up, as Sportsnet’s Shi Davidi tweets.
JULY 22: The Blue Jays plan to activate standout pitching prospect Nate Pearson on July 29, Jamie Campbell of Sportsnet reports. Pearson is not on the Blue Jays’ 40-man roster, which is currently full.
Toronto will gain an extra year of control over Pearson by keeping him off its roster during the first week of its season. So, considering the league’s rules on service time, it’s no surprise that the team will open its schedule without the 23-year-old right-hander. But Pearson may wind up as a game-changing addition to the Blue Jays’ roster when he does make his debut, and perhaps someone who could challenge for American League Rookie of the Year honors.
The flamethrowing Pearson joined Toronto as the 28th overall pick in the 2017 draft and has proven himself an elite farmhand since then (MLB.com ranks him first in the team’s system and No. 8 in the sport, for instance). Pearson made his debut in Triple-A last year with 18 innings of 3.00 ERA ball, but he spent most of his season in Double-A, recording a terrific 2.59 ERA/2.90 FIP with 9.91 K/9 and 3.02 BB/9 over 62 2/3 frames. Pearson also acquitted himself well during spring training this year, as he held hitters to a paltry .194 batting average and totaled 16 strikeouts against five walks in 10 2/3 innings before the sport shut down.
If Pearson does come up and make a serious impact in 2020, Toronto could have an enviable duo atop its rotation with him and left-hander Hyun-Jin Ryu – an $80MM offseason pickup who finished as the National League Cy Young runner-up as a Dodger in 2019. Until Pearson makes his first start and Chase Anderson returns from the injured list, though, the Blue Jays appear likely to fill out their rotation with Tanner Roark, Matt Shoemaker, Trent Thornton and Ryan Borucki behind Ryu.
Good news. No reason to waste a full year of service time for one extra week.
Oh, but waiting a week to call him up will irreversibly harm the dynamic of the team!
At least that’s what the geniuses on our side were saying last year when Preller had Fernando Tatis Jr and Chris Paddack on the roster on opening day…
Only a fool would promote him day 1 when that extra year is only a week away. 1 or 2 starts at most as a rookie vs 33 at his peak is a very easy choice.
Everyone knows they are waiting for service time reasons but doesn’t this seem especially blatant and obvious? Perhaps setting themselves up for a grievance? Maybe I’m missing an excuse
Anyone can file a grievance against anyone for anything. The applicable question really is “Would Pearson actually win said grievance?”
That’s what I meant. Setting themselves up for a winnable grievance ala Bryant
Bryant lost his grievance case against the Cubs.
Service time will be an issue for the next CBA. With Pearson it means missing one start, hardly worth filing a grievance.
Im aware that Bryant lost his grievance. That has nothing to do with my point
With Pearson it means losing millions of dollars over that start. Do you know how much value another year of cheap control is worth? If a team keeps a player down with the sole purpose of getting another year of control, that is against the CBA and absolutely something a player should fight against. The next cba isn’t going to help Pearson
It’s not blatant when you have 5 players scratched or placed on the IL in the first week of the season. He was on the 3-man taxi squad, which means he’s with the team to step in, in-case of injury or positive test. Which is exactly what he’s doing, Giles injury means Hatch will go to the pen and Pearson will take a spot in the rotation. By the way, he will have to log 5+ years of good production before he would even consider filing a grievance but I like how you all are already assuming he’s going to be a star, don’t get me wrong, I agree with you about that.
It’s incredibly blatant and obvious, but nothing will come from a grievance. Bryant’s case proved that. They’ll have to do something about it in the next CBA
What do you think they are going to do n the next CBA? Have arbitrators decide when players are called up? LOL!
A grievance about what? Players are called up when it meets their development schedule and the team’s business needs. It’s always been that way. There is no provision in the collective agreement to grieve.
It is blatant but they’re allowed to do it and every team except the Padres, Dodgers, Rockies and Cardinals does it so why shouldn’t the Blue Jays?
I was wondering how this kid only has a 5-5 record in 34 starts with a 2.19 era. Then I looked at his innings and he is only averaging 3.6 innings a start.
So is he just all of a sudden going to be able to throw into the 5th inning and later against MLB hitters? He’s only been going through the order 1.5 times, does he have the ability to adjust to hitters the second or third time through?
I understand teams being careful with their young pitchers, but they’re really not setting these guys up for success if they don’t let them go out there and pitch.
That’s a bit skewed considering that from July 24th of last year onward he pitched eight games where he went at least 5 innings in all of them (4 of which were scoreless). In those 46.1 IP he still only went 2-1 despite a 2.14 ERA (and even that’s inflated due to giving up 4 earned runs in his final game of the season). In those eight starts he threw at least 74 pitches in all of them and at least 93 in four of his last five starts.
As ToGi said, it was planned out to not overwork him as he was coming back and he’s a vital asset for them going forward.
You understand my point though? Part of being a great pitcher is adjusting to the batter after they adjust to you. The only way to get better at that is with experience and practice.
Like I said, I get wanting to ease him back in and lighten his work load, and it’s good that they let him pitch deeper in games in the second half, but you have to wonder if he’s going to be able to consistently go through an MLB’s lineup two or three times.
Your point is valid, B. I understand not wanting to hurt a young arm with massive upside. At the same time they do need to be tested and stretched out once in a while. Also have to wonder if holding back the workload does more harm than we realize.
I think for some pitchers it does. They’re not training these young pitchers bodies, arms and minds to go six or seven innings regularly. Then they get to the bugs and they’re asked to do this, at a higher level, which means more stress on their bodies.
It’s kinda like a helicopter mom. You’re so afraid of your kid getting hurt or sick that you hover around them protecting them, but you set them up for failure when they’re finally released to the world because they aren’t prepared for it.
Agreed. Teams are holding guys back and allowing a max 5-innings or a 75-80 pitch limit for most of the season. These pitchers, used to throwing complete games in high school, max out for 5-innings. They know they don’t have to pace themselves, so what happens? They throw bullets, do not learn the art of pitching (as much as they should) and probably add more stress to their arms for maxing out. And we wonder why young arms go down quick?
Organizations do not want the media blowback for not “taking care” of young, promising arms. They are over-monitoring to a degree of detriment.
I think it’d be a valid point if Pearson struggled in games where had to face the lineup multiple times.
However, he didn’t. In those final eight starts in the upper minors last season, he was averaging nearly six innings a game and at least started to make his way through the lineup a third time in all eight starts. And during that span, he posted a 2.14 ERA, 0.91 WHIP, 5.4 H/9, 2.7 BB/9, 0.8 HR/9, 9.1 K/9.
We’re talking eight games, three at triple A. That’s enough experience for him to do it consistently at the MLB level?
Eight games is an extremely small sample size.
Don’t forget, Pearson missed almost all of 2018 with an injury. The team had him alternate between 2 IP and 5 IP starts to try and limit his innings a bit.
What are the Blue Jays plans…for the Blue Jays?
Watching Pearson the other night against Boston I wonder if he was out there working on something. He was hovering around 95 mph. I wonder if the 100 is something he does in a short outing and typically sits at 95, or he’s still working himself up to game shape. If that’s the case, having him wait a week is a benefit for him that has nothing to do with team control. However, team control is the primary reason he’s not on the team as of today.
He ended that game with a 98mph if I recall correctly. And hit 98 in the first inning too.
Seemed like he started a bit too amped up, wasn’t really finding his release and started holding back a bit until his last few batters. Some Fenway nerves judging by his postgame comments.
63 pitches in that game.
60-70 depending how tough things go in the debut? Jitters likely.
Excited to see it unfold!
Excluding the St. Louis Cardinals franchise, can anyone name a pitcher in the last decade to be stretched out 100 innings and be equally as good as he was for more than a single season?
Perfect timing. Jays need another guy that can stretch it out.
Good luck to the kid! Great to see all the homegrown Jays.
Does anyone know if the cardboard cutout fans in Miami got a refund on their tickets?
lots of talent in that rotation. i feel they could swing a trade of Hatch or Kay for a nice young OF bat.
With the Vlad move they might want to pivot toward Arenado. Groshans is still 2 years away.