Hyun Jin Ryu, who underwent Tommy John surgery last summer, will be reinstated to start Tuesday’s game against the Orioles. Manager John Schneider told reporters, including Scott Mitchell of TSN, that the club will use a six-man rotation for a while.
Ryu, 36, signed a four-year, $80MM deal with the Jays going into 2020. He was brilliant in that first year, posting a 2.69 ERA in the shortened season. That figure ticked up to 4.37 the next year, then was at 5.67 last year before he required Tommy John in June. He has since been targeting a return around the 2023 All-Star break and will now be back just slightly beyond that.
It’s been an open question as to how the Jays would handle Ryu’s return. Their five starters have remarkably remained healthy all year, with none of Kevin Gausman, Chris Bassitt, José Berríos, Yusei Kikuchi or Alek Manoah requiring a stint on the injured list. Manoah did struggle immensely and get optioned down to the club’s Florida Complex for a month from early June, but has since returned.
It seems the club will stick with all six of those starters for now. As pointed out by Keegan Matheson of MLB.com, the Jays have a stretch of 17 games in 17 days, starting tonight and going until August 13. They then have three off-days in just over a week and will likely need to make a decision at that point as to how they proceed.
Kikuchi has previously been pushed to the bullpen and could be an option for that again, though he’s having good results so far this year. His 3.79 ERA would be a career best if he could maintain it, though a 84.8% strand rate points to some regression, hence his 4.79 FIP and 3.96 SIERA. Manoah was already optioned once and could perhaps receive that treatment again. His first start back from the wilderness saw him strike out eight Tigers while walking none. He then walked five Padres in his next start without a single punchout. His third start was a middle ground, as he walked four Mariners while striking out six.
Back in June, when Manoah was still on optional assignment and Ryu still on the IL, general manager Ross Atkins said that starting pitching would be an “obvious area” for the club to target at the deadline. Perhaps the returns of those two pitchers changes that calculus, though that will be seen over the coming days. The deadline is August 1.
I forgot about this guy.
Nice, I’ll keep an eye on him, always liked him as a pitcher.
Maybe now they can put some fires out (in their pitching rotation of course….)
Starting pitching (except Manoah) has been their strength this year, Each of the other 4 are having excellent seasons by their standards ,including most surprisingly Kikuchi
Going to a 6 man rotation is meant to give them all a little break considering none have really missed any time except the odd random start (again excluding Manoah)
Maybe he can be as good as before. I enjoyed watching him pitch.
Why not just send Manoah back down?
Manoah is good, I spread it all around my garden to make it grow…
Manoah is pitching better, and the other 4 starters have pitched a lot of innings in his absence.
Have you watched the games? They are mad that they are being pulled early
Give him a few starts to see if he can turn it while giving Gausman, Bassit, berrios and extra day.
They have 17 games in 17 days, by the end they can drop Manoah or make assessments then
They have a long stretch without a day off on the horizon and the rotation has logged a lot of innings is the reasoning. But they have a pretty weary pen at this point too. I think they risk taxing the pen more by going to a six man rotation and going with seven relievers. I’d option Manoah, take the full pen and then just bring Manoah up for a spot start in the middle of that stretch and option him again after the start. That way you get the extra day for the rotation and only go short handed in the pen for a day.
Hopefully they trade him and kirk. Throw vlady in if the return is good. Unload these out of shape athletes before they turn into Pablo Sandoval.
Maybe they become CC Sabathia, David Ortiz or Nelson Cruz.
Or maybe they could lean down and become great baseball players like you.
Or maybe they continue to balloon out of shape and sit at their keyboards all day eating Cheetos like you.
Or maybe you catch up on the news that Ryu has slimmed down significantly before making such asinine comments.
Or you learn to read and see I never mentioned Ryu.
But thanks for making my point that losing weight is important if you want to compete at the highest level.
Now if the Jays could just hit anywhere near their potential….
Only Taylor Swift has left as many men at second base
^^^*** POST OF THE DAY ***^^^
Please give me permission to use this! Love it! Reference, citation, anything. I refuse to rip your genius off.
Still last place team
Pre season picks: Rays,Orioles,RedSox, Yankees,bluejays
Cute
I would like to see Ryu and Manoah piggybacked à la what the Jays did with Ross Stripling and Robbie Ray a few years ago. It worked well with the latter two and not only would Ryu and Manoah give hitters very different looks, but both pitchers would benefit from only being responsible for a few innings. The piggyback approach would also be less disruptive to the rest of the rotation compared to a 6 man rotation. Pitchers are creatures of habit and I’m always apprehensive about 6 man rotations become too much rest for guys used to going every 5th day
So they’ll have to cut a pitcher from both the 26 man (you can only have 13 pitchers), and from the 40-man (Ryu will be activated from the 60-day I’ll and needs a roster spot). I’m guessing Mitch White will be DFA’d on Tuesday.
We can only hope!
White has already been DFA’d for new acquisition Hicks. The Jays will need to DFA someone else for Ryu, and then another one not too long after for Green.