Esmil Rogers or Chad Jenkins

May 29, 2013; Atlanta, GA, USA; Toronto Blue Jays relief pitcher Esmil Rogers (32) pitches in the second inning against the Atlanta Braves at Turner Field. Mandatory Credit: Daniel Shirey-USA TODAY SportsThe Toronto Blue Jays have had a lot of injuries to their starting rotation while also trying to fix Ricky Romero. They’ve had to use numerous pitchers to start games this season in an effort to replace their real starters.

Fortunately Josh Johnson is back.

Chien-Ming-Wang earned the right to stick around by pitching into the 8th inning for just the 4th time this season by a Blue Jays starter. Someone that can eat up innings is important. If he gives up 5 runs in the process every time out the Jays will just have to put up with that until one of their real starters is back.

Hopefully Wang’s performance wasn’t a fluke so the Jays finally have some stability in their rotation for the first time in a while.

That leaves the last spot in the rotation. Unless the Jays have anything new up their sleeve Esmil Rogers or Chad Jenkins would be that starter.

Right now it’s Esmil Rogers.

According to Alex Anthopoulos the reason Jenkins isn’t in the big leagues is because the Jays want to have some depth in the minor leagues. They also felt Jenkins had some balls hit hard against him in his last start against San Diego. He had a decent start but that’s a trend that doesn’t usually lead to more success.

So should the Jays go with Rogers or Jenkins for the foreseeable future.

Jenkins has pitched at least 5 innings in all 6 of his big league starts.

Rogers longest start for the Jays has been 4 innings without his pitch count getting to 80. But there’s probably less chance that he gets hit around as much as Jenkins, assuming the Jays scouts know what they’re doing.

The Jays might want to develop Jenkins more in the minor leagues but he’s the better bet to give you innings. If the Jays really want to have depth in the minors it would make some sense to send Rogers to the minors so they can stretch him out as starter and see how he does when he has to throw 90 – 100 pitches.

Rogers will pitch less innings then Jenkins but he’s also more likely to be able to shut a team down for 3 or 4 innings. It’s just that the Jays bullpen has already been overworked like a motherf**ker this season and you can never guess when it’ll need some rest.

If the Jays use Jenkins they could also put Rogers back in the pen to help out that overworked bullpen.

Rogers and Jenkins both have an upside and downside to being in the Jays rotation. Until one of the real starters is back the Jays have to figure out which one has more upside.