Jays Will Have More Starting Pitching Depth In 2014

Jun 2, 2012; Toronto, ON, Canada; Toronto Blue Jays starting pitcher Kyle Drabek (4) against the Boston Red Sox at the Rogers Centre. The Red Sox beat the Blue Jays 7-4. Mandatory Credit: Tom Szczerbowski-USA TODAY SportsYou can blame the Toronto Blue Jays season on John Gibbons, bad fundamentals, bad defense, an inability to hit with runners in scoring position and whatever else your heart desires but make no mistake about it the Jays were bad this season because of starting pitching.

The Jays are dead last in the majors in starters ERA.

And that’s explainable in 4 very simple bullet points.

–Josh Johnson
–Brandon Morrow
–Ricky Romero
–J.A. Happ

If you told anyone the Jays weren’t going to get anything out of those pitchers all season even the most bias and delusional Jays fan would know they were going to suck.

But injuries and down years happen sometimes. It’s just harder to accept as a Jays fan because it’s been happening for too long.

But with the Jays trading Henderson Alvarez and letting Carlos Villanueva walk they didn’t really have much depth after their 6 starters this season as you saw.

They had to give starts to Chein Ming Wang, Ramon Ortiz and Aaron Laffey.

Next year should be different without the Jays even making a move yet.

As of right now the Jays have R.A. Dickey, Mark Buehrle, J.A. Happ, Brandon Morrow, Ricky Romero, Esmil Rogers, Todd Redmond, Kyle Drabek, Drew Hutchison, Chad Jenkins, Sean Nolin, Marcus Stroman.

And that’s before the Jays even do anything in the offseason.

You can argue all day that none of those starters are guaranteed locks to be good and healthy next year.

But there’s no way that ALL of those arms could get injured and/or not develop into something decent enough to help the Jays contend in Alex Anthopoulos 5th freaking year as GM.

He should be fired on the spot in September 2014 if the Jays aren’t in contention with that much starting pitching depth.

You’d also have to assume the Jays will add a good starter or 2 in the offseason to go along with their internal depth.

Teams that contend every season are able to contend every season because they have more starting pitching depth then they know what to do with.

That should be the case for the Jays next season. And having that real starting pitching depth is what should have them in contention next year.