Blue Jays: Outing length an issue for the rotation

When Marcus Stroman was pulled from Thursday’s game, it marked the 21st time this season the starting pitcher has failed to throw five innings in 2017.

On 2016, the Blue Jays had one of the healthiest pitching seasons in recent memory, and as a result they ultimately had a successful season. They managed to get through the season with only seven pitchers making a start, with Francisco Liriano becoming the 7th after he was added in a trade deadline deal from Pittsburgh.

Otherwise, the Blue Jays rolled out Marcus Stroman, Marco Estrada, J.A. Happ, Aaron Sanchez, and R.A. Dickey, and also used Drew Hutchison for a couple spot starts. That was it, because everyone managed to stay healthy.

That obviously hasn’t been the case this season, as we’ve watched Happ, Sanchez, and Liriano all spend time on the disabled list, joining nearly everyone on the offensive side of the ball who has been nicked up. In their absences, the Jays have turned to the likes of Casey Lawrence, Mat Latos, Mike Bolsinger, and Joe Biagini to fill in the gaps, and outside of “Big Joe”, it hasn’t been pretty.

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Clayton Richer, my colleague here at Jays Journal, even took a look at Henderson Alvarez’s showcase this weekend, and whether the Blue Jays should consider offering a MiLB deal, assuming that would be enough to bring him in.

The only reason that sounds like a reach is because the former Blue Jay hasn’t pitched since 2015 while he’s recovered from shoulder and biceps surgery. Hard to say if he would have anything left in the tank, but considering the depth options the Jays have utilized, it’s definitely worth a look if you ask me.

And then comes this tweet from Gregor Chisholm, which pretty much sums up the problem, especially when comparing 2016 to 2017.

Looking at that alarming statistic, suddenly I feel a lot better about the performance of the Blue Jays’ bullpen this season. They’ve had more strain put on them in the first half of last year than anticipated, and fortunately they’ve had some unexpectedly solid contributions from the likes of Danny Barnes, Ryan Tepera, and Aaron Loup, among others. It’s hard to say where the team would be without them and the rest of the pen at the moment.

Hopefully things will drastically improve on that front, as four of the five starters from the beginning of the season are healthy, and Aaron Sanchez should be re-joining the rotation in the next few weeks as well.

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If the rotation can start getting deeper into their outings on a consistent basis, that only improves the bullpen, especially as the season wears on. That’s going to be of a greater importance as we get to the stretch run, so one way or another, the Blue Jays are going to need more length from their rotation.