Blue Jays next pitching decision: Roles of Floyd and Chavez

With the Blue Jays decision to move Gavin Floyd into the bullpen, the next step will be to determine how he and Jesse Chavez fit together in their roles

Expect Tuesday to be a day of decisions for the Toronto Blue Jays, but one of the bigger questions was answered on Monday with the announcement that 23-year-old Aaron Sanchez had earned the fifth spot in the starting rotation.

This moves his direct competition, veteran free agent signing Gavin Floyd, into a bullpen role. Which role that is, exactly, isn’t so clear.

When the Floyd signing was first announced, I was one of the many who was wrong about two specific factors.

First, the fact that Floyd secured a guaranteed Major League contract was somewhat unexpected. He’s already shown to be worth the deal, however, which he should be given a great deal of credit for after three consecutive seasons derailed by injury.

The second error came in assuming that his role would be pitching out of the bullpen, just as he had in September for Mark Shapiro and Ross Atkins as a member of the Cleveland Indians in 2015. Again, another red ‘X’.

As it stands now, Floyd’s closest contemporary of the bullpen certainties is Jesse Chavez as they are both capable of working multiple innings and have ample experience. With this, expect the role of one to impact that of the other.

This Monday tweet from Sportsnet’s Mike Wilner came as a surprise because, at a first-glance assumption, the velocity of Floyd seems to be a more natural fit towards the back of the bullpen in a middle-relief role with Chavez emerging as a true long-man.

It remains possible, of course, that the fifth (or sixth..) right-hander in the bullpen will be Arnold Leon or Rule 5 pick Joe Biagini, leaving Floyd to move into a middle relief role regardless.

Determining the bullpen’s long-man has added importance because that may represent the first arm up should the Blue Jays need a spot start or something more. Manager John Gibbons has shown a tendency to break up a tired rotation with spot starts in mid-summer to encouraging results, but it’s also inevitable that injuries will arise along the way.

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A strong showing from Drew Hutchison with triple-A Buffalo will put him firmly in the conversation should the Blue Jays need an extended stretch of starts, but for these one-off needs, Gibbons could feel much more comfortable turning to an arm like Floyd or Chavez. That is, if they’re still stretched out come June or July.

This could be one of the roster dynamics that needs weeks one and two of the regular season to come into focus, but when it does, it should also reveal some information on Toronto’s next man up for the starting rotation.