Blue Jays: Clayton Richard has his shot in the rotation

With Clay Buchholz not quite ready for his spot in the Toronto Blue Jays rotation, Clayton Richard will get his chance in the rotation.

Manager Charlie Montoyo announced Marcus Stroman as the Opening Day starter when the Toronto Blue Jays host the Detroit Tigers on Thursday, March 28th at 3:37pm. While not confirmed, the rotation order following Stroman is Matt Shoemaker, Aaron Sanchez, Ryan Borucki, and Clayton Richard. With Clay Buchholz not set to be ready for the Opening Day rotation, Richard has hit shot to kick off the season.

After the addition of Clay Buchholz, it was stated that Ryan Borucki’s spot in the rotation was not guaranteed. While that may not have been true, it still came as a surprise considering how well the left-hander pitched a season ago. The logical solution would be to have Buchholz and Borucki closing the rotation with Richard in the bullpen. Now, the plan is clear. Richard gets a chance as a starter.

In 2017, Richard allowed 24 home runs in 197.1 innings pitched. Through 158.2 innings in 2018, Richard allowed 19 home runs. Keep in mind that Richard benefitted greatly from Petco Park being so cavernous and pitcher-friendly. Of Richard’s 19 home runs in 2018, five of them came at home and his ERA was 3.94. Away from Petco Park, Richard allowed 14 home runs in 81.0 innings with a 6.67 ERA. 2017 was a lot of the same for Richard as well.

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Richard’s performance away from Petco Park isn’t exactly confidence inspiring, especially with five hitter-friendly ballparks in the American League East. Ideally, Richard profiles much better as a left-hander out of the bullpen. As a southpaw, his splits are naturally better against left-handers than right handers.

For the time being, Clayton Richard does get to have his shot at pitching in the Blue Jays’ rotation to start the season. It’s essentially an open competition between Richard and Borucki to see who sticks in the group whenever Clay Buchholz is ready, but a lot of the fanbase would definitely prefer to see Richard be moved to the bullpen. It all depends on performance obviously, but the logical decision that makes the most sense is moving the veteran to the bullpen.

Richard will make his first start as a Blue Jay (assuming the rotation order is as stated above) would be Monday, April 1st against the Baltimore Orioles followed by Saturday, April 6th at the Cleveland Indians.