Blue Jays: Nothing wrong with starting Shun Yamaguchi in the bullpen

The Blue Jays likely won’t give up on Shun Yamaguchi as a starting pitcher after just three spring appearances, but there’s nothing wrong with him starting the season in the bullpen.

While the Blue Jays have had plenty of encouraging performances from their pitching staff in Dunedin so far, the results have been pretty mixed for Shun Yamaguchi in his first taste of pitching in North America.

The 32-year-old had a rough first outing this spring, followed by a solid performance a week ago that left everyone feeling more encouraged about one of the Blue Jays’ newest pitchers. Unfortunately, then came Thursday, and the right-hander got beat up a bit by the Philadelphia Phillies. He ended up allowing four runs on five hits, also walking two more batters over just 2.1 innings.

The good news is that this is still just Spring Training, and the stats and even the win-loss column really don’t matter that much. However, for Yamaguchi, who is in a battle for a job in the starting rotation, these early impressions are pretty significant. Unfortunately, he hasn’t been able to start off on the right foot, as he now sports a 12.00 ERA through six innings during Grapefruit League play.

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After his first outing I wrote about some of the challenges that Yamaguchi is facing by coming to North America, including something as significant as a different size of baseball he’ll now use. For a skill as precise as pitching at the highest level of the sport, that “subtle” difference can be massive, and it’s understandable that anyone coming over from the Nippon Professional League in Japan would need some time to adjust.

With that in mind, and with the way Yamaguchi’s early returns have looked, I don’t think there’s any harm in admitting now that he likely won’t win the fifth starters job. That’s not to say that anything has been decided yet, but with just under three weeks away before Opening Day, it might be time to take a slightly different focus, and even take some pressure off.

The Blue Jays could still plan to stretch him out, and even plan to install him in the rotation a little later on once he’s performing a little more consistently. They’ll start the year with eight games in eight days, but then have four off days in 20 days to follow it, so they may not even need a fifth starter for every turn through the rotation. With their veterans all healthy and trending toward a routine start to their regular season schedule, the Blue Jays could also use others in the role until they feel Yamaguchi is ready to thrive, such as Trent Thornton (who may win the job anyway), Anthony Kay, or others.

With the depth that’s been assembled by Ross Atkins and the Blue Jays front office, they’re not in a position where they need to force him into the rotation right away, and that could end up being a tremendous benefit. The Nakatsu, Japan native could get more appearances under his belt in a shorter period of time, allowing him to make and work on adjustments that are needed, while avoiding the pressure of starting right away.

At the end of the day, a rough outing out of the bullpen can be quickly eased by a quick hook from the manager, or by being picked up by a fellow reliever. There are different responsibilities as a starter, including throwing enough innings to avoid taxing the bullpen, and allowing Yamaguchi to take a step back and work on the bigger things might be more important to begin with.

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The Blue Jays needed 21 different starters last season, and while they hope to greatly reduce that number in 2020, it’ll almost always hits a double digit number of the course of a 162 game season. That means the Blue Jays will almost certainly have an opportunity waiting for Yamaguchi at some point, and it may be wise to let him begin his MLB career as a reliever for now.

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