Blue Jays: What are the options with Shun Yamaguchi?

Shun Yamaguchi hasn’t looked good against big league hitters so far, but the Blue Jays have a few options when it comes to what to do with him.

The Blue Jays are 3-3 thus far, and while there have been a lot of really encouraging signs from this talented young team, it hasn’t come without its frustrations as well. Realistically, they could probably be sitting at 5-1 right now.

Unfortunately there are two scapegoats for the team thus far, and it’s not hard to figure out who they are if you’ve been perusing social media. The biggest target of the blame has been the skipper Charlie Montoyo, which should come as no surprise. The second would be Shun Yamaguchi, whose early season performance has fans frustrated with him, and with the skipper for the way the new pitcher has been utilized.

To be fair, Montoyo has twice been put in a position where he’d used up his bullpen arms, and didn’t really have anywhere else to turn but to Yamaguchi. We can debate whether that’s a wise place to put yourself another time, but it’s true that Montoyo has turned to Japanese right-hander more out of necessity than because he’s wanted to. So far it’s been a disaster, as his ERA sits at 36.00 and his WHIP at 6.00 after allowing three hits and three walks against four earned runs, all while recording just three outs.

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Typically when a pitcher is struggling like this, the front office would likely send them back to Triple-A to work on getting the kinks out. Unfortunately that’s not an option for the Blue Jays this year, both with there being no minor league season because of the Covid-19 pandemic, and another complicating factor. Yamaguchi signed a 2-year free agent deal this past offseason, and the 33-year-old has the ability to refuse a minor league assignment. With all of that said, what are the Blue Jays going to do with the problem on their hands at the moment? The way I see it, they have three options.

Hide him a la Elvis Luciano in 2019

If you recall, the Blue Jays carried a seldom used reliever for a good chunk of the 2019 season. That’s because they selected Elvis Luciano in the Rule 5 draft last year, and the only way they could retain him was to keep him on the active roster. As a result, it often felt like Montoyo was down one reliever from his bullpen, but he also had an arm ready for mop-up duty when he needed it.

This seems like the most prudent option with Yamaguchi for the time being. I realize that Montoyo has been in a place where he felt like he was out of bullpen options, but it might be wise to operate as if you are down one extra piece, just as they did last year. It’s not ideal, but it could give Yamaguchi some time to find his groove, and hopefully he can become an asset out of the bullpen rather than a liability.

Could he be an opener?

This is the most unorthodox idea of the three, but hear me out here.

It’s been very unfortunate that Yamaguchi’s two disaster appearances have come during high leverage situations. It has exacerbated the urgency of the problem, and I think we can all agree that it’ll be a while before Yamaguchi should be trusted in that type of situation again. But what about leading off a game?

It’s not going to work if he struggles in the first inning either, but the Blue Jays could be set up to give him a better chance to succeed in that role. I say that because they have some length in their bullpen between guys like Anthony Kay, Ryan Borucki, Jacob Waguespack, and Sam Gaviglio, and it could work as a piggy-back situation. If Yamaguchi is throwing well then he can give them 2-3 innings, and if he struggles out of the gate, hopefully you can get 4-5 innings from one of the long relievers. At least in this case, there could be time to catch up if it doesn’t go so well.

Of course, the Blue Jays have plenty of starting pitchers already between Hyun-Jin Ryu, Nate Pearson, Tanner Roark, Matt Shoemaker, Trent Thornton, and eventually Chase Anderson, but I still wouldn’t rule it out as a possibility.

Eat the contract and cut your losses

The most drastic option could end up on the table, and that would be cutting him loose. It might sound a little premature to even consider such a thing after just two regular season appearances, but Yamaguchi’s struggles started before this last week. He had trouble adjusting to the new size of baseball in North America, and he’s never looked comfortable while pitching in a Blue Jays uniform.

If the Blue Jays decide that eating his contract is the best option, they’ll be on the hook for 6.35 million that was guaranteed as part of his deal. The contract also called for incentives that could pay him up to 9.15 million over the two years, but he would have to pitch 170 innings per season and that’s all but impossible. That’s a lot of money to throw away, especially after getting just three regular season outs from him, but it wouldn’t be the first time the Blue Jays ate a contract. They paid out Troy Tulowitzki just last season, and sent a bunch of money to L.A. for the Dodgers to take on Russell Martin. They’ve shown a willingness to do that sort of thing, especially if it means creating roster space for another player.

They might have the room to float Yamaguchi for now, but once the roster shrinks to 28, and then again to 26, it’ll be interesting to see if the Blue Jays feel they can afford to carry him on the roster. I’m hopeful that he’ll that he’ll turn things around, but he’s going to need to figure it out in a hurry.