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Blue Jays: Top 5 Reasons to be Excited for Spring Training (eventually)
By Evan Gignac
#5: Kevin Gausman
This spring will be our first look at the 2021 All-Star, Kevin Gausman, in a Blue Jays jersey. To date he is the biggest acquisition of the offseason for the Jays, and was a much needed addition after the departure of Robbie Ray. I’m elated at the thought of watching Kevin Gausman go out and throw a clean two innings with a nasty splitter in a spring start in Dunedin, let alone what he’ll do in the regular season.
Gausman comes to the Blue Jays off of the best season of his career. Leading the league with 33 games started, he threw 192 innings and posted a 3.00 FIP. This performance was good enough for sixth in the NL Cy Young vote, while being a first-time All-Star and earning some down ballot MVP votes. He catapulted off of this past season and secured a five-year contract with the Jays worth $110 million.
He joins the team at a great time, as the Blue Jays now appear to have the best rotation in the AL East. An argument could be made that he is a member of a pitching corps that has three separate aces. Jose Berrios, Gausman, and Hyun Jin Ryu all fit the bill of the leader of a pitching staff. The Blue Jays were towards the top of the AL in team ERA last season, so bolstering the rotation with another top level arm will help them repeat that performance.
Since becoming a regular big league starter, he’s pitched anywhere between 5.0 to 13.0 innings each Spring Training. Expect some two and three inning outings early on, with more pitches thrown each time out. Watching Kevin Gausman will be quite the attraction in the coming weeks, as the newest member of the team looks to gear up for a pennant run.