Blue Jays: WAR update at the quarter-mark of the season

Starters

Alek Manoah (1.8) is right there with Gausman as far as Cy Young consideration is concerned and he has the highest WAR on the team. He’s gone at least five innings in all eight of his starts and six or more in seven of those. His frustration after not being allowed to finish off his eight-inning gem on Saturday showed his intensely competitive nature.

Kevin Gausman (1.2) has been one of the best free-agent signings by any team this past offseason and is among the early favourites to capture the AL CY Young Award. His splitter is one of the hardest pitches to hit in the game, and he’s piled on the strikeouts (57) while walking just three batters.

Signed to a three-year deal this past offseason, Yusei Kikuchi (0.2) took a little while to get going but has been very stingy giving up hits and runs lately. He’s given up just eight hits and five earned runs in four May starts, earning his first two wins.

Jose Berrios (-0.1) has been mostly pretty good this season. However, he’s had two poor outings and is still recovering statistically. He is coming off his best effort of the season, a seven-inning, no-run dandy against Seattle on May 17th.

After spending a couple weeks on the IL and a few rough starts under his belt, Hyun Jin Ryu currently stands at -0.3 WAR but his last two starts have been encouraging.

Bullpen

It’s difficult for relief pitchers to accumulate a high WAR due to the lower amount of innings pitched. For example, Jordan Romano, for as great a season as he had last year, sported a WAR of 2.3. This year, so far, he’s sitting at 0.4.

Tim Mayza has reached the same level and the Jays eagerly await his return from the IL. Adam Cimber (0.3) is right behind them, despite recording four pitcher wins already. Trevor Richards is looking to climb out of the negative WAR (-0.3) he currently finds himself in. He’s surrendered nine earned runs and five homers over his 17.2 IP.

David Phelps (0.3) has emerged as a high-leverage option, as has Yimi Garcia (-0.2) despite some shaky results recently.

WAR is a stat that takes patience, one that measures performance throughout a full season, making it kind of perfect for the marathon that is a baseball season. Just because a player is off to a hot or cold start, doesn’t mean it’ll last, but it is a good time for a check-in.

See you at the halfway mark.