Buck Showalter throws salt in Blue Jays' wound over Chris Bassitt signing

One of the most jarring images to come out of the early days of Spring Training had to be the sight of Chirs Bassitt wearing the Baltimore Orioles uniform. For whatever reason it just looks so unnatural to see a guy who represented the Blue and White so well to now be wearing enemy orange.

Unfortunately it is going to be a sight Blue Jays fans have to get used to seeing over the next couple of months as Bassitt joined Baltimore on a one-year $18 million deal, and a former Orioles manager is already twisting the knife in the side of Blue Jays fans with his thoughts on the signing.

Buck Showalter throws salt in Blue Jays' wound over Chris Bassitt signing

Buck Showalter, who didn't have many fans in Toronto to begin with as he was a long-time manager of a couple of Blue Jays' division rivals. He helmed the New York Yankees from 1992-95 and then after stints in Arizona and Texas he led the Orioles from 2010-2018. That was during a time period when both the Orioles and the Blue Jays were rising back to prominence and with the Blue Jays being led by the charismatic José Bautista, Josh Donaldson and others, things could get heated between the two clubs and Showalter was sometimes a lightning rod for that electricity.

So it doesn't come as a surprise to hear Showalter's comments about an ex-Blue Jay-turned-Oriole be anything less than "fanning the flames" material. Showalter spoke on the Ryan Ripken show about the Bassitt signing and said, "Chris Bassitt, I said the other day, may be the best signing of the offseason... He's going to come in and go, let's get after it... I'm surprised other teams didn't jump on him because he's a guy. He's a guy.

You saw him in the post-season, the big moment does not sneak up on him. He can manipulate the ball in the strike zone...he's a baseball player, who just happens to be a pitcher."

Blue Jays fans can certainly agree with Showalter, but it doesn't make that pill any less easier to swallow. Bassitt not only became one of the most reliable arms in the Blue Jays rotation over the last three seasons but also became to be known as a real "clubhouse guy," and he's one of the players who people point to as being a reason for the turnaround from 2024 to 2025. Toward the end of the 2024 season, Bassitt shared his thoughts on how disappointed he was in what took place during the Blue Jays last place finish in 2024.

""There's so many things that you could talk about," Bassitt said on the Chris Rose podcast in August of 2024. "I can literally talk for 45 minutes on this, on things that didn't go great, and I can talk about things that literally, I don't know how to fix with our situation. But I don't think saying those things publicly is what is best for this organization. And even if I leave I still don't think I would ever be like, 'Hey, the Blue Jays have this, this and this,' because I've never done that with the White Sox or Oakland or the Mets."

"The one thing I will say about the Blue Jays for this year, we put, I think, $700 million into Shohei Ohtani's basket and didn't get him," Bassitt said. "We really didn't have a pivot to another elite, elite, elite player. In today's baseball, this is just the reality of the landscape, is that you need three or four superstars. If you have one hitter or two hitters in your lineup, you literally cannot be good, I don't think," Bassitt said. "No matter how great the player is, I don't think it's possible, so we have to get more hitting to protect Vladdy, and then the pitching has to be a lot better."

The Blue Jays front office and the players within the team seemed to take those words to heart and a few months later they had added some players to the organization that were perceived to be difference makers, while internally guys stepped up as well. Not to mention, Vladimir Guerrero Jr. signed his mega-contract extension. It all led to the Blue Jays 2025 World Series run, in which Bassitt was a big part of helping them get to. As mentioned by Showalter, Bassitt pitched out of the bullpen in the post-season, and in 8.2 innings recorded a 1.04 ERA with 10 strikeouts and only one earned run on three hits.

It's the kind of veteran presence the Blue Jays seemingly needed to make 2025 so special and it's something the Orioles will be relying on in 2026. Remember, the Orioles were a playoff team in both 2023 and 2024, before having a down year last year. But they have lots of good young talent and added some impactful players in the offseason such as Pete Alonso, Taylor Ward and Ryan Helsley.

The Blue Jays and the Orioles match ups in 2026 were already going to be interesting to watch, but adding Bassitt to the mix raises the floor.