Despite 'down year' Kevin Gausman remained reliable for the Blue Jays in 2024

The Toronto Blue Jays had high expectations for ace Kevin Gausman heading into the 2024 season after his third-place finish in Cy Young voting and leading the AL in strikeouts in 2023. Although Gausman wasn't able to replicate those achievements this season, he still remained reliable for the Blue Jays. He finished the season with a career high in wins (14) alongside a 1.22 WHIP in 181 innings.

Kevin Gausman's 2024 season was a tale of two halves but he remains Toronto's best starter

Gausman's season didn't get off to the best start when he suffered a shoulder injury which caused him to miss all but one of his spring starts. He gave up six runs in 3.2 innings against the Colorado Rockies and failed to make it out of the second inning against the New York Yankees in April, finishing the month with a 4.50 ERA. May was a better month for the veteran righty pitching to a perfect 3-0 record, highlighted by performances against the Detroit Tigers and Chicago White Sox, giving up two runs combined.

Even though these were encouraging signs from the 33-year-old he was more inconsistent in June pitching to a 5.45 ERA winning just two of his six starts. Consequently, Gausman finished the first half of the season with an underwhelming 4.50 ERA, 104 strikeouts, 15 home runs and 1.31 WHIP.

On the flip side, he improved immensely after the All-Star break, showing flashes of his ace-like self, most noteably a stunning outing against one of his former teams, the Baltimore Orioles and two games against the Los Angeles Angels, going seven innings in both giving up a single run. Gausman finished his season strongly even if the Blue Jays were out of playoff contention by this point.

In his final seven starts of the season he posted a 2.59 ERA, 12 runs and 1.08 WHIP in 41.2 innings. Even though Gausman didn't have the best season of his career by his standards he provided one of the highlights in a dismal season for Toronto throwing the first complete game shutout of his career against the Oakland Athletics in his final ever start at Oakland Coliseum. Six weeks later he pitched another complete game against the Texas Rangers, the only pitcher in the American League to pitch multiple complete games this season.

Gausman will be 34 next year heading into the penultimate year of his five-year, $110 million contract, which remains one of the best in the Shapiro-Atkins era. While he finished the year with a 3.83 ERA, his highest since 2021, alongside 162 strikeouts, he still has what it takes to lead this rotation once again. Gausman isn't getting any younger, though, and it might be helpful if the Blue Jays added an extra arm to ease the pressure off him.