5 players who are entering their final days on the Blue Jays

Chris Bassitt

This one's a bit tricky, but nearly every time Bassitt has taken the mound lately it seems like a guaranteed loss for the Blue Jays. This is a very disappointing turn of events after he established himself as a beloved workhorse on the mound last year. The 10-year veteran led the AL in wins last season, made all 33 starts and hit 200 innings for the first time in his career.

A signing that was curious at first quickly began to look like a win by the Jays. Now, the 35-year-old has lost his way and doesn't look anything like the pitcher he did last year. In 28 starts, Bassitt is 9-13 with a 4.30 ERA, 4.06 FIP and 95 ERA+. His walk rate is up, his hit rate is way up and he leads the American League in hits entering the day with 165.

Going by the splits, Bassitt is 1-6 with a 5.98 ERA and 4.75 FIP in nine second-half starts. His 6.2-inning performance against the Red Sox in which he struck out nine and allowed just one run is undoubtedly carrying his overall second-half numbers, because outside of that start it has not been pretty. At all.

Dating back to the beginning of July, he has made 11 starts. He's surrendered two runs or less just two times and allowed four or more runs to score six times (his last outing saw him give up four runs but only three were earned, but I'm counting it).

Where this will become interesting is the fact that Bassitt is still under control for another season beyond the current one. He hasn't quite been bad enough to warrant a straight release, but it's worth wondering if the Jays could try and trade him to a team that needs a veteran starter/clubhouse guy but isn't counting on him to perform at an All-Star pace.

Since the Blue Jays are going to give this thing another go next year, they're not going to be able to rely on Bassitt to turn things around and help them in their quest for the postseason. He seems to be showing his age a bit, so a sudden turnaround feels unlikely.