Chris Bassitt doesn't hold back in brutally honest assessment of 2024 Blue Jays

If you have somehow missed out on how tough this season has been for the Toronto Blue Jays, don't worry, Chris Bassitt will fill you in on all the problems they've had.

Well, he won't exactly tell you everything — you're not going to get the nitty-gritty details from behind the curtain — but he'll certainly let you know that there are a lot of problems with this team.

That's what the Blue Jays starting pitcher did when he joined Chris Rose on the Chris Rose Rotation podcast. When asked to explain the Blue Jays' season, Bassitt was about as forthcoming as you'd expect the outspoken veteran to be, while respecting his teammates.

Chris Bassitt shares his thoughts on the Blue Jays' down year

He made sure to preface his comments with the fact that every team he has been a part of, which includes the White Sox, Athletics and Mets, has had problems — some more than others.

"I think we do a lot of things right here [in Toronto] ... but I don't want to identify the problems because some of the problems I don't think are fixable," Bassitt said.

Not fixable? That's not good. What exactly is he referring to? It's hard to believe that there are problems that aren't fixable, especially considering how much money is invested into the franchise.

According to Sportsnet’s Arden Zwelling, Bassitt addressed his comments before Monday’s game against the Cincinnati Reds. In reference to unfixable problems, he offered what seemed more like a walk back than a legitimate explanation.

During his podcast appearance, Bassitt claimed he has no problem telling the front office his concerns about the state of the team, which is entirely believable, but he was reluctant to air the Blue Jays' dirty laundry in public.

Apparently, there's plenty to discuss.

"There's so many things that you could talk about," Bassitt said. "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."

Just the fact that the Blue Jays are being lumped in here with the White Sox, A's and Mets says a lot. Obviously, those are the teams Bassitt has played for, but they also haven't exactly been model organizations in recent years.

Can Bassitt give us anything tangible that he thinks resulted in the Blue Jays' season turning so sour? Yes, and unfortunately, it happened before a pitch had even been thrown.

Bassitt thinks things went sideways after the Blue Jays failed to sign Shohei Ohtani

The one tidbit Bassitt was willing to detail was the well-documented offseason fever for superstar free agent Shohei Ohtani. The Jays were heavily invested in trying to lure Ohtani north of the border.

If you recall, for a brief second, there was a misplaced glimmer of hope that it might actually happen. We all know how that turned out. Bassitt wasn't shy about talking about what went wrong there. His problem is with what happened after Ohtani didn't sign with Toronto. Or rather, what didn't happen.

"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."

Reading between the lines, it sounds like Bassitt believes the Blue Jays' season was doomed well before Christmas when Ohtani signed with the Los Angeles Dodgers and Toronto's front office was left holding a large bag of money they didn't spend on anyone else.

The Blue Jays were never going to compete with the lineup they went into the season with

The Blue Jays were content to run it back with the same core. A core that had gradually been whittled down over the last couple of years and found itself without the likes of Teoscar Hernández, Lourdes Gurriel Jr., Brandon Belt and Matt Chapman.

Vladimir Guerrero Jr. has undoubtedly rediscovered the form that carried the 2021 Blue Jays. He has done his best this season to do the same, but with a lack of potent bats around him, the team has struggled to keep up with his torrid pace. The other stars the Jays were counting on, George Springer and Bo Bichette, have had career-worst seasons.

As for Bassitt's reluctance to throw anyone under the bus, it's a respectful stance for which we can't fault him, even if fans want the messy details. It shows what kind of teammate he is.

"I feel very uncomfortable talking about [the problems] just because I love all the guys that I've ever played with, so I'd rather protect them than hurt them."