Toronto Blue Jays mid-season report cards

Starting Pitching Grade: B-

Who pulls up the grade: Toronto’s top three of José Berrios, Chris Bassitt and Kevin Gausman have held their own this season. At times they have each looked dominant, and other times they couldn’t get anything by the lineups they were facing. That is what is to be expected within the ebbs and flows of a season, but for these three, everything feels magnified because of the lack of stability on the back end of the rotation for the majority of the year.

However, each of Berrios, Gausman and Bassitt are at or approaching 100 innings pitched this season and they are all within about 10 strikeouts of hitting 100 K’s on the season. They are durable and reliable and while the performances haven’t always been spectacular, this is a group of veterans who have done their job.

Who pulls the grade down: Bowden Francis ERA of 6.05 with 19 home runs allowed in 14 games before hitting the injured list was tough to watch. Making matters worse was Max Scherzer’s thumb injury that allowed him to only throw three innings at the MLB level for most of the first half of the season. The patch work of spot starters and bullpen days had mixed results as well.

Bullpen Grade: B

Who pulls up the grade: Brendon Little, Yariel Rodriguez, Braydon Fisher, Yimi Garcia and for the most part Mason Fluharty have been asked to cover a lot of innings this season due to the inefficiencies of the back end of the Blue Jays rotation. While some of their numbers don’t jump off the page as being completely spectacular, it’s a group who has managed to make the Blue Jays bullpen much more reliable than what they had a year ago.

What brings down the grade: Jeff Hoffman has been elite at times, and below average at others. It’s hard to fault him when he has blown some games as his usage in this first half of the season has looked to be overwhelming at times. That’s more on the coaching staff and how they handle the bullpen than it is on Hoffman, but there are some games that the Blue Jays should have had in the win column that lie on Hoffman not being able to get the three outs. Chad Green has also been unable to find his form from the last few seasons and he was expected to be a big piece of the back end.

Overall Grade – B

The Blue Jays are in control of their own destiny as we approach July. They’ve played well enough to give themselves a shot at the postseason and have left some room for improvements as well. At 44-38 the Blue Jays have a 55.3% chance of getting into the playoffs according to Baseball Reference, and their best case scenario right now would be to finish with a 91-71 record, which would be the sixth best record in the American League.