Lost & Hound

 

So far for the Blue Jays, a lot of the unsung guys have been providing the most highlights. The relief guys, many of whom are lifers who always do what they can, have been lining the WAR leaders. Jeff Hoffman, Yimi Garcia, Brendan Little and Chad Green. Backups thrown into the mix, like Tyler Heineman and Myles Straw. Andres Gimenez has still been one of the best hitters on the team, which is wild considering Vlad Jr., Bo and Springer also play here. 

But the biggest success of the season has been a guy a lot of Jays fans wrote off last season. A colleague of mine is a Jays fan, and last season he was griping about Chris Bassitt. 'You can keep him in for 7 innings but he still gives up like 3 home runs a game'. In the 1970s, this was commonly known as 'being a pitcher'. Ya stay in long enough, ya get roughed up a little the third time through. Happened to Ryan and Sutton and John all the time. Nobody really goes 7 consistently anymore, as around 5 you have to ensure they don't blow their arms out. Chris Bassitt got all of that out of his system in his 20s, and since he turned 30 he's been this consistent, reliable deep game force. Fans of the A's, Mets and now Jays have lovingly referred to Bassitt was 'the hound' for just how much of a hard worker he is. Just goes in, day in and day out, gets the job done, catches you in 5 or 6 days for some more. 

To that end, Chris Bassitt really is a throwback. There's not a lot of guys who've gone through the last few seasons without getting hurt. It's him, Zach Wheeler and Aaron Nola, at least just coming to my head. And while Bassitt has struggled once or twice, especially last season, he's still shown up consistently and not backed down. Since 2022 he's averaged 184 innings, struck out 560 and sported a 3.65 ERA. The Jays have seen a lot of inconsistency pitching wise since Bassitt came over in 2023. They thought they had an ace in Alek Manoah, and they really didn't. They saw great seasons from Kevin Gausman and Jose Berrios followed by struggles. They lost Yusei Kikuchi only for him to really take off. This year they signed Max Scherzer and lost him after 3 innings. Yet Bassitt has remained a crucial and integral piece of the rotation.

So far this season, Bassitt has a 2.62 ERA, 39 Ks, and only 10 earned runs. He leads the Blue Jays in WAR with 1.2, which is more than Guerrero, Bichette, Kirk and Santander combined. Bassitt is the standout of this rotation, which sports lesser seasons from Gausman, Berrios and Bowden Francis. Nothing's been outright terrible, it's just been more serviceable than truly great at the moment. It could click, as I think they have more going for them than the Rays, but they need that leadership figure [Vlad? Bo?] to emerge and start going on a tear. I reckon it'll happen in May or June. 

The Blue Jays don't have much at the moment, but they're thankful they have Chris Bassitt. Wouldn't we all.

Coming Tomorrow- Going from a basset hound to a polar bear...