Blue Jays' Yariel Rodriguez to be important piece of 2025 puzzle

TORONTO – One area of the Toronto Blue Jays roster that appears to be relatively stable when casting forward to 2025 is the starting rotation. Jose Berrios, Kevin Gausman and Chris Bassitt give the staff a solid foundation, even at their age and cumulative workloads. Bowden Francis’s post-deadline emergence may turn out to be one of this miserable year’s most important developments if he can pick up where he left off. And then there’s Yariel Rodriguez, the wild-card off-season addition forced to the majors earlier than anticipated due to a lack of alternatives, who made 21 starts and logged 86.2 innings in the big-leagues – the final five Saturday in an 8-1 loss to the Miami Marlins – after sitting out 2023 while moving to North America.

With Jake Bloss, part of the return from the Houston Astros in the Yusei Kikuchi deal, now in the system, too, and the potential return of Alek Manoah from reconstructive elbow surgery in the second half of next season, that’s a decent base to work from. Better would be re-signing Ryan Yarbrough, or someone who can similarly fill his whatever-is-needed role, to further add depth. But there may very well be enough there to allow the Blue Jays to spend on the roster’s far more pressing needs – namely the offence and the bullpen.

All of which made the delicate task of getting Rodriguez wire-to-wire so essential. 

The 27-year-old veered through extremes over the course of the season, encapsulated by a July that began with 6.2 innings dominant innings in a 3-1 loss to Houston on Canada Day and ended with him not escaping the first inning in a doubleheader opener at Baltimore amid the club’s deadline sell-off on the 29^th.  But he got over 80 pitches 10 times after mostly working out of the bullpen with Chunichi in Japan from 2020-2022, struck out 85 batters and showed enough raw stuff to suggest this year could be the stepping stone to more.

“Routines definitely have developed in between,” manager John Schneider said of Rodriguez’s growth. “The last thing we're kind of looking for is just pitch mix, you know what I mean? That's something that's been talked about over the last month, but that's the next step for him. The maturity, the regular stuff that he's doing in between starts has been the biggest part.”

The Blue Jays want him to throw more fastballs and splitters and rely less on a slider that was his second-most used pitch Saturday (21 of 82 pitches) and throughout the season at 28.4 per cent. His least used pitch was the splitter at 10 per cent and he identified that as “my key pitch,” while adding that, “I've got to get it better.”

“I need to get better at everything,” Rodriguez, speaking through interpreter Hector Lebron, added later. “Strength-wise, now that I'm here, I've definitely got to get better for next year. Maybe my concentration in my outings has got to get a little bit better – this is a tougher league. But everything is new, so I'm going to learn from that.”

Those tweaks and adjustments will come during the off-season, when the Blue Jays will need to bolster their position-player core after essentially running a two-month audition featuring their trade deadline acquisitions and upper-level system prospects. 

Barring trades and injury, the Blue Jays have Vladimir Guerrero Jr. (who went 0-for-4 on Saturday and remains one hit short of 200), Bo Bichette, George Springer, Daulton Varsho and Alejandro Kirk locked into regular roles next year, with a bevy of options to sift through elsewhere. 

Ernie Clement and Leo Jimenez are out of options so expect both to be back, while Spencer Horwitz was among the team’s most productive players, so all three seem set to be part of the puzzle. But between Nathan Lukes, Will Wagner, Addison Barger, Davis Schneider, Joey Loperfido, Jonatan Clase, Steward Berroa and Luis De Los Santos, the Blue Jays have some sorting to do.

Among that group, Lukes is perhaps set apart by both his age – he’s 30 – his experience and that if not for a thumb injury, he’d likely have been in the majors since June. He’s made the most of his opportunity since returning to the majors on Aug. 30, producing nearly a win of value, as calculated by Baseball Reference, in just 21 games. 

On Saturday, his first career home run came in the first inning and cut Miami’s early lead to 2-1. While power isn’t necessarily his game, Lukes has consistently delivered professional at-bats while providing solid defence at all three outfield spots.

“Nate's a good player,” said Schneider. “He does a lot of things really well, at the plate, in the field and on the bases. He fits in the outfield, whether it's playing fairly regularly, platooning, fourth outfielder or whatever it may be. It was disappointing that he was hurt as long as he was this year, because he probably would have gotten a lot of at-bats here. But I think he's shown just in his time here this year, even last year when he wasn't playing a lot, that he can play at this level. And he's a really good piece to any outfield.”

Just as Rodriguez is a good piece to any pitching staff, especially if he can stick as a starter, which would spike the value of his $32-million, five-year contract. There was shared risk in that deal for both sides – for Rodriguez, taking a below-market rate if he becomes a reliable starter; for the Blue Jays, making an eight-figure commitment to a potential reliever – and there are four more years for that all to play out.

For now, though, Rodriguez can begin to draw from learning what he didn’t know.

“As you remember guys, my last off-season, I didn't prepare myself for this, I was actually preparing myself for (free-agent showcases),” said Rodriguez. “This off-season, I'm going to make sure that I get ready for next year. I've got to work a lot harder.”