Blue Jays' Yusei Kikuchi has a new look — and it's not just his wispy beard

DUNEDIN, Fla. – There’s a different look to Yusei Kikuchi early in spring training and it’s not just the wispy beard he’s rocking.

The Toronto Blue Jays lefty spent the off-season working on ways to gain more consistent command of a fastball that can be dominant, settling on an arm slot adjustment that’s made an early impression in camp.

Should his strong bullpens translate into games, Kikuchi will retain his hold on the inside track to the fifth starter’s spot in what could become a non-race due to a January shoulder impingement that’s slowed Mitch White’s progression.

The right-hander is throwing and GM Ross Atkins said the club is “exceptionally confident that he is going to be in the mix,” but added that “like with any pitcher, you never know for sure,” making an effective Kikuchi all the more important. 

“People say my arm slot looks a little shorter,” Kikuchi says through interpreter Keito Ebino during an interview. “It's not like I'm actually trying to make it short. It's just I'm trying to put my momentum straight towards the catcher. If that works really well, my arm slot will come to the right spot. That's what I'm trying to do right now.”

Struggles with his command were a constant in Kikuchi’s enigmatic first season with the Blue Jays, during which he fluctuated between periods of dominance and futility. His raw stuff is simply nasty, starting with a fastball that averaged 94.9 m.p.h., a slider batters whiffed at 33 per cent of the time and a changeup/splitter used less but missed 39.6 per cent of the time.

All that led to a career-best strikeout percentage of 27.3 per cent that was undermined by a walks rate of 12.8, which was among the bottom three per cent of the league.

Hence his focus on command over the winter, when he worked out of the backyard bullpen in his Arizona home, broke down his mechanics using a slow-motion edgertronic camera and tracked progress using Rapsodo data.

Helping him was a change in mindset that came with his August move to the bullpen, leading to 12 appearances in which he struck out 33 batters in 18.1 innings but also gave up four homers.

Still, absent a starter’s ample prep time, Kikuchi found himself in more of an attack mindset and combined with the new arm slot, believes he’s on track to more consistently be the best version of himself.

“There were times that I could only throw like 10 pitches in the 'pen and then I had to go out to the game,” said Kikuchi, who has also been experimenting with a new curveball grip that’s shown promise. “When you're a starting pitcher, you get to prepare for like an hour or two hours but I was able to make the same pitches even though the preparation time was totally different. I'm trying to put that into my preparation time this season, try to make it shorter because that worked really well.”

White, the out-of-options swingman acquired from the Los Angeles Dodgers at the trade deadline last summer, should still have the time to make a push for the fifth spot in the rotation, but he’s certainly in catch-up mode now.

“I love what I've seen out of Yusei so far,” said manager John Schneider. “He's made some small tweaks with his arm path and spent a lot of time in the off-season working on it. We've got to base it on both of their workloads and their ramp-up in camp and thankful that we have six weeks instead of three to evaluate that.”

ALWAYS ON THE HUNT: Save for one spot on the bench, the Blue Jays roster as it stands is essentially set and there are few obvious needs, although a case could be made for the addition of a right-handed outfielder.

Is that an area GM Ross Atkins is looking to address?

“I think it's a fair question,” he said. “Even if you're not looking specifically at that 26th spot, feeling really good about the players that can contribute in that (right-handed hitting outfielder) role without having to add another player. We feel good about the depth that we have, and that includes options to fill that 26th spot.”

Whit Merrifield is one candidate to play left field against tougher lefties, with Santiago Espinal slotting in at second base in those games. That would still mean one of Kevin Kiermaier or Daulton Varsho plays in centre, a potential sacrifice of some offence to retain elite defence.

Switch-hitting corner outfielder Robbie Grossman, someone the Blue Jays have had past interest in, makes for a strong fit, although barring injury, his pathway to playing time would be limited.

Speaking in general terms, Atkins said “we're always in talks, I've had three (conversations Thursday), several yesterday. A little bit more focused on free agency. But we do not feel like we need to make any additions, feel very good about the team that we have.”

As for internal options for the 26^th spot on the roster, outfielder Nathan Lukes and utilityman Otto Lopez appear to be the leading candidates, although Atkins declined to name anyone specifically.

“I think you know who they are,” he said. “The guys that have performed at triple-A, some guys who have had some major-league time.”

QUOTEABLE: “He's been targeted a little bit with his delivery. As of right now, he's well aware of the rules and he wants everyone to be on the same page and be uniform. He has six weeks to work it out. We know that he's going to be totally fine with being in the confines of the rule.” – John Schneider on Kevin Gausman adjusting the toe-tap in his delivery to ensure there’s a clear stop when he comes set.