CLEARWATER, Fla. — The last time Ricky Tiedemann faced hitters, only a few dozen observers were watching and nearly all of them were wearing Blue Jays-branded clothing. Facing the Phillies’ best hitters Saturday in front of a sold-out crowd on the road was a different challenge altogether.
“It was pretty cool, especially, watching them growing up,” Tiedemann said. “Just being able to stand up there on the mound against them, it's something special. I definitely wanted to show what I had.”
“I felt the heartbeat going a little bit, but felt good,” he continued. “Didn't really feel my body at all, so that was pretty crazy.”
Once the game began and the adrenaline eased a little, Toronto's top prospect kept in mind some advice from Blue Jays starter Chris Bassitt: yes, the likes of Trea Turner and Bryce Harper are among the game’s elite hitters, but you don’t do yourself any favours by trying to guide the baseball to the corners of the strike zone. Better to stay in attack mode instead.
At times, Tiedemann followed that advice, reaching back for 97.7 m.p.h. on his fastball and throwing 16 of his 26 pitches for strikes on his way to whiffs of J.T. Realmuto and Bryson Stott. Yet he also allowed some hard contact, including a fly ball to the centre field wall by Kyle Schwarber and an opposite-field home run by Nick Castellanos.
“When those guys start to hit you, it's because you're trying to be too cute with your stuff instead of getting it through them and that's what you saw with the Castellanos at-bat,” Tiedemann said. “Just trying to be cute with my stuff. So you’ve just got to be on attack mode rather than be defensive as the pitcher.”
All told, the left-hander pitched 1.1 innings while allowing one run on two hits — a successful Grapefruit League debut for a pitcher who’s still just 21 years old.
“I felt good,” said Tiedemann, who dealt with some left knee/hamstring soreness earlier this spring. “Health-wise, I'm in a good spot. I'm happy with it.”
From here, Tiedemann expects to pitch three innings in his next outing with a chance to build up to four or five innings by the time spring training ends. He’s expected to begin the season in triple-A Buffalo, where he’ll look to build up from a 2023 season in which injuries limited him to just 62 innings.
GAUSMAN LIKELY TO NEED EXTRA TIME
With the benefit of hindsight, Kevin Gausman thinks he ramped up a little too quickly. The right-hander felt more shoulder soreness than anticipated following his second bullpen session of the spring, leading to a brief rest period that delayed his progress.
But he felt better after throwing a bullpen session at the Blue Jays’ Player Development Complex Saturday morning, so he could soon face hitters in some capacity. The Blue Jays are still working through next steps for Gausman, but manager John Schneider said his return to the mound was “definitely encouraging.”
Ideally, Gausman would throw about 75 pitches multiple times in exhibition games before pitching at the big-league level. With just two and a half weeks remaining before opening day, it’s becoming extremely hard to see that happening by March 28.
More likely, it’s someone other than last year’s third-place Cy Young finisher who opens the season for the Blue Jays, with Gausman debuting later.
“I really haven't sat down and thought about it too much,” he said. “But (opening day) kind of seems like something that's put on the back-burner right now. Obviously I'd love to start opening day. It's such an honour. I've been lucky enough to do it twice in my career. It's such a cool first game: clean slate. It's great. But I'm not going to try to rush to make that happen.”
José Berríos could start the season opener with minimal adjustments on the part of the Blue Jays.
STROMAN ON FACING BLUE JAYS: ‘JUST A TEAM’
Marcus Stroman has pitched against the Blue Jays once before, back in 2022 when he faced them as a member of the Cubs. Now that he’s on the Yankees, though, the stakes are a little higher since every game has divisional implications.
After he pitched against the Blue Jays Friday, I asked Stroman, now 32 and about to begin his 10th big-league season, whether facing his former team means much to him.
"It's just another game to be honest with you,” he said. “Why I feel like I'm good at times is because I'm so process-oriented. So even now it's like, 'What am I going to do for my next start? How do I start the recovery process? How do I start working on things to get better?' So yeah, to me it's just a team. I'm not someone who likes to get built up for those games because I feel like that works against you, especially pitching. It's not a sport where you can run through a wall and tackle someone harder. My body does really well with fluidity and when I'm calm, I'm really good. The biggest thing for me is just staying is calm and focusing on my breathing.”
Asked whether he keeps in touch with current Blue Jays, Stroman shouted out a few of the organization’s longest serving members.
“Vladdy, obviously, Bo (Bichette), Pete (Walker, the pitching coach). I mean, I'm always going to have deep ties, you know? (Bullpen catcher Alex) Andreopoulos.”
“I love everything about Toronto,” he continued. “I’d be the first person to say Toronto is an incredible city. Being able to play for a country and be able to put that uniform on, I'm really thankful. And I feel like everybody in Canada always shows me so much love and respect. So, I truly feel like Toronto will always be a part of me."
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