Nate Pearson's electric arm keeps tantalizing the Blue Jays

DUNEDIN, Fla. – Josh Donaldson remembers first encountering Nate Pearson at the old Toronto Blue Jays training complex back in 2018, the third baseman building back up from a calf injury, the big right-hander working his way back from a fractured forearm. 

As they faced off against one another, the youngster made quite the impression on the former American League MVP.

“He was throwing four pitches and commanding it well at that time,” Donaldson recalled Sunday as his New York Yankees beat the Blue Jays 9-5. “Now, this is in the backfield in a rehab setting ... but shoot, he looked pretty special. We all have to go through our own journey and our own route to figuring it out at the higher levels. That’s what we’re all trying to do.”

The journey is ongoing for the now 26-year-old, who topped out at 100.8 m.p.h. with his fastball Sunday while striking out the side – Donaldson included – around a run on two hits and two walks in an inning of work.

Pearson’s arm remains electric which is why he remains a tantalizing talent for the Blue Jays, even after a variety of ailments – elbow tenderness, a sports hernia, mononucleosis, a lat strain – arrested the rapid progress he’d made in 2019 leading into his 2020 big-league debut.

The accumulation of missed time, he’s thrown only 73 total innings since, has essentially closed the door on him as a starter, and the Blue Jays are looking at him now in more of a hybrid reliever/late-leverage role. 

He has the raw tools to piece it all together and if he does, he could very well dominate.

“If that comes together and he's in the zone consistently, that's a really tough matchup for any hitter,” said manager John Schneider. “That's the next step for him. And if it starts out an inning here or an inning there and then see where it goes and push him into leverage or continuing to build him up, whatever it may be, first things first – strike one, strike two and go from there.”

Pearson did that during a stint with Dominican winter ball club Licey last fall, allowing only one unearned run over 12 innings with 16 strikeouts while drawing raves from those who saw him.

Once back, he didn’t fully shut down for the winter as he usually does, instead continuing to play light catch as a way to keep his arm moving. That helped him maintain the personal momentum he’d built and when camp started, he noticed “so much improvement in how I was able to respond quicker, not getting that soreness at all building up.”

“Cruising past that was awesome,” he added.

And though the roster is currently set, if Mitch White’s shoulder impingement keeps him from being ready by opening day, or something else happens in the bullpen over the next few weeks, a pathway could certainly open up.

Pearson is trying to keep those types of thoughts from becoming a focal point “given how the past few years have gone, trying to force something to happen so bad and it's just not going my way a little bit.”

“Right now I'm just embracing whatever happens,” he continued. “Just trying to earn a spot, get outs.”

Pearson did get three impressive outs Sunday, working around troubles locating his fastball glove side, an erratic slider and a curveball he spiked on occasion. 

Still, worth remembering is that there’s a lot of making up for lost time ahead for him as he works to re-establish rhythm, timing and feel for the game on the mound. 

“For me it's just getting locked into competing out there,” he explained. “When the hitter's in the box, I'm thinking in my head, I'm talking to myself like, alright, get ahead here, don't stop competing here, keep positively affirming yourself in different ways throughout the at-bat that. If you fall behind in the count, it's like, alright, let's get back in it. That self-talk helped me a lot.”

Some of that was needed in his clash with Donaldson. 

A slider to open the at-bat sent forced his former teammate to scurry for cover, but four fastballs followed, each harder than the one before: A swinging strike at 96.9 m.p.h.; a foul ball at 98.5; a foul ball at 100.3; and a check-swing gone too far for strike three atop the zone at 100.8.

“I think he was trying to either cheat to it or sitting slider and I got one by him,” said Pearson. “He was definitely sitting on something and I threw exactly what he wasn't trying to hit.”

Said Donaldson: “He looked maybe a little bit excited, I'd say, first day out. He's got good stuff. I don't think that's ever been a question with him.”

No, it hasn’t. The questions have been around his ability to leverage his tools and to stay on the field, questions he may finally be set to answer.

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ROMANO SPEEDING UP: Jordan Romano was up to 98.3 m.p.h with his fastball in his first inning of the spring but it was speed of a different kind that he was most pleased with after a scoreless frame. 

Not only did the all-star closer use the pitch clock to help pick off Michael Hermosillo at second base, but he also utilized a slide step with runners on to help speed his deliveries to the plate, essential with bigger bases making it easier to steal.

“I've really got to work on holding runners – I didn't do a good job last year,” said Romano. “(The slide step) felt OK. It's felt better the last couple of weeks. But first time with the clock and slide-stepping, definitely something I want to keep working on.”

Romano used a slide step in the minors when he was a starter, but abandoned it in his move to a max-effort delivery out of the bullpen. Baserunners have been successful in 19 of their 22 attempts against him in the majors. 

His new slide step is the product of trial and error.

“Basically, that's it,” he said. “I needed to find something where I feel comfortable and powerful, but yet it's quick. So in bullpens, we've got the clocks on and I found out, hey, this feels comfortable, but it's too slow. Other things, it's quick, but I don't feel powerful. I think I found a pretty good mixture of the two where it's pretty quick and I still feel pretty comfortable throwing the pitch. That's something I'm definitely going to be locked in on all spring.”

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OPENER MAYZA: A text message the afternoon before his outing Sunday let Tim Mayza know that he’d be pitching as an opener against the Yankees. Pitching the first inning wasn’t his favourite.

“It's weird knowing exactly what inning you're going to throw and once the lineup gets released, exactly what hitters you're going to face,” he said after allowing a run in the first. “I like the 'pen and the spontaneous, Mayza get going, fast pace, atmosphere much better.”

No matter, he was able to test out his new slider, one slower than the version he threw last year which sat at 88.6 m.p.h. and didn’t have much depth to it. With a fastball that averaged 93.7 m.p.h. a year ago, he felt needed to “create some separation in velocity.”

“With a harder slider that's been happening the past couple of years, there's just not a huge gap in velocity,” he said. “I want to keep hitters off balance and I think creating a little more depth and a little more velocity separation can help with that.”

His goal is to have the slider be in the 84-86 range. He was 83-85.5 with it Sunday.

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SHORT HOP: Manager John Schneider said “there’s no definite timetable,” for Alejandro Kirk’s arrival at camp, “but we're thinking sometime next week he'll be here, as soon as the baby arrives and everything checks out good.” The Blue Jays expect Kirk to hit the ground running as he’s been working out on his own and “every report that we've gotten and every video we've looked at of him looks good. Hopefully it's not too much of an overload when he does get here.”