Process matters more than results as Blue Jays look ahead to 2025

TORONTO — This is a September of turning 2024 questions into 2025 answers for the Toronto Blue Jays and Bowden Francis, the American League’s pitcher of the month after a remarkable August, is in position to seize the opportunity.

“If he can finish off the rest of the season, a handful more starts, doing what he's doing,” manager John Schneider said Tuesday before a 10-9 loss to the Philadelphia Phillies, “it puts him and us in a great spot going into the off-season where you can feel pretty comfortable in relying on a guy like that in the rotation for next year.”

Now, expecting another stretch of six games, five starts, that includes 39 strikeouts against four walks over 34.1 innings and a no-hit bid lost in the ninth inning, might be a tad unfair. But as much as results matter — and they do, even if the post-season stakes in their games belong only to their opponents — just as, if not more relevant to the Blue Jays is how their players get to those results.

Back in April, when Francis couldn’t hold down a spot in the rotation and bounced between roles, he was essentially a fastball-curveball pitcher who’d throw an occasional slider or splitter. Since returning from triple-A Buffalo on July 29, he’s been a different pitcher, mostly fastball-splitter while cleverly mixing in his curveball, slider and a new sinker.

“What we asked of him (in April) is hard, between you're going to start, you're going to come in, you're going to have an opener in front of you, whatever it may be. That's tough,” said Schneider. “And I think the pitch usage has been huge, the split obviously being a big part of it. But not being predictable. He's using all of his pitches, what seems to be exactly the way he should be using them and locating them well. That's been the biggest difference.”

In that way, Francis has grown, as has Addison Barger, who struggled during an early season call up and again upon his return before making an adjustment at that plate that has led to better and more consistent contact.

His two-run homer in the first capped a six-run inning that seemed set to carry the Blue Jays to a win against the Phillies, and extended a recent hot streak for the 24-year-old. A nine-game hit streak ended for him Sunday but after a 1-for-3 night before exiting after six innings with left knee discomfort, he’s 13-for-39 in his last 11 outings, with four homers and two doubles.

Notably, he’s struck out only five times during that span, evidence that quieting some of the movement in his swing is paying dividends.

“The adjustments I've made have allowed me to be on time for anything kind of and see the ball a little longer. That's allowed me to foul off some tough pitches to get better pitches in the zone to hit,” said Barger. “I've got a lot more confidence. Obviously the results help that a lot.”

Barger’s eventful night included a third-inning error that led to an unearned run, a wild 5-3 double play on a Bryce Harper smash to end the fourth and his fall at the end of the play led to his early departure before a Rogers Centre crowd of 23,796.

How severe the issue is wasn’t immediately clear as he received some treatment post-game and was to be reassessed in the morning. He was shifted over from third to short for Harper when he picked the smash, ran to touch second before falling as he threw to first.

“I didn't really notice anything until the next inning, my knee felt not great,” said Barger. “It feels a little better now. But we don't really know what's wrong with it.”

The Blue Jays led 8-4 at that point thanks to a two-run homer by Vladimir Guerrero Jr. in the sixth, his third of four hits, but locking down games late continues to be a 2024 problem with a chance to bleed into a 2025 problem if not meaningfully addressed over the winter.

A messy seventh by Zach Pop and Erik Swanson that Genesis Cabrera had to eventually clean up pulled the Phillies within one and Chad Green then put himself in a jam in the ninth when Edmundo Sosa led off with a single and Kody Clemens doubled before Kyle Schwarber capped a nine-pitch at-bat with a three-run homer.

Green also gave up a decisive three-run homer Sunday — Royce Lewis took him deep in the eighth to give the Twins a 4-3 win — in his first blown save of the season, a rare rough patch for the most reliable arm in the Blue Jays bullpen.

Leo Jimenez, another young player finding his way, tried to pull the Blue Jays back into the game in the bottom of the ninth with a solo shot, his seventh homer of the season, but Matt Strahm recovered to close out the Phillies win.

Schwarber menaced every Blue Jays pitcher he faced save for Brendon Little, who struck him out in the sixth, also taking Chris Bassitt deep twice earlier in the game while adding a double.

Bassitt otherwise walked a tightrope to navigate around 10 hits and two walks in 5.1 innings, ensuring that the outing didn’t unravel on him, as it very easily could have.

As is his way, Bassitt kept his cool to make pitches that got him out of trouble and feels the way Francis has been “level-headed throughout all of" a topsy-turvy season has contributed to the 28-year-old’s stellar August.

“I'm just glad that he's finally found a spot in the starting rotation where he can just be a starter and blossom the way he's been doing,” said Bassitt. “The more and more he starts, the more and more confidence he's going to get in the aspect of understanding what hitters are trying to do to him, understanding how to pitch. He's in his upper 20s, but he's still young when it comes to pitching.

"He just needs the innings under his belt to understand basically all the mistakes and understand game planning, understanding how to take care of his body and I think he's done an unbelievable job of learning that. … He's done everything A-plus and then some. He's handled success really well, he's handled failures really well. So overall I would just say keep it up. He's on a great track what I think always of attracted us all to him was just his mindset of just never letting things get to him the way that young guys do. We're kind of seeing it now.”