Blue Jays’ top prospect Nate Pearson and his triple-digit fastball blitzed through three minor league levels in 2019, but Pearson is likely to begin the season in Triple-A, writes Shi Davidi of Sportsnet. The 23-year-old only briefly reached Triple-A Buffalo at season’s end in ’19, and while his overall 2.30 ERA, 10.5 K/9, 2.4 BB/9 and 0.7 HR/9 marks are impressive, Pearson acknowledges that he may have to wait a bit for his MLB debut. “Obviously, I want to break with the team out of spring training,” he tells Davidi. “The odds are that may not happen. I’m expecting to go out to triple-A and put up some good numbers and hopefully get a call-up sometime next year.” As Davidi explores, Pearson was on an interestingly structured workload limit in 2019 and will likely have his innings monitored again in 2020 after logging 101 frames a year ago.
More from the division…
- The Orioles, as currently constructed, will head into the season with plenty of questions around the infield, writes Roch Kubatko of MASNsports.com. Rio Ruiz didn’t seize the opportunity in 2019, and while prospect Ryan Mountcastle should debut at some point next summer, there’ve been plenty of questions regarding his ultimate position on the diamond. Hanser Alberto has experience there but figures to factor in more prominently at second base. Non-roster invitee Dilson Herrera will get a look at the hot corner, but he’s not even a lock to make the club — let alone to log regular innings anywhere. There’s ample room to add a veteran option if they see fit — Matt Duffy, Logan Forsythe, Brock Holt and others remain available — and the O’s did pick up a veteran option at shortstop in Jose Iglesias. But free-agent spending has been negligible during the early stages of Baltimore’s rebuild, so it shouldn’t be assumed that any sort of move is on the horizon.
- The Rays could use openers much less frequently than in recent seasons, per MLB.com’s Juan Toribio. With Charlie Morton, Blake Snell, Tyler Glasnow, Yonny Chirinos and Ryan Yarbrough fronting a deep group of pitchers, there’s less urgency for manager Kevin Cash to get creative at the beginning of games. Beyond that quintet, two-way player Brendan McKay could be in line for some starts as well, although Toribio notes it’s possible he returns to Triple-A Durham to start the season.
- Michael Chavis logged starts at first, second, and third base as a rookie for the Red Sox in 2019. He’s preparing for more of the same in 2020, with some outfield time also potentially on the table, he tells Chris Cotillo of MassLive. That versatility should come in handy for the Sox, who face particularly uncertain mixes at first and second base. There are myriad low-cost options available in free agency who could be brought in as insurance, but no slam dunk everyday players remain on the open market at those positions. Chavis hit .254/.322/.444 (96 wRC+) with 18 home runs in a decent debut season.
I hope Charvis has a great season, for himself. I think he felt a little under appreciated last yr, especially the way he began the yr. he’s a good player.
I agree that he had a good rookie season but he needs to cut down on his strikeouts. Pitchers seemed to figure him out after his first 8-10 weeks in the league and he looked like a shell of himself in the second half. I know he got a little banged up but he really needs to work on his contact skills a little more if Chavis wants to become an impact starter in MLB
The ball is in Chavis’ court regarding adapting. Mlb pitchers figured him out
Chavis can hit the breaking ball,in fact he crushed it. If he can just lay off the high fastball but after the league figured out they could get him out up with fastballs he really struggled. He doesn’t Devers type bat speed so he is really going to have to lay off the high heat or pitchers will keep going there. He will be solid if he can figure that out because he does hit the offspeed stuff so well.
Chavis started out great and cooled way off once they adjusted to him. He has some definite talent and power, but he has his work cut out for him.
Nate Pearson is the real deal. He is the best starting pitcher the Jays have at all levels, including better than Ryu.
lmao no he’s not better than Ryu
he might be pretty good though, just lay off the hyperbole on guys who havent played in the bigs yet
Ok scout
Doesn’t take a scout to realize it is ridiculous hyperbole to say that a AAA pitcher is better than one of the best pitchers in the league last year. How many ace AAA guys flame out?
I love looking back at great pitchers of yesteryear. Remember in 2015 when the Dodgers had the best pitcher in baseball, Jose de Leon? What a season
Anyone remember Matt Anderson? Or Ryan Anderson? Or Kirk Dressendorfer? Baseball’s history is littered with the carcasses of “can’t miss” guys who never made it at all.
How many of them had the same minor league numbers Pearson has put up?
I like Pardinho, though Pearson’s floor is higher.
Orioles are in that mode where they usually only sign players that make you say “who”?
A lot will have to break right to make the playoffs this year, but I hope they use the Padres blueprint and promote Pearson on opening day if he’s one of the best five pitchers in spring. It would hurt too much if they missed by a couple games and we’re losing too many starts because of the fifth spot early on.
There’s no reason to do that. If you keep him down in AAA for just a few weeks, we’ll get an extra year of control.
Thats a good (and smart) business decision but a bad baseball decision. Just extend him and it doesn’t matter. Not my money though aha.
If you have Pearson on the opening day roster, he will exceed his inning limit in July/ August.
Keep him in AAA, get him to work on his breaking pitches and limit his innings so he come to come up to the bigs in the second half.
100% agree JD. However, the way the Jays used this off-season they basically said Pearson isn’t coming up. Could be June, maybe July or even after the deadline. It will all depend on the overall health of the starting staff. The one area Pearson has work to do is his off-speed. AAA is a good place to showcase that in his first 5-6 starts there.
As current;y written, do MLB rules permit McKay (or Ohtani or Lorenzen or any other pitcher) to start a game as both the P and the DH, and continue in the DH role after he exits the game as the pitcher? Or is it that if he bats while listed as the pitcher the team forfeits the DH slot for the remainder of the game? I know that the forfeiture rule applies at the end of the game when the DH is put into the field. I wonder if this is also the case for starting the game, with the increase in potential two=way players I wonder if MLB might consider rewriting this rule to allow this to be possible.
As the rules currently state: McKay and Lorenzen are designated as pitchers on they’re respected rosters and would have pitch a minimum of 20 innings before the can play another position.
Ohtani, Because he didn’t pitch last season is designated as a DH or Of on the Angels roster and has to accumulate 20 ABs before he can pitch in a game.
That’s not remotely true.
Except its absolutely true.
From MLB.com:” To qualify for the two-way designation a player must pitch 20 major league innings or have 20 games played as either a Designated Hitter or position player, with at least 3 plate appearances in each of those games, in either the current or previous MLB seasons”
Is that new? I don’t think that happened in 2018 with Ohtani.
It is new under the new roster rules that teams can only carry a maximum of 13 pitchers.
The two-way player is a means of beating the system.
You are kinda right, but wrong… the designated pitcher/position player system applies to designated position players pitching, not designated pitchers hitting…. the easiest way to explain is: Ohtani, while being a position player last year, can most certainly be designated as a pitcher to start the year this year. He may also continue to DH or play the field, as there is no rule against a pitcher hitting…. when he accrues 20 innings pitched the team can then designate him as a two-way position player, move him to the position player side of the roster while still using him as a pitcher, thus opening up a roster spot on the pitching side…..the rule is there not to keep pitchers from hitting or playing the field, it’s there to keep teams from using the extra roster spot to hold a relief pitcher that they call a “utility” player…… Lorenzen can be designated a pitcher and still hit and play the field. His teammate Iglesias could not be designated a position player and still allowed to pitch, unless he played 20 games at DH or in the field and received 3 ab’s per game. Clear as mud.
Bring Moreland back on another 1 year deal, let he and Chavis platoon till Dalbec is ready midseason. Chavis can start at second most days leaving Peraza to be the utility player they signed him to be.
Whatever the sox choose to do they have to do something. They have no bench yo speak of as the team currently stands the have Plawecki as the backup Catcher and 3 ??? For the rest.
who’ll play 3rd?
Rafael Devers
Scott Cooper
Why not call up Butch Hobson or Ted Cox?
Chavis would be limited in that role
Nate Pearson has rocketed through the system very fast. I think they should slow him down a bit and give him half a year in Buffalo. I don’t want to see his bullets being wasted but the experience can only help him.
Baby steps. Your dreaming if you think Jays can go from 67 wins to the playoffs. I would love for them to get to .500 though.
Assuming this is at me, I know it’s pretty unlikely. They’d need at least 1 or 2 of Roark, Anderson, or Shoemaker to match their careers highs as well as full season breakouts from Bo, Vlad, and Shaw. I’d say they do have a chance at a wildcard. A pretty small chance. But it’s not unfathomable to see it happen.
I just hope they’re playing meaningful baseball in August and September though.
I think a lot would have to go right for them, like “Disney” level theatrics , for the Jays to get close to a wild card. The starters the Jays picked up are now older mostly middling 4 or 5 starters that although I am over the moon to have them compared to what they pushed out to the mound last year I still understand what they can do which is 3, 4 or 5 runs allowed in 5 or 6 innings. Ryu won’t be as good in the Skydome or the AL east but he will still be a great pitcher. I.m looking forward to the season.
I think a lot would have to go right for them, like “Disney” level theatrics , for the Jays to get close to a wild card. The starters the Jays picked up are now older mostly middling 4 or 5 starters that although I am over the moon to have them compared to what they pushed out to the mound last year I still understand what they can do which is 3, 4 or 5 runs allowed in 5 or 6 innings. Ryu won’t be as good in the Skydome or the AL east but he will still be a great pitcher. I’m looking forward to the season.
there are a lot of mediocre teams in the AL. The East is hard, but only the Rays and Yankees really got better this offseason, and not by a huge margain. Division is a pipe dream, but i think all they need is another real OF to have an (outside) shot at a wild card spot.
Even Vlad JR couldn’t crack the opening day roster last year so no way Pearson is. He may get a look mid year past possible super 2 date I’d imagine.
Jays have really hamstrung themselves with their rotation. sure, someone in that group is bound to hit the IL, but this season could’ve been a good one to give SRF, Kay, Wasuespack, Zeuch, and others a longer look. Pearson is the real victim here though. the 40 man is already full enough with unoptionable vets and other good young pitchers. he might have to wait a whole year to get his shot.
There is no such thing as too much pitching.
I alluded to it weeks ago. Jays fans will come around in June. They haven’t figured it out yet.
The Orioles should move Alberto to 3rd and sign Flores to play 2nd.
i dont see why people are not higher on Flores than they are. still young for a free agent, can play multiple positions, and has a bat on the upswing. hope Klentak trys to get him for the bench.
Completely agree. I think Flores can play third too so really gives infield flexibility and another solid bat. He’s got a high babip but Camden Yards is a good place for a high contact guy. Probably wants like 5 million though which is more than Orioles want to do. Right now they have Ruiz at third, Iglesias at short, and Hanser at 2 nd plus a couple recently picked up depth pieces.
McKay hasn’t been able to hit a grapefruit with a tennis racket, either in the minors or the bigs, and the Rays have more DH-types than the Yanks used to have in the 90s. It’s crazy wasting what could be crucial at bats with McKay at this point, tho obviously the pitching shows promise.
The front 5 starters all look to be healthy, and it might be a waste to have a top prospect tossing long relief. Send him to Durham, and hide the bats.
I love how you all rag Chavis as a rookie. He does this too much or this too much.. he was a rookie, and he got injured. He’s 24! I remember the critics of Bogaerts 3-4 years ago… give the kid more than part of a rookie season.
I love the Rays rotational depth. If only they drafted positional players as well as they do pitchers.
You can legitimately make the case that, as long as Morton’s arm doesn’t fall off, the Rays have the best rotation in the AL, and, with the usual variables, maybe the best in MLB. It’s deep, and Glassnow/Yarborough/Chirinos have all shown upward linear development. (Snell? He needed a guaranteed deal like a hole in the head, but that’s another story). And there’s some solid minor league depth.
Like the Rays pitching, but the Indians rotation is better and deeper.
Very similar teams, using similar philosophies.
I’m not real sure why there’s so many questions about the Orioles infield. It’s pretty clear it’s going to be Ruiz at 3B, Alberto at 2B and Iglesias at SS. Mountcastle is not a 3B anymore. The team wouldn’t even play Nunez at 3B who is better than Mountcastle is there.
This is what I came to say
Good attitude by Pearson. Blue Jays are not giving him an opening to come up May 1. Pearson has to develop at the major league level at some point. The longer the team waits the longer that will take. Jays should be encouraged to make room for Pearson to start if he dominates the first month in AAA.
For those mentioning “work load”, either Pearson needs to be ready for the workload at age 24 or he’s a poser. I think in Pearson’s mind he’s ready to roll 180-200 innings. Inning limits have proven to do very little or nothing to avoid injury.
Dusty Baker, is that you?
Solid attempt at humor Ducey. Almost as funny as your baseball takes.
If his FB topped out at 90, you might have a point. An arm like his, you take no chances, because hard throwers break more often than the chuckers. He pitched 1 inning in 2018, 101 in 2019. Facing major league hitters is a lot harder than pitching in the minors too, where hitters get themselves out. He will have an innings limit this year. Count on it.
If the formula holds true, Pearson would be limited to around 130 innings this year, so they could ease him into it in Buffalo, and let him take the ball every 5 days in August/September.
Anyone hear if Elias will be staying with the team,what with other teams moving on from anyone associated with the Astros?