3:37pm: Pearson is doing “better,” according to manager Charlie Montoyo, but it’s “unlikely” he’ll be ready for the start of the season (Twitter link via Ben Nicholson-Smith of Sportsnet).
10:38am: Right-hander Nate Pearson suffered a “mild re-aggravation” of his strained right groin during a bullpen session on Tuesday, Blue Jays GM Ross Atkins told reporters (including Sportsnet.ca’s Shi Davidi). Pearson will be monitored over the next few days, though considering that the young righty has missed almost all of March with the injury, it seems likely that Pearson will need to begin the season on the injured list while he heals and gets properly ramped up to pitch.
Pearson suffered a Grade 1 groin strain on March 1, during his first Grapefruit League outing. The injury wasn’t considered too serious, and Pearson’s recovery appeared to be going smoothly — for instance, he came out of another bullpen session last Saturday with no issues. However, the 24-year-old will now probably be facing a delay in the start of his first full Major League season.
One of the game’s most highly-touted young pitchers, Pearson made his MLB debut last season and posted a 6.00 ERA over 18 innings in the regular season, plus two scoreless frames during the Jays’ wild card series with the Rays. Pearson also spent a month on the IL due to elbow tightness.
Despite the difficulties of Pearson’s first season, the Blue Jays were counting on big things in 2021, hoping that Pearson would emerge as a solid No. 2 starter behind Hyun-Jin Ryu. It was something of a risky move even with Pearson healthy, and his absence (even if it ends up being a somewhat short stint on the IL) now underlines the questions surrounding Toronto’s pitching. Tanner Roark, Ross Stripling, Trent Thornton, the re-signed Robbie Ray, and new acquisition Steven Matz are all looking for bounce-back seasons, while younger arms like Anthony Kay and Thomas Hatch are still unproven at the MLB level.
If Pearson does miss time, Atkins intimated that Stripling was the favorite to step into the rotation, going from a swingman role to a starting role. As Davidi notes, this could put Kay, Hatch, Thornton, or T.J. Zeuch in line to take over Stripling’s long man job in the bullpen, which creates further juggling down the road about how to manage innings and whether younger pitchers are best deployed as relievers or kept stretched out as rotation depth.
They’ll score runs, but their starting pitching will sink them to mediocrity.
Bingo
Tough break for the Blue Jays. One of the exciting teams with some young offensive talent. I was hoping to see what Pearson could do over a full season. Hopefully he gets better quickly. I think this team could surprise some other teams.
Aggravated groin? Sounds like high school all over again!
(rim-shot)
Maybe don’t give up your regular job for an attempted comedy career.
@gbs42- the problem with pun, he’s not phunny, but rather puny instead.
All good to get these minor injuries healed up in spring training. Big expectations on his shoulders when he returns later in April
Re-aggravated groin… hehe… nice
Ah shut up there’s children here
When you’re a dad and those kids are growing up with their wildly erratic movements and innocent horseplay all measuring about groin height. That’s when you’ll learn what groin aggravation really is.
What, @Rangers29?
Do you think the Blue Jay’s have another Reese McGuire on their…ummm…hands? So to speak.
Ughhhhhhh why can’t we have nice things
2nd in the rotation? That is stupidity to say. He has never pitched in the big leagues and we don’t know if he is even a starter yet. He needs at least one more developmental year.
Right ! Yet his stock has never been higher. Coulda easily rolled him into any of several TOR like sonny gray or lance lynn. The pride of owners and gms slams windows shut before they can even be opened
Agreed. I would love to see him be the #2 starter but you can’t expect a rookie to step in to be the number two guy in a team pushing for the playoffs. Goes to show how bad this rotation could be.
Looking at the Jays rotation, he would be the #2 with a straight face.
jimmertee – Pearson may need more development, but he has pitched in the big leagues.
No he hasn’t established himself in the big leagues.
You call 18 innings at 6 era and good test?
I think the post is a little misleading. Because he likely has the second highest upside of any jays starter next year due to his prospect status almost every media outlet says they expect him to be their #2 starter. Thing is, he’s never pitched more than 100 innings in a season and the jays know that. He wasn’t ever going to pitch the amount of innings a normal #2 does bc of that. This injury actually makes it more likely Pearson is fully available to pitch later in the season.
Jays rotation will be their demise
Ryu, Roark, Ray, Matz that’s a soild rotation when you have a top 5 offense most of these guys will probaly have around 4 era which is good enough to win with this offense. DOn’t think the Jays are done making moves.
Anything can happen, but three of those guys combined for an ERA of 7.27 last year.
That’s solid?
2020 Was not solid but you cannot expect that to repeat.
Cubswin the only solid part of that rotation is the contact made by opposing lineups.
I like the support from a cubs fan @cubswin108 but Its hard to argue that is anything better than a below average staff at least going into the season. You’re right they probably aren’t done making moves, there’s been quite a few reports which imply they may think they can get better trades for starters in-season.
I would agree. Even if they are at 4.5 or 5 era they would still win a lot of games with Jays offense.
I didn’t realize that we were relying on so many arms to have “bounce back seasons.” Not too sure how I feel about that…
Angels been doing that for years. If you are relying on Matz, Ray, and Roark your staff is mediocre
Mediocre is good enough I think with a great offense. There will be teams that will be struggling by the break that will be desperate to shed some salary. Jays have money to burn so it will be a good opportunity to pick up some arms.
Not in that division. In other AL divisions, yes.
Since to aggravate means to reinjure a pre-existing injury, does re-aggravation mean he re-reinjured his groin? That he aggravated the injury again?
I think it cancels out. Play ball!
I posted on the initial thread about this.
Despite the – perhaps – humorous name a characteristic of groin strains (yeah, yeah, go ahead) is how easy they are to re-aggravate. That was certainly my experience. It took me ~ year to get over the one I had. For real. It’d be almost gone & I’d slip a just a little bit on ice or something & BAM! right back to almost the beginning.
Total drag.
Compounding the reinjury issue is the fact that it’s actually considered an area that gets low blood flow (another chance jokesters) – meaning it’s a slower to heal injury just due to that.
The best thing – according to my doctor anyway – for it is to do nothing. Which is not easy for some of us, man.
I hope the Jay’s are able to completely shut him down or this thing could really cut into his season.
Hey Ducky:
I as well have had a groin strain. They suck, because until it heals, you can’t do anything. Mine happened while I was playing in a regular Wednesday night basketball game. It was a huge disappointment. I lived for those Wednesday nights, and every week that I missed was agony. Luckily, I didn’t aggravate it.
But, my point was, the usage of the term reaggravation is really poor. It literally translates to re-reinjure. And many use it when they only mean to say reinjured, and not reinjured again. So not only is it poor usage, but it’s unclear as to what is meant; reinjured, or reinjured again.
I think it clearly means reinjured again, once more. It’s like when I get cut off I get aggravated, and then when I get stuck behind that same person going slow I get re- aggravated, but when I try to pass him and he speeds up I’m definitely re-aggravated again, no doubt.
Aww, jeeez, fellas.
Don’t do this to me. I’m not good enough at grammar to figure out if…
But. Look.
If M. Polishuk is saying that Person re-aggravated an already aggravated injury, then that would actually dove tail with my experience with a strained groin.
So…is that what he’s saying?
Yankee Clipper:
There’s no doubt that reaggravated means reinjured again. But being aggravated that someone cut you off is from a different definition meaning to be angry or displeased, which has nothing to do with aggravating an injury.
In your example, I think you’re getting more aggravated, and not reaggravated. And, using another correct definition, if someone cut you off, and then he struck you from behind, you would be angry, and then more angry, you wouldn’t have been angered and then re-angered.
Ducky:
I agree that Mark probably meant reinjured again. But, not everyone is as competent as Mark. As I said above, the meaning of the term isn’t clear when others less reliable than Mark use it. And because of that, I just don’t like the term being used. Instead, I think the progression should be injured, reinjured or aggravated, and then reinjured again or aggravated again.
Hopefully Pearson can heal up and put this groin issue behind him. Jays need him. Badly.
Put his groin behind him? Ouch….
Bob, there are some in this world who pay for that kind of maltreatment….
Seems like this guy has a lot of injuries. We need to move him while he still has worth.
It’s starting to seem like health issues are going to doom Pearson to a relief role long term
It’s an electric arm that could very well to a closer despite the BlueJays and fans not wanting to hear that. A lot of the fairweather experts had him pegged as a future #1 despite him not throwing more than a few innings in professional ball.
We should be beyond dropping a number on any pitching prospect. In today’s game it’s roulette on the mound. That is the way MLB wants it as the league continues to do everything possible to destroy careers of pitchers.
That said, the Jays’ “depth” will be tested early. At this point they need Pearson healthy and ready to take the next step whether he can or not. The rotation is not strong. A rude awakening is around the corner.
Guests, we are in agreement for the rude awakening around the corner. I can’t see it any other way than a total burnout of the rotation and pen because the rotation can’t get deep into games (or even through the 3rd inning).
Pearson wasn’t going to pitch normal #2 starter innings even if he wasn’t injured to start the season. He’s barely pitched more than 100 innings in a single season and they were going to be careful with his innings. This honestly may just mean Pearson is actually available to pitch more innings later in the season.
Either way, the pitching needs work. Although Atkins/Shapiro may think there’s a chance they think they can get a better price on starting pitcher’s to build up the staff during the season.
Out until after the allstar break. Maybe out for the season.
They’re built just like the Rockies were the past few years. Allstar studded lineup, mediocre-poor starting rotation, and 0 pitching depth. They’ll likely get similar results.
This guy is always injured
I think it’s time. #MANOAHMANIA !
BIG SEXY is still available. And he never has a problem with his groin.
Of course, he can’t even see his groin…..
He can with a mirror.