The Toronto Blue Jays got a double-dose of unsettling injury news about their starting rotation at the outset of spring training, as former Cy Young Award winner Shane Bieber went to the injured list due to arm fatigue. At the same time as Bieber, a front-line starter, was sidelined for at least the initial stages of spring training, a starter who could have temporarily taken Bieber’s spot was ruled out for the season.
Four-year veteran Bowden Francis, who started 27 games for Toronto over the past two seasons throwing 167 2/3 innings with a 4.35 ERA, now requires Tommy John surgery. But the injuries, according to Blue Jays correspondent Mitch Bannon of The Athletic, could now lead to a reunion with a starter who provided the Blue Jays with one of their sturdiest arms over the last three seasons.
At age 36, Chris Bassitt finished his three-year, $63 million Blue Jays contract with a flourish, turning in a lights-out performance coming out of the bullpen for Toronto in last year’s postseason. Though he lost his spot in the starting rotation and was left off the team’s initial postseason roster due to a sore back, Bassitt returned for the American League Championship Series and World Series.
In 8 2/3 innings over seven postseason relief outings, Bassitt allowed just one run on three hits, striking out seven and walking only two. But after the World Series, despite calling the team “the most special group” he had been part of in his 11-year career, Bassitt became a free agent.
As of Wednesday, the first official day of spring training, the World Series hero remained without a team.
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“With injuries to Francis and Bieber, the Jays may turn back to free agency to rebuild their rotation depth,” Bannon wrote on Tuesday. “A reunion with Chris Bassitt or Max Scherzer could now make sense.”
Though Scherzer is a future Hall of Famer, there is one significant difference that could work in Bassitt’s favor, if the Blue Jays do, in fact, pursue a reunion with either. Scherzer at age 41 managed to give the Blue Jays just 85 innings over 17 starts, and has not thrown more than 100 innings since 2023 when he pitched 107 1/3 for the New York Mets.
Bassitt, on the other hand, has been one of the most reliable starters in baseball, putting in more than 170 innings in each of the last four seasons, including an even 200 in 2023, his first season in Toronto.
The sports business site Spotrac estimates Bassitt’s market value at $31.1 million over two years. But with no takers yet on his free agency, a one-year offer to Bassitt at a discounted rate could be enough to bring the workhorse starter back to Toronto as a bulwark against further rotation injuries.
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