DUNEDIN, Fla. – Kevin Gausman held on to the possibility that the Toronto Blue Jays would re-sign Chris Bassitt right up until Wednesday afternoon, when a text from his close friend popped up saying he was headed to the Baltimore Orioles.
“I’ll be honest, it wasn’t really up to him – he wanted to come back, but we obviously added a couple of other guys,” Gausman said after word of Bassitt’s $18.5-million, one-year agreement broke. “I’m not going to speak too much for him, but at a certain point in time, there was still hope there, but don’t know if it ever got that close to him coming back here. Obviously, I wish him the best. What a character.”
Bassitt’s contract was finalized Friday evening, officially ending a productive three-year run with the Blue Jays, during which he logged 541.1 innings over 96 games, all but one a start, and then added another 8.2 frames over seven relief appearances during last fall’s post-season run, when he allowed just a single run.
Beyond the on-field performance, the soon-to-be 37-year-old – his birthday is Feb. 22 – was a central part of Blue Jays life and integral in developing a culture his now ex-teammates believe will persist in his absence.
“He was really good at having a relationship with every single guy in here … and his locker was in a prime spot in the clubhouse for that,” said Gausman. “He was literally in the middle of the clubhouse, you can’t really miss him, and he’s kind of an open book. When we traded for Shane (Bieber), they put him right next to Bass, there was a reason for that. … The big thing we’ll miss with him is just the pro way he goes about his business, the same way every five days, takes every start as serious as he could, while also not being too serious, if that makes sense. He’s a true competitor and doesn’t want to give anything away, always wants to make people better.”
Both Bassitt and Max Scherzer, who remains a free agent, were constantly pushing the people around to seek improvements, spending hours with coaches or analytics staff “because they just always had information for everybody … talking about alignment, what do we think they’re going to do here, talking to the hitters,” said Gausman, recalling the way they’d say, “we’re facing this starter today, I think he’s going to pitch you like this; or first time through the order going to some of these young guys to say, I think you can sit on this one pitch. It takes time in the game to be open enough and for people to be able to trust you. That’ll be missed for sure. But what he left here will definitely continue.”
Manager John Schneider pointed to the way Bassitt, along with Gausman and Jose Berrios, helped take “the cohesiveness of the starters … to another level.”
“The accountability part is a big piece of it, the competitiveness is a big piece of it, too,” he continued. “He’s a guy that just immediately gets respect when he walks into a clubhouse because he’s selfless, he’s prepared, he’s professional, he’s intelligent and he can hold intelligent conversations and not afraid to poke some fun at people, too. There’s a reason why he’s got a lot of friends.”
“His competitive competitiveness on the mound has rubbed off on a lot of guys,” said Ernie Clement. “His preparation is amazing. He’s always available. He’s always willing to do whatever the team needs. He’s totally helped build the culture here, and his presence will be missed, but it’s still lingering around here in many ways. So we’re sad to see him go but excited for his new opportunity.”
What the Blue Jays are less excited about is that Bassitt ended up with an American League East rival, part of Baltimore’s roster renovation highlighted by the additions of slugger Pete Alonso, closer Ryan Helsley, outfielder Taylor Ward and righty Shane Baz.
“I wanted him to get the heck out of here — he just made that team a lot better,” said Clement. “We’re going to have to really prepare and get ready to go because he’s so tricky out there. It’ll be fun to play against him, but not fun at the same time because he’s so damn good.”
Schneider joked that he hopes Bassitt, “has a great, great season, and that we score 10 runs off of him whenever we face him,” while Myles Straw, who has a signed red Canada Day jersey from Bassitt inscribed with his career .813 OPS vs the right-hander, is aiming to avoid a downward update on that number.
“I don’t know if I’m going to face him this year or not, but if the number changes, I’ll have him put it on the jersey,” said Straw. “He’s a great example of what you want on your team. He’s going to make you laugh. He’s going to keep you in a good headspace, and as you know, baseball can be tough sometimes. I feel like whenever you see Bass, he brings a light to the clubhouse and there’s never really a bad day around the guy.”
Gausman said his preference would be not to “see him 12 times a year,” even though they became “super close” during their time with the Blue Jays, being at similar points in their career.
“We can relate on a lot of things,” he said. “I was there when he had his second child. There’s a part of talking about being a dad that adds to the friendship, not just the baseball side. I would have loved for him to not be in our division, but that’s also because I know how good he is and how good he can be. But I’m also excited to watch him. He knows these hitters really well, so I wouldn’t be surprised if he pitches great against us, because he knows all these guys’ strengths and weaknesses. I hope we win the game, but I’m always going to root for him. Especially if you know a guy, you always want them to do well, but you want the bullpen to blow it later in the game.”