The Upside and Downside of Toronto’s Young Relievers

In Monday’s “Opening Day Staff Survey,” Dave said the storyline he was most looking forward to this season was, “Breaking in young pitching prospects as relievers.” This was a little bit vague, but he elucidated on it further later that day when he recorded his weekly podcast with Carson. If you skip to the 30-minute mark, we get to the heart of the issue:

“Earl Weaver used to do this all the time with his relievers back in the 70s, but he broke them in as long relievers; we didn’t really have these one-inning specialists that they have today. So you’d break in these young pitchers, but they’d go two, three, four innings. They’d have to face hitters multiple times, they’d have to work on multiple pitches, they’d have to pace themselves a little bit. To me, that’s a little bit different than breaking in a guy as a ninth-inning guy or as an eighth-inning guy and telling him to throw as hard as possible for 15 pitches.”

The idea, essentially, was to give these pitchers major league bullets in relief while properly grooming them to transition to starting jobs in subsequent years. Dave and Carson went on to detail some late-inning guys where the opposite happened, such as Aroldis Chapman, Jonathan Papelbon and Trevor Rosenthal. All three pitched so well in relief roles that they never got back to starting. This was all in reference to the Blue Jays’ two young pitchers, Miguel Castro and Roberto Osuna. The Earl Weaver method would be a great way to break in the two young righties. R.A. Dickey and Mark Buehrle will be gone soon, and the team will need more starters. Aside from Marcus Stroman, Osuna and Castro may represent the team’s best internal candidates to replace them. If the team’s first series is any indication though, they will not be groomed as such.

Castro’s role has become defined more rapidly. For now, he’s the closer. On Thursday, Brett Cecil was briefly demoted from said role, after he topped out at 88 mph on Wednesday night, and is either rusty from starting spring training late (the generous view) or his shoulder is still sore and he’s not up to snuff (the critical view). How long will this situation last? We can’t be sure, though noted Blue Jays’ blogger Andrew Stoeten is convinced that Castro will stick in the job.

Certainly, Castro’s debut as closer did nothing to blemish his record. He set down lefties Stephen Drew, Didi Gregorius and Jacoby Ellsbury in order, throwing mostly fastballs (six four-seamers, eight two-seamers and a slider). He popped 97 four times, and he also popped 97 or 98 five other times in his debut on Opening Day. In fact, his very first major league pitch registered 98. Certainly, he’s not pacing himself. Even when he doesn’t throw hard, his pitches do damage. Literally:

Osuna hasn’t exactly been taking it easy either. He has pitched twice, and has hummed it in there pretty good both times. In his debut on Wednesday, he had his four seamer clocked at 95, and last night he dialed it up to 96 on two occasions — the two pitches he used to strike out Alex Rodriguez and Carlos Beltran. Osuna has worked in his changeup more often than has Castro — he’s generate three of his six outs with it, including one via strikeout. But his stints haven’t exactly been long — one with two outs, one with four. And they weren’t low pressure either. In fact, his major league debut was almost a save chance:

For those wondering, Osuna would have been brought in to try and close things out if Cecil had escaped the 8th with lead. #BlueJays

— Gregor Chisholm (@gregorMLB) April 9, 2015

This is somewhat in contrast to what manager John Gibbons said following Opening Day. Gibbons wasn’t definitive, but he did say “Osuna may be more of a multi-inning guy than Castro.” If we’re being technical, Osuna’s second appearance qualified by that definition, as he recorded four outs to Castro’s three, but that’s not much separation.

The reason this is worth following is that again, Osuna (and Castro) still could be starters. In his Blue Jays prospect list, Kiley described Osuna as having an average-to-plus changeup, as well as an average slider and cutter. Combine that with mid-90s heat, and you have a starter’s repertoire. Kiley did note command issues, but it’s way too early to tell if he will or won’t have the command to succeed in a rotation. And if he is relegated to short stints, it’ll be harder to have a firm grasp on how he’s developing.

There are actually a couple of reasons why Osuna may end up in high-leverage, max-effort situations besides the fact that is talented. The first is obvious — the Blue Jays have the look of a contender, and they’ll want to maximize their chance to win every game. The second reason is a bit more involved, but basically boils down to this — the Blue Jays have an odd bullpen mix. They have three lefties, one of whom may be the closer soon but isn’t at the moment, three long men and the two kids, Castro and Osuna. The lefties are all likely one inning or fewer pitchers, and the long men — Marco Estrada, Liam Hendriks and Todd Redmond — aren’t likely to be trusted with the game on the line. Redmond had a 0.60 gmLI last year, and Estrada was even lower in his time as a reliever (0.47). A different team, sure, but he didn’t pitch in any of these first three games for Toronto. Perhaps his reputation has preceded him.

So, Osuna may already be one of the most trustworthy members of the bullpen, which is a neat trick given that its an eight-man bullpen. Even if they want to get him long work though, it might be tough. Again, they have the three other long men already, and Buehrle and Dickey usually cross that 200-inning threshold, reducing the number of long-man opportunities as is.

Miguel Castro and Roberto Osuna are two young pitchers who have become good friends and a great story for the Blue Jays early this season. They have electric stuff, and it is playing well in the bullpen. Though they both have the potential to be starters, Castro looks like he might already be on the path to full-time relief ace, and though Osuna has been mentioned as a long-relief candidate, with so many long men already on the roster, such a role might not be in the cards. If not, it could end up costing the Blue Jays in seasons to come.