Struggling vs. lefties, Bassitt making a change

This story was excerpted from Keegan Matheson’s Blue Jays Beat newsletter. To read the full newsletter, click here. And subscribe to get it regularly in your inbox.

The book is out on Chris Bassitt -- at least this month’s version -- and the A’s bought a copy.

Oakland stacked its lineup with lefties Friday and got to Bassitt immediately, hanging four runs on the veteran right-hander over five innings. These lefty splits have been the story of Bassitt’s season so far, and until he lands a counterpunch, opponents will keep following the same script.

RHB: .183 AVG | 3 HR | .510 OPS
LHB: .283 AVG | 13 HR | .972 OPS

The short version? Bassitt is making right-handed hitters look like they don’t belong on a big league roster, but left-handed hitters all look like Yordan Alvarez.

It hasn’t always been this way for Bassitt. Left-handed hitters have fared slightly better against him across his career, but not even to the point of being noteworthy. Bassitt’s 2023 ERA has grown to 4.32, but in between his Blue Jays debut and this recent skid was a stretch of fantastic pitching. He’s got a career track record of just that, too. This shouldn’t be much more than a blip for a very good pitcher, but it’s a matter of correcting that blip as soon as possible.

After Friday’s rough first inning, the Blue Jays handed pitch-calling over to catcher Danny Jansen. Bassitt had called his own pitches up to that moment, but he now believes his pitch-calling days are over.

“I’m obviously struggling a little bit right now, and less is more,” Bassitt said. “I’m not sure if I’m tipping the way I’m sequencing pitches. I’m not sure really what’s going on right now. It’s just a matter of less is more. I think it really went well. I think at times I’m thinking too much on the mound rather than competing. It’s a funky dynamic.”

The idea that Bassitt could be tipping his sequencing is particularly interesting. Does he have a tendency to follow fastballs with sliders in certain counts? Does he get stuck in a habit of throwing the same pitch in 0-1 counts? These are things each MLB club has someone obsessing over. The main reason for the pitch-calling audible, though, was to pick up the pace.

“It was just tempo-related, really,” said Blue Jays manager John Schneider. “They sit and talk with [pitching coach] Pete [Walker] at length about the lineup and I think it just came down to what the pace of the first inning was and trying to get them going a little bit quicker.”

The good news? There’s not much of a mystery here.

Bassitt knows what the issues are. He’s a cerebral pitcher who knows his own game, and all eight of his pitches, as well as anyone. The solution shouldn’t be complicated, and Bassitt should be trusted to find it. It’s the urgency of life in the American League East that tends to magnify these struggles.

This entire rotation is being challenged by Alek Manoah’s absence, too. More fairly, the Blue Jays are being challenged by the lack of options behind Manoah, which has forced them to shift to a four-man rotation that leans on a bullpen day when necessary. That’s not how this is supposed to work.

Some starters love an extra day of rest. For others, the usual rotation is more comfortable and keeps them away from rust. Once Manoah returns, though, and the Blue Jays get Hyun Jin Ryu back from Tommy John surgery, a six-man rotation could make sense for a stretch to let these starters catch their breath.

“It’s always beneficial,” Schneider said. “I know the numbers back that up, when guys get an extra day of rest, it’s definitely something we’re talking about and trying to see what the benefits are both short- and long-term. At this point, no, I don’t think it’s catching up to him. I think it’s just a couple of starts where he’s been struggling against a lot of left-handed-hitting lineups.”

Until Bassitt makes his adjustment to that, he’ll continue to see every lefty bat opponents have on their roster.