Blue Jays forced to roll with piggybacking pitchers

ARLINGTON -- The Blue Jays’ fifth starter is Bowden Francis on Trevor Richards’ shoulders, wearing a long trench coat.

This has happened twice now, first with Tim Mayza wedged between them on June 10, then in Saturday’s 4-2 loss to the Rangers at Globe Life Field, with Francis directly following Richards. It’s all by design and starts with Richards, the former starter whom you’ve come to know in Toronto as a rubber-armed reliever.

“He’s kind of like Strip,” manager John Schneider said, referencing former swingman Ross Stripling. “He’s done it before. You’re a little bit familiar with it. Understanding the need for it right now, he’s taken it aggressively. He’s taking it and tried to run with it. I think that being a multi-inning guy before helps, too. He’s got the right state of mind for it.”

Richards is the right man for this job when it’s needed, durable and capable. What’s surprising, though, is just how quickly the Blue Jays got here.

The Blue Jays were the last team in Major League Baseball to need a sixth starter, riding a healthy group of five until Alek Manoah’s freefall landed him back at the club’s complex in Dunedin, Fla. Bullpen games and bulk relievers are to be expected when it’s time to roll out the eighth, ninth or 10th starter -- something most clubs get to eventually -- but not this soon.

How and when this works
There’s a time and a place for games like Saturday’s. If the offense had been able to scrape across a few more runs, it might have looked even better.

This setup is typically Plan G, though, not Plan B.

Richards and Francis combined to give the Blue Jays 5 2/3 innings of three-run ball, all coming on a pair of home runs against Richards. This can work once or twice or three times, perhaps even very effectively, but that all depends on how long Manoah needs to work his way back to the big leagues.

The challenges right now
Toronto used Monday’s off-day to move Kevin Gausman’s start up to Friday, essentially flipping him with the bullpen day. The staff ace understands the realities of where this club is at.

“Right now, we’ve only got four guys,” Gausman said. “Yeah, we kind of need all of the four guys to make as many starts as we can before the All-Star break. It wasn’t really much more than that.”

Right after the All-Star break could also bring the return of Hyun Jin Ryu, who hasn’t shied away from saying that he’s circling that date on his calendar to return from Tommy John surgery. In a perfect world, Manoah is also back by then.

In the meantime, though, both Richards and Francis won’t be available for at least the next couple of games, which potentially requires a move for a fresh arm or playing a pitcher short in the bullpen. It also changes how the Blue Jays are handling their four remaining starters.

“It’s in the back of your mind, for sure,” Schneider said. “Getting Kevin out when we did [Friday] instead of pushing him like we’ve done before. It’s in the back of your mind, but right now you play the hand you’re dealt, and you adjust when that time comes to adjust if it comes down to workload.”

The long-term issue
“Workload” is the key word here. Add in the fact that the Blue Jays are stuck in a rut of tight, tense games that leave no room for their relievers to exhale, and there’s a pretty significant strain being put on this pitching staff as a whole.

Gausman (92 2/3 innings) and Chris Bassitt (85) rank second and ninth among American League pitchers in innings. José Berríos has quietly crept up and is tied for ninth with Bassitt. It’s working right now, but the Blue Jays also want these talented starters fresh into October, leaving a six-man rotation as a possibility when they have the options ready.

“Something like that could come into play later, down the road in a couple of months,” Schneider said. “It’s the ebb and flow of it, where you don’t want them to be overworked and you don’t want them to be too rested and lose sharpness. We have a pretty good group of people attacking that info, but yes, it’s probably something we’ll look at down the road.”

Getting a rotation through a season is the art of choosing between imperfections. Toronto’s rotation depth has left it in this spot, and while this plan is getting the Blue Jays through individual games, it could make the long road ahead a few miles longer.