BCE

By: Scott Mitchell

TORONTO — When we’re sitting here three years from now dissecting the Vladdy and Bo discount era and all the opportunity to build a championship roster that came along with it, the investments made on the pitching side by the Toronto Blue Jays front office are going to be a major storyline.

Did they identify the right starting pitchers on the free-agent market?

Were they able to uncover arms that become assets via trades?

And, ultimately, were those pitchers able to stay healthy and perform up to — or even exceed — expectations?

The core of position players currently in place gives them a baseline to start from each year.

How they piece the pitching together from season to season, however, is going to be the deciding factor between really good teams that are postseason contenders, and legitimate World Series threats.

With that in mind, the Mark Shapiro/Ross Atkins regime is now nearly eight years old and, looking back, it’s been a bit of a wild ride with their pitching acquisitions over the years.

From short-term swings and misses like Jaime Garcia and Tanner Roark, to blockbuster trades and lucrative extensions, to three different $20-plus-million per year long-term free-agent deals, the rotations Atkins & Co. have put together over the years have been a mixed bag of both acquisition cost and performance.

Since the Jays started contending again in 2020, the club’s starting pitchers have finished 17th (4.55 ERA in 2020), sixth (3.79 ERA in 2021) and 18th (3.98 ERA in 2022) in rotation ERA over the past three seasons.

In an effort to evaluate the rotation arms the Jays have acquired in either trades or free-agent signings, I went back and pulled every single starter from the time this front office