“we know it’s in there,†assistant gm tony lacava said last month. “if you look at his peripherals, his walk rate’s good, his strikeout rate is solid, he’s had success in the past and for some reason it just didn’t manifest itself in era.â€
while the blue jays are open to the possibility of trades, that doesn’t mean they want to deal hutchison, who’s projected by mlb trade rumors to earn $2.6 million in arbitration. In fact, he represents a key player for the blue jays, who continue pursuing pitching via trade and free agency.
When the off-season began and shapiro started looking at the blue jays’ pitching depth, he soon realized the club needed considerable depth, particularly in the triple-a rotation.
“there were five guys named blank,†shapiro said. “the guys named blank don’t contribute many innings. We had to deal with that challenge and we’re creatively trying to address it.â€
at the big league level the blue jays have re-signed marco estrada, traded for jesse chavez and signed j.a. Happ. Those arms reinforce the big-league rotation and push others down the depth chart, but the blue jays continue looking for more.
“it could be trades — we could add some guys to the buffalo rotation in trades — it could be non-roster invites, it could be guys that slide in the free agent market and end up going for a period of time to buffalo, or it could be guys that have been big league starters before that we decide to option out,†shapiro said. “we’ve got to solve that.â€
not all of the arms the blue jays acquire for buffalo will be expected to pitch at the mlb level in 2016, though some of them inevitably will. Since hutchison doesn’t have a guaranteed rotation spot, he’s conceivably the kind of pitcher who could provide meaningful rotation depth beyond the starting five.