Article: Max Scherzer and Richard Lovelady Out, Two Lefty Depth Pieces In

[Simon Li]

A disappointing start to Lovelady and Scherezer's tenure with the Blue Jays led to one getting DFA'd and the other heading to the IL due to lat soreness caused by a chronic thumb issue. As a result, the Jays have called up LHP Easton Lucas and selected LHP Mason Fluharty from Triple-A Buffalo.

Richard Lovelady making the team over veteran swingman and innings eater Ryan Yarbrough has been a controversial decision by the Jays front office. Lovelady performed poorly enough to get designated for assignment.

However, Easton Lucas, a 28-year-old unheralded arm claimed from the Detroit Tigers in the waiver claim spree after the trade deadline, may, in fact, be a solid alternative to what Yarbrough could bring. Although Lucas had an 8.64 ERA in spring training and has not performed well at the major league level in limited innings pitched in his career, he has respectable stuff, and there's room to believe that he could do well as a long reliever or swingman whilst Max Scherzer is on the injured list. Lucas has a mid-90s fastball with 17 inches of induced vertical break and decent run, as well as a high-80s cutter that he throws as his main secondary that has 4.6 inches of induced vertical break and around 3 inches of cut, which graded out decently in Eno Sarris' Stuff+ in 2024 with a 101.

He also throws a slider with more depth and break that graded out well at a 119 stuff+ and a below-average changeup that he struggles to command. Lucas excelled in Triple-A across three organizations and pitched to a 2.75 ERA/3.61 FIP with a solid 26.2% K rate and a 10,0% BB rate. Projections like him more than Yarbrough, with Steamer projecting him to pitch to a 4.21 ERA/4,48 FIP and ZiPS to a 4.57 ERA/4.50 FIP, whereas Yarbrough was projected to have a 4.43 ERA/4.71 FIP from Steamer, and a 4.70 ERA and a 4.63 FIP from ZiPS. The Jays hope that Lucas can pitch to anywhere near projections and be a serviceable innings eater when the bullpen depth is hurting.

Mason Fluharty, on the other hand, is a young lefty reliever that the Jays drafted in the 5th round of the 2022 draft, and he's a soft-tossing, cross-firing reliever that excels at inducing weak contact and striking batters out despite a sub 90 mph cutter that he mainly relies on. Ranked as the 19th best prospect on MLB Pipeline's Jays top 30, Fluharty has excelled throughout his professional career, striking out hitters at over a 27% clip while only walking batters around 9% of the time.

Fluharty also had an excellent spring training, striking out 40.7% of batters he faced while only walking 3.7% in 7.0 innings pitched. His main pitch is that high-80s cutter that he throws with 8.9 inches of induced vertical break and 3.5 inches of cut, which helped generate both chases and whiffs while limiting hard contact. His sweeper was also dominant, with 19 inches of horizontal break and 1.9 inches of induced vertical break, leading to a 71.4% whiff rate and limiting hard contact in spring. tjStuff+ loves his arsenal with a 107 tjStuff+ on the cutter and a 117 on his sweeper. The Jays will most likely look towards him as the second lefty out of the pen after Brendon Little, and hopefully, he will be one of the few homegrown relievers in recent memory to have success as a Toronto Blue Jay.

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