Article: Jays Centre Blue Jays Pitcher of the Month - March/April 2025

[Mike LeSage]

For a team fighting to get back to .500, you can imagine there have been some divergent pitching performances. Three pitchers that made appearances on Opening Day are no longer on the active roster, and for every flash of brilliance, there seems to be an accompanying moment where we as fans bury our faces in our hands. As a team, the Blue Jays currently sit 22nd for ERA (4.31), 24th for FIP (4.41), and 20th for fWAR (1.8), and they have given up more home runs than any other team in baseball. 

March/April Pitchers of the Month
#3 - Yimi García - 13 IP, 0 ER, 16 K, 4 BB, 4 HLD
García is the only pitcher the Jays have who has yet to give up a run. He struck out all four batters he faced in the April 16 game against Atlanta, helping propel Toronto to a new team record. He’s mixed his pitches well and sports a 1.77 FIP, good for second on the team. He’s even picked up a save on a night when our #2 pitcher was unavailable.

#2 - Jeff Hoffman - 15.1 IP, 2 ER, 22 K, 1 BB, 6 SV
Apologies to (future Hall of Famer) Max Scherzer, but Jeff Hoffman has been, by far, Toronto's most impactful offseason pitching acquisition. Hoffman’s only walk issued on the season was an intentional one in an extra-innings game against Boston in which he pitched the ninth and 10th innings and picked up the win. He’s secured the save in every opportunity he’s been given and has earned three bonus wins with late Jays victories - each time pitching two scoreless innings. When Hoffman was signed, Ross Atkins said, “Jeff will get an opportunity to close games.” He has certainly made the most of that opportunity. 

#1 - Chris Bassitt - 34.1 IP, 10 ER, 39 K, 7 BB, 2.32 FIP
He was projected to be a stable, middle-of-the-rotation, inning-eating pitcher. What he’s been so far is outstanding. He’s our pitcher of the month: Chris Bassitt. 

They call him the Hound on the Mound, and going into his last start, he led the AL in FIP; in other words, he got that dog in him. Even on the heels of his worst performance of the season, he still ranks fourth in the AL in FIP and top ten in bWAR, BB/9, K/9, Ks, K/BB, and ERA+. His performances have also allowed him to lead the team in innings pitched, and considering the way the Jays have had to lean on their bullpen, that’s a level of value slightly more difficult to quantify. 

Bassitt was also one of the vocal veterans towards the end of a disappointing season last year, saying that the Jays had ‘unfixable’ problems. He walked those comments back some, but a lot of people (myself included) didn’t fully buy his reframing of the initial statement. 

That makes statements like the one above, shared with Keegan Matheson a couple of weeks ago, even more impactful. If that attitude is supplying a positive feedback loop culminating in Bassitt's results, that would be another theoretical feather in the front office's cap. Bassitt is 36 years old and in the last year of his contract. If he can keep Father Time at a distance and continue putting in performances like he has through March/April, this won’t be the last time we see him in this column.

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[Spanky99]

I concur, Mike.