<p>One of Toronto&#8217;s strongest groups over the past couple of seasons has been their starting pitching, and while they haven&#8217;t been as dominant as they were last year, they&#8217;ve provided several memorable moments and performances this season. However, some of them have ridden their fair share of peaks and valleys. Let&#8217;s see where their first-half grades fell in this version of the Blue Jays&#8217; 2024 report cards.</p>
<p></p>
<h2>José Berríos</h2>
<p><strong>Grade: </strong>C+</p>
<p>Berríos had been one of the American League&#8217;s best pitchers through the first month of the season, posting a 4-2 record, 1.44 ERA, and 31 strikeouts through seven April starts. Within those starts included a streak of 22.2 scoreless innings, a stretch that saw his ERA get as low as 0.85. During his first start of May, however, he allowed eight earned runs and two home runs to the Phillies in what was arguably his worst start of the first half. From then on, Berríos&#8217; starts were more good rather than great. Between that loss to the Phillies and the conclusion of the first half, Berríos owned a 4-5 record, 5.50 ERA, and an .808 opponents slugging percentage.</p>
<p>One of the biggest things to note is that Berríos&#8217; advanced stats are not good at all and that finally caught up to him. Taking a deep dive on his <em>Baseball Savant</em> page, many of his &#8220;x&#8221; (expected) numbers are poorly graded, and he was giving up a <em>ton </em>of loud contact. Correlation doesn&#8217;t always equal causation, but in this case, the 20th percentile hard-hit percentile definitely plays into his MLB-leading 21 home runs allowed through the first half.</p>
<p>Even during his stellar April, Berríos&#8217; FIP (Fielding Independent Pitching) was extremely high. For those who don&#8217;t know, that figure measures how effective a pitcher is in preventing what he can control &#8211; home runs, walks, HBPs, etc, and it also figures in how effective they are at striking hitters out. Pair his home run woes with the lowest K/9 of his career (6.6), and his ERA eventually got a lot closer to his current FIP of 5.13.</p>
<p>Personally, I think Berríos is going to turn this around, especially given his track record with the Blue Jays in being able to right his wrongs. He&#8217;s had too steep of a decline since April to keep him in the A or B range, but don&#8217;t be surprised if he makes his way back there sooner rather than later.</p>
<h2>Kevin Gausman</h2>
<p><strong>Grade: </strong>C+</p>
<p>The theme of Gausman&#8217;s year has been &#8220;down since 2023&#8221;, and that&#8217;s essentially what I&#8217;ll be highlighting in this breakdown. Let&#8217;s start with the basic numbers. Gausman has made 19 starts this season, pitching to a 7-8 record, 4.50 ERA, 1.308 WHIP, and a 9.0 K/9. He missed the majority of Spring Training with right shoulder fatigue, but he was placed in the starting rotation to open the year, albeit in the fourth spot. While he felt good enough to open the season in that position, Gausman later admitted to reporters that he would&#8217;ve benefitted from building back up fully in the spring, perhaps starting the season on the IL and having an extended &#8220;Spring Training.&#8221;</p>
<p>Those comments came in the middle of an up-and-down first half for last year&#8217;s AL Cy Young runner-up. He looked solid in his first start of the year in Tampa Bay, but a couple of poor showings against the Yankees and Rockies after that caused some level of concern. The quality of his starts fluctuated throughout the rest of the half, making a nice rebound start against the same Yankees and tossing seven innings of one-run ball against the Dodgers. He&#8217;s also tossed a complete game shutout against the Oakland A&#8217;s, and he&#8217;s had three games with 10 strikeouts.</p>
<p>Looking closer at Gausman&#8217;s season, one of the most noticeable concerns is a significantly less useful splitter. In fact, Gausman&#8217;s whiff percentage against that pitch is 10% less than it was last year, and it&#8217;s caused an increased use of his fastball. He&#8217;s thrown his fastball 4% more than he did a year ago, and he&#8217;s thrown his splitter 6% less. Furthermore, given the reliance on the four-seamer, Gausman has added a sinker to his repertoire, something to give hitters a different look with higher velocity. Take &#8220;velocity&#8221; with a grain of salt, however, as his pitch speeds have varied greatly through the course of this season. Gausman&#8217;s still been able to keep the walks down as he has become accustomed to doing, but his strikeout percentage is 8% less than a year ago, a potential correlation of the less-threatening splitter.</p>
<p>Further adding to Gausman&#8217;s perplexing season are his home/road splits. He has a 7.19 ERA and. 1.705 WHIP in nine home starts, but he has a 2.34 ERA in ten starts on the road. Ultimately, this is far from the version of Gausman we saw last year, so hopefully the All-Star break gives him the reset that he needs.</p>
<h2>Chris Bassitt</h2>
<p><strong>Grade: </strong>A-</p>
<p>Bassitt is such an underrated pitcher, and the contract that he signed with the Blue Jays has been a really good one. Bassitt is on par with what he&#8217;s been doing his entire career so far this season, posting an 8-7 record, 3.52 ERA, 1.44 WHIP, and an 8.4 K/9 through 19 starts.</p>
<p>What gets lost in a lot of the numbers is the amount of toughness he&#8217;s shown this year. Whether it was pitching five scoreless innings in Chicago while having neck spasms, pitching six one-run innings against the Yankees after taking a 101 mph liner from Aaron Judge off the pitching arm or overcoming tough first innings in his final two starts of the half to give his team five innings each, Bassitt embodies the &#8220;get it done league&#8221; attitude that Josh Donaldson once stated in a Blue Jays locker room. That&#8217;s not to say no one else on the team is fighting injuries of their own. Heck, we just talked about Gausman&#8217;s shoulder injury to start the year. But, those are the type of performances that inspire the rest of the team.</p>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="550" data-dnt="true">
<p lang="en" dir="ltr">Chris Bassitt smoked by a comebacker from Judge&#8230;stays in the game. <a href="https://t.co/VetSY03NQY">pic.twitter.com/VetSY03NQY</a></p>
<p>&mdash; Rob Friedman (@PitchingNinja) <a href="https://twitter.com/PitchingNinja/status/1807131708724220069?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">June 29, 2024</a></p></blockquote>
<p><script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script></p>
<p>Bassitt started the season off in a tough way, allowing eight earned runs through 9.1 innings between his first two starts of the season. He finished April with an ERA of 5.64, but he posted exemplary months of May and June with a 2.40 and 1.95 ERA in those months, respectively. In those two months, he gave up three earned runs or less in every start and 12 of his last 13 overall. We saw an uptick in Bassitt&#8217;s walks, but he&#8217;s counteracted that with a home run percentage that he&#8217;s cut in half between this season and last.</p>
<p>They aren&#8217;t Cy Young stats, but I&#8217;d think that if, for some reason, the playoffs were tomorrow and the Blue Jays made it, Bassitt would be their Game One or Two starter.</p>
<h2>Yusei Kikuchi</h2>
<p><strong>Grade: </strong>B-</p>
<p>Kikuchi&#8217;s had his name thrown around quite a bit in trade deadline talks this season, and it&#8217;s not out of the realm of possibility to say his days are numbered in Toronto. Similar to Berríos, Kikuchi was off to a really nice start in April and May, but his ERA increased after a few shaky starts at the back end of the first half. Through 20 starts, Kikuchi has a 4-8 record, 4.42 ERA, 1.30 WHIP, 9.9 K/9, and 2.2 BB/9.</p>
<p>In April, Kikuchi had three consecutive starts allowing one or zero runs including two starts against the Yankees, one being their home opener. April would be his best month of the season, pitching to a 2.94 ERA, 1.158 WHIP, 36 strikeouts, and only 8 walks. From there, however, his ERA started to rise due to some shorter outings and higher run totals. When teams found a rhythm against Kikuchi, they hit him extremely hard. For a few examples, he allowed eight hits and five runs in a May 26th outing against Detroit, nine hits and five runs one start later against Pittsburgh, seven hits and five runs against Boston on June 17th, eight hits and four runs against Cleveland on June 23rd, and he finished his first half allowing six hits, three walks, and seven runs to Arizona. Add all of the innings pitched in those games, and Kikuchi allowed 26 earned runs while pitching 19 innings. That&#8217;ll inflate the ERA.</p>
<p>Looking at Kikuchi&#8217;s numbers between this year and last year, there aren&#8217;t any incredible discrepancies with his strikeout, walk, hit, or home run per 9 totals. The same goes for his quality of pitches. It&#8217;s pretty odd. However, he hasn&#8217;t had enough really good starts to offset the really bad ones, especially when it came to the last few weeks. That&#8217;s not to say he hasn&#8217;t had good moments either; he struck out 13 hitters against San Francisco last week, he threw an eight-inning gem against the Twins on May 10th, and he&#8217;s had three outings in which he&#8217;s struck out 9 hitters.</p>
<h2>Yariel Rodríguez</h2>
<p><strong>Grade: </strong>B+</p>
<p>Maybe it&#8217;s just me, but this signing went somewhat under-the-radar last offseason. Nonetheless, it&#8217;s turning out to be an excellent acquisition for the Blue Jays. Rodríguez has made eight starts for Toronto, pitching to a 3.78 ERA, 1.38 WHIP, 9.7 K/9, and 4.9 BB/9. With the team mindful of his workload, Rodríguez&#8217;s first few outings were relatively short, but he showed glimpses of being a valid piece to the rotation before missing over a month and a half due to thoracic spine inflammation.</p>
<p>Rodríguez returned to the rotation on June 21st, but he had the worst outing of his young career against Guardians, only recording four outs and allowing two hits, three walks, and four earned runs. He clearly put that in the rearview mirror, as his next three starts featured a 1.62 ERA and 19 strikeouts over 16.2 innings. This included a start against the Houston Astros on Canada Day, as well as a start against the Mariners in front of the &#8220;Northern Invasion&#8221;. He was ready for the big stage.</p>
<p>Rodríguez pitches with a lot of emotion, and he&#8217;s been doing it since he stepped on the major league mound for the first time. In fact, once he emerged from the dugout prior to his first start against the Rockies, he spit out a mouthful of water, struck out two of the first three batters he faced, and danced off the mound with a fist pump. It was almost Stroman-esque.</p>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="550" data-dnt="true">
<p lang="en" dir="ltr">Yariel Rodríguez&#39;s last 2 starts, including today:</p>
<p>12.2 IP, 3 H, 1 R, 4 BB &amp; 12 K</p>
<p>Love his FU energy on the mound, too! Fire me up 🔥🔥🔥 <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/BlueJays?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#BlueJays</a> <a href="https://t.co/U9vUtCCWOC">pic.twitter.com/U9vUtCCWOC</a></p>
<p>&mdash; Thomas Hall (@Hall_Thomas_) <a href="https://twitter.com/Hall_Thomas_/status/1809712186102538521?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 6, 2024</a></p></blockquote>
<p><script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script></p>
<p>The key to Rodríguez&#8217;s success over the past couple of weeks has been fastball command, something Pete Walker referenced on Sportsnet&#8217;s <em>Blair and Barker </em>last week. &#8220;<em>When he&#8217;s locating that fastball, it&#8217;s got a special cut to it, you could almost call it a cutter at times&#8230;he can also sink the ball,</em>&#8221; Walker said. &#8220;<em>If he gets them in the box consistently, he&#8217;s going to be a force because his secondary stuff, he&#8217;s got creativity as a pitcher.</em>&#8221; Couple that with a pair of different arm delivery angles, and he&#8217;s got a good level of deception as well.</p>
<p>The Blue Jays should be excited about Rodríguez going forward, and he may have a spot solidified now that Toronto&#8217;s rotation <em>could </em>look different after the trade deadline.</p>
<hr />
<h2 class="mb-5 text-2xl font-bold">Previously…</h2>
<ul class="mb-5 list-disc pl-8">
<li class=""><a class="text-accent" href="https://bluejaysnation.com/news/blue-jays-2024-mid-season-report-cards-infielders" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><strong class="text-lg font-bold">Blue Jays 2024 Mid-Season Report Cards: Infielders</strong></a></li>
<li class=""><a class="text-accent" href="https://bluejaysnation.com/news/blue-jays-2024-mid-season-report-cards-outfielders" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><strong class="text-lg font-bold">Blue Jays 2024 Mid-Season Report Cards: Outfielders</strong></a></li>
<li><a href="https://bluejaysnation.com/news/blue-jays-2024-mid-season-report-cards-catchers"><strong>Blue Jays 2024 Mid-Season Report Cards: Catchers</strong></a></li>
</ul>

One of Toronto's strongest groups over the past couple of seasons has been their starting pitching, and while they haven't been as dominant as they were last year, they've provided several memorable moments and performances this season. However, some of them have ridden their fair share of peaks and valleys. Let's see where their first-half grades fell in this version of the Blue Jays' 2024 report cards.


<h2>José Berríos</h2>
<strong>Grade: </strong>C+

Berríos had been one of the American League's best pitchers through the first month of the season, posting a 4-2 record, 1.44 ERA, and 31 strikeouts through seven April starts. Within those starts included a streak of 22.2 scoreless innings, a stretch that saw his ERA get as low as 0.85. During his first start of May, however, he allowed eight earned runs and two home runs to the Phillies in what was arguably his worst start of the first half. From then on, Berríos' starts were more good rather than great. Between that loss to the Phillies and the conclusion of the first half, Berríos owned a 4-5 record, 5.50 ERA, and an .808 opponents slugging percentage.

One of the biggest things to note is that Berríos' advanced stats are not good at all and that finally caught up to him. Taking a deep dive on his <em>Baseball Savant</em> page, many of his "x" (expected) numbers are poorly graded, and he was giving up a <em>ton </em>of loud contact. Correlation doesn't always equal causation, but in this case, the 20th percentile hard-hit percentile definitely plays into his MLB-leading 21 home runs allowed through the first half.

Even during his stellar April, Berríos' FIP (Fielding Independent Pitching) was extremely high. For those who don't know, that figure measures how effective a pitcher is in preventing what he can control - home runs, walks, HBPs, etc, and it also figures in how effective they are at striking hitters out. Pair his home run woes with the lowest K/9 of his career (6.6), and his ERA eventually got a lot closer to his current FIP of 5.13.

Personally, I think Berríos is going to turn this around, especially given his track record with the Blue Jays in being able to right his wrongs. He's had too steep of a decline since April to keep him in the A or B range, but don't be surprised if he makes his way back there sooner rather than later.
<h2>Kevin Gausman</h2>
<strong>Grade: </strong>C+

The theme of Gausman's year has been "down since 2023", and that's essentially what I'll be highlighting in this breakdown. Let's start with the basic numbers. Gausman has made 19 starts this season, pitching to a 7-8 record, 4.50 ERA, 1.308 WHIP, and a 9.0 K/9. He missed the majority of Spring Training with right shoulder fatigue, but he was placed in the starting rotation to open the year, albeit in the fourth spot. While he felt good enough to open the season in that position, Gausman later admitted to reporters that he would've benefitted from building back up fully in the spring, perhaps starting the season on the IL and having an extended "Spring Training."

Those comments came in the middle of an up-and-down first half for last year's AL Cy Young runner-up. He looked solid in his first start of the year in Tampa Bay, but a couple of poor showings against the Yankees and Rockies after that caused some level of concern. The quality of his starts fluctuated throughout the rest of the half, making a nice rebound start against the same Yankees and tossing seven innings of one-run ball against the Dodgers. He's also tossed a complete game shutout against the Oakland A's, and he's had three games with 10 strikeouts.

Looking closer at Gausman's season, one of the most noticeable concerns is a significantly less useful splitter. In fact, Gausman's whiff percentage against that pitch is 10% less than it was last year, and it's caused an increased use of his fastball. He's thrown his fastball 4% more than he did a year ago, and he's thrown his splitter 6% less. Furthermore, given the reliance on the four-seamer, Gausman has added a sinker to his repertoire, something to give hitters a different look with higher velocity. Take "velocity" with a grain of salt, however, as his pitch speeds have varied greatly through the course of this season. Gausman's still been able to keep the walks down as he has become accustomed to doing, but his strikeout percentage is 8% less than a year ago, a potential correlation of the less-threatening splitter.

Further adding to Gausman's perplexing season are his home/road splits. He has a 7.19 ERA and. 1.705 WHIP in nine home starts, but he has a 2.34 ERA in ten starts on the road. Ultimately, this is far from the version of Gausman we saw last year, so hopefully the All-Star break gives him the reset that he needs.
<h2>Chris Bassitt</h2>
<strong>Grade: </strong>A-

Bassitt is such an underrated pitcher, and the contract that he signed with the Blue Jays has been a really good one. Bassitt is on par with what he's been doing his entire career so far this season, posting an 8-7 record, 3.52 ERA, 1.44 WHIP, and an 8.4 K/9 through 19 starts.

What gets lost in a lot of the numbers is the amount of toughness he's shown this year. Whether it was pitching five scoreless innings in Chicago while having neck spasms, pitching six one-run innings against the Yankees after taking a 101 mph liner from Aaron Judge off the pitching arm or overcoming tough first innings in his final two starts of the half to give his team five innings each, Bassitt embodies the "get it done league" attitude that Josh Donaldson once stated in a Blue Jays locker room. That's not to say no one else on the team is fighting injuries of their own. Heck, we just talked about Gausman's shoulder injury to start the year. But, those are the type of performances that inspire the rest of the team.

https://twitter.com/PitchingNinja/status/1807131708724220069

Bassitt started the season off in a tough way, allowing eight earned runs through 9.1 innings between his first two starts of the season. He finished April with an ERA of 5.64, but he posted exemplary months of May and June with a 2.40 and 1.95 ERA in those months, respectively. In those two months, he gave up three earned runs or less in every start and 12 of his last 13 overall. We saw an uptick in Bassitt's walks, but he's counteracted that with a home run percentage that he's cut in half between this season and last.

They aren't Cy Young stats, but I'd think that if, for some reason, the playoffs were tomorrow and the Blue Jays made it, Bassitt would be their Game One or Two starter.
<h2>Yusei Kikuchi</h2>
<strong>Grade: </strong>B-

Kikuchi's had his name thrown around quite a bit in trade deadline talks this season, and it's not out of the realm of possibility to say his days are numbered in Toronto. Similar to Berríos, Kikuchi was off to a really nice start in April and May, but his ERA increased after a few shaky starts at the back end of the first half. Through 20 starts, Kikuchi has a 4-8 record, 4.42 ERA, 1.30 WHIP, 9.9 K/9, and 2.2 BB/9.

In April, Kikuchi had three consecutive starts allowing one or zero runs including two starts against the Yankees, one being their home opener. April would be his best month of the season, pitching to a 2.94 ERA, 1.158 WHIP, 36 strikeouts, and only 8 walks. From there, however, his ERA started to rise due to some shorter outings and higher run totals. When teams found a rhythm against Kikuchi, they hit him extremely hard. For a few examples, he allowed eight hits and five runs in a May 26th outing against Detroit, nine hits and five runs one start later against Pittsburgh, seven hits and five runs against Boston on June 17th, eight hits and four runs against Cleveland on June 23rd, and he finished his first half allowing six hits, three walks, and seven runs to Arizona. Add all of the innings pitched in those games, and Kikuchi allowed 26 earned runs while pitching 19 innings. That'll inflate the ERA.

Looking at Kikuchi's numbers between this year and last year, there aren't any incredible discrepancies with his strikeout, walk, hit, or home run per 9 totals. The same goes for his quality of pitches. It's pretty odd. However, he hasn't had enough really good starts to offset the really bad ones, especially when it came to the last few weeks. That's not to say he hasn't had good moments either; he struck out 13 hitters against San Francisco last week, he threw an eight-inning gem against the Twins on May 10th, and he's had three outings in which he's struck out 9 hitters.
<h2>Yariel Rodríguez</h2>
<strong>Grade: </strong>B+

Maybe it's just me, but this signing went somewhat under-the-radar last offseason. Nonetheless, it's turning out to be an excellent acquisition for the Blue Jays. Rodríguez has made eight starts for Toronto, pitching to a 3.78 ERA, 1.38 WHIP, 9.7 K/9, and 4.9 BB/9. With the team mindful of his workload, Rodríguez's first few outings were relatively short, but he showed glimpses of being a valid piece to the rotation before missing over a month and a half due to thoracic spine inflammation.

Rodríguez returned to the rotation on June 21st, but he had the worst outing of his young career against Guardians, only recording four outs and allowing two hits, three walks, and four earned runs. He clearly put that in the rearview mirror, as his next three starts featured a 1.62 ERA and 19 strikeouts over 16.2 innings. This included a start against the Houston Astros on Canada Day, as well as a start against the Mariners in front of the "Northern Invasion". He was ready for the big stage.

Rodríguez pitches with a lot of emotion, and he's been doing it since he stepped on the major league mound for the first time. In fact, once he emerged from the dugout prior to his first start against the Rockies, he spit out a mouthful of water, struck out two of the first three batters he faced, and danced off the mound with a fist pump. It was almost Stroman-esque.

https://twitter.com/Hall_Thomas_/status/1809712186102538521

The key to Rodríguez's success over the past couple of weeks has been fastball command, something Pete Walker referenced on Sportsnet's <em>Blair and Barker </em>last week. "<em>When he's locating that fastball, it's got a special cut to it, you could almost call it a cutter at times...he can also sink the ball,</em>" Walker said. "<em>If he gets them in the box consistently, he's going to be a force because his secondary stuff, he's got creativity as a pitcher.</em>" Couple that with a pair of different arm delivery angles, and he's got a good level of deception as well.

The Blue Jays should be excited about Rodríguez going forward, and he may have a spot solidified now that Toronto's rotation <em>could </em>look different after the trade deadline.

<hr />

<h2 class="mb-5 text-2xl font-bold">Previously…</h2>
<ul class="mb-5 list-disc pl-8">
 	<li class=""><a class="text-accent" href="https://bluejaysnation.com/news/blue-jays-2024-mid-season-report-cards-infielders" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><strong class="text-lg font-bold">Blue Jays 2024 Mid-Season Report Cards: Infielders</strong></a></li>
 	<li class=""><a class="text-accent" href="https://bluejaysnation.com/news/blue-jays-2024-mid-season-report-cards-outfielders" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><strong class="text-lg font-bold">Blue Jays 2024 Mid-Season Report Cards: Outfielders</strong></a></li>
 	<li><a href="https://bluejaysnation.com/news/blue-jays-2024-mid-season-report-cards-catchers"><strong>Blue Jays 2024 Mid-Season Report Cards: Catchers</strong></a></li>
</ul>

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