Chris Bassitt is one of the most versatile pitchers in Major League Baseball. Donning the PitchCom device on his belt, the right-handed starter selects what he wants to throw and relays it back to the catcher, a practice not normally accepted across the league, with the catcher usually the one in control (or at least receiving signs from the dugout and then relaying to the pitcher). For Bassitt, he is a different animal given the eight different pitches he can turn to and while the odd pitch clock violation may occur, the practice seems to be working for the 35-year-old as of late.

Through April, Bassitt was struggling to find consistency on the mound while also dealing with some command issues out of the gate. In six starts (which included one March contest), the veteran hurler posted a 5.64 ERA and a 5.51 FIP through 30 1/3 innings, collecting 17 walks and 30 strikeouts in the process. Opponents were teeing up his offerings, evidenced by the .320 average and the .883 OPS, but the walks were not helping his cause as he also saw his WHIP drive to a 1.85 mark early in the campaign.

Through the opening month, Bassitt saw both the highs and lows of what he is capable of. He allowed four earned runs twice and one seven-earned run affair against the Dodgers but also had a stretch of three starts (18 1/3 innings) where he allowed just four earned runs while striking out 17, helping keep his ERA from ballooning higher given the other high scoring games.

Bassitt was candid about his and the Blue Jays starters’ early season struggles in mid-April as well, “I’ll be honest with you, I’m pretty disappointed in our starters so far. This is my third start and two of my starts were terrible, in my opinion, so I’m no help to the problem. The biggest thing for us is getting our starters going. I’m so confident in the guys we have, it’s just that the first 10 or 11 games have been pretty rough for us, outside of Berrios.”

While the narrative on the rotation may have changed since Bassitt last spoke to Keegan Matheson, the veteran arm is taking matters into his own hands to turn things around and did so with a stellar May showcase that has slipped into June and seen his ERA drop by almost two full points.

Since his May 1st outing, ‘The Hound Dog’ has allowed just 12 earned runs and 11 walks through 43 innings, a spectacular turnaround from the command issues that dogged him to start the campaign. Opponents are still finding ways to get on base from time to time but he can limit the damage, seeing his ERA through the seven outings sit at 2.51 while his FIP sits just above at 2.70.

At the plate, his offerings are fooling the opposing batters with more frequency, as the slash line since the start of May comes in at .214/.284/.270 with a .555 OPS and a .277 BAbip. He has seven strikeouts in each of his last three starts and opponents have not scored more than three runs in a single contest since his seven-run Dodgers outing back on April 26th.

Looking ahead, if Bassitt can continue on his current pace and trajectory and teammate Kevin Gausman can also break out of his troubling times, the Blue Jays rotation appears to be trending in the right direction heading into an important and difficult part of the schedule. The same can’t be said for the bats at this time, who squandered away Bassitt’s eight-inning one-run ball last night against Oakland.

For now, Bassitt has turned a corner and is doing his job while the Blue Jays batters need to figure out how to break out of their respective slumps as well to help put more wins on the record.