The Toronto Blue Jays have been dealt a few different curveballs this season – injuries, poor performance, and becoming sellers at the trade deadline – all of which have them playing spoiler as the calendar sits a couple of weeks from September.

With Alek Manoah on the injured list for the remainder of the season and the Jays pitching depth thin at the higher levels following the Yusei Kikuchi trade, right-hander Bowden Francis is getting an opportunity to work out of the rotation again this season – a move that went sideways to start the campaign.

Francis earned a spot in the Jays’ starting corps out of Spring Training with Manoah sidelined (with a different injury) and a strong showing in Dunedin – and the Florida product struggled mightily out of the gate. Following his first two starts, allowing seven earned runs through 8 1/3 innings, Francis was moved to the bullpen and worked in tandem with fellow right-hander Yariel Rodríguez.

The Cuban product would start the game, throw roughly 65-80 pitches, and would be followed by Francis who would eat up another two to three innings in a bulk reliever role. After a tough outing against Colorado, the former Milwaukee Brewers prospect put together a strong showing against the Padres and Royals before landing on the IL with tendonitis in his forearm in late April.

He would return a month later and worked mostly out of the bullpen through the month and into July – compiling a 4.92 FIP and allowing 11 earned runs through the 11 outings, making one start. Through the sample, Francis had an impressive run where he allowed zero runs through five outings and was starting to put better results on the board.

With the Jays aiming to be sellers at the trade deadline and Kikuchi being the club’s best trade chip, the club optioned Francis to triple-A just before the All-Star break. The move was to get the right-hander back into the rotation and stretched out so he could be in line to take the Japanese product’s spot once he was officially traded.

Francis would return on July 29th, starting the second game of the Monday doubleheader against the Baltimore Orioles, and the 28-year-old put on an impressive showing against one of the top squads in the AL East. He would go 5 2/3 innings and allowed just five hits, one walk, and three earned runs before getting pulled – striking out two batters while commanding the strike zone to the tune of a 67% strike rate.

His next outing was a relief appearance against the Yankees in extra innings on August 4th but since then, Francis has moved back to the rotation and has put together the three strongest appearances of the campaign.

Facing the Orioles for a second time and the Angels on the road, Francis allowed three runs across 12 innings while striking out 15 batters total compared to just one walk in the Baltimore contest. He allowed four hits across both starts and limited the Angels to just one hit on the day, a solo shot by Mickey Moniak in the bottom of the third.

Looking to keep things rolling, Francis was tasked with saving the Blue Jays from getting swept in Chicago earlier today and the righty delivered. He went seven strong innings and allowed just three hits on the day with seven strikeouts, holding the Cubs scoreless while also producing zero walks. The Jays produced just one run in the form of a Joey Loperfido solo homer but it was all the team needed to avoid the sweep and return home on a winning note.

With the Jays’ current trajectory being focused on 2025, the odds are high that Francis will finish the campaign working out of the club’s rotation. There is only one other arm who could push Francis back to the bullpen in Jake Bloss, who was acquired as part of the trade package for Kikuchi, but that is still to be determined. Even with the potential emergence of Bloss sooner than later this year, it would be an awkward decision to push Francis back into a relief role considering his last three starts have produced a total of three earned runs across 19 innings of work.

For now, the idea to keep Francis in the rotation makes sense given his recent track record and could bode well for the club’s future, especially if he can continue this trend throughout August and into September.

The Jays are supposedly looking to contend in 2025 and will need to do some heavy lifting this winter to get the squad into postseason contention form again. Should Francis be able to convince the front office he can handle a rotation spot next season, the club could use some of the funds for other areas on the roster to try and build a team that could handle the AL East and win a meaningful game in October for the first time since 2015.

That’s putting the ‘cart before the horse’ in the grand scheme of things but for now, Bowden Francis is doing all the right things when younger players are getting an opportunity to shine amid a lost season for the Blue Jays.