Regarding goals for the upcoming season, few will be more important for the Toronto Blue Jays than keeping their starting rotation as healthy as possible in 2025, particularly newly acquired starter Max Scherzer as he enters his age-40 campaign.

Of course, that won’t be an easy challenge, given the future Hall of Famer will turn 41 this July and only made nine starts last season due to multiple injuries. But this franchise has fared pretty well in that department in recent seasons, maintaining the health of veteran arms like Kevin Gausman, José Berríos and Chris Bassitt since their respective arrivals.

And they’ll need to repeat that success for their one-year, $15.5-million gamble on Scherzer to pay off this season.

Nothing has changed from a competitiveness standpoint for the three-time Cy Young Award winner, who, as he proved in his limited 43.1 innings of work last season, remains as fiery as ever. While he isn’t the same front-line starter he was earlier in his career, his body of work over the past two years suggests he can still make a considerable impact as he fights off Father Time.

In those nine starts last year, Scherzer posted a sub-four ERA and punched out a respectable 40 batters, accounting for over half a win per FanGraphs’ Wins Above Replacement. Then, in 2023, his most recent healthiest season, he was a two-win pitcher and produced a 3.77 ERA and 28-per-cent strikeout rate in 27 starts over 152.2 innings.

Throughout that season, the eight-time All-Star’s performance improved during starts he made on five or more days of rest rather than the regular four, meaning the fresher he was, the better his results were — in most cases, at least.

Toronto must squeeze as much juice as it can out of Scherzer during his 18th — and potentially final — major league season. If he makes somewhere between 20-25 starts this season, which would be an ideal range, that’d be a huge victory. But, his overall results need to fall in line with his production (when healthy) from the previous two campaigns.

For that to happen, the Blue Jays must strategically navigate the 6-foot-3 hurler’s workload over the next six-plus months. So, how might they go about providing him with the necessary amount of rest throughout this year’s 162-game schedule? There should be a few different potential avenues.

The first includes deploying a six-man starting rotation at multiple points during the regular season.

Rolling with six starters isn’t ideal over an extended span, as it forces you to operate with seven relievers instead of the traditional eight (in every month except September), placing a heightened workload on the bullpen — which most clubs prefer to avoid. However, there are certain stretches where it’d make sense to take that risk, particularly coming out of spring training.

Since the Blue Jays rotation is now among the oldest in baseball, it’d behoove them to afford their starters an extra day of rest across the first few weeks of the season, especially with a seven-game homestand on tap against the Baltimore Orioles and Washington Nationals before their first off day arrives on April 3. That’s followed by a 13-game stretch before their next off day.

In theory, Toronto could use a six-man rotation for nearly all of April, at least until closer to the end of the month when the club will receive off days on both ends of its series in the Bronx versus the New York Yankees, playing three games in five days.

Another benefit to this scenario is it would allow Yariel Rodríguez to be stretched out as a starter this spring, which may happen anyway after he was utilized in a hybrid role last season. From there, he could continue starting early in the year before transitioning to a multi-inning bullpen role once a stretch of off days hit in May and June.

If necessary, the Blue Jays could invoke the use of a six-man rotation again on June 24, beginning a span of 16 consecutive games before receiving their next off day on July 10. It may also be wise to carry six starters following the All-Star break, marking the beginning of a 19-game stretch in 21 days, presenting a potential landing spot for rehabbing starter Alek Manoah.

They could also conclude the regular season with a six-man staff, considering they’ll play 19 games in 20 days — including travel to Tampa Bay and Kansas City — down the stretch in September.

Most projection models have Scherzer making around 20 starts in 2025, seven fewer than in ’23. Even if he ultimately surpasses his projection, finishing closer to 25 or perhaps even 30 — which he hasn’t hit since ’21 — on the higher end, another way to maintain his availability would be to enlist a spot starter from time to time.

There will be instances when the schedule won’t allow for a six-man rotation. During those periods, it’ll still be crucial for the Blue Jays to have Scherzer pitch on five days rest as often as possible or as often as he’d prefer, creating the need for either a bullpen day or an opportunity for someone from the organization’s triple-A rotation.

Rodríguez will almost certainly be first in line for any spot starts that arise. But on days when he’s unavailable, the likes of Jake Bloss and Adam Macko (one career triple-A start) — the only other healthy starters currently on the 40-man roster — will prove incredibly important. Along those lines, Eric Lauer and Adam Kloffenstein, a pair of non-roster invitees to spring training, may also play crucial roles.

Manoah will also have a role to play, too, upon completing his rehab from Tommy John surgery. Considering he has two minor-league options remaining, he could potentially bounce back and forth between Toronto and Buffalo as needed before rosters expand in September — assuming Scherzer and the rest of the starting staff remain healthy, that is.

Piggybacking multiple starters isn’t an ideal scenario, though it’s one the Blue Jays utilized quite a bit early on last season with Rodríguez and Bowden Francis. It left the team short in the bullpen on days when either of those two started. At the same time, that strategy helped piece together a starter’s workload when that turn in the rotation came around.

The chances of Scherzer being on board with that idea probably aren’t high, and understandably so, given he’s part of the old-school philosophy of pitching as deep as possible each time out. And that certainly tracked during his last full season in 2023, where he threw fewer than five innings in just five of his 27 starts — one of which was injury-related.

Nevertheless, despite that mentality, pairing Scherzer with another multi-inning arm is worth keeping an open mind about, especially if he endures any physical hiccups this spring that could impact his build-up prior to Opening Day.