One of the many races for spots on the Blue Jays’ 26-man roster in spring training is the one involving the team’s fifth starter.

Heading into camp, it was Trent Thornton, Shun Yamaguchi, and Ryan Borucki competing for the final spot in the Jays’ revamped rotation behind Hyun-Jin Ryu, Tanner Roark, Chase Anderson, and Matt Shoemaker. But, due to some elbow soreness, Borucki is now out of the running for a rotation gig out of camp, making it a race between Thornton and Yamaguchi.

This whole thing is obviously really unfortunate for Borucki as he had his entire 2019 season derailed due to elbow issues. That said, it’s better the Jays take it slow with Borucki rather than rushing him into a competition for a starting gig right out of the gate. That’s the benefit of having starting pitching depth.

At this stage, it’s really hard to imagine Thornton isn’t Toronto’s fifth starter travelling north at the end of March. He capitalized on his opportunity last year and led the team in innings pitched and worked in the off-season to improve his off-speed pitch. It also doesn’t hurt that Yamaguchi had a, uh, rough start to his career in North America…

I mean, that’s just one start in spring training for Yamaguchi, so it really means very little in the grand scheme of things, but I would imagine he has an uphill climb over the incumbent Thornton, so it certainly doesn’t help his case. Given he was a weapon out of the ‘pen during his wildly successful season in Japan last year, it’s hard to imagine the Jays use him in a different role. That’s just my hunch, though. Things can change quickly.