Blue Jays face tough questions after another poor Bowden Francis start ...Middle East

MINNEAPOLIS — A few Toronto Blue Jays pitchers were chatting recently when Kevin Gausman pointed out that Paul Skenes, the Pittsburgh Pirates phenom with 36 games under his belt, already has 10 more career starts than Bowden Francis.

“When we want to talk about early struggles or learning the game or understanding your game, understanding what the league is trying to do to you, he has less time than Paul Skenes,” fellow starter Chris Bassitt relayed Sunday morning. “I still think he’s going to have a great year. He’s just learning the game, learning how to prep before a game, what to look for, his zones to put his pitches in. It’s more the learning curve we’re seeing than anything else.”

Interesting outlook, especially as that learning curve steepened further for Francis during a 6-3 loss to the Minnesota Twins. The 29-year-old right-hander allowed four runs — two of them on solo shots by Brooks Lee and Christian Vazquez in the fourth — in 3.1 innings, making his 26th career start and 61st career game another troublingly short outing.

There was improvement in terms of limiting damage from the two-homer, seven-run, 1.2-inning mess he delivered last Tuesday at home against the Philadelphia Phillies. But with five walks and five hits allowed versus the Twins, there was still plenty for the Blue Jays to worry about, especially with his rotation spot quickly devolving into a second bullpen day.

The seeming progress he made in a five-shutout, six-inning outing May 27 at Texas now appears to be an outlier as he’s managed to go more than five innings only once in his last eight starts. Between that and the regular bullpen day since Max Scherzer hit the injured list after his first start of the season, it’s put a significant strain on the relief corps.

Meanwhile, even as the Blue Jays (35-30) have surged with 19 wins in their last 29 games, they’re now 4-9 when Francis starts, and with his next turn due Saturday at Philadelphia, there’s added urgency to the question of how sustainable it is to continue starting him.

Now, the lack of alternatives is a major factor, although the depth dynamics are beginning to change.

Spencer Turnbull, the May signee whose 35-day option is expiring, appears set to join the Blue Jays in St. Louis for the series against the Cardinals, in a role to be determined. The initial thought was to build him up for the rotation, and he got up to 80 pitches Friday in his last rehab start, but his fastball sat just under 90 m.p.h., down from where it’s been, and it’s possible he begins in the bullpen as he further builds up.

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That could push Eric Lauer, who’s posted a 2.08 ERA over 26 innings of bulk and starting work, into the rotation for Wednesday, when the bullpen game next comes up. Turnbull could team up with him in a piggyback situation, too.

Another possibility suddenly on the horizon is Canadian lefty Adam Macko, who underwent knee surgery during spring training and joined triple-A Buffalo on Sunday, throwing four no-hit innings with three walks and four strikeouts. He averaged 93.6 m.p.h. with his fastball, topping out at 96.4, and while he’s likely to need some more outings to fully regain his form, the club viewed him as a viable starting option before his injury.

Then there’s Max Scherzer, who was slated to throw three innings and roughly 55 pitches in a controlled-setting at Dunedin, Fla. There will be plenty of focus on his recovery as this is the workload threshold where his thumb issues keep flaring up, but if he emerges from it fine, his next outing is likely to be with Buffalo to accelerate his path back.

In the interim, the Blue Jays will need their offence to out-hit any troubles Francis encounters, something they appeared to do early. They staked him to a 1-0 lead in the second on Alan Roden’s RBI double, and after the Twins took the lead on a Vazquez RBI groundout and Trevor Larnach sac fly in the bottom half, they went up again in the third on Alejandro Kirk’s run-scoring single and George Springer’s RBI double.

Francis gave that back again in the fourth, when Lee and Vazquez opened the inning with solo shots and the Twins locked things down from there.

And so, as the Blue Jays work to figure out other parts of their rotation, they also must consider what’s best for them and for Francis. Bassitt commended the club for “basically just trusting him that we’re going to figure it out,” and pitching coach Pete Walker for being “unbelievable,” adding that this blip for his rotation-mate is “understanding this is part of the punch.”

“Sending a guy down and moving a guy because they’re struggling, that’s not how you develop someone into being a good big-leaguer. It’s just not,” said Bassitt. “What drives me crazy is the so-called protecting a guy. Even in the minor leagues, you see a guy give up five or six runs over two, three innings, and all of a sudden it’s like, hey, we’re going to pull him. No. You’re at 50 pitches, you have 50 more pitches, go pitch and figure it out. If you’re not trying to figure it out in double-A and you’re not trying to figure it out in triple-A and you’re constantly protecting guys, you’re literally not helping in any way.

“So I feel like the Blue Jays do a really, really good job of, if you’re going to get exposed, go get exposed, we know long-term that’s going to help you,” added Bassitt. “We’re grown men. We can take the so-called punches on the chin. Go figure it out.”

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