Blue Jays’ Bowden Francis making the most of his opportunity

August 19, 2024

After a three months spent pitching in relief, and a brief stint at triple-A to rebuild workload, Bowden Francis has returned to the Blue Jays rotation and pitched brilliantly. He’s trying to prove he deserves to stay in the starting mix in 2025.

CHICAGO — Think there isn’t anything on the line for the Toronto Blue Jays in the coming weeks? Ask Bowden Francis, working to prove he can hold up as a starter. Ask Joey Loperfido, trying to make the most of his loud tools and establish himself as a big-leaguer. Ask Davis Schneider, currently navigating the labyrinth of his worst slump since high-A.

No matter how irrelevant the wins and losses are for the Blue Jays on a macro level — Sunday’s narrow 1-0 victory over the Chicago Cubs brought Toronto back up to a mere eight games below .500 — the individual performances that aggregate to influence those results matter a great deal on a micro level for athletes competing for careers.

Francis, for instance, is determined to prove his future belongs in a major-league rotation, an opportunity he seized with a spectacular spring training but quickly lost his grasp on with a pair of rocky starts once the season began.

After a dejected three months spent pitching in relief, and a brief stint at triple-A to rebuild workload, Francis has returned to the rotation and pitched brilliantly, adding another strong, efficient outing to his resume Sunday with seven shutout innings against the Cubs.

“Can’t say enough about him,” said Blue Jays manager John Schneider. “What we asked of him early in the year, it’s tough to do. From spring training, he wanted to be a starter. And it didn’t work out at the beginning. And he’s getting a chance now and he’s taken it and run with it.”

Francis struck out four of the first five batters he faced and was perfect through three, continuing a recent trend that’s seen him dramatically up his slider and splitter usage at the expense of his curveball, which he struggled to execute consistently earlier this season:

Francis didn’t allow a hit until the fourth, when Michael Busch dribbled a two-strike splitter up the third base line for an infield single before Seiya Suzuki flared an elevated fastball into shallow centre field no-man’s land. And an out later, Ernie Clement botched a routine groundball at short that should have gotten Francis out of the inning.

After a first-pitch splitter ran in to Dansby Swanson and appeared to put Francis in a difficult spot, sacrificing count leverage with the bases loaded, the right-hander found a way to make the most of the miss and exploit the opened-up outer third with a slider. His next three pitches were absolutely painted — fastball inside for a swinging strike, fastball outside for a foul ball, and back inside again with a splitter that put Swanson in a blender:

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“That was a big test,” Schneider said of Francis escaping the jam. “That’s him and his demeanour. He’s very, very slow in situations like that. … I think that’s him growing up a little bit and being able to pitch to those spots.”

Francis agreed, saying that learning to regulate his heartbeat in those situations has been a big progress point for him this year. The 28-year-old also feels that, with each passing start, he gets a better feel for how to dictate the pace of play from atop the rubber.

“I can control the game and speed to me. I can slow the game down. I can speed it up if I want to,” Francis said. “When you come in as a reliever, the game’s already set at a tempo. The hitters, they’re toeing in differently. As a starter, you can play a little more chess. Relievers, it’s more like checkers.”

Francis completed seven innings Sunday for a second consecutive outing and has now worked to a 2.16 ERA over five starts since rejoining the Blue Jays rotation, striking out 24, walking only three, and further solidifying his candidacy for a 2025 back-end starter role with each trip to the mound.

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Of course, he’ll have competition in that pursuit. The Blue Jays will likely look to acquire at least one major-league calibre starter this winter, and potentially a second — preferably someone optionable or capable of filling a swingman role. There’s also Adam Macko, who was trending towards a promotion this summer before encountering left forearm soreness and getting shut down, and Jake Bloss, who made his second start with the triple-A Buffalo Bisons on Friday, allowing only a single and a walk over four strong innings.

Bloss is on a workload limitation and the remainder of his season has been carefully mapped out, but if he’s healthy and effective that plan will include major-league outings. His arm certainly didn’t look tired Friday, as he sat 94 m.p.h. with his fastball and ran it up to 95.5. After evaluating Bloss in their pitching lab in Toronto recently, the Blue Jays feel he has room to add strength to his six-foot-three frame this winter and hold that velocity more consistently.

Loperfido, meanwhile, who began his Blue Jays tenure mired in a deep, four-for-36 funk that saw him strike out in nearly half his plate appearances, is finally showing signs of life with two hits and a walk across eight plate appearances entering Sunday, followed by this rocket off Shota Imanaga for his Blue Jays first home run:

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“I feel like all these guys have had my back through what was a tough couple weeks there. And I knew they were all pumped up when I came back into the dugout,” Loperfido said of his teammates and coaches. “To come through for those guys, especially in what ended up being a 1-0 game, it felt good. Not really knowing those guys too well, coming in here and struggling, and them having my back — it means a lot to me.”

A focus of Loperfido’s work with Blue Jays assistant hitting coach Matt Hague during his slump has been stability over his back leg early in his swing and controlling his move forward. Loperfido told Hague recently that the positions he’s been getting into at the plate have felt much better than earlier this season, despite the poor results. Days like Sunday, when he also worked a 10-pitch at-bat and hit a well-struck single, tell him he’s on the right track.

“When you’re struggling, you don’t go into it thinking, ‘Hey, I’m going to get big here and try to go outside of myself and what I can do,’” Loperfido said. “That’s when outcomes start to snowball, and the next thing you know, you’re not having the at-bats you want. You have to fight to get the momentum going the other way and get things going in your favour. And just try to stack good events, good outcomes, good at-bats on top of that.”

For Loperfido, producing and producing soon is paramount as Toronto’s outfield picture is on the verge of shifting down the stretch, with players arriving from triple-A battling for their own openings to audition for a 2025 role.

Start with Nathan Lukes, who rejoined the Bisons on Friday after missing two months following surgery to repair a ligament in his left thumb. The 30-year-old’s done everything and more to earn a major-league role throughout his Blue Jays career — he’s hit .316/.388/.466 with a 125 wRC+ with the Bisons since 2022 — but has been the repeated victim of roster crunches when healthy and ill-timed injuries when opportunities arose.

Yet circumstances are currently aligning, and it wouldn’t be a surprise if Lukes had a locker in the Blue Jays clubhouse at some point during the team’s upcoming seven-game homestand — potentially as early as Monday. The club could open the necessary roster spot by optioning Steward Berroa, who’s provided immense clubhouse energy during his two unexpected big-league stints this season, but is a lower-priority prospect who’s started only twice this month.

Certainly lower priority than Jonatan Clase who, like Lukes, had two hits and a homer with Buffalo on Saturday. Clase played only 59 triple-A games in the Seattle Mariners system before being rushed to the majors this May, only a month shy of his 22nd birthday. Athletic and toolsy, Clase still has plenty of development ahead of him and the Blue Jays believe he’ll benefit from more time at triple-A finishing school, which is why he’ll remain at Buffalo for now.

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But you’ll likely see Clase in the majors before this season is through, perhaps when rosters expand in September. A switch-hitter with 80-grade speed and a 110-m.p.h. maximum exit velocity this season, Clase possesses gobs of upside for the Blue Jays to try to unlock. When he gets up to the majors, they’ll want to see him play.

That could make lineup decisions interesting for Blue Jays manager John Schneider in September, as he juggles outfield playing time between younger prospects breaking into the majors, established regulars George Springer and Daulton Varsho, plus part-timers Addison Barger and Davis Schneider.

Of course, Schneider’s playing time already has decreased dramatically due to the deep slump he carried into Sunday’s game, hitting .165/.236/.250 with a 33-per-cent strikeout rate since June 1. And those opportunities could diminish further if Lukes and Clase enter the fold, and Clement, Will Wagner, and Barger continue out-playing him for infield reps.

Now, Schneider isn’t as over-matched as he’s looked over this recent stretch, just as he wasn’t as prodigious as he looked hitting .403/.535/.881 with 17 extra-base hits over the first 21 games of his MLB career. But the Blue Jays will have to walk a fine line going forward, giving Schneider runway in favourable matchups to continue trying to work out of this while awarding playing time to others who are earning it.

Toronto’s infield picture will crowd further once Bo Bichette’s ready to return from his right calf injury. The shortstop recently resumed hitting and throwing in Florida, and is expected to begin a running progression in the next week.

Bichette’s ramp-up will continue in Florida for now, but if he pops up at Rogers Centre any time in the near future for a check-in with Blue Jays staff, you’ll know he’s on the verge of beginning a rehab assignment.

So, once rosters expand and Bichette returns, that’s a lot of moving parts for Toronto’s coaching staff to maneuvre. Opportunities will arise for some and evaporate for others. The Blue Jays season may be lost. But a ballplayer always has something to prove.

“This game is always humbling,” Francis said. “I’ve got to keep going. I can’t ever sit back. I’ve got to keep trucking along. I’ve got to forget about this one. And get ready in five days.”

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Blue Jays’ Bowden Francis making the most of his opportunity

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