Are Blue Jays Putting Too Much Early Mileage on Their Relief Staff?
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It's not been the start to the year that the Toronto Blue Jays envisioned, but they're not out of the AL East race by any means.
Despite being two games under .500 entering Tuesday, they're only 2.5 back from the New York Yankees, a team that does not look as dominant as they did in the early going.
But because the Blue Jays have put themselves in this early hole, they're looking to chase as many wins as possible when those opportunities present itself, and that has caused some high bullpen usage already with members of their Opening Day rotation either not available due to injury or because they were sent to the minors.
That is a major concern going forward.
As outlined by Thomas Hall of Blue Jays Nation, nearly half of the 129 innings pitched by this bullpen has come from four guys -- Jeff Hoffman, Yimi Garcia, Chad Green and Brendon Little -- who are all on pace to set their career highs in relief appearances, innings pitched or both.
It's only the first full week of May, so that is alarming.
Toronto has to find better ways to incorporate their other relievers going forward, and that falls on both the coaching staff and the players who need to show they can get outs in high-leverage situations.
Some of this will be helped once the offense starts coming around.
If the Blue Jays are able to create more separation during games, then others outside of the main four relievers can be utilized.
Still, it's concerning that there are so few arms that manager John Schneider trusts at the moment.
Something needs to change, or else by the time Toronto figures things out at the plate and in their starting rotation, the bullpen will be too gassed to close out games when they matter the most.
