Toronto Blue Jays Veteran Pitcher Showing Elite Command This Season

The Toronto Blue Jays have received excellent production from their veteran pitcher this season.

Apr 27, 2025; Bronx, New York, USA; Toronto Blue Jays starting pitcher Chris Bassitt (40) delivers a pitch during the second inning against the New York Yankees at Yankee Stadium. | Vincent Carchietta-Imagn Images

After a strong start to the season, the Toronto Blue Jays have had a tough stretch of late, resulting in them falling under the .500 mark.

It looked like the Blue Jays were off to a strong start to the year after a nice winter, but the franchise has struggled of late.

Coming into the campaign after a nice winter of upgrades, Toronto was hopeful to be able to contend in the American League East. Even though this is a challenging division, the Blue Jays do feature quite a bit of talent on the roster.

Unfortunately, they are underperforming in some areas, with the offense being the main culprit.

So far this campaign, the offense for the Blue Jays ranks in the bottom half of the league in both OPS and runs scored. Considering the type of talent and the number of All-Star caliber players in the batting order, the unit should do much better.

While there is still a lot of time for them to turn it around on offense, Toronto has been led by a veteran starter so far this year in their rotation.

Tim Britton of The Athletic (subscription required) recently wrote about the excellent start to the season for veteran right-hander Chris Bassitt of the Blue Jays.

“Bassitt is generating chase on roughly one-third of his pitches out of the strike zone, up from annual averages around a quarter of the time. The unpredictability of his mix works, sure, but the big difference this year has been Bassitt’s command around the strike zone.”

The 36-year-old is off to a great start to this campaign for Toronto and has been arguably their best pitcher so far.

In six starts, he has totaled a 2-2 record, 2.62 ERA, and 39 strikeouts in 34.1 innings pitched.

Likely one of the main reasons for the improved production from Bassitt has been his ability to make batters swing and miss. Compared to his career stats, he has seen his strikeout rate improve by nearly two Ks per nine innings.

Furthermore, while he is striking more batters out, his walk rate has also decreased by just over one walk per nine innings pitched.

Walking less batters and striking out more is a recipe for success in the Majors, and Bassitt is trending toward a career year in 2025.

Unfortunately, the Blue Jays need more than just excellent performances from the 36-year-old to turn things around.

Hopefully, the offense will begin to reach their potential with Vladimir Guererro Jr. starting to show some signs of breaking out of his slow start. Furthermore, top free agent signing Anthony Santander will hopefully be hitting soon as well.

Overall, the campaign is still early for Toronto and there are some things to like about the team this season.