CLEARWATER, Fla. -- As the Blue Jays trudged through the heart of their Spring Training schedule this weekend in Dunedin and Clearwater, one of the club’s most impressive performances came 300 miles across the state in Miami.
Yimi Garcia, pitching in front of a roaring crowd of 35,890 at the World Baseball Classic, gave the Dominican Republic a clean fifth inning against Venezuela to keep his country within two runs. It’s the exact situation you can expect to see Garcia in more now that the Blue Jays have added Erik Swanson.
For mid-March, the moment was as close as you’ll get to an MLB postseason atmosphere. Garcia mowed through Luis Arraez, Salvador Perez and Gleyber Torres on 12 pitches, topping out at 98.2 mph. That’s harder than any pitch Garcia threw in 2022. Again, it’s March.
“He came in [to camp] getting prepared a little faster for the WBC,” Blue Jays manager John Schneider said after the Blue Jays' 8-3 win over the Phillies on Sunday. “But he just goes about his business. You can count on him in any situation. It was nice to see him get in there in that situation last night, because he’s a huge part of our bullpen. You look at him, [Jordan Romano], Swanson and [Tim] Mayza. He was really, really good for us last year and he’s going to be again this year.”
Garcia was quietly one of the Blue Jays’ most valuable pitchers in 2022, posting a 3.10 ERA over 61 appearances. Over half of those (35) came in the eighth inning, and while you won’t see him much in the fifth -- pitch counts can lead to heavy bullpen usage in the World Baseball Classic -- expect to see Garcia moved around even more in '23.
This is the point where decent bullpens become legitimate strengths. Any contender worth its weight in baseball has a shutdown closer, which the Blue Jays certainly have in Romano. Having one capable “setup man” is a start, but with the Blue Jays’ current depth as impressive as its been in years, Garcia can be the movable piece, targeting matchups in the sixth or seventh inning and allowing Schneider to be aggressive earlier.
“That’s what you can do with guys like [Garcia],” Schneider said. “You can do it with Mayza if there’s lefties. You can do it with Anthony Bass against a string of righties. We did it with Yimi a bit last year, but it is nice to have that extra piece to raise your floor a little bit when you know you have a couple guys behind him.”
Toronto’s bullpen had long trailed behind baseball’s powerhouses, both in terms of velocity and effectiveness, but the organization has finally started to turn the corner in this regard. From a developmental standpoint, the Blue Jays are chasing velocity and upside with their prospects, and in Garcia and Swanson, you have two of this front office’s best moves over the past two offseasons.
Garcia was brought in as a free agent on a deal that’s already shown its value, while Swanson’s addition this past offseason was overshadowed by some of the larger moves that followed.
Swanson is coming off a 1.68 ERA and 70 strikeouts over 53 2/3 innings last season for the Mariners. Pair those numbers with some impressive peripherals and you have a reliever capable of closing games for many clubs, but who can now be used just like Garcia.
“He really knows what he’s doing. He really knows how to pair his two pitches with one another, the fastball and split,” Schneider said. “I didn’t realize until seeing him up close how deceptive he is. He hides the ball really well, kind of back behind him. He knows exactly what he’s trying to do with each hitters.”
The bullpen will always be an area contenders can add to at the Trade Deadline, which is exactly what the Blue Jays did last summer by adding Anthony Bass and Zach Pop, who has earned positive reviews in camp. Going into the season with this level of depth puts the Blue Jays in a fine position, too -- and this isn’t just depth for the sake of depth. There’s upside, and most important of all, there’s more swing-and-miss potential than the team has had in years.
So much can go wrong between now and the end of 162 games, of course -- that’s the nature of baseball -- but by adding another legitimate back-end reliever alongside the underrated Garcia, the Blue Jays have created a few more ways that this can go right.