Archangel Gabriel Pun (Series Preview: Toronto Blue Jays (33-23) vs. Detroit Tigers (23-33))
Gabriel Moreno to be called up, Danny Jansen to IL.
No I will not be explaining my All-Star voting at this time :)
Was it overall a good series in Kansas City against the Royals? Yes. Was it disappointing that the pitching exploded on Wednesday, leaving the sweep incomplete? Yes. Did losing Danny Jansen to injury again suck? Oh fuck yes. Am I completely uninterested in dwelling on that now? Yes. Is that entirely because of Gabriel Moreno’s imminent call-up? Oh yeah, you bet. I haven’t been excited since the last time the Jays called up a Top Ten hitting prospect at their respective position. In 2019. When we called up three of them.
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TRANSACTIONS
The bad news? Danny Jansen broke his right pinky after being hit by a pitch from Royals reliever Albert Abreu. While the exact term of his injury isn’t yet known, he’ll need a fair bit of time off, and he was placed on the 10-Day IL. While Zack Collins was called up to replace him and hit a dinger on Wednesday, he’s not a long-term replacement for the value that Jansen provides.
The good news? Catching prospect Gabriel Moreno, debatably a Top Ten or Five prospect in baseball will be getting called up at some point this coming weekend.
Moreno, described by FanGraphs as “the most athletic catcher to come along since J.T. Realmuto”, is the overwhelming consensus pick for the Jays’ top prospect after a breakout 2021 season that, while injury-plagued, was certainly impressive. At Double-A, the 22 year-old Venezuelan slashed .373/.441/.651 with a 192 wRC+. Few, but some, evaluators have described Moreno as being better than consensus top catching prospect Adley Rutschman of the Baltimore Orioles.
In a preseason evaluation, FanGraphs’ Brendan Gawlowski and Eric Longenhagen had the following to say about Moreno:
The visual evaluation of Moreno's power does not support the idea that he can slug .500, his career mark. One could argue that's because he was most widely seen coming off a hand injury that might dilute his power, but his batted ball data from before the injury also indicates his Double-A output was inflated. You can't fake an 11% strikeout rate, though, which is Moreno's career mark. While he's an aggressive hitter who sometimes takes fundamentally unsound swings, he has 70-grade bat control and tends to find a way to poke, spray, and slash contact all over the field. He can square high-end velocity, and though his overall hit tool grade projects below his raw barrel control due to his flawed approach, there's enough offense to make him an All-Star offensive performer at catcher. He also has rare speed for the position and has an overall skill set like that of a less-toolsy Jason Kendall. Defensively, Moreno catches on one knee until there are runners on or there are two strikes, then sets up in a very wide crouch as if he's always preparing to block a breaking ball in the dirt. He'll sometimes finish on one knee in an effort to frame a pitch on the edge, even if he didn't start there. He popped in the 1.95-1.98 range during Fall League, a slightly above-average range of times for throws down to second base.
Moreno’s greatest strength as a hitter is his ability to generate hits, Alejandro Kirk style. In Triple-A this season, he’s not set the world on fire, but has been very good, slashing .320/.380/.404, his power numbers regressing a bit, but his ability to get on base via bat control and solid contact remaining as good as ever. When it comes to defence, Moreno profiles solidly, if not spectacularly. His biggest strength is his arm, as he’s caught over 50 percent of runners who have run on him this season, though this may not necessarily translate to MLB, where baserunners are more selective about stealing bases. An infielder when originally signed, the Jays have experimented with Moreno at the corner infield positions, though those spots are locked up enough at the Major League level that I don’t see him getting much time there at all.
As of right now, we don’t know what the corresponding move for Moreno, who is already on the 40-man roster, would be. The three most likely moves would seem to be: Sending a reliever down (unlikely given how much they’ve needed them but not completely unreasonable), designating Bradley Zimmer for assignment (almost certainly an offensive upgrade, but subtracting their best defensive outfielder and the only one not named George Springer who can play center field well), or doing a straight-up swap with the recently recalled Zack Collins. This last option is the most likely in my opinion, but the Jays have carried three catchers before, and may elect to keep Collins around as a lefty bench bat once again, keeping in mind that he, too, would be an offensive upgrade over Zimmer.
This, of course, doesn’t take into account what might happen when Danny Jansen comes back, though it may be an indication that Jansen won’t be back for a while, given how much playing time Moreno will need to get acclimated with the Blue Jays. Once the senior of the Jays’ three enviable catchers does return though, it will be interesting to see how it shakes out, though Moreno will have to play well enough in Jansen’s stead to justify staying up, of course.
Lost in the hubbub of Moreno’s ascendance is the first two games of Matt Gage’s Major League career, who was swapped in for Jeremy Beasley and pitching one and two-thirds- innings of two strikeout, one run, zero earned run ball. Gage was drafted as a starting pitcher in the 10th round out of Siena College in upstate New York by the San Francisco Giants in 2014, reaching Triple-A in 2017 before promptly hitting a wall, posting a 6.21 ERA in two seasons with the Sacramento RiverCats before being released in July 2018. Gage spent the next few seasons bouncing between independent ball and the Mexican summer and winter leagues, mainly playing with the Diablos Rojos del México in Summer 2019 and the Venados de Mazatlán in the winters from 2020 through 2022.
Prior to the 2021 season, Gage got another shot in affiliated ball, signing with the Arizona Diamondbacks as a full-time reliever and bouncing between Double- and Triple-A. He signed with the Blue Jays prior to the 2022 season and was excellent with the Bisons, posting a 1.08 ERA before getting his first big league call-up at the age of 29.
Gage’s delivery, which seems to huck his mid-90s fastball from his shoulder, bears some similarity to Lucas Giolito’s. In addition to his four-seamer, he also features a very good cutter and a slider. For now, he and Vasquez will be the Jays’ semi-obligatory two lefties out of the pen, competing to stay up once Tim Mayza is ready to return, which by all accounts will be soon.
BEST BIRDS
Hitter: Bo Bichette (3)
Honourable Mentions: Santiago Espinal, Alejandro Kirk, Matt Chapman
Pitcher: Ross Stripling (1)
Honourable Mentions: Alek Manoah, Trent Thornton, Matt Gage
Best Bird Standings:
Hitters:
Bo Bichette- 3
Santiago Espinal- 3
Alejandro Kirk- 2
Danny Jansen- 2
George Springer- 2
Vladimir Guerrero Jr.- 2
Teoscar Hernández- 1
Lourdes Gurriel Jr.- 1
Matt Chapman- 1
Zack Collins - 1 (Optioned to Triple-A)
Pitchers:
Alek Manoah- 7
Kevin Gausman- 5
Yusei Kikuchi- 3
Ross Stripling- 1
José Berríos- 1
Jordan Romano- 1
SCHEDULE/PROBABLE PITCHERS
Friday, June 10 (7 p.m. EST/5 p.m. MST)
José Berríos (5.24 ERA, 4.71 FIP, 19.8 K%, 6.5 BB%, 31.8 Groundball%)
Elvin Rodríguez (10.13 ERA, 7.58 FIP, 19.4 K%, 9.7 BB%, 35 Groundball%)
Saturday, June 11 (4 p.m. EST/2 p.m. MST)
Kevin Gausman (2.78 ERA, 1.61 FIP, 27.5 K%, 2.6 BB%, 44.6 Groundball%)
Beau Brieske (4.93 ERA, 6.55 FIP, 16.3 K%, 8.4 BB%, 38.1 Groundball%)
Sunday June 12 (1:30 p.m. EST/11:30 a.m. MST)
Ross Stripling (3.65 ERA, 3.17 FIP, 20.1 K%, 5.2 BB%, 53.0 Groundball%)
Tarik Skubal (2.33 ERA, 2.11 FIP, 27.7 K%, 4 BB%, 45.9 Groundball%)
THE OPPOSITION
Pythagorean Record: 20-36
Last 10 games: 6-4
Again, like the Royals, very few people were expecting the Detroit Tigers to be great in 2022. Unlike the Royals though, very few people were expecting them to be “bottom half of this shitty division” bad.
To be entirely fair to Detroit, they’ve recently been hit with an injury epidemic, losing Jeimer Candelario, Robbie Grossman, and Víctor Reyes on the offensive side of things, while pitchers Tyler Alexander, Matt Manning, Michael Pineda, Eduardo Rodríguez, José Cisnero, Kyle Funkhouser, and the recently shut down Casey Mize are also currently on the IL. Despite these injuries, the Tigers’ bullpen has actually been a decided strength, headlined by the electric, if somewhat erratic lefty Gregory Soto. Michael Fulmer, Andrew Chafin, and Alex Lange have all been terrific in the later innings while Joe Jiménez, Will Vest, Alex Lange, Jason Foley, Rony García, and Wily Peralta have all been good-to-great holding down the middle innings.
Unfortunately, the bullpen’s the only place where the Tigers could be considered to have a strength. The bats, for instance, have been largely abysmal. Reyes, Austin Meadows, super utilityman Harold Castro, and, surprisingly enough, future Hall of Famer Miguel Cabrera have been the only regulars to post wRC+ over 100, with Cabrera becoming a low-power hit generator, which is both depressing and impressive. Candelario, Grossman, catcher Tucker Barnhart, Willi Castro (no relation to Harold), the demoted Akil Baddoo, rookie Spencer Torkelson, Derek Hill, Jonathan Schoop, and big-ticket signing Javier Báez all failing to post wRC+ over 80, save for Willi Castro (84) and Torkelson (80). Schoop and Hill have at least been able to salvage some value with their gloves, though both their wRC+ have hovered around 60.
The three most prominent starters in the Tigers rotation have been Tarik Skubal, who has but together an excellent season thus far, the newly called-up Alex Faedo and the veteran Rodríguez, who went down in mid-May with a sprained ribcage. With injuries ravaging the staff, the other two starters currently on the roster are Elvin Rodríguez (no relation to Eduardo) and Beau Brieske, who have both been absolutely shredded in the Major Leagues, and who will start the first two games against the Blue Jays. We do hate to see it1.
Best (Healthy) Players in this Series:
Tarik Skubal, Starting Pitcher, 2.33 ERA, 2.11 FIP, 27.7 K%, 4 BB%, 45.9 Groundball%
Gregory Soto, Relief Pitcher, 1.71 ERA, 3.90 FIP, 20.7 K%, 10.3 BB%, 37.5 Groundball%
Jonathan Schoop, Second Base, .198/.237/.329, 61 wRC+
Joe Jiménez, Relief Pitcher, 3.26 ERA, 3.30 FIP, 28.2 K%, 9.0 BB%, 39.6 Groundball%
Wily Peralta, Relief Pitcher, 0.81 ERA, 3.68 FIP, 22.0 K%, 14.3 BB%, 56.9 Groundball%
We do not actually hate to see this.