Blue Jays pitching coach has work cut out for him

The Toronto Blue Jays will need Pete Walker to be at the top of his game this season with quite a few ‘projects’ on the roster

The Toronto Blue Jays have improved their playoff chances for 2021. Obviously, anything can happen, but as of right now, they’ve added some very nice pieces to their roster. As of the time of writing, though, they have yet to add a major arm to their rotation. Instead, they look to be running with Hyun Jin Ryu, Robbie Ray, Nate Pearson, Tanner Roark and one of Steven Matz, Trent Thornton, Anthony Kay, Thomas Hatch, T.J. Zeuch or maybe Ross Stripling. This group creates quite a bit of work for pitching coach, Pete Walker.

If the Blue Jays are going to improve on their end of season results, they are going to need some contributions from their pitching staff. That means that Pete Walker will be called upon to work his magic as a coach. All indications are that he is up for the task…based on off hand comments seen on social media and the fact that he has managed to stay employed with the club through a front office overhaul and all that. So, if we assume he is the guy for the job, let’s look at what his job could entail.

Robbie Ray has the stuff to be a front of the rotation starter. His fastball, slider combo has the potential to pile up the strike outs. Heading into the 2020 season, his K% was over 30% and it dipped to 27.1% last season. He was 29th in MLB with 68 K last year, 4 behind Ryu. In 2019, he was 12th with 235 K. The stuff is there. The issue is that he has also had difficulty with his command. It has resulted in the 2nd most walks in 2019 (84) and the most in all of MLB in 2020. One thing that is noticeable is that Ray has seen his Zone% decline every year to reach his 2020 rate of 36.2%. Walker is going to have to figure out how to get Ray back to his previous self if this team is going to see some real improvement from the 29 year old hurler.

The discussion on Ray leads us to Tyler Chatwood. In 2020, the 31 year old elevated his K% to the highest of his career (29.1%), but continued his BB% ugliness with a rate of 10.5%. Granted it was his lowest since 2016, but it is definitely something he’ll need to work on. The Blue Jays commentary about focusing on strike throwing, and the subsequent trade for Chatwood, indicates that they have faith that Walker can help. Could it be as simple as getting back to using his slider, which he hasn’t used since 2017? Or, could it be that he has been finding the strike zone with less frequency in the last few seasons? If I knew, I would be the Blue Jays’ pitching coach.

Next up is youngster, Nat Pearson. Now, it has to be stated that Pearson has a grand total of 18 MLB innings, which is not exactly enough on which we can base any real assessment, but it is exactly why Pete Walker has some work to do. There is no way that the Blue Jays will send Pearson to AAA to ‘gain experience’. He’s too good for that. Instead, he’ll continue his development at the organization’s highest level. That means Walker will have the opportunity to coach a future ace, which is not something that comes along too often. Obviously, a coach cannot be solely responsible for a player’s development, but this will be a big test for the big league pitching coach.

On top of these projects are guys like Ross Stripling who needs to get back to his former self. 2020 saw him increase his walk rate to a career high (8.2%). Could it be as simple as the fact that in 2020, he used his change up more than he ever had and his slider less than he ever had? One has to wonder if the start up and eventual shut down impacted his pitch selection…not that he would be the only one in that boat. Whatever the answer is, the onus falls on Pete Walker to figure it out.

None of this even speaks to the likes of Julian Merryweather or Tanner Roark, who had a 2020 season to forget – certainly a season that makes you wonder why they agreed to pay him $12M. In fact, when you look at the 2021 pitching staff, there is no shortage of work for the Blue Jays’ pitching coach, Pete Walker.

One could make the argument that Pete Walker becomes the single most important determining factor of the Toronto Blue Jays fortunes in 2021. With so many projects on the go for him, it is tough to argue otherwise.