DUNEDIN, Fla. — Kevin Gausman needed to do something to get himself up for his simulated game at the Blue Jays’ player development complex on Wednesday morning. There were no fans around and the crowd consisted of just teammates, coaches and a few media members.
“As you can see, there wasn’t much of an atmosphere out here, unfortunately,” Gausman said with a smile afterward. “So, you got to wake your body up in other ways. I had a pre-workout [supplement] today that kind of woke me up a little bit. [You have to] do little things like that to get your body going.”
Gausman, who’s been sidelined with right shoulder fatigue, says he felt good following the two-inning outing on Field 2 at the Blue Jays’ complex. With other members of the starting staff watching keenly — including Chris Bassitt, who helped call balls and strikes — Gausman tossed 36 pitches to teammates Santiago Espinal, Cavan Biggio and Bo Bichette, who combined for seven at-bats. The right-hander allowed two hits while striking out two batters and topping out at 97 m.p.h.
Gausman went back to the dugout in between innings to rest and replicate the up-and-down rhythm pitchers encounter during game action. He deemed that important.
“As a starter, the biggest thing is getting to the up-downs. You want to get used to sitting down and getting up, you know, five, six, seven times,” said Gausman. “And so, the closer I can get to do that, once the season starts, obviously it’s going to be a little bit difficult. [But] we’ll cross that bridge when we get to it.”
Gausman said his next step would likely include throwing 60-65 pitches over three innings in-game. He acknowledged that could happen Monday on the road against the Pittsburgh Pirates in the Blue Jays’ final Grapefruit League game.
The Blue Jays are also dealing with injuries to starter Alek Manoah (right shoulder) and relievers Jordan Romano (right elbow) and Erik Swanson (right forearm). However, the 33-year-old Gausman, who’s in the third season of a five-year, $110-million contract, is the most important pitcher on the Blue Jays’ staff. He finished third in American League Cy Young voting last season after putting together arguably the finest campaign of his big-league career. Gausman posted a 3.16 ERA over 31 starts and 185 innings while striking out a career-high and AL-leading 237 batters.
Before his injury, Gausman figured to be the club’s Opening Day starter — an honour that went to right-hander Jose Berrios, the club announced Tuesday.
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A healthy Gausman is integral to the Blue Jays’ hopes this season and the right-hander says it’s better to take the appropriate steps now to make sure he’s fully healthy when he’s handed the ball for the first time in the regular season.
“It’s definitely frustrating, but I have more innings than anybody [on the team], so these are things that are going to happen,” said Gausman. “It’s unfortunate when they do, but there’s not that big of a difference between making 32 starts and 34 in the big scheme of things.
“As of right now, it’s more so kind of getting me right and making sure that I’m going to be trending up going into the season as opposed to just monitoring things and getting through starts.”
Wednesday’s sim game forced Gausman to face his own teammates, something the right-hander typically doesn’t like to do. Bichette registered a hit off him on a ball that sliced just inside the left-field line. It would have been an easy double and Bichette let Gausman know as much, remarking, “Sorry, Gaus,” after his swing.
“I like talking to [teammates] after — they can tell you some things that they might see, things that you’re trying to do against them,” said Gausman. “They obviously know my strengths pretty well and they watch me pitch every five days.
“But it’s fun,” he continued. “I’ve already kind of started talking crap, you know, ‘You got a hit off me.’ But I got him out his next at-bat. So, I mean, those are just like, ‘I got bragging rights.’ .500 average. It’s not great on my end. But 1-for-2 ain’t bad.”
