BALTIMORE — Consider Seranthony Dominguez’s acquisition as one thing akin to a stability publish for the Toronto Blue Jays with two days left to the commerce deadline.
The 30-year-old right-hander with a fastball that averages 97.7 m.p.h. and a 30.9 strikeout proportion fills the membership’s pressing want for a late-game leverage arm, one created by Yimi Garcia’s elbow points and exacerbated by Chad Inexperienced struggling sufficient that he was designated for task after the deal.
Extra pitching assist is predicted previous to Thursday’s cutoff and it’s wanted, one thing made abundantly clear throughout a day-night doubleheader within the clothes-soaking Maryland warmth. The Orioles jumped depth arms Easton Lucas and Lazardo Estrada for a 16-4 beatdown within the opener, earlier than Adley Rutschman’s go-ahead RBI double within the eighth inning off Jeff Hoffman despatched Toronto to a fourth straight loss, 3-2 within the nightcap.
Earlier than Dominguez made the stroll from one clubhouse to the opposite between video games, it was clear the Blue Jays had basically exhausted their inner choices, utilizing 29 completely different pitchers this season — not accouting for 3 place gamers, together with catcher Ali Sanchez within the opener, pressed into responsibility — and all however two arms on their 40-man roster (Canadian lefty Adam Macko and Jake Bloss, whose season is over after reconstructive elbow surgical procedure).
For these causes, upgrading the pitching workers is their greatest space of alternative previous to the deadline, and their first purchase provides reliable influence in addition to pedigree — in 17 playoff outings over the three post-seasons, Dominguez has allowed solely two earned runs whereas hanging out 27 in 17.2 innings.
That capability to dominate was evident throughout his debut inning, hanging out two, hitting Dylan Carlson after which erasing him as he tried to steal third to maintain the sport 2-2 via seven.
And now that the Blue Jays have that in place, they’ve extra flexibility to attend out the market over the following couple of days, having paid a excessive worth for Dominguez in double-A righty Juaron Watts-Brown, ranked as their system’s No. 14 prospect by Baseball America, ninth amongst pitchers, however not one that stops them from nonetheless procuring in all markets.
Numerous trade sources have instructed colleague Ben Nicholson-Smith and this author that the Blue Jays are inspecting choices throughout the market, linking them to everybody from starters Joe Ryan and Michael Soroka to relievers akin to David Bednar, Phil Maton and Anthony Bender. Ryan Helsley — whom the Cardinals and Blue Jays mentioned as a part of a possible deal for Danny Jansen after the 2022 season — surfaced as a risk after the Dominguez commerce, but it surely’s attainable that’s a little bit of market-making, too.
That’s removed from an exhaustive record, isn’t indicative of the Blue Jays’ preferences and each group is participating in some extent of value-gauging, however it’s at the very least demonstrative of how the necessity is being considered internally.
Talking between video games and earlier than the Dominguez commerce, supervisor John Scheider conceded that between the necessity for additional pitching and George Springer’s lacking the twinbill after taking a pitch off the facet of the helmet Monday, “it’s a tricky a part of the schedule, it is a grind.”
“They’ve responded rather well all 12 months, so I do not wish to look again on the final 24 hours negatively,” he continued. “They’ve all carried out their half coming as much as play effectively from the minors, and guys who do not play every single day right here stepping in and doing effectively, too. So, it is baseball, it should be powerful typically and we have got to determine methods to get them out.”
To get them in, too, because the Blue Jays put runners on second and third with one out within the ninth earlier than Corbin Martin rallied to strike out Nathan Lukes and Bo Bichette to finish the sport.
