The Toronto Blue Jays are having a rough start to the season, they have some great pieces to their puzzle, but there are still large pieces missing, especially when it comes to pitching. While they still look to make the bullpen and rotation better and somehow find the resources to make those kind of moves, they have one pitcher who is starting to become a dependable part of that. Drew Hutchison is maturing into the pitcher the Jays tabbed as their opening day starter this year.
On May 25th against the Chicago White Sox, Drew Hutchison threw a four hit shutout in only 96 pitches. His record so far this season is 4-1, with an ERA 5.12, 58.0 innings pitched, 16 walks, 51 strikeouts and a 1.31 WHIP. He only has 4 quality starts out of 10 this season, has a high ERA and has only pitched more than 6 innings a game four times this season, although he has pitched six plus innings in each of his last three starts.
Hutchison does leads the Blue Jays in strikeouts this season which isn’t a surprise seeing as he led the Jays last season with 184. He is starting to heat up since May 3rd when the Indians lit him up for six runs in four innings pitched and if he keeps this up; he could be one of the big reasons why the Jays turn it around this season.
Drew Hutchison has had a short career so far, but he has always shown signs as a guy who has the right stuff and could be a middle of the rotation guy that can help win games when needed. For a while people were concerned that he was another ruined young arm in the system, when he sustained an elbow injury in the middle of the 2012 season and only got Tommy John surgery in 2013 which lead to him missing that season in its entirety.
In his first season back in 2014 went 11-13 with a 4.48 ERA, with 184.2 innings pitched, 60 walks, as mentioned 184 strikeouts, 12 quality starts and 1.26 WHIP. Those may not be the greatest numbers, but he solidified his spot in that rotation in his first full season as a major leaguer. It is also worth noting that Hutchison was in line for more wins, but suffered from having a numbers of games where the bullpen fell apart or the bats didn’t provide him decent support. Unfortunately thats the problem when we become to “win” focused on pitcher’s stats.
In years to come it is expect that Marcus Stroman, Aaron Sanchez and Daniel Norris will be the guys that take the reigns as top pitchers in that rotation, but Hutchison could be join those three not only as someone who fills up the rotation, but as a strong pitcher in it.
He could become one of the more reliable pitchers in the rotation. The kind of pitcher who you know will bring it his all and quite frankly won’t make you cringe when he pitches. He is still developing and has room for improvement, but the Jays are doing the right thing with him.
Hutchison’s pitching of late has been very good and seeing as the rotation is struggling to fully get into its groove, Hutch will be a guy that the team needs to be really good for the rest of the season and it looks like that won’t be much of a problem for him.
