BUFFALO, N.Y. – Last year, Clay Buchholz posted a 2.01 ERA in 16 starts for Arizona. Among pitchers who threw at least 90 innings, only two – Jacob deGrom and Blake Snell, the Cy Young winners – had a lower ERA.
Buchholz allowed 80 hits in 98 1/3 innings. That’s pretty nifty too.
“I felt like I proved I could start and pitch well in the big leagues last year,” he said on Sunday.
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Then he paused, ever so briefly, and snickered.
“Apparently,” he said, “there was a lot of people that thought the opposite.”
Only one team – the Blue Jays – ponied up with a big-league contract. It’s not exactly clear what they thought of Buchholz allowing four home runs in five innings for Triple-A Buffalo on Sunday. But they’d thought enough of him to commit $3 million to his contract, so barring injury, he’ll certainly land in their rotation soon.
His Buffalo outing was his first against meaningful competition since he signed with the Jays on March 5. A flexor strain in his pitching elbow shut him down in mid-September, so he was eligible to start this season on the injured list. In Florida, he pitched in two simulated games, then threw 60 pitches in an extended spring training game against minor-leaguers.
Against the Scranton Wilkes-Barre Yankees on Sunday, all four of the hits he allowed were homers. They went to all fields. All came on fastballs that traveled 87 or 88 miles per hour. Last year, his fastball averaged 91 mph.
Ryan Lavarnway, a former Red Sox teammate, hit one over the 60-foot high netting in left field and onto Oak Street. “He hit it really hard,” Buchholz said, almost admiringly.
According to MLB.com’s Gameday, all four home run pitches entered a plump part of the strike zone. Buchholz said two were bad mistakes. The other two? Definitely “misses,” but not terrible pitches, he said.
“When you miss, that’s what hitters get paid to do,” he said. “I fully expect that. But overall, I came out of it healthy, felt good, got to my pitch count (70) and threw some good pitches.”
Health and pitch command are indeed significant, given his history.
- In every season but one since 2009, he has landed on the injured list (formerly the disabled list). The most worrisome problems were the most recent: recurring injuries to the flexor tendon in his right elbow. He strained it in 2015 and again late last year. In 2017, he tore it. At age 34, Buchholz has pitched nearly 1,300 innings in the majors. After reviewing his medical records, the Blue Jays decided he was worth a $3 million deal, well below last year’s big-league average of $4.5 million, but other clubs likely shied away due to concerns about his elbow.
- In his heyday with the Red Sox at the turn of the decade, Buchholz averaged 94 mph with his fastball. He no longer throws hard. Last year, when he was very good again, his swinging-strike percentage of 9.3 was below the league average of 10.7. More than ever, he needs sharp command. He had it on Sunday, apart from those gopher balls, when he used all five of his pitches and threw 69 percent of them for strikes. He issued no walks and struck out five, three on swings.
Buchholz tossed out a broad hint that he has been lobbying for a quick return to the majors.
“I feel ready,” he said. “Usually the last thing that comes is being able to throw all your pitches for strikes and I’ve been able to do that over the last three times out.
“Like I told everybody with the big club, I started 16 games last year and only threw 100 pitches twice, so it’s not like every time as a starter you go out (and) throw 100 pitches. I feel like I’m built up enough. My next step would be probably 90 pitches, 95 pitches anyway, so I don’t see the huge deal with (doing that) in the big leagues.”
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If the Blue Jays agree, Buchholz could slot neatly into Saturday’s start at home against Tampa Bay. If not, he might have to suit up again for the Bisons. After his outing Sunday, he hadn’t heard from management about his next step.
Having endured injury rehab so often, his recent offseason was relatively frustration-free, he said. Except for the waiting. For the second winter in a row, that was indeed frustrating.
Even after his torn tendon limited him to two games in 2017, he expected clubs to come calling with big-league contract offers in the winter of 2017-18. He vowed not to settle for a minor-league deal. Then he had to. He spent April and most of May in the minors, first as an employee of the Royals, then the Diamondbacks.
“I had to swallow a lot of pride to do that because I told my family and agent and everybody that that’s something I wasn’t going to do because I didn’t feel like I had anything left to prove at the minor-league level,” he said. “That was pretty tough for me, but I ended up doing it, and I’m grateful that I did it now because I learned from it and it got me back to the big leagues.”
This past offseason brought déjà vu: another round of minor-league offers with invitations to spring training. That 2.01 ERA couldn’t open a big-league door until the Blue Jays stepped up. They told Buchholz to take all the time he needed to strengthen his arm and body for the grind.
His 2007 no-hitter, his two All-Star seasons in Boston and his career 3.86 ERA were insufficient to marshal much interest in a marketplace increasingly wary of 30-something veterans. He understood why. And at times he wondered whether forced retirement loomed.
“The young kids that are coming up right now are really, really good,” he said. “I think that’s probably the main reason why some of the veteran guys are getting pushed out. I wasn’t ready to not play baseball anymore, but over the last two years that thought has definitely come through my head.”
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For the moment, the Blue Jays have banished the thought. But from here on in, his past counts for little. A rotation spot beckons, but when Ryan Borucki gets healthy again, Buchholz’s job security might depend entirely on how he pitches over the next few weeks and how effectively he curbs those mistakes that leave the yard.
If he comes close to pitching the way he did last year, not only could he stick in the rotation but also build value as a trade chip come summer. If not, well, would he accept a relief role?
“If it ever came to that, I’d sit down and talk,” he said, “but I see myself as a starting pitcher right now.”
So do the Blue Jays. At least right now.
(Top photo: John Lott / The Athletic)