NOT LOOKING GOOD

Nicholas D'Agostino

The Blue Jays first post-lockout move back in March was signing starting pitcher Yusei Kikuchi to a 3-year $36 million dollar deal. After losing former CY Young pitcher Robbie Ray in the offseason, the Blue Jays needed to add starting pitching. They signed Kevin Gausman before the lockout and then signed Kikuchi shortly after.

Coming off an up and down season, Kikuchi was looking to find some consistency with the Blue Jays and provide them with a solid starting pitcher that they can trust every five days. Fast forward to now and none of that is true.

So far, Kikuchi is having a horrible season and as of right now his contract is looking very rough for the Blue Jays. Kikuchi is 4-6 with a 5.13 ERA in 79 innings pitched. While the stats aren’t good, the real reason Kikuchi is having a horrid season is because of how much uncertainty he has provided this season.

Uncertainty has been the reality for Yusei so far this season as both the Blue Jays coaching staff and Blue Jays fans don’t know what they are going to get when Kikuchi takes the mound. Some days his fastball is working and he looks alright, some days he can’t throw a strike and some days he looks like the lefty All-Star from certain stretches of last season.

When Kikuchi was signed, many suggested that Blue Jays pitching coach Pete Walker would have to work with Kikuchi and “fix him up” like he did with Robbie Ray last season. Since it went so well last season, many fans liked the idea and saw Kikuchi's potential which intrigued them about the signing back in March. So far, Pete Walker hasn’t been able to unlock that potential of Kikuchi and it has turned out bad for both sides.

If Kikuchi wants to save his season, he needs to contribute any way he can as pitching poorly when his team is in win-now mode is not helpful at all. Down the stretch of August and into September, Kikuchi needs to turn his season around and the Blue Jays can’t afford to continue to throw him out every five days and have it result in poor performances.

Over the course of this season, when Kikuchi starts the Blue Jays are 6-13 which is by far the worst record of any pitcher when they touch the mound. The bottom line is Kikuchi was brought in to fill a role and provide good starting pitching for this team and so far throughout the entire season he has been disappointing and borderline unusable.

Kikuchi’s leash may be cut short and it would surprise me if he makes his next scheduled start.