So, Just How Good Is Blue Jays LHP Aaron Laffey?

Published: 21^st Mar 12 8:41 pm

Thom Tsang
thomastsang

RANT It!

Jerome Miron-US PRESSWIRE

I didn’t think we’d really be going down this road again this year. Not after the plug-a-middiing-lefty-in-the-5th-rotation-spot experiments failed ever-so-spectacularly with Dana Eveland and Jo-Jo Reyes in previous years. Old habits seem to die hard with this team, though, so naturally we find ourselves looking at the Toronto Blue Jays‘ search for a 5th starter (and quite possibly the least secure starting pitching job in the majors), and finding yet another potential underdog-make-good story in a left-handed pitcher. His name: Aaron Laffey.

Yes, we’ve gone through this before; and to be fair, Laffey is still a pretty big underdog in the competition for a starting job with the Blue Jays, being that the organizational favourite, Dustin McGowan, has no minor league options remaining. That being said, he’s made quite the impression so far this spring – the question is, has Laffey good enough to make the Blue Jays re-evaluate their stance going into this Grapefruit season? When the 26-year old first signed a minor league deal with the Blue Jays in the off-season, it was expected that the starter-turned-reliever would provide minor league depth in the bullpen, or perhaps serve as a emergency starter from time to time. That he might end up being good enough in spring to break camp with the team was probably never part of the plan.

Consider what he’s done, though: Laffey has allowed 3 runs off 10 solid innings of work in March, posting a solid opponent’s BA of .237, without walking anybody in that span. SSS caveats aside, the 26-year old groundballer has never been quite this good in March; on top of all that, he’s been able to strike out batters as well, accumulating 9 Ks over the 10 innings. If you were going on numbers alone, he certainly warrants attention over both Kyle Drabek and Dustin McGowan at this point in time.

Of course, the weight of those numbers have to be considered, too. Unfortunately for Laffey, the 10 innings probably won’t end up counting for much in the long run in terms of procuring a job with the Blue Jays rotation. As for how good the 26-year old is, the smart money probably go against soft-tossing ground ball pitchers in the AL – especially not when your fastball tops the upper 80′s, and you’ve got a spiking fly-ball rate. Laffey has been good, but much of it is due to his impeccable control, and I wouldn’t expect anything like a breakout season here. But could we write him off outright? Probably not. After all, as great of a comeback story Dustin McGowan’s journey was, it’s not as though the 30-year old is a sure thing by any means. We felt good about seeing him finally back in the majors last year regardless of performance, but I don’t think the same could be said this year. Not to mention, McGowan’s health is going to be a question mark going forward as well.

With just a over a week to go in spring training, Laffey should have one more chance to show the Blue Jays brass what he could accomplish as a starting pitcher. There’s plenty of uncertainty around the back end of the Blue Jays rotation, and it wouldn’t be a total shock to see the lefty start even a couple of games in April, especially if say, McGowan winds up with one of those mysterious “arm fatigue” injuries that teams seem to like to use to put not-quite-ready pitchers on the DL. At the very least, I’d imagine Laffey has all but assured himself a spot in the bullpen, likely in a long reliever role.

Will the latest left-handed flier experiment finally work out for the bluebirds? At least he couldn’t possibly be as bad a Jo-Jo Reyes…right?