The Toronto Blue Jays were evaluated as having the second-strongest pitching staff among teams that advanced to the postseason this season.
The Major League concluded its regular season schedule on the 2nd (Korean time). In the American League, Baltimore, Houston, Minnesota, Tampa Bay, Texas, and Toronto succeeded in advancing to the postseason, and in the National League, Atlanta, Dodgers, Milwaukee, Philadelphia, Miami, and Arizona will play fall baseball.
MLB.com, the official major league media, announced the batting and pitching staff rankings of the 12 teams that advanced to the postseason. Atlanta ranked first in batting, and Milwaukee ranked first in hitting.
Toronto, where Ryu Hyun-jin plays, ranked 8th in batting and 2nd in pitching, and was evaluated as having strengths on the mound. Toronto, which ranked 3rd in the American League wild card with 89 wins, 73 losses, and a winning percentage of .549, tied for 14th in team scoring (746) and 6th in runs allowed (671) among the 30 major league clubs.
MLB.com harshly criticized Toronto’s batting, calling it “probably the most disappointing lineup this year in the major leagues,” adding, “Toronto has a number of talented players and seemed to have improved its power balance in the offseason. However, Toronto’s batting line, which ranked second in team scoring last season, showed significant ups and downs this year and fell to the middle rank. Vladimir Guerrero Jr. had a disappointing season, and Matt Chapman and George Springer were obstacles to scoring production. “However, we cannot rule out the possibility that Toronto’s batting lineup explodes at the most critical moment.”
Although the batting was a bit disappointing, Toronto showed strength on the mound. MLB.com said, “Although starting pitcher Alec Manoa suffered a miserable performance in the opening game, Toronto has a stronger starting lineup than any other team that advanced to the postseason. Toronto is the only team in the major leagues with four pitchers (Chris Bassett, Jose Berrios, Kevin Gausman, and Yusei Kikuchi) who have logged more than 160 innings. And these four players all achieved results above the league average,” he said, praising Toronto’s pitching staff. “Ryu Hyun-jin returned from injury and showed that he can be another option. Thanks to this, Toronto was able to somewhat relieve the pressure on the bullpen, which has really improved with the signing of Jordan Hicks during the season,” he said, positively evaluating Ryu Hyun-jin’s return. 메이저놀이터
It is not yet clear what role Ryu Hyun-jin will play in the postseason after returning from injury. Ryu Hyun-jin, who underwent Tommy John surgery in June of last year and returned after about 13 months of rehabilitation, successfully completed his comeback season with 3 wins, 3 losses, and an ERA of 3.46 in 11 games (52 innings) this season. However, he only faced Tampa Bay in the last two games of the season, allowing only 7 runs in 7⅓ innings. Toronto is likely to form a starting rotation of Gausman, Berrios, and Bassett in the wild card series against Minnesota. Ryu Hyun-jin, who does not have much bullpen experience, is likely to be excluded from the Wild Card Series entry.
Ryu Hyun-jin has 3 wins, 3 losses, and an ERA of 4.54 in 9 games (41⅔ innings) in his postseason career. He showed good performance in fall baseball during his time with the Dodgers, but in Toronto, his only postseason struggle was a loss against Tampa Bay in Game 2 of the 2020 Wild Card Series, allowing 8 hits (2 home runs), 1 walk, 3 strikeouts, and 7 runs (3 earned runs) in 1⅔ innings. It’s a mound.
Fans have high expectations about whether Ryu Hyun-jin, whose four-year, $80 million (approximately 108.7 billion won) contract with Toronto ends this year, will be able to fulfill his role on the postseason stage and finish his final season with Toronto beautifully.