Blue Jays’ Chris Bassitt blames team’s struggles on failed Shohei Ohtani gamble
Blue Jays lost out on prized free-agent to the L.A. Dodgers
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It is no secret that the Toronto Blue Jays have not lived up to expectations this season.
Sitting with a 58-66 record and in last place in the AL East heading into Monday’s game against the Cincinnati Reds is nowhere near where many thought Toronto would be coming down the home stretch of the season.
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Blue Jays’ Chris Bassitt blames team’s struggles on failed Shohei Ohtani gamble Back to video
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Chris Bassitt offered his thoughts on where things went wrong for the team this season and it began with one big off-season plotline: The high-priced pursuit of Shohei Ohtani.
The Blue Jays starting pitcher said that going after the superstar free agent this past winter put the team in a difficult position before the season even started.
“The one thing I will say about the Blue Jays for this year, we put $700 million into Shohei Ohtani’s basket and didn’t get him,” Bassitt said in an interview with Chris Rose Sports that was posted on Monday. “That was the reality and I think we really didn’t have a pivot to, like, another elite player.
“In today’s baseball, you need three or four superstars. Look at the really good teams. They are not doing it with one superstar, they’re legit doing it with three or four superstars. That’s just the nature of this game now, the way that pitching is, the way that bullpens are set up.
“If you have one or two hitters in your lineup, you literally cannot be good, no matter how good the player is. I don’t think it’s possible.”
Bassitt also declined to elaborate on some other problems with the club, saying that he didn’t feel they were “fixable.”
“I think we do a lot of things right here, but, like, I don’t want to identify the problems because some of the problems I don’t think are fixable,” he said.
One area Bassitt said that that the team will need to improve is building the lineup around Vladimir Guerrero Jr. while also commenting on the turnover in the pitching staff.
“We have to get more hitting to protect Vladdy and the pitching has to be a lot better,” Bassitt said. “We literally lost our whole entire bullpen from last year.
“There’s so many things that you could talk about. I can literally talk for 45 minutes on this, on things that didn’t go great, but I just don’t think saying those things publicly is what is best for this organization.”
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