Blue Jays starter Chris Bassitt laments season-ending injury of Yankees starter Gerrit Cole

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DUNEDIN, Fla. — Chris Bassitt prides himself on being a durable starting pitcher, the type of dude who can make 30-plus starts a year and work somewhere close to 200 innings for his team.

But the veteran Blue Jays right hander is also concerned about the mounting injuries on practitioners of his craft as the demands on pitchers seemingly increase. Specifically on Tuesday, Bassitt lamented the season-ending injury to New York Yankees ace, Gerrit Cole.

“He’s been the workhorse, one of the work horses, for our entire sport for a long time,” Bassitt said after giving up two hits in 4.2 innings of work in the Jays 3-2 win over the Minnesota Twins at TD Ballpark. “So seeing him go down is obviously not good for our sport.

“I don’t care if it helps us or not (being in the same division as the Yankees). It’s not good for our sport. I want him to challenge for a Cy Young every year and try to be the one of the best pitchers in the world because that’s who he is.

“Losing a guy like that for our sport is not a good thing.”

The bad news on Cole was revealed by the Yankees on Monday when they announced their star starter would have to undergo Tommy John surgery and will miss the entire season. As a 36-year-old workhorse himself, Bassitt prides himself on keeping healthy. He topped 30 starts in each of the past two seasons with the Jays and believes one of the best qualities of a starter is to keep his spot in the rotation from start to finish.

“It’s an underrated part of the whole league,” Bassitt said. “If you don’t have a starter that can go every fifth day and you can basically mark them down with 30-plus starts a year, it puts a massive toll on your farm system, and it puts a massive toll on your bullpen.”

Bassitt is meticulous in his preparation and, at this point in his career, is well-versed in going about it.

“I would say it’s a combo of a lot of things,” Bassitt said. “Every avenue you want to go down. With our training staff, our strength staff. Every one of them have a feather in their hat. It’s just understanding when to throttle up and when to throttle down, when to miss a workout, understanding what your body needs on a day-to-day basis.

“We’re all just pretty accountable.”

As for his current status, with three starts under his belt, Gausman feels he’s on track for the season opener, with a few elements of fine-tuning still to be done. He threw 71 pitches on Tuesday as the ramp-up continues, striking out four and walking two.

AROUND THE BASES

With the win on Tuesday, the Jays improved their Grapefruit League-leading record to 11-6-1. DH Daulton Varsho led the attack with his third homer of the spring as he continues to recover from shoulder surgery … The Jays have an off-day on Wednesday before returning to action with a home date against the Orioles on Thursday.