Now that the 35-year-old left-back’s 2022 season is coming to an end as he is about to undergo elbow surgery in the near future, GM Ross Atkins’s contract to Ryu in December 2019 showed not only the fan base but also the agents and players around the game. that the Jays were serious about spending money to surround a dynamic home core with veteran talent. Simply put, without impressing Ryu salvo who knows what things will look like in the next off-season. Luring Ryu was the first piece of the puzzle, even though it may be far from the most important piece. But there is no doubt that Ryu’s first season with the Jays, which he spent in Buffalo during a pandemic, was the culmination and the left did not have much success last calendar year. At the beginning of August last year, Ryu was traveling with a 3.22 ERA and looked like he was making his candidacy for Cy Young by 2020. But the wheels went off quickly and he finished with 7.43 ERA in his last 10 starts and the Jays dropped a game. before the playoffs. It did not look much better to start this season, as Ryu allowed 11 winning runs in his first two starts, before landing on the injured list with forearm pain. This turned into an ominous elbow pain when he returned and then more inflammation in his forearm sent him back to IL 15 days earlier this month. Combine all this and it was announced on Tuesday that Ryu is injured at UCL and that he will go under the knife not too shocking. “He is extremely disappointed,” Atkins said Tuesday afternoon. “I think he got to the point where he said I just wanted to fight as fast as he could and he felt that was the best thing to do.” The injury did not happen overnight. It was just wear on Ryu’s elbow. “They are just chronic changes over time,” Atkins said. “He would feel it during an excursion. It would tighten after about four innings. This also shows the reading of the MRI, that it is chronic in nature. “There is no acute injury, but over time stretching and pulling cause them to tighten and lose the ability or sense to perform on their courts or really finish them.” There are currently two schedules that Jay is working on, but they will not know for sure until Dr. Neil El Atraci. Ryu may need a full Tommy John surgery, which will be accompanied by the standard 12-15 month recovery schedule, or it may be a partial revision, sidelining him for a 9-12 month window. A traditional TJ could possibly end Ryu’s tenure with the Jays if he had any setbacks, while the partial route could see Ryu return in the second half of 2023. “It would be a great result, in any form, to get him to play at some point next year,” Atkins said. If the former happens and he can not return at all, the last numbers of Ryu in Jays uniform will leave a lot of room. Although it ended at 2.69 ERA in the shortened 2020 season and was one of the reasons the Jays did an extended postseason, Ryu’s 4.07 ERA in 263 innings is not exactly the type of production you would expect in exchange for $ 20 million per season. Now, the last $ 20 million can be a sunken cost. But the real value of Ryu’s contract was more about the presence and the change in perception. “I really see that year of the pandemic as an integral part of turning us around as a team and it was a stabilizer for us,” Atkins said. No matter how you feel about Ryu’s contract overall or his performance last season, his injury undoubtedly leaves less depth of rotation and has probably changed Atkins’ strategy by the August 2 trade deadline. The depth of rotation is absolutely necessary and Jayce is now one injury away from diving into the Thomas Hatch / Bowden Francis / Anthony Kay bucket in Triple-A. This is not a bucket that a World Series contender wants to get into. Even with Ross Stripling playing well in the back end of the rotation, there could be an appetite to add a key and move the veteran right back to a more fluid swingman role later this summer. There’s also a chance Nate Pearson could play a role at some point, but the Jays are still looking at a big role instead of making it a traditional key. Along with the left bats and strong arms for the back of the bullpen, we look forward to hearing now about the Jays sweeping the original pitching market. “We could think creatively and then obviously we have to look at the forward opportunities and commercial acquisitions that can enhance our depth there,” Atkins said.
