Simeon Woods Richardson is making Blue Jays fans forget Marcus Stroman with every pinpoint delivery

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This article was published 25/03/2021 (1963 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Even though the Blue Jays would benefit from having another front-line starting pitcher on their roster, there aren’t too many people inside the organization who are longing for the days of Marcus Stroman. Simeon Woods Richardson made sure of that.

Woods Richardson, the key piece in the 2019 trade with the New York Mets, has been one of the more positive stories to come out of this year’s spring training. The Jays’ fourth-best prospect according to MLB Pipeline has been impressing just about everyone with his mid-90s velocity and four-pitch mix.

The product of Texas isn’t a candidate to crack the opening-day roster, nor should he be at age 20, but his progress in the minors will be every bit as important to the Jays’ future as what’s happening at the big-league level. Woods Richardson is coming on fast and with a little bit of luck there’s even an outside chance he will factor into the club’s plans during the second half.

That’s a lot of pressure on a guy who was in high school just a few years ago, but the Jays aren’t the only ones who envision him as a future No. 2 or 3 starter. The rankings speak for themselves. Baseball America considers him the 69th-best prospect in the game, while Pipeline lists him at No. 87. The hype is there for a reason.

“There’s something I need to do every day to get better,” Woods Richardson said after being asked when he might be ready for the majors. “I’ve been in the rotation, I’ve been getting innings under my belt, I’ve been facing competition. I can only control what I can control … executing those pitches every time I get on the mound and putting a zero on the scoreboard is my main goal.”

Woods Richardson is the type of pitcher fans are eventually going to fall in love with. Not unlike Mark Buehrle, he works so quickly that infielders often tell him to slow down to give them time to get into proper fielding position. There’s also an increasing ability to throw any of his pitches — fastball, curveball, slider and changeup — in any count.

Results in spring training must be taken with a grain of salt, but there are still positives to take away from what Woods Richardson has been able to accomplish. He has made three appearances, all against the Yankees, allowing four hits and two walks while striking out eight across eight scoreless frames.

Of the 103 pitches that Woods Richardson has thrown this spring, 62 were strikes. That’s in line with the stats from the minors, with 126 strikeouts vs. 24 walks during his last full season. At six-foot-three and 210 pounds, and with a very repeatable delivery, he’s the prototype every team looks for in a front-line piece.

None of this praise is intended to suggest his arrival is imminent, because it’s not. But there is a path to forcing his way onto the roster when the Jays hope to be making a push for the post-season. If the numbers stay this good, a team starved for pitching upside might be too tempted to look the other way.

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The big unknown, after last year’s lost season, is whether Woods Richardson will be allowed to throw enough innings to become a factor that late in the year. For now, the Jays aren’t putting a limit on how much he will pitch, at least not publicly, but he got up to 106 2/3 innings in 2019 and presumably the club would like to see that number increase in 2021.

There might not be enough pitches left to make a difference as a starter, and even if there are that might be putting too much weight on his inexperienced shoulders. An alternative, though, would be taking the same approach the Jays did in 2014 when they promoted Aaron Sanchez after the trade deadline to temporarily work out of the ’pen.

“We don’t really discuss the total number of innings. It’s more, how can we build up to get ready for the season,” Richardson said when asked about a potential limit. “If that’s going three innings, then four, then five, it’s getting the workload slowly progressing to build up so when we are ready to hit the season, I’m completely ready. I think it’s more in spring training, working and building up, that will allow me to get up and go.”

The Jays would be a better team with Stroman on their roster instead of in New York. By this time next year, there’s a good chance that statement will no longer be true. After taking so much heat for making the trade two years ago, it might not be too much longer before GM Ross Atkins gets to chime in with an “I told you so.”

Gregor Chisholm is a Toronto-based baseball columnist for the Star. Follow him on Twitter: @GregorChisholm or reach him via email: gchisholm@thestar.ca