While Chris Bassitt didn’t want to go into too much detail about the Blue Jays issues this season, he was willing to divulge one issue that seemed to hurt Toronto this year.
While appearing on “The Chris Rose Rotation” Bassitt placed some of the blame on the lack of planning by the Blue Jays for if they didn’t land Shohei Ohtani.
“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 told Rose during the interview. “That was the reality and I think we really didn’t have a pivot to, like, another elite player.”
The Jays’ pitcher continued that teams need multiple superstars in order to be successful.
“In today’s baseball, you need three or four superstars,” he said. “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 great the player is. I don’t think it’s possible.”
The Blue Jays have struggled this season mightily, sitting in last place in the American League East going into their Monday game against the Reds.
Bassitt has also had a tough year individually going 9-12 with a 4.34 ERA in 25 starts.
The righty said that the Blue Jays need more hitting in order to “protect” Vladimir Guerrero Jr. and that the “pitching has to be a lot better.”
“There’s so many things that you could talk about,” Bassitt said. “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.”
Bassitt later told Sportnet that his comments on “The Chris Rose Rotation” about not landing Ohtani weren’t meant as a “knock” against the Blue Jays.
