Hi everyone. Hat tip to the fine folks at Drunk Jays Fans, some awful-sounding Dustin McGowan news. Bob McCown and Stephen Brunt interviewed Jays' Assistant GM Alex Anthopolous on Prime Time Sports and asked this question:
McCown: I need a thirty second answer to this, I know that’s probably not possible but, there’s been some speculation that things have not gone well with Dustin McGowan, and some are even speculating we may never see him again. Do you want to comment on that?
Anthopoulos: I can comment to say that it’s been a long road back, and it’s been up and down. He made a lot of progress, then he did have a little bit of a setback. I don’t know that we’re prepared to say that he’s never going to come back, I think we’re just going to continue to be hopeful, continue to work with him, and hopefully we’ll have more information at the end of the year.
That is about as pessimistic an answer as you're ever going to hear. Yes, it's true that the Jays have a lot of potential starters, but McGowan is a difficult one to replace as he definitely showed the upside to be a 1-2 type starter. The combination of strikeouts and groundballs and his ability to go deep into games, not to mention those sweet mutton chop sideburns, all made him look like a guy you not only count on to be in the rotation, but, if things go right, build a team around.
For McGowan, it would be awful if he's unable to return. He's already overcome Tommy John and a diabetes diagnosis that significantly affected his pitching, broke into the majors in a big way, and now this.
It's possible Anthopolous just used a poor choice of words, but in my experience he typically chooses his words very carefully. I would've expected his answer to be "oh yeah, he'll definitely be back, it's just a question of when, will it be this season or at some point next year?" Of course, you never know - things can always change, so like the Jays, all we can do is hope for the best and send our best thoughts Dustin's way.
Today's title from the best Modest Mouse song (there's no argument, so don' t even argue), "Never-Ending Math Equation" Unbelievably fitting.