Better know your Blue Jays 40-man: Tyler Chatwood

Tyler Chatwood is a 31-year-old, right-handed pitcher. He’s been in the majors for nine seasons. The Blue Jays signed him to a one-year, $3 million contract back in mid-January. Tyler has pitched for the Angels, Rockies, and Cubs in his career.

Career he is 51-57 with a 4.40 ERA in 197 games, 143 starts. Last season he made five fairly crappy starts for the Cubs, putting up a 5.30 ERA in 18.2 innings (less than 4 innings a start). His ERA was 5.30, but his FIP was 3.35, so maybe there was some bad luck. But then, batters hit .289/.360/.474 off him.

In 2019 he pitched out of the bullpen more. In 38 games, he made 5 starts. He had a 3.76 ERA. And, as a reliever, batters hit .223/.316/.350, which would make me very happy.

Last year he stuck out 29.1% of batters, up from 22.8% (which was a career-high) in 2019. It does explain why his FIP was so much lower than his ERA.

He throws a mid-90s four-seam fastball (averaged 95.1 MPH last year), but he threw the cutter (90.2) and sinker (94.6) last year. He also throws a curve.

The mid-90s fastball, peaking in the high 90s, is a good part of why the Jays wanted him. Add in that he’s near the top of the leaderboard in spin rates on his fastball and curve.

I think the plan is to have him pitching in the 6th or 7th inning, hopefully being able to go more than an inning if they can talk Charlie into letting a reliever go more than an inning at a time.

PECOTA figures him to pitch in 62 games, 56 innings with 4.89 ERA. I think if his ERA is that high, he doesn’t get into 62 games. ZiPS sees a 4.91 ERA, but they also see him making 13 starts. I think if he makes 13 starts something has gone badly wrong.

This just in:

If you want to see him pitch: