2016 Blue Jays Season Review: Jesse Chavez

By: Jay Blue and @JaysGirlEmily

Blue Jays From Away

Now that the season is over, the crew at Blue Jays from Away will take a look at the Blue Jays one by one and review how each player’s season went, whether he met expectations (or not) and look at how he fits into (what we think of) the Blue Jays’ plans going forward.

When the Toronto Blue Jays traded Liam Hendriks to the Oakland A’s for Jesse Chavez on November 20 of last year, they were hoping to catch lightning in a bottle in the same way that they did when they acquired Marco Estrada the previous year. Unfortunately, things did not work out quite the same way.

While he wasn’t horrible, racking up a -0.1 WAR over 41 1/3 innings with a 4.57 ERA and 1.28 WHIP for the Blue Jays, he wasn’t good either. Still, if you look at his overall numbers — his 24.3% strikeout rate and 5.8% walk rate and 3.88 xFIP — it doesn’t paint as bad a picture as the every day lack of trust did.

What did Chavez do to get sent to the Los Angeles Dodgers on August 1? He gave up home runs. nine of them. For a reliever trusted to hold leads, nine home runs in 41 1/3 innings is a lot. While he only took two losses, Chavez didn’t keep leads safe and he seemed to melt towards the end of July, giving up five runs in 2/3 of an inning on July 23, giving up two runs in three innings on July 26 and allowing a home run in 2/3 of an inning on July 31.

Contract Status

Chavez is gone, baby, gone.

Emily Says

The once and former Blue Jay returned to Toronto in a trade last offseason that sent reliever Liam Hendriks to Oakland. Originally cast as the team’s middle-innings reliever, Chavez had a strong April, allowing 2 runs (both homers) over 9.1 innings for an ERA of 1.93. But things began to go downhill from there.

In 39 appearances with Toronto spanning 41.1 innings, Chavez had an ERA of 4.57. He walked 10 in his time with Toronto, and struck out 42 for K/BB ratio of 4.20.

He struggled with the long ball, allowing nine home runs, and as a result, hitters had a high slugging percentage against him – 481. Three different times he allowed home runs in back-to-back outings. He struggled with inherited runners as well, allowing nearly half (15 of 31) to score.

He was suspended for three games in mid-May for his role in the fight with the Texas Rangers (he had been ejected after hitting Prince Fielder with a pitch the inning after Jose Bautista was plunked by Matt Bush, then punched in the face by Rougned Odor). That was one of his worst outings of the year, as he entered with a two-run lead and two men on base, and gave up a home run to the first batter, Ian Desmond.

At the trade deadline he was sent to the Los Angeles Dodgers for reliever Mike Bolsinger. With the Dodgers he had a 4.21 ERA over 25.2 innings, his walk rate increased dramatically leading to a WHIP of 1.40.

Regular Season Grades

Jay: D+
Emily: D