'Here to Win': Bassitt Joins Blue Jays Aiming For Top Prize

Chris Bassitt signed with Toronto to win a World Series, and the Blue Jays are hoping he helps them do it.

Chris Bassitt always made sense for the Blue Jays. 

He brings the stability Toronto desperately needs in the middle of the rotation, playoff experience, and Cy Young votes in two of the last three years. The Jays identified Bassitt as a potential addition early in the offseason, and the feeling was mutual.

Before the Zoom calls and the sales pitches, Bassitt already did his homework. He liked Toronto the few times he played and visited the city and the organization passed reference checks with Matt Chapman and Marcus Semien. But, most importantly, Toronto fulfilled Bassitt's top requirement.

"I'm here to win a World Series," Bassitt said. "It's that simple."

Bassitt wouldn't have signed with the Jays if he didn't think they could win a title, the righty said, and his motivation to win flashed throughout an introductory press conference on Monday. 'Competitor' was the top descriptor thrown around by Blue Jays GM Ross Atkins when discussing his latest free agent addition and Bassitt backed it up. The 33-year-old talked about his overwhelming desire to win—or more specifically, not lose—and how it drives his personal accountability, making it easy not to skip a workout or mentally check out for game preparation.

"I don't care if I win, and that's gonna sound horrible. It doesn't even make sense," Bassitt said. "But if I win, it doesn't mean really much to me. If I lose, I won't be able to sleep too much at night."

That motivation helped Bassitt find his prime when many others would begin to fade. The righty's three best full seasons, by ERA and FIP, have all come after he turned 30, and the Jays are banking on that success continuing. The Jays now have Bassitt, Alek Manoah, Kevin Gausman, and José Berríos all under team control for the next three seasons, putting their faith—and over $300 million—in the group to form a playoff-caliber rotation.

With Bassitt, who will be 36 when his three-year, $63 million contract finishes with Toronto, there's reason to be optimistic for a graceful age. The righty is more reliant on command and sequencing than velocity, which is often the first attribute to slide as pitchers age. His primary delivery is a well-placed sinker, but the righty has at least five more pitches that dodge, duck, and dive around the strike zone.

"His feel and athleticism have been consistent in the game," Atkins said. "And we feel that is going to continue to be the case over the course of this contract."

If there's one red flag, it's moving Bassitt from some of baseball's bigger confines to Rogers Centre. Bassitt's career ERA jumps from 2.68 at home to 4.26 on the road and he's allowed twice as many homers away. By park factors, Bassitt's two previous homes in Oakland and Queens both rank as two of the top-five most pitcher-friendly facilities in baseball. Toronto's home park ranks about average.

But Bassitt's strengths, missing barrels and inducing grounders, should play anywhere. The righty induced the 13th-most ground ball outs in MLB last season and a reunion with former Athletic Matt Chapman at third base behind him could push those numbers even higher in 2023. He's also had a home run rate below 1.0 per nine innings in each of the last three seasons.

When asked about the task of moving to Rogers Centre and the AL East, Bassitt smiled and chuckled as he began a response. Flashing that calm competitor Atkins lauded, Bassitt certainly didn't seem concerned about the new home.

"I'm a smart pitcher and I know how to pitch to a ballpark," he said.