WASHINGTON — At the end of the 2022 season, the Yomiuri Giants in Japan offered Foster Griffin the opportunity to start and after three up-and-mostly-down years in the Kansas City Royals and Toronto Blue Jays systems, the left-hander was ready to accept.
The only problem was that the Blue Jays still had contractual control and viewed him as a useful depth arm, the reason they acquired him in July 2022 from the Royals for farmhand Jonatan Bernal in the first place. Eventually, after a series of conversations between Griffin and GM Ross Atkins, he was granted his release four months later. He signed with the Giants and his path to an all-star season with the Washington Nationals this year was underway.
“When the opportunity from overseas came, it was kind of a no-brainer for me,” Griffin said in an interview on Tuesday. “I felt like I might have a little bit of time in the big leagues with the Jays (in 2023), but it was more going to be as an if-you-need role, just the way the roster was set up. I was grateful to have some actual heart-to-heart conversations with Ross about the future of my career, the opportunity for me to go make some money overseas. They wanted me to be a starter, so it was a really good opportunity. Had some difficult but really good conversations with Ross and ultimately he was willing to let me go.”
During his three seasons in Japan, when he posted a 2.57 ERA in 315.2 innings over 54 games with 318 strikeouts and a 1.033 WHIP, Griffin reinvented himself, adding a sinker, sweeper and splitter to his fastball, cutter, curveball and changeup. Each new offering was the result of pitching as a starter, adapting to what was happening amid the need to produce immediate results.
Foreign pitchers in Japan “are considered, for lack of a better term, like a helper, you’re coming to make their team just that much better … so there’s not a whole lot of necessarily analytical (suggestions) or coaching going on,” explained Griffin. So, as he saw the way left-handed hitters approached his fastball-cutter-curveball mix, “they were really good at just taking me the other way because I didn’t necessarily have anything coming in to them. That’s how the sinker came about, to get a runner to get them off my other stuff away.”
“Then they weren’t swinging and missing a ton on my curveball, so that’s where the sweeper came about,” Griffin continued. “The splitter was more just out of jealousy from watching those guys throw a bunch of splitters and I wanted a good groundball/swing-and-miss pitch. Fiddled around with some different stuff and that’s kind of how it happened.”
The success of his new mix made him an intriguing free agent last winter, when he signed a $5.5-million, one-year deal with the Nationals. Griffin had worked out with Frank Herrman, now the Blue Jays’ pitching acquisition specialist, during the latter’s pitching days and the two spoke during the off-season, but the Blue Jays ended up signing Dylan Cease and Cody Ponce to shore up their rotation instead.
“There was a little bit of interest,” said Griffin. “I want to say their main target (in the Asian market) was probably Cody and once they got Cody early in the off-season, it didn’t really go from there.”
The Blue Jays did sign Griffin’s Giants teammate, Kazuma Okamoto, with whom he remains in touch with through LINE, a Japanese messenger similar to WhatsApp.
“He was an unbelievable teammate and a great dude that I really got along with over there,” said Griffin. “I was really happy to see him finally get posted to get this opportunity to come over here. On top of that, him having success has been really fun to watch. I know the city of Toronto and his teammates have got to be embracing him quite a bit because he’s such a fun guy to be around, so it’s been cool to watch.”
Myles Straw spoke to Addison Barger after the latter’s surgery to repair the right ulnar collateral ligament in his right elbow on Monday, and “we’ll just say he was feeling some type of way,” quipped the veteran outfielder.
More seriously, Straw said Barger had come to terms with the season-ending procedure — “he’s got a good head on him,” he said — and the looming recovery, which runs about six months, less than what he would have faced had he needed a full reconstruction.
“Obviously it’s not the best having surgery, but he’s one of the hardest workers I know and I’m sure he’ll be back sooner than he’s supposed to be,” said Straw. “He’s been telling me he’s been needing something for a long time now and it just shows the player he is and the teammate he is to put his body through what he’s gone through.
“I mean, he got through it for a while, and was still able to throw a ball like that and swing the bat as hard as he does. There’s maybe a handful of guys in MLB that have the tools he has, so it’s a lot of torque on the body. I’ll be seeing him in the off-season, hanging out with him and hopefully his recovery comes fairly fast and as quick as possible.”
Like the other Blue Jays on expiring contracts, these are uncertain days for Myles Straw, who does have a 2027 club option for $8 million with a $1.75 million buyout. He’s hoping he doesn’t go anywhere.
“I like Toronto, I like it here, so hopefully nothing happens,” he said. “I like all of the guys here. I think we’re still in this thing and we’ve just got to win one game at a time. We’ll see what happens. But everybody in this clubhouse wants to stay here.”
Lefty prospect Ricky Tiedemann returned from neck and shoulder issues Saturday with two strikeouts in an inning of work at low-A Dunedin. He’ll work in one-inning bursts now and if he recovers well, the Blue Jays could accelerate his progress. But how he recovers matters. “That’s the big if with him, I feel like, the last couple of years,” said manager John Schneider. “You’re taking it one outing at a time, really, and kind of seeing it. Stuff was good, but yeah, we just have to see how he recovers. If he’s feeling good, you try to move him as quick as you can.” … Righty pitching prospect Jake Bloss is in a three-to-four-week no-throw period due to a teres major strain, which likely means his season is over. … Cole Carlon, the Blue Jays’ first pick in this year’s draft, is likely to work out of the club’s complex in Dunedin rather than be assigned to a club this season, akin to the way Trey Yesavage was handled after he was drafted in 2024.