Blue Jays teen Elvis Luciano shows promise in MLB debut

TORONTO — Elvis Luciano wasn’t supposed to pitch in tough spots at the major-league level in 2019.

That statement is not an indictment of his talent, but simply a matter of fact that applies to any 19-year-old who has yet to crack Single-A. Even when he made the Blue Jays, the assumption was his innings would be low in both quantity and leverage.

Before Sunday’s 4-3 loss to the Tigers, manager Charlie Montoyo even suggested there was a strong possibility he’d pitch to a single batter in the game.

That’s not how things played out for the youngest pitcher in Blue Jays history and first major-leaguer born in the 2000s. After Tim Mayza and Javy Guerra coughed up three runs in the seventh, Montoyo brought in Luciano to mitigate the damage.

“I had him up, and then Guerra looked like he didn’t have it,” the manager recalled. “It was easy for me. It was like, ‘OK here we go, this is the chance to see what he can do.’”

Mathematically speaking, it wasn’t the highest leverage spot because the chances of winning when you’re down three in the seventh are so low. It didn’t feel that way, though. Coming in with two runners on base is no easy feat — especially with the Tigers’ best hitter, Nick Castellanos, at the dish.

Luciano got the slugger to fly out and pitched a scoreless eighth. By the time he was done, the Blue Jays had tied the game on a Rowdy Tellez home run and his work had been crucial.

“He impressed me with that [outing],” Montoyo said. “Being that young and coming into that situation where he came in. He gave us a chance. First outing of course, but pitching in that moment and that situation tells you a lot. He’s not nervous and he’s got the stuff to compete in the big leagues.”

From a results standpoint, it’s hard to complain with 1.1 scoreless innings, but what did Luciano’s first outing tell us? Here are a few observations:

The velocity was there

Luciano averaged 95 mph on his fastball and never dipped below 94.3. That’s not plus-plus heat for a reliever these days, but it’s certainly nothing to sneeze at.

The command was not

There’s a big and difficult-to-measure gap between control and command. Just because Luciano didn’t walk anybody (unintentionally), it doesn’t mean he put the ball where he wanted to. There was a scattershot quality to his pitching, and even though he threw mostly strikes, they weren’t necessarily strikes in good spots.

Here’s what his pitching chart looked like:

The rookie hung more than a couple of his sliders, most notably getting away with one against Miguel Cabrera, who very nearly took him deep:

“I thought it was going to be a home run,” he said through an interpreter. “I’m just glad Teo was there to catch the ball.”

Earlier in the same at-bat Luciano lost a breaking ball that Luke Maile called low-and-away that wound up backing up Cabrera by accident.

To be fair to Luciano, he might have been particularly amped up against Cabrera.

“When I was 12 years old Cabrera was my favourite player,” he said. “I used to be an infielder and when I saw him and knew I was going to face him that was my proudest moment of the day.”

Generally speaking, though, Luciano’s pitches hung out middle-middle far too often. There’s a good chance a better series of hitters would have made him pay.

The slider has potential

Luciano threw his breaking ball more than half the time, and although he did have his hiccups locating it, it had notable action. He got a couple of swinging strikes off the pitch, and used it to lock up Mikie Mahtook for his first MLB strikeout.

That’s not where he wanted that pitch, but even though Mahtook had seen three straight sliders before it, he was unable to react. The fact Luciano and Maile went to it in a 3-2 count also shows a comfort level you wouldn’t expect to see from a 19-year-old.

The outing fell in line with what you’d expect from a pitcher with Luciano’s level of inexperience. The stuff was promising and the command was unrefined.

Although that’s pretty much the standard for young pitchers, most “young pitchers” aren’t Luciano young. The fact he didn’t look totally overwhelmed is a big win for both him and the Blue Jays.

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