the third name that absolutely deserves an up for this series against the Angels is one Bowden Francis um I did not think there was any chance we'd see a blue jay almost throwing no hitter this year let alone it be Bowden Francis but his stuff was looking very very good he brings a no no into the ninth inning before Taylor Ward hits a solo home run off him and Francis exits the game 12 strikeouts is incredible this performance as a standalone is obviously jaw-dropping but now when you look at his numbers over his last seven appearances in the majors he is a 1.80 erra he struck out 37 hitters in 35 Innings pitched he is on a tear right now and that game against the Angels Yes again the asterisk it's against the Angels but still he did this against guys who were hitting at the major league level and it was it was a gem simply put I'll be honest if voden Francis had this exact same outing in Triple A Buffalo he goes eight Innings strikes out with 12 guys only allows the one run and it's solo home run that comes in the ninth inning we'd all still be thrilled that he was doing this against even triaa players in Buffalo whatever quad a guys whoever it is like we'd be thrilled and the fact that he did this in the major leagues and I mean the guys in the Angels like even though the team is bad there's still some good hitters there you still have to mow down a few guys three times and it's you go back to all of his outing so far in August and the ER is 1.32 like this is a pitcher who at the beginning of the at the beginning of the month like he came into after that start in Baltimore we allowed three earned runs over five and two3 that felt like kind of the turn right like that was after um he had been in the bullpen y kuchi gets traded comes back in he hadn't been a good starter earlier in the season but comes in after that and you know his his ER after that start 5.68 now it's down to 4.02 just five outings later which is wild like I I just said in the last point the Jays are going to need to spend money this off season to get better so they're going to need to have like pitching is going to be a thing where if you can fill these spots internally both Francis Jake Bloss something like that so you don't have to go out and spend $15 million annually to replace UK US Kikuchi if one of those guys can do it then it's huge and this is the first time really that Francis doesn't just look like a a like a starter who can get the job done he looks like a starter who's good a starter who can be like a number four and Pitch outings like this exactly not just a guy who can go and survive and get you three four Innings Gets You Through the order twice and then you got a win as he starts that third trip through like he's showing here he can give you really really good results and it does to an extent I think change the conversation and their plan for next year because okay Gosman and BOS I would assume those two are locked in I don't think you're trading either of them Chris Basset is here Bowden Francis is here they obviously believe in yuriel Rodriguez enough to give him a four-year contract Jake Bloss is sitting in Triple A Alec monoa at some point next season will come back from Triple A so there are seven arms that you think all seven of those guys would like to be making starts at some point next season um I'm curious to see how they handle things in the winter and while we have spent some time talking about okay you got to add an arm this offseason and you do need depth I wonder about maybe a Chris Basset trade more and more his comments a couple of weeks ago and then there was some chatter that H maybe someone from the Jay's organization said like you should go walk those back a little bit and he ultimately kind of did do a couple of sports or to the assembled media at Rogers uh at Rogers Center but could you go into next season and say k we got Gosman we got BOS We Believe enough in a bat in Francis and a yariel Rodriguez and then our fifth spot maybe we bring in a good vet who can go like a Ross strippling esque type and we have Bloss this vet and then eventually monoa going for our five spot or do you think they need to kind of keep all the assembled pieces and just roll with the with the strong depth maybe well the interesting thing is you list up all those guys and you have the three veterans you have Brios Cosman and Basset and then Ariel Rodriguez and Bloss and Francis like you mentioned so that's six guys and then Mano would be the seventh one who comes back all of those guys are right-handed so Kikuchi was the one Lefty starter and he's gone so something's got a budge like either they're gonna move somebody out like you suggested or they're just going to add a left-handed pitcher and just have more arms in the mix and maybe they're looking at Rodriguez to play that raw strippling role like we talked about or maybe it is Francis maybe it's both of them or maybe the the player they look for in the offseason who they're going to spend money on is a reliever who can pitch multiple Innings something like that because the other thing to think about here is well the starting pitching the depth I think is is solid it's decent it's fine the depth around the bullpen is is not the depth around the relief pitching core and it's obviously hard to look in August of you know one year and think about what your Bullpen is gonna look like next year it's so volatile arms can come out of nowhere arms you'll grab on waivers do whatever but maybe if the Jays are going to spend money or make a trade this offseason maybe it's for a reliever with some years of control or something like that because when I look at the pitching staff it's the bullpen that I'm worried about the most yeah I think that's fair just looking at who again some starters on the market this winter who are left-handed uh Blake Snell's got a $ 38.5 million do player option I'm assuming he's taken that considering he's had a good year but he's been banged up good second half yeah yeah uh Patrick Corbin I don't think you're all that interested in him if you're the Jay-Z's 35 Robbie Ray has a $25 million opt out I'd imagine he takes that Max freed in Atlanta he's only 30 he's heading to unrestricted free agency so there's you know not that many lefties Nick Martinez he's old though is he now he's in his mid-30s now um not that that's old I'm just saying know in sports terms I'm not in my mid 30s yet I'm only in my early 30s so it's and then there would obviously be uh us say Kikuchi in that mix as well so um you know a couple of interesting Lefty options but the market is certainly not flooded with them um and a lot of them are more in their in their mid-30s than right in the middle of their Prime so yeah maybe it is something where they look at the trade market maybe you I I would imagine trading Chris Basset at this point though involves keeping some of the money but I was going to say maybe you trade Chris Basset and then go look at resigning you say Kikuchi and you run with the rotation that is you know BOS Gosman kikuchi's your Lefty in the middle and then you got your kind of not lottery tickets but your more unproven options in Bloss Rodriguez and Francis to finish it off on the back end but that is H probably a conversation for another day we'll have a lot of time to dissect all that thanks for tuning in to Blue Jays Nation radio don't forget to like And subscribe wherever you get your podcast from to never miss an episode