Spencer Arrighetti got through his rehab start for Triple-A Buffalo, and the Toronto Blue Jays have a decision brewing.
The 26-year-old worked 3.2 innings Saturday, allowing two earned runs on three hits, including a home run, with a walk and three strikeouts across 50 pitches.
That's not a shutdown outing. It's a step, and steps come with fine print.
Arrighetti has been out with a foot injury, and the team's data has him projected to be out until at least Aug 25.
His fastball sat at 90.5 mph in the rehab outing. Compare that to his big-league average of 92.4 mph this season, and the gap is hard to ignore.
Is that rust? Is that the foot still limiting his push off the mound? Nobody's saying yet.
What the missing two ticks could mean for his return
Three strikeouts and a walk suggest the arm still works. But velocity readings like that tend to follow a pitcher around until they prove otherwise.
The Blue Jays enter Sunday on a two-game winning streak, having taken seven of their last ten. They sit at 61-64 after beating the Yankees 4-1 Saturday.
Toronto heads to Tampa Bay for the next series, opening Tuesday. A healthy Arrighetti, throwing like himself, would be a real boost for a rotation trying to hold ground down the stretch.
A diminished version throwing 90 instead of 92 is a different conversation entirely.
Buffalo will presumably line him up for another rehab turn before any call gets made on activating him. Nothing in the data says how many more he needs.
For now, the outing counts as progress. The three hits and the homer count as a caution flag. Both things are true, and the Blue Jays still have to figure out which one matters more before that IL clock runs out.
Should the Blue Jays rush Spencer Arrighetti back if his velocity stays down?
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