Chris Bassitt has strong praise for young pitchers Ricky Tiedemann and Bowden Francis

Tiedemann’s potential is well-known in the baseball community. The 21-year-old left-handed starter has a fastball that sits in the mid-90s, but has touched a single tick below 100 mph. Tiedemann pairs that with a slider and changeup, both of which are plus pitches.

After a breakout season in 2022 between Single-A, High-A, and Double-A, Tiedemann found himself on the Injured List for a few months, but had a solid overall season. Between Single-A, Double-A, and Triple-A, the left-handed pitcher posted a 3.83 ERA and a 1.98 FIP in 47 innings pitched. 

On top of that, his 43.7 K% was the second-highest in the organization with 20+ innings pitched, while his BB% increased drastically to 12.2%. It wasn’t the first time Tiedemann finished second in terms of the highest strikeout rate, as his 38.9 K% in 2022 was second to only Nick Frasso, while his 29.2 K-BB% was third in the organization behind Frasso and Ryan Boyer.

Tiedemann also won the Arizona Fall League pitcher of the year, posting a 2.50 ERA in 18 innings pitched. Once again, his 31.5 K% was on the high side, but struggled with the walks as he had an 11 BB%. Still, the Surprise Saguaros, along with Blue Jays teammates like Damiano Palmegiani and Dasan Brown, won the short season tournament.

Matheson also reported that Tiedemann gained nearly 20 pounds of muscle and sits at 240 pounds. Ironically, I weigh the same amount, but I’m also 5’8.5 and nearly none of that is muscle. Tiedemann has “it”, and unless there’s a flame out similar to Nate Pearson, who was more unlucky than anything, the 21-year-old has ace potential.

Francis, on the other hand, is a different story. The Jays traded for the 27-year-old back in the summer of 2021 in what turned out to be a really good trade. He did alright in his first season with the organization, posting a 4.19 ERA and a  5.65 FIP in 73 innings pitched, along with 23 K% and a 10 BB%, but the 2022 didn’t go great.

Pitching solely in Triple-A, Francis posted a 6.59 ERA and a 6.02 FIP in 98.1 innings pitched, along with a 24.3 K% and a 9.5 BB%. On the surface level, this didn’t look great, especially his early season start as a starter. However, Francis did finish the season strong, increasing his strikeout rate and dropping his ERA and FIP. I went as far as writing about his curveball that season, which you can read here.

Francis headed to Puerto Rico and pitched for Criollos de Caguas, where it looks like everything changed. In 35.2 innings pitched in the winter league, Francis posted a 1.51 ERA along with a 34.6 K% and a 6.6 BB%. He carried that strong performance into 2023, where he had a 2.67 ERA and a 4.24 FIP in 27 innings pitched, along with a 37.2 K% and a 6.2 BB% in Triple-A Buffalo.

The 27-year-old earned a deserving call-up and pitched with the Blue Jays for the second half of the season. In the majors, Francis had a 1.73 ERA and a 3.86 FIP in 36.1 innings pitched, along with a 25.7 K% and a 5.9 BB% in a swingman role. Recently, our very own Veronica Chung wrote about it here, including quotes from the man himself.

Of course, there are some other interesting quotes about the 27-year-old.The biggest one is that pitching coach Pete Walker said to Matheson that Francis may start and that they’re hoping for the velocity to go deeper in the game. Seemingly, he looks to be built up as a starter.

Francis’ stuff is great as well. The curveball sits in the low-70s, but batters hit just .154 against it, with only one extra-base hit, a home run. It doesn’t have a high-spin rate for the pitch, just an average of 2611 RPM, but it had its highest whiff of 35.5%. The fastball, on the other hand, sits a tick under 95 mph but has hit as high as 97 mph and does have a high spin rate of 2467 RPM. Mixed together, these two pitches are hard to hit.

On top of that, his slider is hard as it sits at 85 mph, with a 2593 RPM spin rate and generated a 25.8 whiff% in 2023. He didn’t use it as a putaway pitch often and only threw it 14.5% of the time, but it is a weapon that is still developing.

At the very least, Francis could be a good back-end of the rotation starter, but with improved command and a great three-pitch mix, perhaps the potential is as high as Bassitt believes.

With the addition of Yariel Rodríguez, Mitch White finishing the 2023 season strong, and Alek Manoah looking to bounce back, the Blue Jays will have heavy competition for the fifth starter spot this season.