Blue Jays are finally getting the best of Yusei Kikuchi

Yusei Kikuchi has never looked as good in a Toronto Blue Jays uniform as he does right now.

To be fair, that's not the highest bar to clear. The left-hander is coming off a -0.7 fWAR season where he posted a 5.19 ERA and constantly taxed his team's bullpen with short outings before being banished there himself.

Kikuchi has been sharp by any standard recently, though, which was the case again in Wednesday's 8-0 victory over the Chicago White Sox. The 31-year-old logged 5.2 scoreless frames in the outing, piling up eight strikeouts in the process.

His last three appearances have resulted in 17.2 innings pitched with a 1.02 ERA, 20 strikeouts, and just four walks. That last number is critical for a guy who posted a 5.19 BB/9 last year and gave up three-plus free passes in the majority of his starts.

Even during Kikuchi's best three-start stretch in 2022 — 17.1 IP with three runs allowed — he still walked seven hitters.

When the southpaw's control is this good he has an excellent chance to give the Blue Jays quality innings.

Kikuchi's raw stuff has never been in doubt. Very few left-handers can match his average fastball velocity, which has jumped above 95 mph this season, and his secondary stuff is nothing to sneeze at.

His slider has improved this season as he's throwing it harder, which makes it look more like a fastball until its glove-side run kicks in.

Kikuchi has also become more comfortable with his split-change, which he's throwing at a career-high clip.

While Kikuchi had essentially the same tools at his disposal during his disastrous 2022 season, he lacked any consistency with them.

For instance, his fastball command was so bad that the spot it ended up most frequently was right over the plate:

The fastball heatmap Kikuchi brought into Wednesday's outing demonstrates that he's executing a conscious plan of attack by hammering the top of the zone.

He's not Greg Maddux, he'll probably never be, but the difference between his command in 2022 and '23 is night and day.

That's showing up in the numbers as the 2.00 BB/9 he's posted in his first five starts is a far better number than anything he did in a five-game stretch last year before he was demoted to the bullpen.

Kikuchi's track record is inconsistent enough that it's hard to predict that he's figured everything out and it will be smooth sailing from here. He's still giving up hard contact, and even at his best he's susceptible to the longball — opening the door for an ugly start here and there.

That said, he's firmly on track now, which was almost never the case last season. He was barely able to hold his fifth starter job coming into 2023, doing so with the help of an injury to Mitch White. Now, he's poised to exit April with a sparkling 3.00 ERA in the midst of his best stretch since early 2021.

There are still plenty of reasons to doubt Kikuchi, but the arguments for believing in his early-season production are gaining strength. If he keeps doing what he's been doing, he has a chance to turn a $36-million dollar contract that initially looked like an albatross into a bargain for the Blue Jays.