Bassitt: Jays 'didn't have a pivot' after Ohtani miss

Toronto Blue Jays right-hander Chris Bassitt offered some honest insight Monday into what he thinks went wrong for his team this season.

"The one thing I will say about the Blue Jays for this year: We put, I think, $700 million into Shohei Ohtani's basket and didn't get him. We really didn't have a pivot," Bassitt said on "The Chris Rose Rotation" podcast.

"There wasn't like a No. 1 and a No. 2 and a No. 3," Bassitt told Sportsnet's Arden Zwelling in a follow-up interview. "It wasn't that. We went after the biggest guy and, unfortunately, we didn't get him. That's not a knock against the Blue Jays. It's not a knock against anybody."

The Blue Jays were reportedly among the finalists for Ohtani during offseason negotiations which saw the Japanese superstar ultimately ink a 10-year, $700-million contract with the Los Angeles Dodgers.

After failing to land Ohtani, the Blue Jays spent a combined $70.5 million in free agency to re-sign Kevin Kiermaier and add Isiah Kiner-Falefa, Justin Turner, and Yariel Rodríguez. Rodríguez is the only one of the four still on the Blue Jays roster after the trade deadline.

In his discussion with Rose, Bassitt also said he didn't want to identify all of the Blue Jays' issues because "some of the problems I don't think are fixable." But he mentioned that Toronto needs more hitting to protect Vladimir Guerrero Jr. and that the pitching has to be better.

"There's so many things that you could talk about. I can literally talk for 45 minutes on this, on things that didn't go great, but I just don't think saying those things publicly is what is best for this organization," Bassitt said.

However, Bassitt later clarified to Zwelling that the so-called unfixable issues he referred to are uncontrollable circumstances rather than structural issues within the organization.

"I'm going to be 36 next year. You can't change me to 26. You can't change age. You can't change things like that. I think too many people will see ("The Chris Rose Rotation" interview) and be like, 'Oh, shit, he's talking about a massive problem. Things are going really, really bad, and they can't solve them.' That's not what I'm saying. I'm saying there's variables in the game that you literally cannot change."

The Blue Jays enter Monday sitting last in the American League East with a 58-66 record, 11 games out of a playoff spot. Toronto made the postseason in three out of the last four seasons.