MLB.com's Jordan Bastian reports that Dana Eveland "might be pitching on a start-to-start basis at some point" given that the Blue Jays have several potential starters with longer-term futures with the club soon coming off of the disabled list. Eveland is out of options, which is part of the reason why he was designated for assignment by the A's in February and dealt to Toronto a week later.
This news doesn't come as a surprise given that the left-hander was acquired by the Jays as a veteran stop-gap for the rotation, but it has perhaps been surprising how well Eveland has performed thus far in 2010. Aside from one disastrous (7 ER in 3 IP) outing against Boston on April 26, he has a 2.23 ERA over his other five starts. It represents a strong turn-around fom Eveland's garish 7.16 ERA in 13 appearances for Oakland in 2009.
As Bastian points out, given Eveland's success and the lack of concrete timetables for the injured hurlers' returns, Eveland could remain in the rotation into June. The two pitchers who are probably closest to returning at Brian Tallet and Marc Rzepczynski, but Bastian tweeted last week that Tallet may be headed to the bullpen and Rzepczynski's struggles in the spring opened the door for Eveland to claim the rotation spot in the first place (a decision that was cinched when Rzcepczynski broke a fingertip and went on the DL).
Probably the best-case scenario for the Blue Jays would be if Eveland keeps up his solid performance so that the southpaw might create some measure of trade value when and if Toronto decides to remove him from the rotation. The Mariners and Diamondbacks reportedly had interest in Eveland when Oakland DFA'ed him. If the Jays could flip Eveland for even a low-level prospect, it would make their acquisition of the lefty into a nice all-around success.
eveland has performed well, but i would rather have scrabble in his spot , or macgowan
If Eveland has gotten some measure of how to pitch relatively well, an NL team with a need at the bottom of the order could do a lot worse than picking him up.
I, for one, wouldn’t want the Jays to just get a warm body for him. Pitching – even league-average pitching – is too valuable right now.
The Nats could use him
The Phillies might rather use him than Kendrick
How could the Pirates NOT want to pick up someone competent
Examples of potential matches abound, plus he doesn’t have the big contract of someone like Arroyo for instance.
A player like that (assuming he keeps pitching well) has more than marginal value.
Right on the money, William. on. the. money.
Watched him pitch as a kid, I think he was on the same team as Matt Harrington. Might be wrong.
Best of luck, come home and play for the Dodgers.
I just don’t see how they can justify not getting value for Eveland if he leaves the Jays. The guy throws four pitches and is really showing himself to be a competent ‘pitcher’ this year instead of just throwing the ball and not knowing where it will land.
Its a rebuilding year, no real reason to rush Zep up here and have him accrue service time when we can have equal production out of Eveland. And worse comes to worse we trade him in a few months and actually get a B prospect for him if he proves himself. And if he doesn’t he serves to push back Zeps arb clock.
I just don’t see how they could just release him and get nothing
Why are some of you not seeing between the lines?? No ones saying anything about just dumping Eveland for nothing. When we have so many younger pitchers coming up and available and Eveland out of options why wouldn’t AA trade him for prospects?? That’s what rebuilding is all about. And the only place for Tallet is the bullpen. He was a stopgap for the rotation and has no use being there now.