The Blue Jays have four out of options players with less than five years of big league service time, according to MLB.com's Gregor Chisholm: Rajai Davis, Dustin McGowan, David Purcey, and Jo-Jo Reyes. Davis and Purcey are expected to make the team and McGowan will start the year on the DL, leaving Reyes as the one member of this group who is on the bubble for Toronto.
As Chisholm explained on February 28th, Reyes is currently part of a four-man battle for the last two spots in the Blue Jays' rotation, along with Jesse Litsch, Marc Rzepczynski and Kyle Drabek. Reyes could wind up in the bullpen instead. The Blue Jays risk losing Reyes if they can't find a spot for him on the 25-man roster, as he's out of options. Reyes struggled in his first Spring Training appearance, but pitched well on Saturday with three scoreless innings.
Reyes, 26, was acquired by the Blue Jays from the Braves in the July Yunel Escobar trade. Baseball America regarded him as the Braves' eighth-best prospect heading into the 2007 season, calling him a "thick-bodied lefthander who does a good job of keeping hitters off balance." Reyes has only 194 big league innings to his credit, as he's dealt with injuries and command and control problems.
One team exec I spoke to feels that Reyes would not clear waivers, as a lefty with decent stuff. He doesn't think it will come to that, as the Blue Jays can probably find a trade partner if they don't have a spot for the southpaw.
A lot of teams could use lefthanded pitching. If he doesn’t make the Jays 25 man, he’ll be traded for sure.
cardinals
Well thanks a lot, MLBTR, for RUINING any trade leverage that AA might have had with this post. 🙂
Seriously, though, given his situation, it seems just as likely that he would be released than traded, since AA would have a hard time getting even a prospect back. Maybe cash in return?
I could see AA flipping him for a toolsy project player.. low A ball type
JoJo to KC for Tim Collinsecum
He will not be released. If he can’t work out a trade, he will send Reyes through Waivers on his way to AAA (Reyes can’t veto this a he has less than 5 years service time). This way he can come up in the event of an injury if he some how makes it through waivers.
I think the point is that he’d get claimed on waivers by a team that doesn’t have the pitching depth that the Jays have.
I agree completely, but I was responding to Mike’s comment that they may just release him, which isn’t even a justifiable option IMO when they could assign him to AAA if he passed through waivers. If he was claimed on waivers then that’s all fine and good, but he still wouldn’t have been released, he would have been waived.
Poor Jojo, he never reached his potential with the Braves. At this point he looks like a AAAA arm forever. But since he’s a lefty he will get chance after chance.
Reyes always looked great in spring training and every year he gave us a false sense of security but the guy just cannot do it at the major league level and he’s too good for triple a. Textbook 4A guy.
I promise that I didn’t copy ur comment about the 4A thing lol, when I hit “post” yours showed up too!!!
Reyes and either Litch/Rzep fourth and fifth starters.
This delays Drabeks service clock, and increases the trade potential of the above players, so long as they pitch well.
I don’t think they’re concerned about his service time at all, or why would they have brought him up last September? From what I’ve heard it seems like Drabek is pretty close to being a lock for the fourth spot, and one of the others will be the five. It’ll be interesting to see how it plays out though
September call-ups don’t count towards service time.
Really? Never knew that. Anyway, still don’t think they’re too worried about his service time.
Agreed, I don’t think the Jays care too much about the extra service time either. Especially with Drabek, he’s THE guy they got for Halladay and the casual fan would want to see that return in action asap.
Except that September call up time does count towards service time. It just doesn’t count towards rookie eligibility (I know because I looked it up before going to make the same comment you ended up making).
You’re probably right, though I’d wager that Litsch had the 4 spot just based on the fact that he had a spot in this rotation and only really lost it due to injury. Now I know Drew from GROF isn’t a big Litsch fan, but I’m taking a more wait-and-see approach.
I also agree that Drabek is probably headed to Vegas with Stewart and likely Rzep, who hasn’t looked good since 2009.
That leaves the last spot for JoJo.
Does anyone know if it’s pronounced Ho-Ho, like Jose?
Zep finished out the year looking good, particularly that game against the yanks, and then he went and dominated the AFL. Also, I would be surprised to not see Drabek on the starting rotation. By most people’s account, it is Drabek’s job to lose. The real competition stands between Zep and Litsch.
I do beleive the Jays have 2 PTBNL deals that need to be finalized as well. They could come into play here.
drabek makes this team out of camp…he’s got nothing left to prove in the minors the kid was lights out in new hampshire…he’s got to go through the a learning curve so let him do it now with the big club in 2011 when expectations arent as high as they will be next year. drabek 4 litsch 5…with rzyp bouncing up and down through out the year.
as for reyes…I would love to see them try and package him with rivera and just get whatever you can for the pair…the object being to dump rivera’s 5.25m
Drabek’s service time is a big deal, they probably don’t want him being eligible for free agency in 2017 (made that mistake with Romero….he would have been cheaper to extend otherwise). Also, I think Rivera will be allowed to improve his trade value or be converted into a draft pick (type B). I would guess that Reyes and Rivera stay on the team until they prove that they can be turned, or prove that they can’t be turned, into half decent prospects
Drabek has the talent to be worth the super two status. We’ll see though.
I doubt that they would be willing to do that at the expense of Drabek’s development. AA has stated before that service time will not be the determining factor in their decisions regarding Drabek. I choose to take that at face value. Why possibly slow his development, when you want to contend in ’13, 14 (and maybe ’12)?
I definitely can’t see the Jays worrying about Rivera getting Type B status. I can’t see how they’d offer him arbitration at the end of the year given his salary.
If he has trade value he has at least some talent and then he’ll be used in the bullpen. Jays desperately need left handed relief help.
The bullpen competition is almost worse than the starting pitching competition.
That’s true, but I would take Reyes over Purcey any day
no chance.
Then you sir just proved you have no idea what you are talking about… Purcey has true back end of the bullpen potential.
Reyes = Awful
KC here he comes …
I would take a hurt Chuck James on my roster before I would ever let Jo Jo Reyes be anything more than a bat boy.
Jo Jo Reyes > Dana Eveland
Daring predictions are your forte eh?
you’re playing a dangerous game there.
JoJo has that tantalizing lefty potential; for stretches he looks like he is a solid and at times even dominating lefty but then the wheels always come off. Walks then missing in the zone for a tee shot homer, his self destruction always seemed epic and it’s hard to remember him ever being able to put out his own fires. He’s the kind of guy that will always be getting chances because pitching coach’s think they can fix him and he is a reasonable hard throwing lefty starter.
And he refuses help…on more than one occasion…the most notable were the tips offered to him by Glavine, that he flat out refused to listen to…
Simply put, he is an incredibly stubborn pitcher with AAAA stuff. That thinks that his ticket to MLB is being a lefty and putting the ball around the zone. He doesn’t know what “pitching” is.
Ah, what does Glavine know?
Nothing…he’s just a painter.