The Blue Jays have signed Jamie Moyer to a minor league contract, reports Shannon Drayer of ESPN Radio Seattle (Twitter link). The 49-year-old starter will head to Triple-A Las Vegas this week.
Moyer is joining the ninth team of his 25-year career and his third in a month. Moyer began the season on a minor league pact with the Rockies and was released after posting a 5.70 ERA in 10 starts for the team. The southpaw then signed a minor league deal with the Orioles but asked to be released last weekend, as was his option after not being called up to the Major League roster. Moyer had a 1.69 ERA and 16 strikeouts with no walks in three starts (16 innings) for Baltimore's Triple-A affiliate.
Though the Jays have made Moyer "no promises" outside of a few Triple-A outings (according to Rogers Sportnet's Shi Davidi), Moyer has a good chance at a callup simply due to the raft of injuries suffered by Toronto starters over the last two weeks. Brandon Morrow, Drew Hutchison and Kyle Drabek are all on the DL, and Henderson Alvarez left Monday's start with soreness in his throwing elbow.
Moyer must really hate his family. Some people just don’t know when to quit.
If you had twenty kids, would you really want to be home all that much?
Aren’t his kids all off to university? Or have families of their own?
his kids probably already have grand kids
Very hard to find a job that pays 500k these days.
Ahhh the last from the great decade of the 1980’s along with Omar Vizquel.
AA is desparate and grasping at straws.
When he had the chance to spend and get a decent SP this offseason but cheaped off. It makes me sad and angry that the incredible rise in both attendance and TV ratings is being wasted like this.
I don’t know who is to blame, AA or Beeston or Rogers, but the situation was quite apparent last offseason that Jays weren’t willing to spend. Now they will suffer because of that.
I wish the starters speedyy recovery and hope Moyer can provide some meanigful innings.
I just want to say if this offseason Jays continue their usual unwillingness to spend to improve the team, they’ll lose one fan for sure.
quick question. how does cheapness result in 3 of your 5 starter ending on the 60-day DL in 5 days?
WHOA HOLD ON. Losing 3, potentially 4 of your starting rotation while already have 3 other pitchers on the DL makes you desperate? How long have you been working as a professional sports analyst good sir
This seems kinda harsh… I mean, don’t you realize that in order to compete in this division, you need staying power? Which means not saddling yourself with ridiculous contracts (ala Wells and Rios), have a deep farm system to fall back on (ala Gose, D’arnaud, etc.), and the ability to add pieces when you’re ready to compete?
I don’t know about you, but I dont particularly want AA to sell the farm system he has so meticulously improved or blow a few million loads on an overpriced arm to get us “over the hump”. This is about longevity, not right now.
Secondly, if AA HAD spent some money to get Darvish, CJ Wilson or Buehrle do you think the Jays would be much better? The answer is no. We play in the best division in baseball. Our arguably best pitcher this season (Morrow) is out until August. Hutchinson and Drabek are probably both done for the season, and now maybe Alvarez too. The truth is, in this division, you can’t expect to overcome injuries to 4/5 of your starting rotation. The fact that the Jays are even over .500 with Bautista’s slumpiness, Johnson’s crappiness, and Lind’s 2 months of suckiness, is a blessing. Rasmus is starting to get hot, Bautista is waking up, EE is hitting everything, Lawrie is being… well Lawrie… things are looking up… but losing 4 starters (at the same time no less), is going to be tough to get through… but this team can rake, and if we can get going on all cylinders offensively, we have a chance.
My point simply is, I dont think we would be substantially better if we had splurged this offseason and signed or acquired a frontline starter. What we would be is 4-5 game over .500 team with a few less prospects and another goat for people to jump on when mediocrity sets in.
Wipe out 4/5 of ANY team’s starting rotation and watch them suffer. The Jays have had some bad breaks this season… no doubt, but I dont think you can pin that on AA, Beeston OR Rogers. This was never meant to be our playoff season. It’s a springboard for 2013.
I think AA will be very active at the deadline, moving pieces that don’t fit the future core to get some pieces we need… especially if the Phils become sellers.
Have faith.
Is there really an incredible rise in attendance? Games still look empty to me.
He is cheap though and I’m sure they have got o have somebody on the farm or in free agency better than Moyer
Attendance is actually up considerably over last year. Weekend games have been near or at sellout capacity. It probably looks empty when the TV cameramen use a telephoto lens to frame the pitcher and behind him all you can see is the far outfield seats that are still empty. Inside the park it looks completely different.
completely possible. ESPN highlights is when I see the crowd. As a kid, the Jays were my favorite team and Joe Carter my favorite player. I’ve always paid attention to them, though I’m all Texas (primarily Houston) now.
They actually have promoted Cecil, Hutchinson and Carreno to start this year who all were sitting with the 51’s (or lower) at some point to start the season… Hutch is now injured along with every other SP it seems the Jays had to start the year… also, since the 40 man is full, it would require dropping someone from that roster to clear space for a not so good fill in so no, the Jays dont have someone better to promote to start.
Moyer signed a minor league deal, and AA is just doing his due dilligence in seeing if he can help the team. If he pitches well in 4 or 5 AAA games, then the Jays can start thinking about moving someone off the 40 man for him, until then though, this is just a ‘wait and see’ move.
“They actually have promoted Cecil, Hutchinson and Carreno”,
and Chavez and Laffey(today)….
Aside from what’s already been brought up by other commenters, you seem to be under the mistaken impression that free agent players will automatically sign with the Blue Jays when asked. Plenty of them just don’t want to play in Toronto regardless of the money offered.
yes do it. Just do it now. Please stop being a fan, and not only of the jays. Stop following baseball altogether.
Thank you,
Rest of the baseball community.
-Stark Out
Good luck in Toronto. I figured he’d be in the Orioles rotation by July. But impatience got to him.
Is Brad Arnsberg secretly working for the Jays again?
sounds like toronto needs a new pitching coach/training staff.
moyer’s old enough to be the pitching coach (he’s a month older than bruce walton)
thats soo true, because arm injuries have been exclusive to toronto. something must be amidst
I mean brandon morrow’s back, kyle drabeks already operated on elbow, it must be the coaching staff because those things should never other wise be an issue.
a good staff would have known how to work with a recovering player to minimize the chance of a recurring injury.like knowing enough to limit the throwing of certain pitches.how many of their pitchers need tommy john surgury? to many and that’s the staff’s fault.
Hutch and Morrow clearly should have been on an 8 pitch limit.
That’s classic. Well done.
And you have a degree in assessing injuries from your tv screen
LOL.
So far 1 tommy John surgery . please just stop talking
Headline in 3 weeks:
Moyer asks for and given release by Jays.
… and Seattle picks him up a couple days later for a 1 day contract so he can retire.
Moyer is 14 years older than the GM.
14 years.
Good god.
I’m all for Moyer pitching until his arm falls off. Fans really don’t have any reason to criticize. It’s not like you don’t have to earn your way in the majors/rotation. If he throws a couple quality starts for Torontos AAA affiliate, then give him a chance. Why not. It’s a great inspiration story.
Not really…more like a funny sideshow story
Refusing to leave the game that you are passionate about at age 50, and working hard on earning a spot… What’s not inspirational about that? A funny sideshow? That would be Albert Pujols’s first half of the year…
I totally agree. He’s the perfect filler arm to take an injury bullet for the other starters. A bunch of our SP prospects aren’t doing so great this year; promoting them to the majors could destroy their confidence, throw their mechanics out of whack and result in injury.
Throw Moyer on the mound, let him eat up innings and pitch until his arm gets broke. If he can give up less than 6 runs per game, consider it a success.
Why is everybody (or almost everybody) so against Jamie Moyer continuing his career? I feel like I’m the only one rooting for him to be able to hold on for one more season, even if as a left-handed specialist, since he’ll be the first 50-year-old since… well, whoever the last 50-year-old was.
Seriously, if teams have a need, why not keep pitching? Yes, it’s not as if they’re expecting him to be their ace, and it’s only the Orioles and Blue Jays, but they apparently feel Moyer could help them at some point. To what extent, who knows.
Most people posting here likely stopped playing baseball competitively after high school or college, once we found out we weren’t good enough for the “next level”. I’d do anything to be able to continue playing, even at the indy level, so for somebody like Jamie Moyer who wants to keep pitching (and doesn’t need the money), I wish him well and tell him to keep going until nobody wants him anymore.
It is because he is just not good anymore. He gets contracts because he has won 200 games and offers potential innings, but when you look at his stuff, it just isn’t there. Major leaguers can hit a 77mph fastball like it is BP. There are just so many better filler arms in every system.
That doesn’t really answer the question though, does it? If he’s bad then teams shouldn’t sign him or they should release him. Why does it have a bearing on whether people should root against him trying to continue his career?
Frankly I wish him the best. If he can pull it off, awesome; what a great story. And if not, well, would anybody really be surprised that a 49 year old isn’t an effective pitcher anymore?
It’s not just Moyer either. People seem to want to shove all veterans out the door when they hit a skid. Look at the Youkilis threads for an example of that. Is he finished? I don’t know, we’ll find out! But if he wants to keep trying and teams want to give him a chance, why not? Ditto Moyer and anybody else who wants to try to hang around a game they love.
I’m not sure the Rockies should have released him. They’re giving up an average of 5.7 runs per game. Moyer’s ERA was 5.70. That means he was merely average; some other pitchers on the team (who are probably still there) must, by definition, be worse.
Seems like the Jays grab everyone the O’s let go.
We owe you for Kevin gregg
Paging Dana Eveland, JoJo Reyes, Mark Hendrickson, Jeremy Accardo, and Kevin Gregg. You’re wanted in response to this post.
Everyone needs to settle down, Moyer was just signed as a personal pitching coach for brett cecil.
If Moyer is 49, what does that convert to in Canadian?
48.5
Jamie should just come back to Seattle – fans here still love him.
Jamie Moyer has probably made more money this year at age 49 then I will make by the time I HIT the age 49… and I am MUCH better at my job than he is. LOL
Seeing as to how the Jays starter was injured yesterday they do need rotation depth so to me be it a 49 year old Moyer or not this move makes sense. With the way starters are dropping in Toronto they need all the depth they can get right now.
Please. Just retire already!
Sounds like we’ve got a bunch of people w/ an age-discrimination thing going. Both Seattle and Phila fans would love to have him back. He did well for the Orioles in 3 starts. He’s a role model and coach for younger players from the bench-which any team can attest to. He has the full support of his family, he loves what he’s doing and has shown that he can still do it. This year will be a transition year for him as he tests his elbow post-surgery. I have every faith that he will make a strong comeback. A fast ball isn’t everything. He throws off the batters by his uneven speeds, which he’s done since starting in the majors. Good luck, Jamie! Sure wish you were back in Phila. We need you and miss you!