Veteran reliever David Aardsma has opted out of his minor league contract with the Blue Jays, MLBTR has learned (Twitter link). The right-hander is free to sign with any club.
Aardsma, 34, spent a considerable chunk of the 2015 campaign with the Braves, tallying 30 2/3 innings out of the team’s bullpen and posting a 4.70 ERA with 10.3 K/9, 4.1 BB/9 and a 29.5 percent ground-ball rate. He inked a minor league pact with Toronto and has posted an unsightly 5.27 ERA in 13 2/3 innings with their Triple-A affiliate this season, though the bulk of the damage done against him came in one outing.
The former Mariners closer posted strong numbers at the Triple-A level from 2014-15 (though a groin injury ended his 2014 season with the Cardinals’ Triple-A affiliate) and has a lifetime 4.27 ERA with 340 strikeouts against 183 walks in 337 innings at the Major League level. Presumably, he’ll hope to find a similar minor league contract with another club and earn a spot on a big league roster, as he did in Atlanta last year.
Aardsma’s chances at a decent MLB career have been done since he tore his UCL. Came back missing 3 ticks off of his FB and he never had much control before. Required hitters to chase his hard splitter out of the zone and his high FB that would sit 94-5 and touch 97.
Last few times saw him, he was barely scraping 91 and the splitter was missing the bite it once had. A real shame.