The Blue Jays have released left-hander Franklin Morales, the team told reporters (Twitter link via Ben Nicholson-Smith of Sportsnet). Morales was designated for assignment last Monday following the acquisitions of Scott Feldman and Francisco Liriano.
Morales inked a minor league deal with a $2MM base salary this offseason but spent the majority of the season on the disabled list prior to his DFA last Monday. The veteran southpaw totaled just four innings with the Blue Jays and allowed four runs on three hits and a couple of walks with two strikeouts. While the 2016 season obviously hasn’t been a positive one for Morales, one only needs to look to the 2015 campaign to find his last productive season in the Majors. Morales spent the 2015 season with the Royals and pitched to a 3.18 ERA in 62 1/3 innings. He worked in quite a few low-leverage spots due to last year’s trio of Ryan Madson, Kelvin Herrera and Wade Davis dominating the late innings for the Royals, but the overall work was among the best of Morales’ career. The longtime Rockies hurler has a career 4.87 ERA in 242 innings as a starter and a 4.25 mark in 248 innings as a reliever.
Dayton Moore, feel free to bring him back.
The garbage collectors of MLB will pick him up and most likely give him a big contract….
What a turd of a signing that was. He got 2 million and pitched what– 4 or 5 innings? Nice payday