The Blue Jays have announced that they’ve designated righty Nick Tepesch for assignment. The move clears space for righty Luis Santos, whose contract the team has selected from Triple-A Buffalo.
The Blue Jays acquired the 28-year-old Tepesch from the Twins in a minor July deal, and after a brief stint at Triple-A, hhe allowed nine earned runs (and six unearned runs) in 15 2/3 innings in four starts with the big club before returning to Buffalo last week. The 28-year-old has a 4.71 ERA, 5.4 K/9 and 3.0 BB/9 over 238 2/3 innings spanning parts of four seasons in the big leagues.
The 26-year-old Santos spent time in the Pirates and Royals organizations before signing a minor-league pact with the Jays early in the 2015 season. He’s produced a 4.07 ERA, 8.1 K/9 and 3.7 BB/9 in 108 1/3 innings in the rotation at Buffalo this year. It’s not immediately clear what role he’ll take with the Blue Jays, but should he stick with them, protecting him on their 40-man roster would prevent him from departing via minor-league free agency this winter. He also hasn’t pitched since last Thursday, potentially making him a useful short-term addition.
How does Tepesch keep ending up in the majors every year, only to be terrible for a start or two then get designated…?
Tepesch keeps getting MLB work because of a 3.41 ERA and 0.6 HR/9 over 213.2 career innings in AAA. None of which has translated into MLB success.
Tepesch might have to re-invent himself as a right-handed knuckleballer who can also be a LOOGY who throws underhand.
That’s gotta be worth more than what he does now.
wrong Luis Santos linked
Pitching, especially starting pitching is so thin in the major leagues that clubs are willing to try virutally anyone who can get it over the plate in AAA. Occasionally the experiment works and they get someone who has figured it out and can stick, but most of the time it doesn’t happen and they are designated and the next club claims them or signs them and thinks they can make it work.
It is almost like there are too many teams for the amount of available true talent in the major leagues. If the number of teams were reduced [which will happen if the economy tanks in the next few years], then fans would see less experiments in the majors becuase the true talent would have the jobs.