Left-hander Craig Breslow has been granted his unconditional release by the Blue Jays, per a club announcement. The club has also outrighted fellow southpaw Matt Dermody to Triple-A Buffalo.
During Breslow’s best years, he was an incredibly effective lefty reliever. He never had a fantastic strikeout ability, but he had a penchant for limiting hard contact; a skill which seemed to help him outperform his peripherals virtually every year. That includes a 2013 season during which he managed to post a 1.81 ERA across 59 2/3 innings out of the Red Sox bullpen despite striking out just 4.98 batters per nine innings.
Recent years haven’t been as kind to Breslow, though. After playing below replacement level in 2014 and 2015, he only earned a spot on the mound 15 times during the 2016 campaign. He posted an ERA north of 5.00 and a WHIP north of 1.50 in 35 1/3 innings last season between the Twins and Indians, and spent time on the DL with what was described as rib cage soreness. He allowed five runs in 7 1/3 spring innings, and will cede a chance at a roster spot to the other non-roster invites still in camp.
Dermody, 27, was a late-round pick of the Jays back in 2013. He’s made 28 appearances out of Toronto’s bullpen between the 2016 and 2017 seasons, tossing 25 1/3 innings of 5.33 ERA baseball. While he’s not particularly good at striking batters out (7.11 career K/9), he’s generally proved effective at limiting walks (1.78 career BB/9), and should be able to help the Jays at some point this season.
Breslow hasn’t done anything since 2013 and is 37. May be time to leave and take a coaching job somewhere.
Yup, and he is smart enough to run the show……
He sure is smart enough. He’s an Ivy Leaguer from Yale.