The Blue Jays have announced a minor-league deal with righty Tyler Clippard. It includes an invitation to MLB camp.
Clippard only just turned 33 and has a long history of outstanding bullpen production. While his fastball velocity has continued to dwindle, Clippard is coming off of a season in which he posted a healthy 14.0% swinging-strike rate that sits above his career average.
Of course, there are other areas of concern, too. Clippard worked in the zone just 40.6% of the time, a personal low, while doling out free passes at a rate (4.6 per nine) not seen since he was still establishing himself with the Nationals.
Then, there’s the fact that Clippard’s hidden weapon — the ability to induce infield flies — was no longer quite as potent. (He ended the year with a 10.3% infield fly rate, lowering his career rate to 16.0%.) A few more of those pops have been squared up and turned into long balls, perhaps owing in part to his reduced velocity, with an assist from the increasingly springy baseball that Clippard and others are throwing.
The end result wasn’t pretty, as Clippard finished with a 4.77 ERA, marking the first time he finished a full season having allowed more than four earned per nine. He bounced between three organizations and was not selected to participate on the Astros’ World Series roster despite landing in Houston late in the season.
Despite the struggles, it’s easy to justify giving Clippard another look. Entering the 2017 season, after all, he had compiled 587 2/3 innings of 2.77 ERA ball as a major-league reliever. Notably, too, he was still quite effective against lefties last year, holding them to a .213/.311/.366 slash. The change-up artist has long carried reverse platoon splits and dominated southpaw hitters.
As the Roster Resource Blue Jays depth chart shows, there ought to be a solid opportunity for Clippard to earn a job in Toronto, especially if the organization thinks it can use him in a somewhat more specialized manner against lefty hitters. That said, Clippard will have quite a lot of competition in camp, as the long list of non-roster pitchers in the above link shows.
Imagine him facing the Yankees lineup oh my god
That’s why they traded him so he could
Yeah, can you read? Clippard pitches WELL against LH hitters….
Last time I checked, Stanton, Judge, and Sánchez are RH hitters.
Alburquerque, Axford, Breslow, Clippard are all veteran arms being giving a chance to earn a roster spot.
I think that the Jays front office giving vets a legitimate chance to perform last season makes the organization a good landing spot for guys looking for jobs. I’m sure there are plenty of teams that would take on all of these guys on milb deals (with opt-outs), but Toronto has shown their committment to giving them a shot and then letting them go for a better opportunity if it presents itself.
Give me a break, the Jays are not a charity. They are in desperate need of quality bullpen arms and that is why the Jays are taking flyers and signing these guys. And good on the Jays for doing that, they realize they need arms.
I agree with Walls, imagine Tyler Clifford facing the Yankees lineup. Laughable. Going, going, gone!
They gave him a minor league contract so not sure how it’s charity since there’s nothing assured.
If the jays sign every bad reliever from last year maybe one will be okay. Never know
That’s the plan. With how volatile relievers are, it’s not that hard to find a diamond in the rough. And they have had success doing that recently. Grilli and Benoit both turned it around, and they just turned a waiver claim in Dominic Leone into Grichuk. It’s not that hard to believe that at least one of Clippard, Axford, Petricka, Albuquerque, or Clippard have a good season this year.
It worked with Joe Smith last year, plus they got a return for him at the deadline.
I like this. Solid bounce back candidate.
I call him Tyler Friggen Clippard. So glad the Yankees got rid of him in the Frazier trade.
So this means the Blue Jays are going to the World Series, every team that Clippard plays on ends up in the world series it seems lol
wym? Nats cant get passed the NLDS. Yanks havent been for several years. Mets were the only one lol
Played for the stros last year too but that is a stretch
Could bounce back. He was great for the Yanks over the first two months of last season. 1.60 ERA.
And who [above in the blog] called the Yankees homer off of Clippard? What a stupid signing for the Blue Jays.