9:05pm: It doesn’t appear as though there’s an injury to Norris. Sportsnet’s Shi Davidi tweets that the Jays wanted Norris to continue building up arm strength in extended Spring Training despite having an open 40-man roster spot following today’s Kevin Pillar trade. Norris felt as though he’s ready to go, however, so the two sides will instead part ways.
7:42pm: The Blue Jays have released right-hander Bud Norris from his minor league contract, TSN’s Scott Mitchell reports (via Twitter). He’ll head back to the open market in search of a new opportunity.
Toronto slowed Norris, 34, down after a couple of spring appearances in what was said at the time to be an effort to allow him to build up strength after a late start to Spring Training. Norris was reportedly throwing 90-91 mph recently — well south of the 94.6 mph he averaged in 2018 — but that was chalked up to the fact that he didn’t sign until mid-March rather than any kind of legitimate injury concern. The Jays certainly didn’t seem concerned about his health, as they paid Norris a $100K retention bonus to keep him in the organization after informing him that he wouldn’t make the Opening Day roster.
Norris has had a pair of solid seasons with the Angels and Cardinals over the past two seasons. Over the life of 57 2/3 innings in St. Louis last year, the righty notched a 3.59 ERA with 10.5 K/9, 3.3 BB/9, 1.25 HR/9 and a 42.6 percent ground-ball rate. Fielding-independent metrics like FIP (3.99), xFIP (3.65) and SIERA (3.30) all felt that he was a generally solid bullpen piece with an ERA that was largely reflective of his overall performance. Last year was Norris’ second straight year with a swinging-strike rate of 12 percent or better — the first two such campaigns of his career — and he induced swings at pitches outside the strike zone at a career-best 35.9 percent clip as well, tying him for 18th among 151 qualified relievers.
The reasons for his release remain unclear, but assuming that Norris is indeed in good health and hasn’t been diagnosed with an injury that’d cause him to miss substantial time, he’ll likely latch on as a bullpen option with another club before long.
Best move of the day for Atkins.
Braves.
If I remember correctly when he was on the Braves last time everyone on the team hated him.
Last time he was on any team, everybody hates him
He was liked on the Angels
Ya but he was starting then. Now he seems to be a bullpen piece and is actually effective recently
And the Jay’s continue to throw away money. 100K here, 100K there, it all adds up…..
Adds up to what? It literally doesn’t matter one single bit..
So let’s say you make $100K a year and the Jays have a payroll of $100M a year, just for easy math. They should worry about $100K the same you do about a night at the bar where you spend $100. I don’t think that’s a reasonable concern.
Wow, the price of two of waiver claims! A fifth of the league minimum salary! How can they afford it
They are paying $50m for players to play on other teams. $100k is nothing in baseball money
Guys, it was joke!
Remember those!
It was more a reflection on how much they are paying players to play for other teams.
OK it was weak.
Geez, Sorry, never mind…..
You have to make your jokes waaaay more obvious or you’ll get hammered!
Also don’t try sarcasm, millennials don’t get that, they will just be offended.
I was looking at Spotrac and trying not to get mad about that the other day, it was almost half their payroll, retained salaries on players playing for other teams,
I’d like to report a robbery of $100k.
Ridiculous.
IT WAS A LAME JOKE!
SORRY!!!!!
I do not understand this release. They need quality relievers and Norris is that guy. Something else at play here.
I agree this doesn’t make sense to do before even giving him a look in a rehab stint in the minors or something unless he did something to get in trouble or piss someone off!
Couldn’t he have just simply asked to be released?
He was signed to a Minor League Contract with an opt out date in the contract which allows him to void the contract and go back to free agency if he wasn’t added to the roster by that opt out date. If he’s added to the roster, he could have refused a MiLB assignment at any time because of his veteran status. However, if he’s not on the roster and it’s past the opt out date, he’s locked into the minors for the year unless the Blue Jays decide to call him up.
The Blue Jays were probably trying to screw him over in the same way the Mets screwed Devin Mesoraco a couple weeks ago.
Padres
He was heinous when he pitched for the padres a few years back. They don’t need him.
The Padres used him as a reliever. We need starters
M’s
“The Budtender” I can see it already! LOL
Moving deck chairs on the titanic.
Besides the Jays don’t seem to want quality. lol.
Jays don’t want bad attitudes either.
Nailed it. Org focus on interpersonal relationships and it’s affect on performance most likely had something to do with his release.
Jimmer & coldbeer – what you guys think of the 100k? I’m struggling with justification…
To me and you 100k is good money but to the Mgmt of the clubs it’s peanuts when it comes to potential arms like Bud Norris.
They would spend 100k over and over again to invest in an opportunity for a good back of the rotation arm..
Cmon Twins you need all the bullpen help you can get?? If Norris can sustain his success of the past 2 years, he could definitely split the closer role with May, leaving Rogers to hold down the more intense innings.
The Twins aren’t using a dedicated closer this year. At least it’s not their intent to go that route.
Dodgers…
Id take him. They need some help
Does he walk every hitter? If not, then He is not Cubs material.
Don’t forget that Cubs pitchers must also make sure that every count is full before walking the batter!!!
Mariners! The bullpen needs more help.
Any threat to the tank must be destroyed, unless your name is Randal Grichuk.
I’m not so sure that anyone signed to a minor league deal anywhere is expected to be a threat to losing.
I wouldn’t mind him back on the Angels… he pitched well for 90% of the season
But Norris counted to infinity. Twice.
Rumor has it the Concession Vendor is planning to release Bud Wiser.
If your fastball drops 3-4 mph there could be a problem. That’s why he was released. If attitude was the issue he would have never been signed in the first place. Maybe he pops up somewhere in a month.
Rangers
Does anyone know the date when Vlad will be eligible for the extra year of ownership by the Blue Jays?
April 15. By April 16 Lourdes Gurriel “should” be sent to Buffalo to work on his defensive footwork at 2B or take reps in the OF, move Drury to 2B and let the Vlad Guerrero era begin.