Blue Jays Claim Zac Rosscup, Designate Jimmy Cordero

The Blue Jays have claimed lefty Zac Rosscup off waivers from the Mariners, per a club announcement. In order to open a spot on the 40-man roster, Toronto has designated right-hander Jimmy Cordero for assignment.

Rosscup, 30, inked a Major League deal with the Mariners this offseason, although that came with a modest $610K guarantee at the MLB level, so the Blue Jays aren’t really adding any salary to the books. Through 14 innings in Seattle, Rosscup pitched to a palatable 3.21 ERA with a whopping 20 strikeouts, but he also walked 14 batters and threw a pair of wild pitches.

As noted yesterday, Rosscup had some appealing qualities to him — namely a hefty 40 strikeouts and 18.3 percent swinging-strike rate in his past 25 1/3 big league innings. He’s fallen behind way too many hitters this season but has also generated a swinging strike on 30 of the 101 sliders he’d thrown, so there’s certainly some level of intrigue surrounding his ability to miss bats. If the Jays can sort him out, he’d be controllable through the 2021 season.

Cordero, meanwhile, was a recent waiver claim himself but barely lasted a week in his return to the Blue Jays organization. He appeared in one game with the Jays and allowed a solo homer in 1 1/3 innings pitched. Cordero has a 5.75 ERA, 12 strikeouts and 12 walks in 20 1/3 MLB frames to go along with a career 3.41 ERA, 10.4 K/9 and 4.7 BB/9 in 63 1/3 innings of Triple-A ball. The 27-year-old has averaged 97.5 mph on a blistering heater in his limited big league action over the past two seasons and can be optioned freely for the remainder of the 2019 season, but he’ll be out of minor league options come 2020.