The Blue Jays made three roster moves today, announcing that left-hander Thomas Pannone, right-hander Jacob Waguespack, and infielder Santiago Espinal have been optioned to Triple-A Buffalo.
Pannone has become a familiar face in Toronto over the last two seasons, tossing 116 innings of 5.43 ERA ball with a 2.13 K/BB rate and 7.6 K/9. The lefty has started 13 of his 49 career Major League games, though since Pannone has had much more success as a reliever (3.40 ERA in 55 2/3 relief innings, as opposed to a 7.31 ERA over 60 1/3 frames as a starter), he was being considered as a candidate for a bullpen role in 2020.
The Jays are a bit thin on left-handed relief options, as aside from Pannone, non-roster invitees like Marc Rzepczynski, Brian Moran, Kirby Snead, and Travis Bergen comprise the club’s top southpaw relievers. Though we’re so far in advance of an Opening Day (that might still not even happen) that it’s hard to make clear projections, Pannone’s option could hint that the Blue Jays are going to select at least one of those non-guaranteed contracts.
Waguespack made his MLB debut last season, starting 13 of 16 games and posting a 4.38 ERA, 2.17 K/BB rate, and 7.3 K/9 over 78 innings. Though ERA predictors and Statcast metrics weren’t impressed with Waguespack’s output, his 4.38 ERA still represented a decent on-field result for a pitching-starved Blue Jays team. Toronto made a point of adding pitching over the winter, meaning that younger arms like Waguespack and Pannone (who ranked fifth and sixth in the Jays’ innings list in 2019) will no longer be relied on to such a heavy extent this season.
Espinal is best known to Jays fans as the prospect acquired from the Red Sox in the June 2018 trade that sent Steve Pearce to Boston. Espinal’s first full season in Toronto’s farm system was a successful one, as he hit .287/.347/.393 over 521 combined plate appearances at the Double-A and Triple-A levels. MLB Pipeline ranks Espinal as the 22nd-best Jays minor leaguer, describing him as a potential utility infield candidate based on glovework alone, with an offensive profile includes “good bat speed” and strong baserunning.
We’re still waiting for Drury to be sent down…
I know I’m an idiot, but obviously I’m missing something here. Why all the optioning today/yesterday? Obviously these players will be in MLB camp once (if) accelerated spring training happens, especially if there’s (likely) temporary roster expansion. . There are, literally, no teams to be “optioned” to.
So why the procedure? Does it shrink service time in some way?
Only thing I can think of is when an accelerated camp opens up their will be restrictions on the amount of people allowed to be in one space at one time (eg 50). By trimming rosters to 26-30 allow the coaching staffs and high ranking officials to be there as well.
Espinal absolutely raked this spring, if it wasn’t for Panik and the delays ,he might’ve had a shot at the utility job.
All about the regular AAA at bats and more everyday work at SS and 2B. Keep in-mind he played mostly in AA last year. But you’re right; he looked good in spring.
Will he even start in Buffalo? I don’t think so.
Vmax – Yes he will start. Can you name the starting SS and 2B in Buffalo? Not Tejada, not Warmoth. If he isn’t going to start in Buffalo at least have the names of the guys before you come in with this crap.
Are you really vlad jr?
The author of the post obviously isn’t, just like you aren’t Babe Ruth as your name would indicate according to that logic.
At the time we were calling the front office out for the Pearce trade. This may why I didn’t get the G.M. job.
We? Pretty sure close to nobody complained over the Pearce trade to Boston. Wasn’t like he was commanding a massive haul in-return.
At the time he was the best hitter on the team. The hundreds of posts I read would say other wise. You can still read allot of them. Except for poor old MLB.com blogs.
When your competition is DL Travis, DL Donaldson, Smoak and Russell Martin, you’ll be the big fish in an extremely small pond. Pearce didn’t even have 100 plate appearances with Toronto and was traded end of June. Had Maile been traded May 1st the people on this site would have said HE was the best hitter on the team. Pearce can play D and is up and down with the bat, mainly a bat for lefty pitching. Add his age (mid-30’s) and you get very little in-return.