2:28pm: The Blue Jays have now formally announced each of the moves.
1:25pm: The Blue Jays are expected to designate right-hander Rafael Dolis for assignment in order to open a spot on the roster for infielder/outfielder Kevin Smith to be selected to the 40-man and 26-man rosters, Sportsnet’s Ben Nicholson-Smith reports (via Twitter). The Jays won’t formally announce the move until they’re certain tonight’s game will not be rained out, tweets Gregor Chisholm of the Toronto Star. Toronto is also expected to place rookie right-hander Alek Manoah on the bereavement list and reinstate southpaw Tim Mayza from the 10-day IL, Nicholson-Smith adds.
Dolis, 33, returned to the big leagues with the Jays in 2020 after a strong four-year run in Japan and posted a 1.50 ERA in 24 frames. However, he did so with a concerning 14.3 percent walk rate, and fielding-independent metrics were understandably less bullish than that bottom-line earned run average. Things have indeed gone the other direction for Dolis in 2021, as his walk rate has spiked to an even less tenable 17.3 percent and his strong 31 percent strikeout rate has dipped to 25 percent.
In 32 frames this season, Dolis has been tagged for a 5.63 ERA. He’s plunked three hitters and tossed four wild pitches in addition to a sky-high 27 walks through those 32 innings of relief. The right-hander’s fastball velocity is up to an average of 94.8 mph on average, but his control issues have proven to troublesome for the Jays. That’s been particularly true of late, as Dolis has totaled just one inning across his past three outings, yielding a total of five runs on six hits and five walks in that time.
Dolis is playing the 2021 season on a reasonable $1.5MM salary, so it’s not out of the question that a team would place a speculative claim when he hits waivers. He’s still owed about $371K of that base salary for the remainder of the season, though the contract also contains some performance incentives, which are generally tied to games pitched, total innings and/or games finished.
Turning to the 26-year-old Smith, he’ll make his big league debut the first time he takes the field. Baseball America ranked him as the game’s No. 91 prospect a couple years back in the 2018-19 offseason, and while his stock has dipped to an extent since that time, Smith has had a terrific season with the Jays’ Triple-A club — his first time reaching that level. Through his first 352 Triple-A plate appearances he’s notched a .286/.371/.576 batting line with 19 home runs, 23 doubles, four triples and 16 stolen bases.
The versatile Smith has spent the bulk of his time this season at shortstop but has also seen action at third base and in both outfield corners. He’s also seen time at second base as recently as 2019 and even made a pair of appearances at first base back in his college days at the University of Maryland, although that was way back in 2015. He’ll give the Jays a right-handed bat off the bench to bounce around the diamond and, along with fellow big league newcomer Otto Lopez, is a candidate to step into a utility role for the Jays for years to come.
Thank God. Baseball is in the business of entertainment, and having a human rain delay makes the game painful to watch. A bullpen arm with a 4.5 ERA shouldn’t be too hard to replace
Important!! I have announcement to make. I am player at AA (won’t say my name because I don’t want to reveal myself). If I make it to the Major Leagues I am legally changing my name to Big Bat. Think how Ron Artest became Metta Worldpeace a few years ago. I think it will be good publicity for baseball to have Bat at bat.
Let’s hope you don’t make it.
Wow. Show’s what a great person you are. I’ll have you know I am a top 20 prospect for my team. I’ll hit a home run in the majors for you in 2022
You should strike out. That would really be giving it to him.
At the risk of enhancing my position as not a great person, this is really only “Important!!” to you, Ding.
Altho …I suppose we could always be able to say “We knew him when his name was Tik, back in the days when playing in the Big Leagues was still a dream.”
Finally. Been calling this move for months.
Yeah he’s been awful, even last year his numbers were good but was easy to see he was a candidate for regression. Not sure I thought he’d be this bad though. Hope he figures it out somewhere else. That they kept giving him chances speaks to the state of the overall bull pen injuries and ineffectiveness
Smith passed through untouched last winter as a Rule 5 eligible, so other teams didn’t think he was at all exciting.
OTOH, Dolis was really, really awful; and the “human rain delay” aspect.
He was an actual prospect and then had a bad season last year. Bounced back really good this season, he still has a chance to be a real big league player. He could be our next Romano when we wonder how nobody found a way to keep him on a roster for a season.
And by last year I mean 2019
Human rain delay is an insult to Mike Hargrove who was actually a pretty good player lol
So there is a slight chance Jays could win another game this year. They waited too long on Chatwood, waited too long on Dolis, are waiting too long on Thornton and traded 2 of their top prospect for a year and a bit of a #3 starter..
…how early do you think they could have gotten bullpen help from other teams? Waited too long implies there were viable options.
Internal or waiver wire options would have been fine. The problem is if you have Chatwood or Dolis or Thornton on the roster, Montoyo will use them in the highest leverage situations come hell or high water. I recall during one weekend earlier in the year, Chatwood and Dolis both walked/HBP 4 in the 9th including the tying and/or winning run in two games! and Montoyo didnt even warm up the pen! That is 2 losses of the many that could have been avoided.
Sounds like the same problem Cora had with Andriese
Dumpster diving for RP in the off-season didn’t work out this time around.
Signing Trevor May for 2years $15.5mm wouldn’t have been a huge upgrade either.
Pay up Liam Hendricks? It’s worked well so far
If you can’t scout like the Rays it’s a rough go.
Take a look at the free agent pitchers for next year. Slim pickings
Meh they got unlucky with Yates and Phelps. This bullpen would’ve looked so much different had they been able to stay healthy throughout the season. They took a gamble on Yates but it wasn’t definitely worthwhile, you can’t just assume that 3/4 top relievers would miss the majority of the season before it starts.
*The gamble was worthwhile.*
He failed his physical and then a few weeks later had season ending surgery with regards to the failed physical. Given that the Jays brass and doctor’s knew and they were able to get him at a “discount”, it doesnt seem worthwhile.
It didn’t work out, not arguing that. But they probably thought there was a small risk of that injury happening and were ready to risk that much money on that decision. I don’t blame them. If they can work out similar deals in the future, I’m fine with it. It just ended up impacting them so much more than it would have had they not lost there other good relievers for most of the year.
Don’t forget merryweather. The bullpen has been unlucky and we’re terribly over used at the begging of the season.
The braves were supposedly in on Yates as well but pulled out immediately after seeing the results of the physical. They knew what Toronto should’ve known. Presumably the other teams know this too and weren’t interested otherwise there should’ve been a more robust market for someone of his caliber.
There’s no way that it was just a small injury risk when he literally gets injured right after they signed him.
We can agree to disagree here but my idea of taking a risk is signing a pitcher who has a decent track record but had struggled lately. I definitely wouldn’t consider a 5 mil bullpen signing of a guy that has a significant chance of being injured as being the correct risk to take.
I’m just saying I highly doubt they gave him millions of dollars thinking there was over a ~40% chance he’d get injured. They either got unlucky, got bad medical advice, or just ended up making a foolish gamble.
That’s why they should’ve traded for Richard Rodriguez. They’ll need to sign a few of available free agents like Raisel Iglesias, Kendall Graveman, Yimi Garcia, Ian Kennedy, Daniel Hudson, Mychal Givens, Ryan Tepera and Andrew Chafin this offseason. Maybe extend spring training invites to Roberto Osuna and Aaron Sanchez to compete for bullpen roles as well?
The latter.
It’s the Blue Jays don’t forget! Run by a pair of knit wits! They have needed pitching for the longest time and still spent 25 million on Springer… Then trade 2 out of their top 4 for a mediocre pitcher. That’s a ton to pay for someone like Berrios!
Who exactly would you have signed last off season? Bauer?
I would have definitely resigned Walker to start with. Then I would have signed at least 2 of the other upper remaining free agent arms. “Never have enough pitching”
As for the bullpen ……I would not have signed Yates BUT the others they signed yes I would have and they should have signed more of them.
Lastly I agree they should have got Richard Rodrigues at the deadline.
Could win out the rest of the season and this would still be the biggest W.
Dolis was painful to watch so I agree. Just like I tell people at golf, if you’re gunna suck, suck faster
How quickly the confidence in Biggio has evaporated
Looking forward to see smith, any help at the end of the lineup is a bonus.
Biggio is not getting fair treatment here. He is the perfect example of why some players do not want to make themselves to “flexible“ in fear that they will be the player that gets bounced around and never gets a chance to solidify themselves at one job (one position/one base/starter/reliever/whatever).
The sad thing for Biggio is he was asked to move around with no care for what it would do to his hitting, while Bichette refused to move of SS and the team would not let Guerrero Jr. play third, even part time, as they were afraid it would affect his hitting. Yet Biggio is bounced around and now people are questioning if he has a major league bat. The guy who wanted to do what’s best for the team, even at risk of hurting his value, is now starting to be shunned by the same team.
Good but the Dolis DFA is like three months late.
FINALLY
The Jay’s should go after a guy like Joel payamps
Dolis was outrighted to Buffalo