The Blue Jays are signing reliever Andrew Vasquez to a major league contract, reports Shi Davidi of Sportsnet (on Twitter). The southpaw has made twelve big league appearances spread across three seasons, including two outings with the Dodgers late last year.
It’s a bit of a surprise to see Vasquez land a guaranteed 40-man roster spot given his limited MLB track record. He’s tossed just 6 2/3 career innings at the highest level, five of them coming with the 2018 Twins. Yet the 28-year-old impressed a couple teams with a huge showing in Triple-A last season. Vasquez spent the bulk of the season with the Twins’ top affiliate in St. Paul, working to a 3.61 ERA over 42 2/3 innings. More importantly, he struck out an elite 37.4% of batters faced at that level.
The Dodgers were impressed enough with Vasquez’s form to acquire him late on the night of August 31. (Vasquez, who hadn’t been on the Twins’ 40-man roster all season, was eligible to be moved after the MLB trade deadline). That was just before the deadline for teams to add players to their organization in order for them to be eligible for the postseason roster, and L.A. quickly selected the UC Santa Barbara product onto their 40-man roster. They didn’t wind up activating him for any playoff contests, though, and Los Angeles non-tendered him last November.
In his two-game MLB cameo last season, Vasquez threw almost exclusively low-80s curveballs (26 curves, one sinker). He probably won’t continue with an approach quite so extreme over a larger body of work, but it seems the Jays’ front office is intrigued by that bread-and-butter offering. Tim Mayza, Ryan Borucki, Kirby Snead and Tayler Saucedo are among the left-handed bullpen options already on the Toronto 40-man roster. Vasquez still has a minor league option year remaining, though, so the Jays can shuttle him between Toronto and Triple-A Buffalo next season if he sticks on their 40-man all year.
We did something
Interesting arm with those strikeout numbers. I wonder what this means for Borucki’s role considering Mayza should likely have his spot pretty much guaranteed.
Depth. Not sure how high the quality is though.
Bring on a top of the rotation starter and no, Berrios and Gausman are not that.
Bring on a real 3B who can rake to replace Semien’s production.
Bring on quality depth for the bullpen, not Vasquez or Yates, lol.
I tend to agree here jimmer. Some nice depth. The rotation certainly could use some work, but it’s not in as bad a shape as it was going into last season.
And hopefully that 3B they bring in bats from the left side to balance that offence out a bit. Jose Ramirez is the ideal candidate…a package with Gurriel and Groshans should maybe get their attention. Maybe adding a Joc Peterson to get that LH outfielder too would be a solid offseason.
Do you really not believe Berrios or Gausman are not top of the rotation pitchers? Put those two 1.- 2 in a lineup and that’s pretty kick butt in my opinion. Surprised by your comment there. Do agree with a 3B and some more bullpen help. Go Jays.
I don’t think the strength of the Jays rotation lies in their top 2 pitchers. It’s the depth they have with Ryu and Manoah behind them and hopefully Pearson can take some huge steps this year, and those starting 5 could be competitive with any rotation in baseball.
Even if they sign a stopgap type pitcher with shorter term (Kikuchi perhaps?), it could really help Pearson keep his innings count down while he builds his arm back up from so little action over the last few years.
Jimmertree is crazy.
Where do you find a ” top of the rotation starter” that is better than Berrios and Gausman and available. Putting a little to much pressure on Ross don’t you think. I think the top of the rotation is fine.
Jimmer tends to forget the words realistic and available.
With the jays offense they need reliable decent innings, if they get 4-5 guys to give them 180 innings with a 3.50-4 ERA they will be a 90+ win team
Bring me the head of Alfredo Garcia!
There are very few aces in the league. The jays rotation is more than fine.
Let’s see what Pete can do with him.
I’m surprised the Jays were unable to snag Rodon since he ended up signing for two years. The contract he got from the Giants seems like the exact type of gamble the Jays would be looking for to fill the role of ace. Maybe Rodon just preferred SF.
he’s awful….good luck
Some people are probably avoiding Canada due to their covid restrictions still. I think that might of played a role in Rodon choosing SF. They might have been jabbed but not necessarily their families.
Hard to beat a -0.43 FIP last year. Maybe in a full year he’ll have -0.86!
Surprised the Dodgers didn’t want to retain this guy.
Love his ERA for 2019 “inf”. Lol. I doesn’t mean a thing as to his pitching, just funny to see.
the K numbers are intriguing, but really?
Jimmer
Who exactly do you see the Jays getting as their number 1? Pretty easy to constantly push for a ” dream rotation ” but a dose of realism comes in handy. There are no true aces in FA and the cost trading for a young controllable “True” ace would be insanely high. Right now the Jays have 2x #2s and 2x #3s in their top 4. Not many other pitching staffs can claim that. Love to see the Jays pick up one of the A’s 3 but neither of these guys are an outright #1 per your narrative.
He’ll make the team and hang a curve to Austin Meadows and Meadows will hit a majestic homer deep into the RF seats at the Trop just shy of the back wall to give the Rays a 5-3 lead
I would prefer Jake Diekman. I like Diekman.
I’d have to say giving a major league contract to a 28 year old with less than 7 major league innings (in which he was terrible) and who was mediocre in AAA… well, it’s one of the most inexplicable transactions I can remember seeing. And it seems to scream “we don’t plan on adding any real bullpen pieces at all.”