The Blue Jays have made their signing of Brandon Belt official, announcing the move today. To open a spot for him on the 40-man roster, right-hander Julian Merryweather has been designated for assignment.
Merryweather, 31, has spent the past three seasons in the Blue Jays’ bullpen after being acquired in the trade that sent Josh Donaldson from Toronto to Cleveland in 2018. He’s shown flashes of potential as a hard-thrower with near top-of-the-line velocity and above-average spin on his heater. However, even though Merryweather has averaged better than 97 mph on that fastball, he’s posted a below-average 21.8% strikeout rate in his career while logging a 5.64 ERA in 52 2/3 frames.
Merryweather’s 7.4% walk rate has been sharp, but he’s also been quite homer-prone in his big league career, yielding eight long balls in those 52 2/3 Major League innings. It’s tempting to assume that’s due to the hitter-friendly nature of his home park, but Merryweather has allowed more long balls on the road (five) than in Toronto (three) in a nearly equal number of plate appearances. Opponents have regularly made hard contact against the 6’4″ righty, evidenced by average exit velocities of 90.3 mph in each of the past two seasons and hard-hit rates of 47.4% and 44.8% in 2021 and 2022.
Because he’s out of minor league options, Merryweather will need to either stick on a team’s Opening Day roster or else be passed through waivers in order to be sent to Triple-A. The Blue Jays themselves will have the opportunity to attempt to pass him through waivers, though they can also take the next few days to gauge interest in a trade before taking that step.
No ill will towards him, but it’ll always baffle me that he’s all we got for Donaldson. If I remember correctly, in the offseason before the 2018 campaign began the Cardinals were apparently willing to give up Jack Flaherty for him.
Ross Atkins.
Timing was everything. During that off-season, both the ownership and the fanbase wanted to push for one last hurrah to get to the post-season. Hindsight is 20/20.
Donaldson was also injured a good part of the year they wanted to trade him. Can’t get a ton of value in that scenario.
The Blue Jays have been snake bitten with their trade chips . Donaldson was hurt with a calf injury when we traded him and Merryweather was all we got. When it was time to trade Ken Giles and the Yankees wanted him he was hurt and we got nothing. We also got nothing for Roberto Osuna. That’s 3 guys with long track records we got absolutely nothing for them.
I’d disagree with the “got nothing for Roberto Osuna” part since that’s how we got Giles.
Flaherty was never on the table for JD per MLB.
When JD was traded some owners filed a grievance because he was injured & should’ve been ineligible to be traded much like Merryweather was which is why he was a PTBNL.
Jays were horrified if they didn’t trade him they would have to qualify him to get a return and that he would take the qo….they were done with him by the end of his time in Toronto and he wasn’t the presence they wanted a Vlady, Bo, and the likes being directly exposed to.
Man, I did not recall that Donaldson ever played for the Indians. Not even an iota of a memory. Sheesh
Isn’t this the guy with a blazing fastball?
Blazing and straight as an arrow.
Pretty surprised it was him and not Thornton or Hatch
Too bad about Thornton. I thought he showed great promise in his rookie season. Fell under the power of control freaks who have to tinker. They tinkered and they tinkered and this is what you have left over in Thornton.
Is he any good my Loonies?
No, he is not.
He threw 2 amazing innings in April 2021 at Yankee Stadium but literal garbage since.
I remember that game. I thought for sure he’d be your eventual closer.
This is the most accurate description of Merryweather’s career with the Jays.
He was a future franchise closer for a hot minute.
@Dexxter – or one could say a New York minute… I’ll show myself out.
The best ability is availability. He doesn’t have it. He is constantly injured.
Plus, while his BB rate is not out of line, his control is not great, so he throws a lot of deep count meatballs to avoid the walk.
His stuff is so freaking good it’s wild that he’s never had any sustained success.
The move makes sense but I guarantee he is going to catch on somewhere and eventually be awesome.
Detroit should take a chance on Merryweather. The Tigers need to replenish their bullpen after trading Jimenez and Soto.
Electric stuff but took forever to get to the bigs and cant stay on the field.
Merryweather’s stuff is good.
Fix him Elias!
Good final piece for the cubs pen..hell anybody’s..maybe he is a change of scenery candidate.
This release was called the DAY he was acquired by the BlueJays. Atkins strikes again.
Loved his potential, but he gets injured buttering toast
Closes out the worst trade tree in Blue Jays history. Donaldson has created 12 bWAR since leaving Toronto, including 5.4 the following year when he helped lead Atlanta to the NL East pennant. He’s hit 87 HRs and has 246 RBIs since then. Merryweather had a -0.2 bWAR as a Jay over 52.2 innings.
Even worse than the Stroman debacle. Kay and SWR added exactly 0 bWAR as Jays… ZERO. Stroman has a 7.2 bWAR since leaving the Jays, with a 3.32 ERA and 3.70 FIP over 377.1 innings. Berríos has a 0.8 bWAR as a Jay, with a 4.75 ERA and 4.18 FIP over 242.1 innings.
Notice a pattern? WAR out > WAR in. Both Donaldson and Stroman could have been offered QOs as well, so in addition to the combined $4.2 million in cash considerations traded away by the Jays along with those players, that QO optionality was lost.
Atkins also sent $2.7 million to Cleveland to take Donaldson for the PTBNL that became Merryweather, and $1.5 million to the Mets to take Stroman. Atkins is the patsy at the GM poker table. He’s good at spending Ed Rogers’ money and buying bus tickets for rookies. But that Donaldson debacle and subsequent Stroman trade set the rebuild back by at least two seasons.
Google “Donaldson trade should have never happened” by Steve Phillips for TSN. You’re welcome.
MLB rules stipulate that only healthy players can be put through the waiver process and teams that claim a player have the right to know whether he is healthy and able to play at his accustomed level. Josh Donaldson was not healthy nor was he able to play at his level when the Jays traded him to the Indians on August 31, 2018.
The Merryweather DFA closes out one of the most sordid trade trees in Jays’ history:
Ross Atkins inherited the reigning 2015 AL MVP in Josh Donaldson when arrived as GM. Donaldson was 29 and had 3 years of team control left.
He could have traded him to St. Louis for prospects Jack Flaherty and Tyler O’Neill ahead of the 2018 season. Instead, Atkins whiffed and waited too long.
Instead of making a QO after the 2018 season, he botched a trade on Aug 31, 2018 that skirted MLB rules on injured players. All he ended up getting for Donaldson and $2.7M in cash was a PTBNL… and who did Ross ask for from Cleveland? A young AA starter like Triston McKenzie, Aaron Civale or Sam Hentges? Maybe a flamethrowing minor league bullpen arm like James Karinchak or Emmanuel Clase?
Nope. Ross asked for a 26 year old who’d had Tommy John surgery six months earlier. A guy who’d stunk at Triple-A in 2017 (6.58 ERA in 16 starts and 78 IP) and who had never reached the majors even though he was… 26. That guy was Julian Merryweather.
And that trade goes down as one of, if not the worst value destroying transactions in Blue Jays history. He had a 5.64 ERA and 4.36 FIP over 52.2 innings as a Blue Jay, with a -0.2 bWAR. Donaldson had a +0.4 bWAR in just 60 PAs with Cleveland that September! And went on to a 5.4 bWAR the following season in Atlanta as the Braves won the NL East pennant…
This is one of the most inaccurate posts ever. First of all, the Flaherty deal was never on the table; that rumor was shot down. Second, Clase was not with Cleveland when this trade happened; that happened december 2019. What an uneducated post. Vote for worst comment of 2023. Nothing will top this
Great trade by Atkins.