The Blue Jays have designated reliever Matt Gage for assignment, the club announced. The move opens a 40-man roster spot for Chad Green, who has officially signed his two-year deal.
Gage, 30 next month, played eight seasons in the minor leagues after entering the professional ranks as a 10th-round pick of the Giants in 2014. Signed to a minor league contract by the Jays last offseason, the Siena product had a breakout year for Triple-A Buffalo. He worked to a 2.34 ERA over 42 1/3 innings of relief for the Bisons, striking out 27.4% of opponents with a 47% grounder rate. Gage’s 9.5% walk percentage was the only yellow flag, though that was just a hair north of average.
That production earned him his first major league call last June. He got into 11 MLB games, working 13 innings of four-run ball. Gage induced grounders on half the batted balls he allowed. The 6’3″ hurler had a modest 12:6 strikeout-to-walk ratio in his limited big league time but induced swinging strikes on over 14% of his pitches. He relied on a low-90s four-seam and a mid-80s cutter during his big league work.
Gage held left-handed hitters to a laughable .086/.149/.111 line in 88 Triple-A plate appearances last year. Righties hit .271 with a .363 on-base percentage but only mustered a .355 slugging mark. That could appeal to clubs looking to stockpile left-handed relief depth. Gage has two minor league option years remaining, so any team willing to keep him on the 40-man roster could stash him in Triple-A for the foreseeable future. The Jays will have a week to deal him or look to run him through waivers.
If healthy, great pick up. If not healthy, well, ask the Yanks.
I wonder why they would be so eager to make this official and lose Gage, not like Green is going to be at spring training.
Could have use the 60 day to move ryu off the 40 and then done the same for Green
IIRC, you can’t put someone on the IL during the off-season.
Although they could have delayed the signing a few weeks and done just that if they were that worried about it.
If I’m Green, I don’t want to wait weeks before my money is officially guaranteed. Just in case I have a setback in my recovery.
Yes that’s why I said so eager to make the move now, because you’re 2 weeks away from being able to 60 day someone. Offseason is almost over bucko
Gage was good last year and a great story, but I don’t think they fully believe in him. There were times he made some sense to call on and they didn’t. They went without a lefty in the pen for a stretch, called on Foster Griffin instead etc.
As the roster stands now, they’ll likely use Swanson in leverage vs. left handed hitters with Mayza as a lefty specialist. They also avoided arbitration with Richards guaranteeing him his salary, so he must figure into their plans somehow and he’s a reverse split guy. They also have Fry, Eisert, Robbins, and Burnette as lefties coming to camp with Adrian Hernandez and his screwball at AAA. They have other options who don’t take up a roster spot until needed at the MLB level.
Why Matt Gage? He’s better than Trent Thornton and Thomas Hatch. It should have been one of them designated.
He’s Dutch. Plain and simple.
Gage has a decent chance of sneaking through waivers, but I think so would Hatch. Even though I don’t think Thornton will ever amount to anything other than a bottom of the roster player, he probably would be claimed by some pitching needy team.
I like your optimism, but there’s no way Gage gets through waivers. A lefty reliever with options, coming off a good year in both AAA and MLB (albeit limited MLB action)? He’s definitely gone. I mean, Taylor Saucedo was just claimed by Seattle, so someone’s definitely claiming Gage.
The Houston Astros are looking for a Relief LHP maybe Matt Gage could help the Astros,and help the Astros bullpen.
Begging for them to pick up some LH relief
Tons of ground balls and two option years?
Sign me up.
Along with pretty much every other fan base ha ha.
Add the Jays to that list… DOH!!!!!!
The Braves had a minor league catcher in 1981 named Juan Desoto.Would have like to see that battery combination of Gage and Desoto from 1970s tv show Emergency.
That’s gotta be the TV trivia post of the day. Well done.
Shotgun Gage ?
He should wear the number 12.
Assuming he is claimed, the only way to mitigate this is if a trade can be worked out.
Mariners claim in 3, 2, 1
Waiver Jerry is getting all the relievers
Here I am thinking, we aren’t in on Chaffin, Moore, Britton. Because Gage was closing and doing pretty well in AAA and limited MLB action.
Hatch and Thornton aren’t going to sniff MLB action this year, we also could have waited to make this official till spring, move Ryu to the 60. Have an open spot, make it official put Green on the 60 IL.
So confused. Did he get in hot water we haven’t been made aware of yet?
If you’re confused now, wrap your brain around this. When he’s ready to be added to the 26, he’s going to displace one of Romano, Cimber, Swanson, Garcia, Bass, Mayza, Richards or White. My guess would be Richards. Richards doesn’t have options so he would have to pass through waivers unclaimed to remain with the Jays.
Sign one player and lose two.
Banking on full health from 8 relievers the entire year seems more like the true brain scratcher.
There will be injuries, there will be poor performances, there will be trades. You cant go in with no depth for fear of losing a Richards or Cimber in June. And if by luck they are all performing well and healthy, then they will have trade value