March 29: The Blue Jays announced the signing of Jackson to a one-year, Major League contract. He will indeed head to Triple-A Buffalo for now. Righty Chad Green, who’s still on the mend from Tommy John surgery, was moved to the 60-day injured list to open a spot on the 40-man roster.
March 28: The Blue Jays and righty Jay Jackson have agreed to a new split contract following the reliever’s release a few days ago, reports Arden Zwelling of Sportsnet (Twitter thread). Jackson, a client of Nello Gamberdino, will earn a $1.5MM salary at the MLB level.
The 35-year-old Jackson originally inked a minor league deal with the Jays over the winter. He enjoyed a strong spring, yielding only a pair of unearned runs on seven hits and two walks while punching out 13 hitters over the course of 9 1/3 frames.
That excellent spring effort in many ways marked a continuation of a strong run that Jackson enjoyed with the Braves organization in 2022. He tossed just 1 1/3 scoreless innings with the big league club in Atlanta, though his lack of opportunity was largely due to a stacked MLB bullpen. Jackson posted a 2.29 ERA with a 31.3% strikeout rate and 5% walk rate in 19 Triple-A appearances as well.
Jackson spent the 2021 season with the Giants organization, pitching to a 3.74 ERA with a 31.1% strikeout rate and 13.3% walk rate in 21 2/3 big league innings. He’s also spent parts of four seasons in Japan, split between the Hiroshima Carp and Chiba Lotte Marines, with a combined 2.16 ERA, 27.4% strikeout rate and 9.5% walk rate in 183 innings there. It’s far from a typical career arc, but Jackson has had plenty of success from his late 20s into his mid-30s, and he could get a chance to continue that trend with the Blue Jays before long.
When in doubt sign 1 of the Jackson 5, seems like a no-brainer. Welcome to the Jays Ray!
The Mets are currently negotiating with Michael’s agent. Are thinking long term, something like 10 yrs x $22 million a season.
Gotta make a big splash.
Meh. Minor League depth. It would be interesting to see who gets pushed out if he’s added to the 26.
I’m guessing there will be your typical bullpen musical chairs when the need arises, with Pop being optioned due to being eligible or adding guys to the IL.
@jdgoat
Yep. They could add him to the 40 when Green and Ryu are added to the 60 day. He’ll probably be the first to be designated when they come back.
“…come on, seven or eleven!”
Still would have rathered him on the roster than Richards. Good depth.
Good move. This is the most depth I’ve seen the Jays have in along time! Only thing that concerns me about their pen is the lack of a really good lefty(Mayza is decent, but he doesn’t give me much confidence in tight games). Bass also crumples in the spotlight. They will probably need to address this by the trade deadline( I hope anyways)
Jay Jay Jackson!