The Blue Jays announced that they have selected the contract of left-hander Adam Macko. Today is the deadline for clubs to add players to their roster in order to prevent them from being eligible in next month’s Rule 5 draft. Ari Alexander of KPRC 2 reported on the move prior to the official announcement.
Macko, 23 next month, was a seventh-round pick of the Mariners in the 2019 draft. In the years after that selection, he wasn’t able to throw many innings both due to the pandemic and injuries. From 2019 through 2022, he logged 95 total innings with a 3.98 earned run average. His 12.5% walk rate was on the high side but he was able to strike out a massive 35% of batters faced.
The Blue Jays were clearly intrigued, acquiring him from the Mariners alongside Erik Swanson in the deal that sent Teoscar Hernández to Seattle a year ago. Macko’s first season with his new club went well, tossing 86 innings over 20 High-A starts. His 4.81 ERA might not look impressive at first glance, but he struck out 28.5% of opponents while keeping his walk rate down to a 10.8% clip. He also kept 44.8% of batted balls on the ground. His .327 batting average on balls in play and 63.9% strand rate were both on the unlucky side of average, which is why his 3.97 FIP was almost a full run better than his ERA.
Macko hasn’t yet reached Double-A but the Jays evidently thought there was at least some chance of him getting attention in the Rule 5. Instead, they will give him a roster spot and install him as pitching depth as he will try to work his way towards his big league debut.
Do they get bonus points for having an Eastern European on the 40 man?
Always cool to see Euros moving on up.
Who knows Macko from Adam?
Has command issues. But had to be protected as the key piece to the Teoscar trade.
Arguably Erik Swanson was the key piece of that trade.
Erik Swanson was a great pickup for Hernandez by the BlueJays. I liked this deal all the way. Swanson was way overused and inappropriately used which led him to the IL but still a good deal.
Macko is a throw in. Time will tell if he makes the big leagues. He is an okay prospect but not a blue-chip one.
Not a throw in by the way he was talked about when the trade went down. “Jays landed a top pitching prospect!!”
Yeah, a guy Seattle felt was expendable because he can’t throw strikes.