The Blue Jays have claimed righty Brett de Geus off waivers from the Marlins and designated fellow right-hander Yerry Rodriguez for assignment in a corresponding move, the team announced Thursday. De Geus has been optioned to Triple-A. Miami had designated him for assignment earlier this week.
De Geus, 26, only pitched 5 2/3 innings for the Marlins. He surrendered four runs on seven hits and two walks with four punchouts during that brief look. They’re the second team of the year for the former Rule 5 pick, as he also pitched 3 1/3 innings of one-run ball with Seattle. He’s previously pitched with both the Rangers and Diamondbacks but sports an ugly 7.17 ERA in 59 major league frames. De Geus has fanned a well below-average 16.9% of his opponents in the majors against a 9.7% walk rate that’s about one percentage point higher than the average reliever.
Though he hasn’t had success in the majors or in Triple-A (7.09 ERA in 47 innings), de Geus has gotten looks from several clubs over the years. Teams clearly like his raw stuff. He sits 96.4 mph with his sinker, per Statcast, and regularly posts huge ground-ball rates because of that power offering and its movement. That sinker has still generally been hit fairly hard, but he has more intriguing swing data against his slate of secondary offerings: a cutter, knuckle curve and seldom-used splitter. For now, he’ll add a fresh arm to a Blue Jays bullpen that has been a major weakness this season.
As for the 26-year-old Rodriguez, he’ll now head to waivers. As with de Geus in Miami, he saw only a brief look with the Jays — and it didn’t go well. In 4 2/3 innings for Toronto, Rodriguez was torched for nine runs (eight earned) on 10 hits and a pair of walks. He punched out five of the 27 batters he faced (18.5%).
The Jays acquired Rodriguez from the Rangers in exchange for minor league righty Josh Mollerus earlier this summer after Rodriguez had been designated by Texas. The hard-throwing righty missed nearly a month of action in Triple-A on the injured list following the trade, and in five healthy innings there he’s walked nine batters. Rodriguez’s high-end velocity could hold appeal to another club, but he’s had a rough year both in Triple-A and the big leagues — his third season with some major league time. Overall, Rodriguez owns an 8.17 ERA in 36 1/3 MLB frames.
This is it guys.
So DFA a dude with higher upside?
Sounds blue jay like.
Waiver roulette.
Crawl on your belly til the end of the season atkins…..
What’s he gonna throw? Your De Gues is as good as mine.
Will say this for the Blue Jays….
Ernie Clement.
Have watched him this year and the guy has become a true super-utility player.
2B, 3B, SS, OF, and pitched an inning.
Not into stats that much, but the man is slashing:
.267 / .288 / .423 / .712 with a 100 OPS+.
3.5 BWAR in 378 PA’s.
Watching him play is more impressive. Strong fundamentals
no matter where they play him on D. Works counts. Heads
up baserunner.
Probably their 3rd or 4th most valuable position player.
At the very least Clement is in a platoon situation with Horowitz who’s not playing 2B enough. Best case is he’s your shortstop. That’s fine if the Jays get a couple more bats.
@its_happening
It’s not a coincidence that when they moved on from Turner that Horwitz got no playing time at 2B. He’s really bad there. If you see Horwitz get significant playing time at 2B next year, Atkins has dropped the ball yet again.
He should be playing there in 2024. Then reassess for 2025. If the plan is to DH in 2025, DH him in 2025. But in 2024 give him as many infield reps at 2B as possible.
Horowitz can not play defense…. period. He is aweful at second base and he is only slightly better at first. He can’t catch the ball unless it is right at his glove and his foot work is worse than his glove. He is a part time DH and should never play the field..
@its_happening
Nope. Look at low many reps he’s at at 2B since they traded Turner as opposed to when Turner was still with the team. If anything they should have looked at moving Turner well before they did.
NoSaint – agree on Turner. I can also see the Jays having to wait until his numbers went back up to deal him. Love Turner, but didn’t like the signing to begin with.
Darthyen, what are the Jays playing for right now? Are they contending? Looking to string wins? No. They need to give him playing time.
Why? Because come 2025, an injury or two on the infield will force the Jays to (potentially) play Horowitz at 2B. Are you going to tell me the Jays won’t have injuries? Give him the reps at 2B, good or bad. Let him continue to grow on both sides of the ball. Then use the offseason to sort out who’s playing where and who to trade. Play the man at 2-bag and let him sink. Or swim.
Another pickup to get them to the end of the season.
Jays bullpen has been disastrous this season. If the Jays want to compete in 2025 they will need to trade or spend on bullpen. Jays should be looking at Barlow.
its_happening;
Jays bullpen is always bad.
Barlow was a disaster, Stay away. Have to build your own bullpen,
Barlow the next 3 weeks would not hurt. Jays want to contend next year. They will need to make trades for bullpen arms because they also need a couple bats. There is only so much money they will spend to acquire the pieces needed. If they hope to sign Vlad (doubtful), the signings for 2025 will be more bounce back candidates (probably) at a cost.
Suddenly having a look at Barlow isn’t going to hurt. An argument can be made that stuff-wise the Jays can get rid of Swanson at season’s end. They will not do that and really can’t. Bring Barlow in for the opportunity.
De Gues who’s coming to dinner?