The Blue Jays announced they’ve claimed reliever Michael Petersen from the Marlins. Toronto outrighted Génesis Cabrera and Luis Frías off the 40-man roster. Both players elected free agency. Toronto also designated righty Emmanuel Ramírez for assignment.
Petersen is on the move for the second time in a few months. Miami grabbed the right-hander off waivers from the Dodgers in September. He allowed four runs across 5 2/3 innings to finish the year. Petersen had made 11 appearances with the Dodgers. He closed his debut campaign with a 5.95 earned run average through 19 2/3 innings.
The 30-year-old Petersen had much better numbers in 33 innings at the Triple-A level. He posted a 1.64 ERA while striking out a massive 35.2% of opponents. The native of the United Kingdom still has a couple options remaining, so he’ll serve as a bullpen depth piece if the Jays keep him on the 40-man roster.
Cabrera’s tenure in Toronto ends after a season and a half. The Jays acquired the southpaw from the Cardinals midway through the ’23 season. Cabrera pitched well down the stretch and returned for a second season. The results were solid enough, as he posted a 3.59 ERA while logging 62 2/3 relief innings. Cabrera had a subpar 18.5% strikeout rate and walked nearly 11% of his opponents, though. MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz projected him for a $2.5MM salary if tendered a contract for his final arbitration year. The Jays evidently weren’t willing to pay that price given Cabrera’s shaky K/BB profile.
Toronto grabbed Frías off waivers from the Diamondbacks late in the year. The 6’3″ righty was blown up for eight runs in 3 1/3 frames. He has a 7.38 ERA over 58 big league appearances. Frías was a reasonably well-regarded prospect who throws in the mid-90s, but he hasn’t shown any kind of strike-throwing consistency in the majors.
Ramírez, 30, was another late-season waiver acquisition. He came over from Miami in early September. Ramírez didn’t make an appearance for the Jays after allowing a near-7.00 ERA over 15 games for the Fish. He’ll presumably find himself on waivers in the next few days.
Everyone gets a marlins reliever!
Why outright Genesis? Next to Chad Green, he was their best relief pitcher. This is a stupid move. They could’ve cleared roster space by getting rid of Zach Pop or another substandard player.
His numbers are garbage. Too many hits per innings pitched and way too many walks
Genesis makes another exodus.
It’s all by the Numbers.
No more lamentations over this guy.
It’ll be Chronicled for generations to come.
That’s quite a Revelation!
Marlins are getting absolutely plundered
Petersen play 14 innings for the Dogders this season. Will he get a ring too?
Probably
Welcome to the BlueJays building their championship roster. Sarcasm heavy.
Cabrera can play on my team. He’ll get picked up quickly by another club.
Let the BlueJays clown show continue.
Michael is a quality person and he has a live arm. I am rooting for him to persevere and succeed! Good luck in Toronto Michael!
A little surprised at this move with Cabrera BUT, he was starting to show cracks at the end of the season so maybe they got out before he completely imploded in 2025. Maybe he would have had an opening day outing of :
0 IP 4 hits 4 runs 2 BB 0 K
And had an March/April of 0-2 IP 13.77