The Blue Jays announced a handful of roster moves this morning, headlined by the club’s decision to place right-hander Nick Sandlin on the 15-day injured list due to a right lat strain. Toronto has recalled right-hander Dillon Tate to replace Sandlin on the roster, and also selected the contract of right-hander Paxton Schultz. Right-hander Jacob Barnes was designated for assignment to make room for Schultz on both the 40-man and active rosters.
Sandlin, 28, came to Toronto as part of the trade that brought in Andres Gimenez and saw Spencer Horwitz depart the club. He had plenty of success over the years in Cleveland as a middle reliever despite shaky peripherals, pitching to a 3.27 ERA (126 ERA+) in spite of a 4.41 FIP and an 11.4% walk rate. In the early going this year, Sandlin has managed to tighten things up with a 2.25 ERA and 2.77 FIP across his first ten appearances with the Blue Jays. It’s a significant loss for the Blue Jays’ bullpen, as both Sandlin and fellow newcomer Jeff Hoffman have both been key cogs in Toronto’s early success this year.
Fortunately, there are some signals that this could be a fairly short absence. John Schneider told reporters this morning (including Keegan Matheson of MLB.com) that the lat issue Sandlin is currently dealing with is one that’s been nagging him for a while, and that they’ve decided to be “proactive” about it rather than risk it becoming a larger issue down the road. While Sandlin will be shut down for at least a few days, it seems possible that he could return relatively quickly if the strain improves during that layoff. In any case, he’ll be down for at least the next two weeks.
Replacing him on the roster for the time being is Tate, who the Jays claimed off waivers from the Orioles back in September. He was non-tendered by Toronto over the offseason but re-signed with them on a big league deal back in March. He’s yet to appear in the majors for the club this year but has generally been a cromulent middle reliever over the years, with a 3.89 ERA and a near-matching 3.88 FIP since the start of the 2021 season. He’ll be joined as a option for the middle innings by Schultz, a 14th-round pick by the Brewers back in 2019 who has spent the majority of his professional career as a starting pitcher in the Blue Jays organization. Toronto brass moved him to the bullpen last year, and despite previous middling results he’s looked quite good in 8 2/3 frames of multi-inning relief work this season with a 2.08 ERA and a 27.2% strikeout rate with Triple-A Buffalo.
Schultz’s addition to the roster is made possible by the departure of Barnes, a veteran currently in his tenth major league season. Signed to a minor league deal back in February, Barnes impressed during camp enough to get called upon to make the Jays’ Opening Day roster but has struggled in eight innings of work with the club this year, surrendering nine runs (eight earned) on ten hits and three walks while striking out five. The Jays will have one week to either trade Barnes or pass him through waivers, at which point he’ll have the opportunity to either accept an outright assignment from the club or elect free agency in search of greener pastures. The right-hander posted a 4.36 ERA in 66 innings for the Nationals last year and has a career 4.79 ERA over his decade of work in the majors.
Jacob Barnes continuing to get big league innings while not being good since 2018 is fascinating.
Much like his DFA buddy of today, Casey Lawrence.
Sucks to see Sandlin go down guys been pretty good to start. Barnes shouldn’t have made the team to start with.
I know WAR isn’t the best stat to use when trying to measure a reliever but how the heck has Jacob Barnes been getting opportunities to pitch in the big leagues every year when he hasn’t posted a positive WAR season since 2017?!
If you look at the Stuff models (which can be informative in smaller relief samples) Barnes’ repertoire has been league average the last few seasons. It seems that front offices value boring availability on their staff a lot more than fans do, so guys like Barnes benefit from it.
The example I always like to use is Jordan Lyles. He was a -2.2 WAR player with a 5.22/4.78 ERA/FIP for his 14-year career and has made over $52 million (!) in earnings. Sometimes teams just need to cover innings over the course of 162.
Jordan Lyles I can sort of understand as he was a good bet to eat lots of innings for you (Even if they were not good innings). Especially in an age where most starting pitchers are not able to throw more than 160 innings in a season consistently.
But for Barnes no matter how good or bad his “stuff” is according to advanced metrics at the end of the day it never actually results in good results. If he were a young prospect with good stuff I would see the appeal in the potential upside.
Heck if he were a mediocre starter that gave you a decent amount of innings like Lyles I would even see the argument but mediocre relievers are a dime a dozen and especially ones that have shown more upside than Barnes.
When a pitcher’s stuff isn’t half bad I think the team’s outlook is just “can we get a few non-terrible weeks out of him” before churning through other depth options. Last year Barnes had a 15 IP stretch in August with a 1.20 ERA, for example.
You’re right that Barnes is a vet without much upside at this point so I imagine 40-man considerations were a part of this too. I bet the Jays were hoping not to have to add Schultz to it if they didn’t have to.
This is the same team as last year. Pitching is going to wear down and the losses will pile up soon. The team plays like they are holding on for dear life. The manager looks like he is having a panic attack every time there is a crucial moment in the game. Then he over analyzes the situation and makes a dumb decision. Out hit a team 10 to 2 and lose 3 to 2. Vlad should be a negative 3 WAR player if he isn’t already based on the runs and outs he has cost us this year. This team makes me a pessimist.
Roughed Odor;
LOL
You expected different?
They did the same thing this off-season as they always do: Took on some long-term (slightly past their prime) veterans contracts….for good money.
Remember how excited Jays fans here were this offseason? On each signing I wrote: “They keep doing the same thing. Why expect different results?”
Rule #1 of a Mark Shapiro run team: No one working there is allowed to know more about baseball than him.
It’s hilarious you two bozos have to resort to complaining about something that hasn’t happened. Sort of like how they were never going to lock up Vlad. Lol
Hey Ross, this is Mark…. Cut Yarbrough ,and keep Lovelady and Barnes ……
As said when signed, why is Dillion Tate on this team? He cannot pitch consistently in the big leagues.
The BlueJays bullpen is much better than last year but still has obvious holes.
jimmertee;
LOL
I respect your comments, but……
One of the ongoing comments I’ve heard and read for decades from fans of underperforming ML teams that have hit the wall, is that there’s one lower-level set-up guy in the bullpen that’s bringing the entire teams down.
I understand your frustration. Until Mr. Shapiro is out of there and a new President comes in there that in turn hires a competent FO that understands how baseball is played on the field; lets them hire a competent manager, coaching staff, and scouts, then buckle-in and accept what is.
By the way: The AL East is the most overrated division in MLB. I’ve even heard a few broadcasters from teams outside the division make that observation and ask how that happened. Am convinced that there are 4 teams in the NL at this point that could easily win that division.
-0.09 SIERA in 1 game.