The Blue Jays announced that they have reinstated right-hander Max Scherzer from the 60-day injured list. Fellow righty Spencer Turnbull has been designated for assignment as the corresponding move. Ben Nicholson-Smith of Sportsnet was among those to pass it along.
Turnbull, 32, was a notable free agent this offseason. He had a good season with the Phillies last year on a rate basis, posting a 2.65 earned run average over 54 1/3 innings in a swing role. His 26.1% strikeout rate and 47.5% ground ball rate were a few ticks above average with a 9% walk rate that was right around par. His workload was limited both by the Phils shuttling him between the rotation and bullpen, as well as a lat strain that kept him on the IL for most of the second half.
Despite the solid numbers, he lingered unsigned into the season. The Blue Jays had lost Scherzer to the IL after just one start and made various attempts to replace him in the rotation, giving chances to guys like Easton Lucas, José Ureña, Paxton Schultz and Eric Lauer.
They added Turnbull into the mix by signing him in early May, technically on a $1,265,306 salary but it was prorated to an even $1MM since some of the season was already in the books. Since he missed all of spring training, he agreed to be optioned to the minors to build up, though with a 35-day limit before he needed to be called up.
On that optional assignment, he seemed to struggle to get his velocity up. He averaged less than 90 miles per hour on his four-seam fastball in his Triple-A outings, despite being at 92 mph last year and in the 93-94 mph range in his previous big league seasons. Regardless, with their 35-day window closing, the Jays called him up in mid-June.
His first two outings were in relief and were reasonable enough. He started with two shutout frames against the Cardinals on June 11th, then allowed one run over 2 1/3 innings against the Phillies on the 15th, averaging around 91 mph in those outings. The Jays gave him a start against the White Sox on Friday, which did not go well. His four-seamer averaged 90.3 mph as he allowed four earned runs in two innings. He now sports a 7.11 ERA in his small sample of work this year, with his strikeout and walk rates matching at 12.1%, a subpar number in both cases.
While Turnbull has struggled to get into a good groove, other pitchers have outperformed him. Lauer, signed to a minor league deal in the offseason, has a 2.21 ERA in 40 2/3 innings for the Jays this year. There’s certainly some luck in there but his 25.5% strikeout rate is strong and his 8.7% walk rate around average. The Jays could have kicked Turnbull into a long relief role but Schultz has a 3.80 ERA, 27.7% strikeout rate, 7.4% walk rate and 41.7% ground ball rate. He also has options, meaning the Jays have some freedom to shuttle him to Triple-A when they want a fresh arm.
With Scherzer’s return, he will join Kevin Gausman, JosĂ© BerrĂos and Chris Bassitt in the rotation. Bowden Francis landed on the IL about a week ago due to a shoulder impingement but Lauer has seemingly taken over that spot.
Put it all together and Turnbull heads into DFA limbo, which can last as long as a week. The waiver process takes 48 hours, meaning the Jays can take as long as five days to explore trade interest. Given his form so far this year and his salary, teams might wait for him to hit the open market. He has more than enough service time to reject an outright assignment and elect free agency while keeping his salary in tact. It’s possible the Jays skip the formality and simply release him.
If that comes to pass, teams would be able to sign him and only pay him the prorated league minimum salary for any time spent on the roster, with that amount subtracted from Toronto’s commitment. That could be an attractive flier for some clubs, given Turnbull’s past work. As mentioned, he had decent results as recently as last year. From 2019 to 2021 with the Tigers, he posted a 4.13 ERA in 255 innings with a 21.9% strikeout rate, 9.1% walk rate and 50.3% ground ball rate. He missed 2022 recovering from Tommy John surgery and struggled in 2023 but bounced back with the Phils last year. His 2025 hasn’t been amazing so far but it’s also followed an unusual trajectory.
Photo courtesy of Nick Turchiaro, Imagn Images
Did Toronto really give 500 million to a bad bodied first baseman? Lol. You got to overpay by a ton to stay in Canada
A classic myopic American take. You might be surprised to hear this, but many many people (i.e., most of the rest of the world) would prefer not to live in the US.
Is that why people pour in from every non white Country every year
Yikes.
Stick to baseball on this forum.
There are enough toxic media sites elsewhere for you to go embarrass yourself on.
@Bernardsanders Keep your hate talk to other forums. This is about baseball.
you can an say yikes all you want, but the US is the lead of immigration in the world. with Germany and Saudi Arabia following. Now idk why the guy said “non-whites” as if Caucasians aren’t also coming here…
Why do white people hate that?
20 percent of all immigrants to the US are from ‘white’ countries or are people who identify as white.
That’s not true at all
As to why anyone would want to live in the US when it is one of the most expensive countries in the world…idk. But also it’s hard to deny people do some risky stuff to get here and Toronto doesn’t seem to be able to get the people they want. So your comment seems unwarranted because, while it’s a misplaced tired post about the Jays, it’s also true. And we are only talking about Canada and the US. They weren’t making a blanket statement about everyone in the world.
Most expensive? The average American lives better than 99 percent of the world
Im not saying there are no other factors involved but last year the US was the 7th most expensive country in the world to live in (the type of countries ahead are mostly tiny like Monoca, Cayman Islands, etc). Many of the places that are the most sought after vacation spots in the world are not even close to being as expensive as the US.
If by living better you mean only being able to even have a home if you live with family/friends or are practically rich.
What is it to “live better”? Are we all robots with the same idea of what we want out of life (I mean many largely far left thinkers have thought so for over 100 years-our entire education system, psychology (Frankfurt school/behaviorism) are based off those ideas. I don’t take “clean” water, security, or high employment for granted btw. But if you think there is anything normal about the price of living in the US then you have been here too long to know that life isn’t supposed to be this way. And I don’t mean to give you the idea that I dislike your namesake. I agree with much he says while understanding that he lives under the delusion that if only we all had the same opportunity and split everything our problems would be solved. And every thinker who thinks that way always neglects to address the void of values and meaning we all face. They actually think if we just did away with all those sources of meaning (spirituality, philosophy,etc) we could all be good robots. And sure we’ll have to hand every aspect of society over to the government to get where we want to go. So what? We can trust them.
C-Daddy hate to say this but many MLB players would rather play stateside. In fact, even basketball players do not want to play in Toronto. You might be surprised to hear this but many, many people have crossed the border to live in America, legally or not.
Classic ignorant Canadian take from you.
remember though. its “hate talk” to say true things
@c-daddy Is that right? Well thankfully you’re one of them.
@c-daddy. Good chance he’s lived in Canada with vladdy.
If you’re going to attempt to rage-bait people you could at least attempt to be humorous, and at the very minimum topical. Keep practicing you’ll get there eventually. I believe in you kiddo!
I know right Vladdy hadn’t been “fat” in years. Is he bigger framed ya but dudes hit the gym and put on a lot of muscle since he was 21
You know, beyond America’s borders does not live a lesser people…
@acoss. The “lesser people” are more often than not, the ones like OP that were born here and sucked down all the USA #1 BS.
This dude probably gets up from his seat to salute and thank Vietnam vets for their “service” at Arbys
I don’t do that. I’m a socialist
Nah you a b¡tch, the real Bernie would dunk on you, ya lame
The lunatic in the Whitehouse thinks so.
Let’s see your body.
Canada/Toronto bashing is boring. Always coming from the same crowd. Yawn….let’s keep it on topic of baseball.
Kinda glad for that hasn’t looked great since they signed him. Nice to see the jays getting some pitching back. Mad max back, big puma has started his rehab throwing 96, Lauer has been fantastic and I believe Garcia is getting close. Hopefully jays can get a mid rotation stater between now and the deadline jettison Green from the pen should help this team immensely.
Let’s not pretend the Jays are not in a vulnerable position with their pitching. We cannot count on Max making another 12-15 starts. It would be a gigantic blessing if he does.
Oh there’s problems but at least now they have a decent rotation going if they can get 1 more decent starter I have faith that max and lauer can be a decent #5
Who are you calling big puma? Because whichever pitcher you’re referring to can’t use that as a nickname because Lance “Big Puma” Berkman earned it many years ago.
Big Red gets the Ziggy (a Dick Vitale term – look it up).
Does Turnbull call Harris for a job opportunity or has that bridge been completely burned?
Plenty of teams looking for very good starters.
Turnbull had no hitter not too long ago.
Turnbull threw his no-no 4 years ago. That’s a lifetime in MLB.
That bridge was burned down and hauled away. No way Detroit would have any interest.
VITALE witnessed Adam and Eves birth!🤣
Didn’t get much of a shot
Didn’t do much with the shot he was given.
I eagerly awaited his arrival to the Jays….but he didn’t seem to give an effort when given the chance.
Seems like a waste to pay a guy $1M for like 6 innings! Not the wrong move dropping him but that was a wasted signing.
He was getting lit up in the minors
He’ll be back next week when Max suffers a season ending injury.
Spring training matters. I don’t think I’m ever going to believe in any pitcher that misses it again. Every year these guys who wait and sign late turn in poor results.
This is pretty much all on Turnbull. He knew he wasn’t going to perform in ST which is why he declined the several minor league deals he was most certainly offered. Spencer Turnbull hates….HATES….the minor leagues.
He just got $1 million to try for 2 months.
If anyone gives this washed up, has been another contract they should be banned from running a major league team.
I want Max to throw 50 innings during the regular season if he also throws 50 in the postseason.
Turnbull needed another start or two in the minors before being called up. The Jays rushed him up when he wasn’t built up enough. Unsurprisingly, Turnbull wasn’t completely sharp. Now, he gets DFA’d after he was rushed
It probably wasn’t his call.
If Turnbull had received a decent offer, then he would have accepted it and done Spring Training
Turnbull had to be called up within 35 days of signing. So no one rushed him up, presumably that was a term by him/his agent to make sure he didn’t rot in the minors
He was rushed. He wasn’t ready to pitch in the majors when called up. He was set up to fail & he failed
Say it with my Eric.
They. Contractually. Had. To. Call. Him. Up
Turnbull was probably praying the Jays would just let the 35 day window expire and he could go home with a million dollars in his pocket.
BS
He is a major league baseball player trying to rebuild his career after Tommy John. Some take longer to recover. Some are never the same. Some come back stronger than ever.
He missed regular Spring Training.
Maybe, he needs alittle more time to ramp up.
Turnbull can pitch when ready and healthy.
His résumé includes a no hitter
as a starter.
For his major league career (currently in his 7th season) he has one season pitching over 100 innings. In that one season (145.1 inn) he managed a 4.61 ERA and a 103 ERA+.
He almost certainly could have used more ramp up time. He almost certainly wouldn’t have been a difference maker. He’s a back of the rotation arm who had a fluky no hitter (as many are)
Spencer Turnbull was the best Tigers starter with the best stuff during a very painful Tigers rebuild.
His straight stats are misleading since he pitched for some very bad baseball teams with subpar defense that INFLATED his ERAs and DEFLATED his own pitching stats
At one time, Turnbull was was the Tigers #1 starter with better stuff than: Matthew Boyd, Daniel Norris and very young Tarik Skubal, Casey Mize, Matt Manning etc.
If he can get healthy and get his stuff back , then Spencer Turnbull could certainly help a number of playoff caliber teams.
I think whoever picks him up, will probably send him down for a minor league assignment to get work in before getting called up to the big league team.
When ever this FO speaks, the calliope music is faint but as audible.
I think half the Blue Jays rotation has been in the Brewers org at one time or another – Bowden Francis, Paxton Schultz, Eric Lauer, etc.
All kidding aside, this ranks right up there with the Jays dumping Ryan Yarbrough for Richard “Dicky” Lovelady, whom the Blue Jays also quickly DFAed. Scherzer will quickly re-injure himself, and the J’s will find themselves scrambling for innings. Yes I know there is the right now, but August, September, and October gets very hot quickly. Let’s see if Chad Green (or whomever you think should have been dumped) ends up out performing Turnbull or Yarbrough going forward.
Bring him home, Dave.
Dombrowski?
Max Scherzer is a payroll bandit. 3 innings so far for 15 million. He will be hurt again. He fooled them.
Well, he’s pitched 3 more innings than Alex Cobb has for his $15 million.
Great work if you can find it.
Until Turnbull can build himself up
for at least 150 innings,
then maybe he would be better utilized
as a “spot starter” and bullpen guy.
Build him up and put him into high leverage situations in the pen.
If he is ready this year, then spot start him for long schedules and injured starters.
.
If not, he could be very useful in a contender’s bullpen when he gets his pitches back on track
Turnbull may be looking at 2026
before he takes the ball as a full time starter again.
Hard to build up when you struggle to get outs.
“Turnbull, 32, was a notable free agent this offseason.”
So notable, he has already been signed, pitched, and been DFA’d before his status on the MLBTR Free Agent Prediction Contest is updated.
You’ll have to do better if you hope to convince me to buy a subscription!
Turnbull didn’t have it in his minor league starts prior to the callup. The callup had to happen not just contractually, but by-virtue of having no SP depth in the organization. Maybe he gets a shot in spring next year and uses this time to consider his options.
Dave Dombrowski & Phillies are looking for bullpen help @ the trade deadline.
Tigers could use more bullpen help.
Padres could use more depth both in their rotation and in the bullpen.
Many teams looking for good arms and targeting such at the trade deadline.
Would be surprised to see Turnbull watch the rest of the season @ home on his couch. He has too much talent to sit out the year.
Soon boarding flight to S. Korea. Hope he gets back to form
Mike Elias, don’t even think about it!🤣
Wow,….. I didn’t see that coming…….HA ! :-)
Karma isn’t just a stripper.