The Blue Jays and Marlins are finalizing a trade that’ll send right-hander Robinson Piña from Miami to Toronto for minor league pitcher Colby Martin, reports Christina De Nicola of MLB.com. The Marlins had designated Piña for assignment over the weekend. Toronto has an opening on the 40-man roster for now but will reinstate Max Scherzer from the 60-day injured list tomorrow, so they’ll need to open one roster spot.
It has been a quick turnaround for Piña, who was just selected onto Miami’s 40-man roster last Thursday. He made his big league debut a day later, tossing one inning of relief in a 6-2 win over the Braves. He gave up a home run to Austin Riley while retiring Alex Verdugo, Matt Olson and Marcell Ozuna. Miami designated him for assignment the next day and brought up lefty Josh Simpson as a fresh arm.
Piña, 26, was in his first season in the Miami organization. He’d previously spent time in the Angels and Phillies systems before joining the Fish on an offseason minor league contract. Piña has worked out of the rotation at Triple-A Jacksonville, turning in a 3.47 ERA across 57 innings. He has recorded a league average 22.2% strikeout rate against a solid 6.2% walk percentage. He averages around 93 MPH with both his four-seam and sinker and also features a slider and splitter. He has a full slate of options remaining and can bounce between Toronto and Triple-A Buffalo.
Martin is a 24-year-old reliever who was just promoted to High-A last week. He only has one appearance at that level. The 5’11” righty posted a 1.61 ERA while striking out a third of opponents against generally younger competition in Low-A. Toronto’s 16th-round pick last summer out of Southeastern University, Martin is a recent pitching convert after spending his first two collegiate seasons as an infielder. He has very little control right now (16% walk rate), as one would expect for a new pitcher. The Marlins are evidently intrigued enough by the stuff to take a flier.
This should accelerate the rebuild for the Fish.
When was the “build”?
There’s no reason why the stove should be this HOT so early in the season.
Jays love AAAA players.
And overpriced overpaid one dimensional players.
I think this is a result of the Marlins FO outwitting themselves. With so many starting pitchers injured plus others on the trading block, discarding Pina who might have been able to hold a rotation spot for the rest of the season does not look good.
Being forced into a lottery ticket trade for someone who might have helped keep us mildly competitive after the deadline is very likely not the best use of resources.
Probably another one and done like Casey Lawrence.
Martin’s an interesting lottery ticket. He is older than his competition in A ball, but that’s not particularly relevant as this converted infielder was drafted out of a small college just last year, and this is his first full season pitching. He’s older than the competition, but way less experienced on the mound.