The Blue Jays reached agreement with left-hander Josh Fleming on a minor league contract, reports Alden González of ESPN. The Republik Sports client receives a non-roster invite to Spring Training.
Fleming spent last season in Triple-A with the Mariners. The 29-year-old southpaw worked mostly out of the bullpen and struggled to a 4.91 ERA across 84 1/3 innings. He got ground-balls at a 57.8% clip but had an 11.5% strikeout rate, the second-lowest mark among Triple-A pitchers with at least 50 innings. He’s a sinkerballer who barely scrapes 90 MPH while mixing in a cutter, changeup and curveball.
A former fifth-round pick by the Rays, Fleming has spent the majority of his career in the AL East. He pitched for Tampa Bay between 2020-23 and logged the ’24 campaign with the Pirates. He carries a 4.77 ERA across 254 2/3 major league innings. As was the case in Triple-A, he has thrown strikes and gotten a ton of grounders while barely missing any bats at the big league level. He’ll likely begin the season at Triple-A Buffalo as long relief depth.
I mean, not the lefty I was hoping they would have signed today…
Buffalo needs pitchers too.
Moving forward, I believe the Jays need to be looking at the trade market. With the depth they have in the outfield and starting pitching, they should be able to make another upgrade either to the outfield or pitching. If this team really wants to go all in, than lets do it.
Think of the bottom teams in the league and what they have that might help us out. Maybe the angels for one.
Tor
Trout
Kikuchi
Angels
Santander
Luke’s
Berrios
Tiedemann
“Maybe a top 10 prospect as well”
Think about it. Trout and Springer alternating the DH role. Kikuchi with is 9+ strikeouts per 9 innings and always enjoyed being here. We give up a lot, but thats part of having a surplus. Put Trout in our line up and give Joey Loperfido more chance to play a role as I think hes the better choice out of him and Luke’s.
Not saying there are not other options out there for a trade, but this one works for both teams. One in a win now mode and the other for the future.
I dont see that as a upgrade for the Jays
Trout was 1.5 WAR last year in 130 games. He has 5 years left at $37 mil a year. He is pretty much done. He was DH 106 times last year. He is not likely to be better than George and the Jays would be stuck with a big, ugly contract.
Kikcuhi had a 107 ERA+ Berrios had 102 ERA+. Is there that much difference between Kikuchi and Berrios?
Lukes was 2.0 WAR and is dirt cheap. He is likely to outperform Trout.
I guess the Jays get rid of Santander, but if money is not an issue, it makes more sense to keep him and see if he can be healthy and get back on track. If you ditch him you are guaranteed to get nothing from him.
I dont see the benefit of giving up a top prospect and Ricky T for this.
He;s trying to save Arte some money on Trout.
Unless Trout is atleast 35-40% retained by the Angels then while the heart says yes the head has to say no.
What they need, more than anything, is a legit top four in the order left handed bat.
Since Carlos Delgado this has been a gap
That’s why to me Ohtani and Tucker stung the most.
At this point Santander is going to have to prove he’s worth a starting 9, let alone a top of the order place
Barger is being penciled in by many as the 2 hitter…but 1. He’s got to do it for a full season and 2,. He’s not yet earned the spot as a full time player
Bellingers deal felt more than attainable after seeing what we signed for, just days after the bonkers aav’s given out to Tucker and Bichette….. but the jays never really seems interested in him
The Elly De Le Cruz rumour was interesting, but hard to imagine Cincinnati moving off of him yet with them looking like the can win a very winnable division.
Marte is possibly still available but I don’t think at this point he’s the answer if having to give up assets.
It’s a hard problem to solve.