The Blue Jays announced that right-hander Connor Seabold has been designated for assignment. That opens an active roster spot for Max Scherzer, who has been reinstated from the 15-day injured list to start tonight’s game. Toronto’s 40-man roster count drops to 38, as Yariel Rodríguez was also designated for assignment this week.
Seabold, 30, began the year with the Jays on a minor league deal. They had planned to have him serve as multi-inning depth piece until his velocity ticked up a bit in camp, which caused them to try him in more of a traditional relief role.
They couldn’t find a spot for him on the Opening Day roster, so he triggered an opt-out and signed with the Tigers. He posted a 3.45 earned run average for Detroit, spending about two months on the roster before getting squeezed into DFA limbo. At that time, the Jays had suffered a number of injuries and had room for Seabold, so they sent minor league pitcher Juanmi Vasquez to the Tigers in a DFA trade.
Seabold has made five appearances for the Jays in the past two weeks, allowing three earned runs in 3 1/3 innings. That gives him an 8.10 ERA in that tiny sample of work. Looking at his season as a whole, he has a 4.26 ERA in 19 innings. His 17.2% strikeout rate is subpar but his 8% walk rate and 42.9% ground ball rate are decent figures.
Ultimately, that’s not enough for him to keep his roster spot. The Jays have been getting healthier of late, with Tommy Nance, Dylan Cease and now Scherzer coming off the IL this week. Seabold is out of options, so he has been pushed into DFA limbo yet again. That can last as long as a week, though the waiver process takes 48 hours. The Jays could take five days to see if Seabold has any trade value but they could also put him on waivers sooner than that.
If Seabold were to clear waivers, he would have the right to elect free agency since he has a previous career outright. However, since he has fewer than five years of big league service time, he would have to forfeit his remaining salary commitments in exercising that right. His deal with the Tigers in March was a split deal which came with an $800K salary in the majors. The minor league salary on that deal was not publicly reported. Perhaps it’s healthy enough that he would not want to walk away from it and would accept an outright assignment.
The returns of both Cease and Scherzer give the Jays the healthiest rotation they’ve had in months. Their starting group has really been decimated by injuries this year. José Berríos, Cody Ponce and Bowden Francis are done for the year. Cease, Scherzer and Trey Yesavage all spent time on the IL for lesser injuries. Shane Bieber and Lazaro Estrada are currently on the IL. Jake Bloss is on the minor league IL, still working his way back from last year’s Tommy John surgery. Despite all the injuries, the Jays gave up on Eric Lauer earlier in the year, trading him to the Dodgers.
Due to all those issues, the Jays have effectively been running a three-man rotation while Cease and Scherzer have been out, with Yesavage, Kevin Gausman and Patrick Corbin being the three. The Jays have been patching things together around those three, with bullpen games featuring guys like Spencer Miles, Chad Dallas and Simeon Woods Richardson in bulk roles.
Ideally, things stay healthy from here with Cease, Scherzer, Gausman, Yesavage and Corbin in the rotation. Dallas has been optioned to the minors and can be in the Triple-A rotation while Miles and Woods Richardson are still in the big league bullpen. Bieber, Bloss and Estrada are on rehab assignments right now and could be factors in the future. On the position player side, catcher Alejandro Kirk is also rehabbing and could be back with the big league club soon.
The defending American League champions probably hoped to be better than 33-35 at this point in the season but probably don’t feel too bad about how they weathered all those injuries. The weak performance across the A.L. means they are tied for a Wild Card spot with the Rangers, despite their losing record. With the injury situation leveling off, perhaps they can post better results going forward.
Photo courtesy of Kim Klement Neitzel, Imagn Images
2.400 WHIP, .810 ERA , free agent; somewhere in America Jed Hoyer just got aroused.
Mexican League?
Nah, he is one of those guys that will bounce around some more signing minor league deals or getting picked off waivers.
Every team needs an easily disposable arm to help out thru injury or a tired staff.
@Ducey
Maybe? I can see him chasing some money before he calls it a day. Mexican League pays pretty good. Can’t see him being good enough for NPB, but KBO could be a match.
He already did the Korean thing.
Seabold is AAA material. Perhaps the Mexican league is an option. Will be interesting to see what move comes next. Corbin, SWR, possibly Max? Unless someone hits the IL, which is possible, someone they want to keep if they could will go.
Writing was on the wall early for all these pitchers knowing the main ones were coming back. Maybe another team needs an arm but with DET and TOR already done that might be it unless Seabold hits another AAA contract or Asia
The extra seats are interesting so maybe Sanchez stays when Barger returns? All three catchers can stay as well if no further pitching changes. I think they’ll see how it goes. Heineman doesn’t slug but has otherwise been a great secondary catcher in framing and pitcher communication so it would be counterproductive it just hand him over to another team. 3 catcher body problem. Valenzuela has forced that conversation with outstanding offence so that’s good for him
What magical wizard spells did Walker and team put on SWR? He’s great. No 7.74 ERA/1.888 WHIP and 0.250 WHIP with Jays so far
Brandon Valenzuela isn’t just good offensively (117 OPS+, 3rd best on the team currently), he’s also currently holding down the fort behind the plate with a +5 DRS and an even shinier 7 catching runs from statcast and a 97th percentile fielding run value (including 100th percentile framing).
Brandon has been among the very best catchers in the American League this season. Heineman had a great offensive season last year, but his bat is completely gone now. It’s hard to justify keeping all three on the roster because with Springer locked in at DH, there’s really no way to get both Kirk and Valenzuela at bats, other then just piggy backing the catching position, leaving Heineman as a complete cheerleader with no playing time whatsoever.