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Anthony Kay

Cubs Claim Anthony Kay, Designate Alfonso Rivas

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The Cubs announced they’ve claimed left-hander Anthony Kay off waivers from the Blue Jays. To clear a 40-man roster spot, first baseman Alfonso Rivas was designated for assignment.

Kay lost his spot on the Toronto roster last week once the team officially signed Chris Bassitt. The 27-year-old had spent three-plus years in the organization. A former first-round draftee of the Mets, Kay was acquired alongside Simeon Woods Richardson in the 2019 trade that landed now-teammate Marcus Stroman in Queens. He’d been in Triple-A at the time and debuted at the big league level with Toronto later in the season.

The UCONN product has appeared in the bigs in four straight years, though he’s yet to top 33 2/3 innings in a season. He made only one MLB appearance in 2022, bringing him to 28 for his career. Working mostly as a multi-inning reliever, Kay has a 5.48 ERA through 70 2/3 innings. He’s fanned a solid 23.5% of opponents but walked batters at an 11.6% clip.

Kay has pitched parts of three years at Triple-A. He’s struggled to a 6.02 ERA over that stretch, thanks in large part to an 11.5% walk rate. The 2022 campaign was a particular challenge. Limited to 14 Triple-A innings by injury, he allowed 14 runs in as many innings with 15 strikeouts and 11 free passes.

While he hasn’t found much high level success to date, Kay represents an intriguing bullpen flier for the Chicago staff. He averaged 94.5 MPH with above-average spin on his fastball during his MLB outing this past season. He’s shown the ability to miss a decent number of bats and has a notable prospect pedigree, and the Cubs will work to try to iron out his control woes. He has one minor league option year remaining, so the Cubs can bounce him between Chicago and Triple-A Iowa next season if he holds his 40-man spot.

Rivas was a fourth-round pick of the Athletics in 2018. He was dealt to Chicago for Tony Kemp a year and a half later. Rivas didn’t play in 2020 because of the minor league cancelation and has spent the past two seasons in the upper levels. He’s moved between Chicago and Iowa as a depth option. He has hit well in Triple-A, posting a .300/.398/.433 line across 377 plate appearances. Rivas flashed that offensive potential at the MLB level in 2021 but stumbled to a .235/.322/.307 mark over 287 trips to the dish this year.

The left-handed hitter has shown a patient plate approach, working plenty of walks but also striking out quite a bit. That’s largely a product of the deep counts with which he’s comfortable. Rivas doesn’t have prototypical power for a player who’s limited to first base or the corner outfield, hitting four homers and six doubles in 119 big league games.

Chicago will have a week to deal Rivas or try to run him through waivers. If another team were to put in a claim or swing a small trade, they could option him to the minors for another two seasons.

Blue Jays Designate Anthony Kay For Assignment

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The Blue Jays have officially announced their signing of right-hander Chris Bassitt. To make room on the 40-man roster, left-hander Anthony Kay has been designated for assignment.

A first-round selection of the Mets in 2016, Kay was seen as a potential quick-to-the-majors starter based on the strength of his control. He underwent Tommy John surgery just a few months into his professional career, however, costing him the entire 2017 campaign. Kay returned with a new curveball to pair with his fastball-changeup combination, working his way to Triple-A by 2019.

Midway through that season, New York dealt him to the Blue Jays alongside Simeon Woods Richardson to land Marcus Stroman. Kay got to the big leagues briefly at the end of the year, making three appearances with Toronto. He’s appeared at the MLB level in each of the three subsequent seasons, though he’s yet to establish himself as a consistent presence on a big league staff.

Kay has made 28 MLB appearances, seven of which were starts. Over 70 2/3 innings, he owns a 5.48 ERA. Kay has averaged 94 MPH on his fastball and punched out a solid 23.5% of batters faced, but the plus control that was once his calling card has dipped. He’s walked nearly 12% of big league opponents, and the Jays have bounced him on and off the MLB roster the past few seasons.

Through parts of three Triple-A campaigns, the UCONN product owns a 6.02 ERA in 107 2/3 frames. He was limited to eight outings and 14 innings at that level this year, losing much of the season on the minor league injured list. Kay looked rusty in that stretch, surrendering 14 runs with 15 strikeouts and 11 walks.

Toronto will now have a week to trade Kay or place him on waivers. The 27-year-old still has a minor league option year remaining, so another team could stash him in Triple-A for a season if they’re willing to keep him on the 40-man roster. With between one and two years of MLB service, he won’t reach arbitration until after the 2024 season at the earliest.

Blue Jays Activate Julian Merryweather From Injured List

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The Blue Jays announced they’ve reinstated reliever Julian Merryweather from the 60-day injured list. Right-hander Bryan Baker was optioned to Triple-A Buffalo to open active roster space, while lefty Anthony Kay was placed on the COVID-19 injured list to clear a 40-man roster spot.

Merryweather is back after missing nearly five months due to a severe oblique strain. Injuries have unfortunately been frequent occurrences for the right-hander, who missed most of the 2018-19 seasons recovering from Tommy John surgery and also dealt with elbow tendinitis towards the end of last season.

There’s little question about Merryweather’s ability, though. He’s long been regarded as a potential high-leverage reliever by scouts and he flashed that talent at the big league level over the season’s first few weeks. The 29-year-old struck out seven of the fourteen batters he faced, allowing just a pair of baserunners over 4 1/3 scoreless innings. His fastball averaged a stellar 98.2 MPH and he racked up swinging strikes at a 14.5% rate to earn the closer’s role early in the season. It seems unlikely manager Charlie Montoyo will immediately reinstall him into the ninth inning after such a long absence, but Merryweather has a chance to emerge as the lockdown relief ace the Jays have been seeking all year.

His return comes at a fortuitous time for the Jays, who have caught fire of late to vault themselves back into the American League Wild Card picture. Toronto is riding a six-game winning streak and has taken nine of their last ten, putting them two games back of the Red Sox and two and a half behind the Yankees. The Jays won’t face Boston again this season, but they have five more against New York — including tonight’s and tomorrow’s contests.

Blue Jays Place Cavan Biggio On Injured List, Option Anthony Kay

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The Blue Jays announced they’ve placed third baseman Cavan Biggio on the 10-day injured list with a cervical spine ligament sprain. Additionally, lefty Anthony Kay and righty Jeremy Beasley were optioned to Triple-A Buffalo. To replace that trio on the active roster, infielder Joe Panik and reliever Anthony Castro were each reinstated from the IL, while righty Ty Tice was recalled from Buffalo.

Biggio’s IL placement is the most impactful of today’s spate of transactions. The 26-year-old has started 35 of Toronto’s first 42 games, with the bulk of his work coming at the hot corner. It’s been a difficult start to the year for Biggio, who has just a .205/.315/.315 slash with three homers across 151 plate appearances. That’s a far cry from the cumulative .240/.368/.430 mark (118 wRC+) he put up between 2019-20. Biggio’s impeccable plate discipline has remained intact, but he’s made contact on a career-worst 72% of his swings this season. (The league average contact rate is 75.2%). It’s no coincidence he’s striking out at a career-high 31.1% clip.

Panik and Santiago Espinal look like the best bets to handle third in Biggio’s absence. Neither has offered much offensively over the past few years, so the Jays will be anxious for Biggio’s return. It seems reasonable to expect him back in the short-term, as Scott Mitchell of TSN tweets that Biggio’s been playing through some neck stiffness recently and the team hopes a “few days” of rest will get him past the issue.

Kay has started four of his five appearances this season. He’s been hit around for a 6.62 ERA, although his peripherals suggest he’s been a bit unlucky to allow so many runs. Kay has stranded an unsustainably low 64.7% of baserunners and opposing hitters have managed a lofty .356 batting average on balls in play against him. A few more batted balls finding gloves and/or better sequencing could’ve resulted in an ERA closer to Kay’s 4.38 SIERA. Returning to the minors will give him a chance to work on his control; the lefty has walked a too-high 12.3% of batters faced this year.

The Jays will run a bullpen game to take Kay’s spot in the rotation for now, manager Charlie Montoyo said (via Shi Davidi of Sportsnet). Top prospects Nate Pearson and Alek Manoah are each performing well in Triple-A, though, and Kay’s demotion will only fuel speculation one or both of the vaunted young arms could get a look in the big leagues relatively soon. Pearson, of course, made a brief big league debut last season, while Manoah is pitching above A-ball for the first time this year.

Blue Jays Place Kirk, Milone, Castro On 10-Day IL

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MAY 3: Kirk could miss at least six weeks, Ben Wagner of Sportsnet tweets.

MAY 2, 5:20PM: Right-hander Anthony Castro was also sent to the 10-day IL due to a forearm strain.  The severity of the strain isn’t known, though Castro did undergo Tommy John surgery earlier in his career.  Left-hander Anthony Kay was called up from the alternate training site.

11:40PM: The Blue Jays indeed decided to recall Riley Adams from Triple-A to replace Kirk on the active roster, per Scott Mitchell of TSN Sports (via Twitter).

9:10PM: The Blue Jays will make a number of roster moves today. Alejandro Kirk and Tommy Milone will head to the injured list, while Ross Stripling will return to the team, per Ben Wagner of Sportsnet (via Twitter). Presumably, with Kirk out for at least 10 days, the Blue Jays will need to add a backup to the roster for Danny Jansen.

Speculatively speaking, Reese McGuire or Juan Graterol would be the Jays’ top option, though either one would need to be added to the 40-man roster. The Jays do have an open spot on their 40-man, but they also have Riley Adams, 24, who is already on the 40-man roster and could slot into Jansen’s backup role without a 40-man move. If the Jays expect Kirk to return after a minimum stint on the IL, they might prefer to avoid the rigmarole that comes with putting the out-of-options McGuire back onto the active roster. Graterol, 32, does have an option remaining.

On the pitching side, Milone heads to the injured list after contributing 14 innings of 6.43 ERA baseball (4.09 FIP). The veteran southpaw made one start and five appearances out of the pen. Stripling will return to the rotation for the first time since being placed on the injured list with a flexor strain in mid-April. Stripling and the Blue Jays hope he can re-gain the form that made him a valuable swingman for the Dodgers from 2016 to 2019.

Blue Jays Set Opening Day Roster

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The Blue Jays announced their Opening Day, 30-man roster this morning. Left-hander Brian Moran and right-hander A.J. Cole were both selected to the 40-man roster and will make the club. Toronto also placed righty Chase Anderson on the 10-day IL (retroactive to July 20) with an oblique strain and opted to carry infielder Santiago Espinal, lefty Anthony Kay and right-handers Thomas Hatch and Jacob Waguespack.

Notably absent is right-hander Nate Pearson, one of the game’s elite pitching prospects. He’s on the team’s three-man taxi squad (along with southpaw Ryan Borucki and catcher Caleb Joseph) but won’t accrue service time in that role. He’ll reportedly be called up next week, when the Jays will be able to promote him while extending their club control of him for an additional season (as has long been expected).

Moran, 31, is the older brother of Pirates third baseman Colin Moran. He made his big league debut at 30 years of age with the Marlins last season, pitching 6 1/3 innings while yielding three runs with a 10-to-2 K/BB ratio. A seventh-round pick in 2009, Moran has had quite the odyssey to the Majors, twice taking to the independent circuit as a showcase to get back into affiliated ball. But he carries a career 3.67 ERA with 11.5 K/9 against 3.2 BB/9 in 176 1/3 Triple-A frames and will now get his second opportunity in the Majors.

Cole, 28, is a former top prospect who’s yet to find his footing despite multiple MLB chances. He’s seen action with three teams in parts of five seasons but posted a pedestrian 4.86 ERA and 5.03 FIP in 174 innings. Cole had some success both with the Nats in 2017 and the Indians last year, logging identical 3.81 ERAs in both years. He’s averaged better than a strikeout per frame in the big leagues but has also surrendered an average of 1.8 homers per nine innings pitched.

The Jays don’t need to make any corresponding transactions to add Moran and Cole to the 40-man. The team recently placed Breyvic Valera on the restricted list after he was unable to leave his native Venezuela and report to Jays Summer Camp in Toronto. The club also has Brandon Drury, Jonathan Davis, Wilmer Font and Elvis Luciano on the Covid-19 IL, and none of the four will count against the team’s 40-man roster while on that list.

Blue Jays Option Anthony Kay, Sean Reid-Foley

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The Blue Jays have optioned hurlers Anthony Kay and Sean Reid-Foley, Ben Nicholson-Smith of Sportsnet.ca reports on Twitter. That provides some clarity to the team’s pitching plans.

Both of these pitchers featured among the conceivable possibilities for a rotation slot. But the upgraded Toronto staff doesn’t have many openings and there are quite a few candidates. Trent Thornton and Shun Yamaguchi appear to be the front-runners.

It’s still possible that either or both will end up seeing action in the majors. They’ve each done so already, though obviously neither was able to sew up a long-term spot.

Kay, 25 tomorrow, came over in the Marcus Stroman trade. The southpaw had a few ups and downs but mostly logged good results last year in the upper minors. In 133 2/3 total frames, he worked to a 2.96 ERA with 9.1 K/9 and 3.8 BB/9.

Reid-Foley is a bit younger. He has consistently produced strong strikeout numbers but hasn’t yet managed to tamp down on the free passes. In 120 2/3 innings last year at the Triple-A and MLB levels, he produced 133 strikeouts and 86 walks.

Blue Jays Notes: Ryu, Boras, Shapiro

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The Blue Jays have remade their pitching staff this winter with the additions of Hyun-Jin Ryu, Tanner Roark, Chase Anderson and Shun Yamaguchi. Along with the return on Matt Shoemaker and the development of Anthony Kay, Trent Thornton, Ryan Borucki and Nate Pearson, the Blue Jays have plenty of options for their 2020 rotation. It doesn’t come together, however, without Ryu at the top. With that in mind, let’s check in on some of the factors that brought the Korean southpaw to Toronto…

  • To remember the last time one of Scott Boras’ clients signed with the Blue Jays, he had to go all the way back to the mid-eighties. Bill Caudill signed a two-year, $2.37MM deal to play the 1985 and 1986 seasons in Toronto. Caudill is now one of a couple ex-clients to work for Boras. But until Hyun-Jin Ryu’s four-year, $80MM deal, the Blue Jays were one of Boras’ favorite teams to pick on, per the Athletic’s John Lott. It wasn’t personal, of course, Boras simply believes Toronto’s market should make them a top-10 team capable of signing top free agents while retaining their own homegrown stars – a trend he’s starting to see with the current Toronto regime. And of course, it behooves Boras to push potential large market teams to open their wallets.
  • As for Ryu’s choice to join the Blue Jays, the decision largely came down to where he wanted to raise his young family. That said, Toronto’s early and persistent interest also helped bring Ryu north of the border, per the Athletic’s Kaitlyn McGrath. Long-term security wasn’t necessarily a driving factor for Ryu, though securing a four-year deal for the 32-year-old certainly counts as a win for Boras. Team President Mark Shapiro spoke on Ryu’s importance to the community, saying: “It was more recognizing what an incredibly international city Toronto is, very aware of the Korean population here, both in students and business and what a tightknit community it is. And so feeling like it would be a great place for Ryu and his family to be and feeling like it would be a great synergy with Toronto and Canada, in general. That was a consideration — not a driving factor, but certainly something that we thought would make for a great alignment in the relationship moving forward.”

Blue Jays Select Anthony Kay, Designate Beau Taylor

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The Blue Jays have selected the contract of southpaw Anthony Kay, as per a team announcement.  Kay will make his Major League debut tonight, starting Toronto’s game against the Rays.  To create room on the 40-man roster, the Jays have designated catcher Beau Taylor for assignment.

It was less than six weeks ago that Kay came to the Jays from the Mets, joining fellow pitching prospect Simeon Woods-Richardson as the return in the trade that sent Marcus Stroman to New York.  Kay had struggled to a 6.61 ERA over seven appearances for the Mets’ Triple-A affiliate in Syracuse at the time of the deal, though the change of scenery to the Jays’ Triple-A team in Buffalo proved fruitful, as he had a 2.50 ERA over seven starts (36 innings) with a 9.8 K/9 and 1.77 K/BB rate.  Kay’s control suffered a bit on his new team, as he posted a 5.5 BB/9, though he did cut back on the home runs that plagued him at Syracuse.

Kay will reach the big leagues less than two years after making his professional debut.  Drafted 31st overall by the Mets in 2016, the UConn product missed all of 2017 recovering from Tommy John surgery, and then threw 122 2/3 frames in 2018 pitching at two different A-ball levels.  All in all, Kay has a 3.58 ERA, 9.1 K/9, and 2.46 K/BB rate over 256 1/3 innings in the minors.

Between his short track record and his issues at Triple-A, it wasn’t a resume that lent itself to a blue-chip (or even a top 100) prospect ranking, as Kay was only the fourth-ranked prospect in a middling Mets farm system.  Some Toronto fans and pundits were critical of what seemed like a light return for Stroman prior to the trade deadline, though as events unfolded on July 31, it was clear that few teams around baseball were willing to surrender any sort of premium minor league talent.

Kay’s early returns in Buffalo have been promising, however, and what was already thought to be a near big-league ready arm will make his MLB debut perhaps even earlier than expected.  MLB Pipeline’s scouting report gives Kay a pretty steady grade across the board (55 on the 20-80 scale for his fastball, changeup, and curve, plus a 50 for control) and cites the high spin rate on his fastball, which usually sits in the 92-94mph range.  A good showing in September would surely put Kay in good position for a rotation job for the pitching-needy Blue Jays next spring.

Taylor was claimed off waivers from the Athletics in mid-August and appeared in just one Major League game for the Jays, bringing his career total to 17 big league contests over the last two seasons.  Taylor has hit .258/.355/.372 over 2843 career plate appearances in the minors, all but 39 of them in Oakland’s system after being a fifth-round pick for the A’s in the 2011 draft.

Anthony Kay, T.J. Zeuch Expected For Toronto Call-Ups

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Left-hander Anthony Kay, a critical component in this summer’s Marcus Stroman trade, is expected to join the Blue Jays big club shortly, per a report from Shi Davidi of Sportsnet (link). Righty T.J. Zeuch is expected to join Kay as a new addition to the Blue Jays 40-man roster.

Kay, 24, was a first-round pick of the Mets in 2016 out of the University of Connecticut. After rehabbing from Tommy John surgery, Kay finally made his pro debut in 2018 and, true to his pre-draft profile as a potentially quick-moving collegiate lefty, has risen from Single-A to the bigs in less than two turns of the calendar. The lefty cruised through 66.1 Double-A innings in the New York organization (1.49 ERA and 2.72 FIP) before a rougher showing in 31.1 Triple-A innings (6.61 ERA and 6.21 FIP). Kay has, however, performed much better with Toronto’s Triple-A outfit since the Stroman trade, with a 2.50 ERA and 9.75 K/9 rate that are admittedly undercut by his walk numbers (5.50 BB/9) and fielding-independent estimators (4.54 FIP). The lefty is said to feature a fastball-curveball-changeup mix.

Zeuch, for his part, is also a former first-rounder, although he can claim that Toronto is the only professional organization he has ever known. Selected 21st overall by the Jays in 2016, the right-handed 24-year-old owns a 3.52 ERA through 342.2 minor league innings. At 6’7, Zeuch is said to employ a steep downward plane that aids in his deployment of a heavily used sinker. He doesn’t miss many bats, with just a 4.50 K/9 rate in 78.0 Triple-A innings this year, but he certainly hasn’t had any difficulty in inducing groundballs in his career, as evidenced in part by his GB% of 57.1% in 2019.

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