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AL Notes: Blue Jays, White Sox

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The Blue Jays have sent southpaw Tayler Saucedo to the 10-day injured list with right hip discomfort. Taking his roster spot, Bowden Francis has been brought back to the active roster, per Keegan Matheson of MLB.com (via Twitter). Francis was only just optioned to Triple-A yesterday. Saucedo was roughed up in 2 2/3 innings of work, yielding four earned runs and six hits, including three home runs.

  • The Blue Jays have a couple of key players that might be coming back soon. Teoscar Hernandez and Hyun Jin Ryu have both returned to baseball activities and could be gearing up for a rehab assignment, per The Athletic’s Kaitlyn McGrath. Ross Stripling has held the line in Ryu’s stead, but the offense could use a jolt of Hernandez’s trademark power.
  • Yoan Moncada is beginning his rehab assignment today, per the lineup card posted by the Charlotte Knights’ Twitter account. An oblique strain has kept Moncada out of the lineup for the entirety of the season thus far. 26-year-old  Jake Burger has been starting games at third in his stead, slashing .260/.275/.420, good for a 105 wRC+ despite walking at just a 1.9% clip.
  • X-rays on Andrew Vaughn’s hand came back negative. He was hit on the hand with a pitch in yesterday’s game. He’s day-to-day for now, per The Athletic’s James Fegan (via Twitter). Vaughn has gotten off to a hot start at the plate, slashing .283/.367/.566 across 60 plate appearances.

Blue Jays Claim Shaun Anderson From Padres

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The Blue Jays announced they’ve claimed right-hander Shaun Anderson off waivers from the Padres. Additionally, Toronto selected right-handers Hagen Danner and Bowden Francis, lefty Zach Logue and infielder Leo Jimenez to the 40-man roster to keep them from selection in the Rule 5 draft.

Now best known for his inclusion in a lopsided swap that sent LaMonte Wade Jr. from Minnesota to San Francisco, Anderson possesses a big slider and plenty of velocity that have piqued the interest of several clubs. Despite being torched for an 8.49 ERA in 23 2/3 innings this season, Anderson spent time with four different teams. He’s now failed to clear waivers four times in the past six months, demonstrating the quality of his raw arsenal. The 27-year-old still has a minor league option remaining, and the Jays will hope to tap into his raw talent and coax out some better results in 2022.

The 20-year-old Jimenez ranks 11th among Jays prospects at MLB.com and posted one of the more ludicrous lines fans will see, hitting .320/.523/.392 on the season. That’s not exactly a tiny sample, either; Jimenez tallied 262 plate appearances and reached base a comical 137 times. In addition to a ridiculous 20.6% walk rate, Jimenez was also plunked 25 times. He can play both middle infield positions but won’t realistically be an option until at least 2023, as he’s yet to even reach the Double-A level.

Bogh Francis and Logue rank on the back end of MLB.com’s Jays Top 30 and both posted sub-4.00 ERAs with promising strikeout rates. Francis joined the organization in the trade that sent Rowdy Tellez to the Brewers. Logue is a a former ninth-rounder who turned in an eye-opening 28.2% strikeout rate against a minuscule 5.2% walk rate.

As for Danner, he’s 2017 second-rounder who moved from catcher to the mound this season and posted a brilliant 2.02 ERA, 29.4% strikeout rate and 8.4% walk rate through 35 2/3 innings in High-A — his first pro experience on the mound. He’s still new to pitching, but with a debut like that, it’s understandable that Toronto had no interest in potentially losing him in the Rule 5 Draft.

Player Pool Additions: Phillies, Brewers, Padres, Orioles

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We’ll track the latest additions to teams’ 60-man player pools in this post…

  • The Phillies added lefty Jeff Singer to their pool, Matt Breen of the Philadelphia Inquirer reports (via Twitter). The 26-year-old signed with the Phils as an undrafted free agent in 2016 and has steadily risen through their system, reaching the Double-A level in 2019. Last year, Singer tossed 61 2/3 frames with a 74-to-22 K/BB ratio, a 2.34 ERA and a 2.77 FIP. Singer isn’t considered to be among the club’s top-ranked prospects but will get some developmental reps in Allentown and could conceivably even be an option later this month, given his success in the upper minors.
  • The Brewers announced three new additions to their player pool: infielder Gabe Holt, outfielder Carlos Rodriguez and righty Bowden Francis. Their 60-man group is up to 59 players. Holt, 22, was a seventh-round pick out of Texas Tech in 2019 and hasn’t played above Rookie ball, so his addition is purely developmental. That’s also true of Rodriguez, a 2017 international signee out of Venezuela who is considered among to be the organization’s top 20 prospects. Francis, meanwhile, was a 2017 seventh-rounder and split the 2019 season between Class-A Advanced and Double-A. In a combined 142 2/3 innings, Francis pitched to a 3.97 ERA with 10.4 K/9 and 3.5 BB/9. Francis seems like a viable candidate to debut over the final three-plus weeks of the 2020 season, as he’ll need to be added to the 40-man roster to be protected from the Rule 5 Draft this winter anyhow.
  • Righty Justin Lange and catcher Blake Hunt have been added to the Padres’ player pool, tweets Jeff Sanders of the San Diego Union-Tribune. Sanders adds that outfielder Jorge Ona was also quietly added to the pool “some time” ago. The 18-year-old Lange was taken with the No. 34 overall pick in this year’s draft, but as a high school draftee, he obviously won’t be considered for an MLB look this month. Hunt, 21, was the Padres’ second-rounder in ’17 and hit .255/.331/.381 in 376 Class-A plate appearances last year. The 23-year-old Ona was a high-profile signing out of Cuba. He was sidelined for much of the 2019 season but put together a huge .348/.417/.539 slash through 103 plate appearances in a pitcher-friendly Double-A environment last year. He’s already on the 40-man roster after having his contract selected last November.
  • The Orioles announced that lefty Zac Lowther has been added to their player pool in Bowie. Lowther, 24, was the Orioles’ second-rounder in 2017 and posted a 2.55 ERA with 9.4 K/9, 3.8 BB/9, 0.49 HR/9 and a 40.1 percent ground-ball rate in 148 innings. He’s generally considered to be among the Orioles’ 15 best prospects.
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