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Robinson Pina

Blue Jays Select Ryan Borucki

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The Blue Jays announced that they have selected left-hander Ryan Borucki to the roster. Fellow lefty Easton Lucas has been optioned to Triple-A Buffalo in a corresponding active roster move. To open a 40-man spot, righty Robinson Piña has been recalled and placed on the 60-day injured list due to a sprain of the ulnar collateral ligament in his right elbow.

Borucki, now 31, began his career with the Jays many years ago. He showed some promise as a potential starter but some injuries eventually got him moved to a relief role. As a reliever, he has bounced around to the Mariners and Pirates with some occasional success. From 2020 to the present, he has thrown 147 2/3 innings with a 4.39 earned run average. His 22.3% strikeout rate and 8.8% walk rate in that time are close to average, while his 50.1% ground ball rate is quite strong.

This year hasn’t been his best. After an injury-marred 2024 season, he had to settle for a minor league deal with the Pirates. He cracked Pittsburgh’s Opening Day rotation and stuck on the roster through mid-August, with an IL stint of over a month due to back inflammation mixed in. He had a 5.28 ERA over 30 2/3 innings when they designated him for assignment a few weeks back. He had a 21.4% strikeout rate, 9.5% walk rate and 55% ground ball rate.

After he was released, the Jays scooped him up on a minor league deal. Toronto has had Brendon Little as the primary lefty in their bullpen this year. Guys like Mason Fluharty and Justin Bruihl have also factored in but both of those guys were optioned to the minors in recent days. A pitcher optioned to the minors can’t be recalled for 15 days, unless someone else is going on the injured list.

Eric Lauer is now in the bullpen, per Ben Nicholson-Smith of Sportsnet, but he’ll likely be deployed more as a long man. Lucas is also more of a long relief guy, so the Jays are swapping him out for Borucki.

For his career, Borucki has held lefties to a .185/.268/.265 line, whereas righties have hit .280/.347/.494 off him. That split has been even more extreme this year, as he has held opposing lefties to a .132/.217/.170 line but righties have lit him up for a .333/.400/.649 slash. The Jays will probably try to target Borucki against lefties in the other team’s lineup, though the three-batter minimum makes that a challenge. Little has pitched in the past two games and three of the past four, so it’s possible he’s not available tonight.

Pina, 26, was acquired from the Marlins in a June trade. He has largely been on optional assignment since then. His health status is unclear but he hasn’t pitched in an official game since August 1st. The Jays putting him on the 60-day IL suggests they don’t expect him to pitch again this season. If his UCL sprain requires surgery, then he’s obviously slated to be out even longer. There’s no 60-day IL between five days after the World Series and the start of spring training. The Jays will therefore have to add him back to the 40-man roster in November or remove him somehow.

Photo courtesy of Rick Osentoski, Imagn Images

Blue Jays Place Yimi Garcia On 15-Day Injured List

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The Blue Jays announced that right-hander Yimi Garcia has been placed on the 15-day injured list due to a left ankle sprain.  Right-hander Robinson Pina was called up from Triple-A to take Garcia’s spot on the active roster.

Garcia was only just activated from a prior IL stint on Wednesday, as the reliever had missed just under six weeks due to a shoulder impingement.  The righty’s brief return to Toronto’s roster consisted of one appearance and one inning of work that saw Garcia surrender a game-tying two-run homer to Aaron Judge, though Garcia was still the winning pitcher in the Jays’ 11-9 win over the Yankees.

That outing boosted Garcia’s ERA to 3.86 over 21 innings and 22 games.  Garcia has been missing a lot of bats (27.8% strikeout rate), but he has a 13.3% walk rate that would be far and away the highest of his 11 big league seasons.  While Garcia hasn’t necessarily been at his sharpest, he has still been a key high-leverage arm out of the Blue Jays’ bullpen, and he’ll now be out again until at least beyond the All-Star break.

The lack of depth at the back of Toronto’s rotation has led the team to lean hard on its bullpen, as the Jays rank eighth in baseball with 337 2/3 relief innings pitched.  The Blue Jays figured to be targeting starting and relief pitching at the deadline already, and their needs in the pen will be exacerbated if there’s now any question about Garcia’s availability in the rest of July.

Blue Jays To Acquire Robinson Pina From Marlins

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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.

Marlins Select Josh Simpson, DFA Robinson Piña

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The Marlins have selected left-hander Josh Simpson’s contract from Triple-A Jacksonville, as first reported by Isaac Azout of Fish on First and later confirmed by the club. In a corresponding transaction, right-hander Robinson Piña was designated for assignment. Azout notes that Simpson will likely be available to pitch this afternoon in relief of Eury Pérez, who is making his third start of the season and has yet to throw more than four innings in a game.

If Simpson does indeed make it into today’s contest, he will be making his MLB debut. The 27-year-old did briefly get called up to the majors by the Marlins in 2023 but was DFA’d before he had the chance to get into a game. A 32nd-round pick by the Marlins all the way back in 2019, Simpson impressed during his pro debut in following the 2019 draft with a 2.25 ERA between rookie ball and the Low-A level that season. Unfortunately, his development was thrown off track by the cancelled minor league season in 2020. By 2021, he was struggling badly with his effectiveness at the High-A level, and while a move to Double-A the following season saw his numbers improve he never really mastered the Triple-A level in parts of three seasons there.

That is, of course, until this year. In 27 appearances (31 2/3 frames) this year for the club’s Jacksonville affiliate, Simpson has pitched to a solid 3.41 ERA. His underlying numbers are less encouraging, as he pairs a 12.7% walk rate with a strikeout rate on the wrong side of 20%. Simpson’s production this year has largely been thanks to keeping the ball in the park extremely effectively, as he’s allowed just one home run so far with a paltry 26.2% Hard-Hit rate. He’ll need to work on his command if he’s going to find success in the majors, but that ability to miss barrels and limit hard contact should help his arsenal play up a bit as he attempts to make a case for himself as a major league arm.

Making room for Simpson on the roster is Piña, who made is big league debut just yesterday. The 26-year-old product of the Dominican Republic allowed a solo home run but no other traffic in his inning of work for the Marlins yesterday. Piña worked mostly as a starter in Triple-A before his move to the major league bullpen, and had a 3.47 ERA across 13 appearances (11 starts) at the level prior to his promotion. The Marlins will have one week to either work out a trade involving Piña or attempt to pass him through waivers. If he clears waivers unclaimed, the Marlins will be able to outright him to the minors as a non-roster depth option moving forward.

Marlins Designate Connor Gillispie For Assignment

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The Marlins announced that they have selected right-hander Robinson Piña, a move that was reported earlier. In corresponding moves, righty Adam Mazur has been optioned to Triple-A Jacksonville and righty Connor Gillispie has been designated for assignment.

Gillispie, 27, was claimed off waivers from Atlanta in January. He earned a rotation job to start the season but couldn’t hold it. In six starts, he allowed 25 earned runs in 26 innings, leading to an unsightly 8.65 ERA.

That got him optioned down to Triple-A, where he has since logged 33 2/3 innings with a 4.28 ERA. While that was obviously a big improvement, luck was a big factor. He struck out just 15.7% of batters faced in the minors while giving out walks at an 11.4% clip. If it weren’t for a tiny .161 batting average on balls in play, he would have fared far worse, hence his 6.55 FIP.

He’s now been nudged off the 40-man roster and will likely end up on waivers in the coming days. His minor league work prior to this year was better. From 2021 to 2024, he logged 406 innings on the farm with a 4.12 ERA. His 9.6% walk rate was a tad high but he also punched out 24.1% of opponents. He is still optionable for the rest of this year and one further season, so perhaps a club with a need for depth and a plan to get Gillispie on track could have interest. If he clears outright waivers, he would stick with the Marlins as non-roster depth.

Photo courtesy of Ryan Sun, Imagn Images

Marlins To Select Robinson Piña

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The Marlins are calling up right-hander Robinson Piña for his major league debut, reports Kevin Barral of Fish On First. The team has not announced the move yet. Piña’s contract will need to be selected to what is currently a full 40-man roster in Miami, so the Fish will need to make a corresponding move in that regard.

Piña, 26, will make his big league debut the first time he takes the mound. He spent the 2017-23 seasons in the Angels system before becoming a minor league free agent and signing with the Phillies ahead of the 2024 campaign. The Phils never added him to the 40-man roster, and Piña again became a minor league free agent this past offseason, signing with Miami in his second run through the open market. This time around, he’ll get that coveted first MLB opportunity.

Piña has certainly earned his call to the majors. He’s appeared in 13 games, 11 of them starts, and tallied 57 innings with a 3.47 ERA, a 22.2% strikeout rate, a 6.2% walk rate and a 46.9% ground-ball rate. Command was an issue for him early in his minor league career, but he’s now turned in consecutive minor league seasons with walk rates that clock in considerably south of average. This year’s 92.8 mph average sinker is up a mile per hour over last year’s levels, and Piña has been consistent all season; he hasn’t yielded more than three earned runs in any appearance and has held opponents to two or fewer runs in 10 of 13 outings overall.

Miami has Edward Cabrera lined up to start today, with Janson Junk, Eury Pérez and Sandy Alcantara listed as probables in their next three games thereafter. There’s no need for an immediate spot starter — barring an injury the team has not yet made public — but they could be looking to add some length with Junk having spent the season in a long relief role. The Marlins also have an off-day coming on Monday, so they could option Adam Mazur and skip the fifth starter’s spot next time through the rotation. Doing so would give them options for how best to use Piña, who’s fully stretched out and has topped 80 pitches in five of his past six appearances.

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