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Blue Jays Re-Sign John Axford To Minor League Deal

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The Blue Jays announced that they’ve re-signed right-hander John Axford to a minor league contract. He had been in camp with the Jays for much of Spring Training but was cut loose from that deal when he was diagnosed with a stress reaction in his right elbow. Because he’ll be sidelined for at least a month, Axford and the Jays re-worked the terms of the minor league contract.

It still remains quite possible, if not likely, that the Canadian-born Axford will reemerge as a bullpen option for the Blue Jays at some point once he’s had sufficient time to mend his ailing elbow. Prior to the injury, he was viewed as a strong candidate to break camp with the Jays for what would be the second straight season. Last year, Axford appeared in 45 games for the Blue Jays last season, pitching to a 4.41 ERA with a 50-to-20 K/BB ratio in 51 innings before being traded to the Dodgers prior to the July 31 non-waiver deadline.

Axford’s time with the Dodgers proved forgettable. He was tagged for six runs in his first appearance with the L.A. organization, and while his next four outings were sharp (one run in three innings with four strikeouts and no walks), he didn’t have time for his numbers with the Dodgers to recover before being struck in the leg by a comeback liner that left him with a fractured fibula and sidelined him for more than a month.

The injury to Axford is hardly the only health issue that cropped up in the Blue Jays’ bullpen mix late in Spring Training. Bud Norris was slowed late in camp when he had trouble getting loose prior to one of his outings, while Ryan Tepera will begin the season on the injured list due to inflammation in his right elbow. There’s no clear timeline at present for when Axford will be ready to get back on the mound,  and he’ll certainly need a Triple-A tuneup before the organization considers selecting his contract to the Major League roster.

Offseason In Review: Toronto Blue Jays

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This is the latest post of MLBTR’s annual Offseason in Review series, in which we take stock of every team’s winter dealings.

The Blue Jays added some veteran stopgaps to their roster, while saying goodbye to some of the best-known members of their 2015-16 playoff teams.

Major League Signings

Trades And Claims

Notable Minor League Signings

Notable Losses

[Blue Jays Organizational Depth Chart; Blue Jays Payroll Outlook]

Needs Addressed

The rotation was Toronto’s clearest area of need going into the offseason, and as expected, the Blue Jays added some inexpensive veteran arms to bolster a very young crop of starting pitchers.  Matt Shoemaker, Clayton Richard, and (eventually) Clay Buchholz will all take turns in the rotation, backing up the incumbent top two of Marcus Stroman and Aaron Sanchez.

Matt Shoemaker

Naturally, there’s a lot of uncertainty baked into that mix given the lengthy injury histories of Shoemaker, Buchholz, Sanchez, and even Stroman and Richard last season.  There’s also the looming possibility that any of these pitchers could find themselves on new teams by the trade deadline.  As such, Ryan Borucki is expected to receive plenty of starts throughout the course of the year, though Borucki himself will miss some time to begin the season.  One of Sean Reid-Foley, Thomas Pannone, Sam Gaviglio, and the newly-acquired Trent Thornton will fill in while Borucki is out and until Buchholz gets game-ready, and these younger arms are likely to get their share of innings before 2019 is out.

Could Toronto’s rotation end up being a quiet strength for the team?  It would require a lot of bounceback years, though it isn’t out of the question, especially if Stroman is healthy after an injury-filled 2018 and Sanchez has finally gotten over the finger/blister problems that have plagued him over the last two years.  Shoemaker’s last two seasons have been marred by injuries, though when he did pitch last season, his peripheral numbers were much better than his 4.94 ERA over 31 innings for the Angels would indicate.  Buchholz delivered an eye-popping 2.01 ERA over 98 1/3 innings of work for Arizona last season before a flexor mass strain in September ended his year.

Beyond the rotation, the Jays made their now-annual additions of relievers who could very well become midseason trade chips.  In the tradition of such past names as Joe Smith, Seunghwan Oh, and John Axford, this winter’s crop of bullpen signings included David Phelps, Daniel Hudson, Bud Norris, and temporarily Axford again, though he was released in the wake of elbow problems that will sideline the Canadian right-hander for at least a month.  (It wouldn’t be surprising, though, to see the Jays re-sign Axford to a new contract in short order.)

It should be noted that Hudson is the only of this group who is entirely healthy.  Norris has been limited in Spring Training, while Phelps won’t be back until midseason due to his recovery from March 2018 Tommy John surgery.  This timeline likely means that Phelps may not be dealt at all; his contract contains a flexible club option for 2020, as both the Blue Jays and the right-hander are seemingly approaching this year as something of an extended recovery period.

As with the new starters, the new relievers also have some upside.  Norris was the Cardinals’ closer for much of 2018, and Phelps was a strong contributor for the Marlins and Mariners in 2016-17 before undergoing surgery.  The combination of Hudson, Norris, Ryan Tepera (if healthy, that is) and closer Ken Giles gives the Jays a pretty solid end-game mix, and a recovered Phelps will only improve that group.  Sergio Romo and Adam Warren were a couple of the other bullpen names considered by the Blue Jays this winter.

After Aledmys Diaz was traded to Houston for Thornton, and Troy Tulowitzki was given an outright release, the shortstop position was seemingly cleared for Lourdes Gurriel Jr.  Instead, however, it now looks like the Jays have an eye towards playing Gurriel all over the diamond since he might not be ready for the defensive challenge of being an everyday shortstop.  (Indeed, it looks like Gurriel will begin the year as a second baseman, since Devon Travis is again sidelined with knee problems.)

Minor league signing Eric Sogard could end up filling the utility infield void, and for the regular shortstop role, the Blue Jays turned to Freddy Galvis.  The former Phillies and Padres infielder is the picture of durability (he has played in every game in the last two seasons and averaged 158 games per year since 2015), and he brings more defensive stability up the middle.  How much stability is perhaps a question depending on which of Galvis’ strangely divergent defensive metrics you believe, as he went from a +3.2 UZR/150 and minus-5 Defensive Runs Saved in 2017 to minus-3.8 UZR.150 and +7 DRS last season.  Even just average glovework, however, represents an upgrade for a Jays team that was one of the league’s worst defensive clubs in 2018.

Questions Remaining

The Blue Jays moved squarely into rebuild mode last season, and this winter continued to be about setting the table for their future young talent.  To that end, the Jays bid adieu to some stalwart veterans — Marco Estrada departed in free agency, Tulowitzki was released, and Russell Martin was dealt to the Dodgers.

The latter two moves were more about roster clearance than financial flexibility, as the Jays are still on the hook for just under $54MM total owed in remaining contract obligations to Martin (through 2019) and Tulowitzki (through 2020).  Naturally, the team had little hope of finding a trade partner to eat even more of that figure given that Tulowitzki missed all of 2018, while Martin struggled to just a .194/.338/.325 slash line through 352 plate appearances.

Even accounting for these two big contracts and the $12MM remaining on Kendrys Morales’ contract, the Jays have very little in the way of future salary obligations; Gurriel is the only player owed money beyond the 2020 season.  This led to some speculation that Toronto could explore some of the bigger-name players available this winter, and the Jays did indeed raise some eyebrows when they were linked to some major Scott Boras clients (Bryce Harper, Dallas Keuchel, Marwin Gonzalez, Yusei Kikuchi) on the rumor mill.  While it seems like the Blue Jays made a legitimate bid for Kikuchi, the other talks were perhaps exploratory at best, and only Harper and Kikuchi would have fit as a true longer-term asset for a Jays club that doesn’t appear ready to contend until 2021.

Until then, the Jays will focus on determining which of their group of highly-touted young players will be part of this next core.  2019 will finally see the debut of Vladimir Guerrero Jr. on the Major League stage, as attention can finally turn to Guerrero’s prodigious on-field talents, rather than his status (perhaps shared with Kris Bryant) as the poster child for clubs keeping top prospects in the minors just long enough to gain an extra year of team control.  The situation became a moot point in Guerrero’s case, since his recovery from an oblique strain will keep him out until at least mid-April anyway.  Still, “oblique” might also be a good description of Jays executives’ increasingly far-flung arguments for why Guerrero wasn’t ticketed for the Opening Day roster, since obviously they couldn’t openly mention service time considerations.

The Jays’ plan is to deploy Brandon Drury at third base until Guerrero arrives, then move Drury to second base, perhaps in a timeshare with Gurriel or (if healthy) Travis.  Alternatively, Gurriel could split time between second base, shortstop, and left field, joining Teoscar Hernandez and Billy McKinney in the left field mix.  Outfielder Anthony Alford has enjoyed a big Spring Training, and he’ll get a longer look sometime this season if he proves capable of staying healthy and gets some more minor league seasoning.

As with the rotation, the Blue Jays’ position player mix is pretty fluid since at least some of the club’s veterans (Morales, Galvis, Randal Grichuk, Justin Smoak, Kevin Pillar) are likely to be wearing different uniforms come September.  Smoak and Pillar each received a bit of trade buzz over the winter, with Smoak getting some attention from the Rockies and Pillar from the Giants, though no moves involving that group have ultimately been made. (A deal prior to Opening Day is still technically possible.)

Since Toronto faces a steep uphill battle in the AL East, it wouldn’t be surprising to see the team start shopping its veterans relatively early, potentially to get the jump on other sellers.  Especially now that the August trade period is no more, one wonders if the Jays might be open to trading Smoak, Pillar, and to a somewhat lesser extent Grichuk or Galvis at any time this season, rather than waiting until the July 31 trade deadline.

The same could be said of Stroman, Sanchez, or Giles, who project as Toronto’s top potential trade chips.  The Jays were reportedly open to dealing Giles this winter, while Stroman and Sanchez each received attention.  Stroman in particular drew significant interest from such teams as the Reds and Padres.  Stroman has made it clear he wants to stay in Toronto and was displeased at the lack of contract extension talks as well as the fact that the team wasn’t making a bigger push to contend in 2019.

Since the Jays’ asking price for the two starters was, in the words of Sportsnet’s Ben Nicholson-Smith, found by some suitors to be “uncomfortably high,” it makes more sense for Toronto to keep Stroman and Sanchez for at least the opening portion of the season.  This allows the two right-handers to rebuild their value by proving that they’re both recovered from their rough 2018 seasons.  If the Blue Jays see Stroman and Sanchez as part of the rebuild process rather than rotation cornerstones of their next contending roster, the team surely wants to maximize its return in potential trades, particularly after receiving relatively little for Martin and Josh Donaldson.  With both Stroman and Sanchez controlled through 2020, a healthy version of either pitcher would draw widespread interest.

2019 Season Outlook

Another year in the 73-78 win range seems likely for the rebuilding Jays, as a very tough division schedule will make it hard for even an improved team to gain much traction in the AL Wild Card race.  If Guerrero comes close to matching his incredible projected numbers, however, it’ll be an exciting year for Toronto fans.

How would you grade the Blue Jays’ offseason moves?  (Link for app users.)

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images

Blue Jays To Sign Daniel Hudson

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4:57pm: Davidi adds in a subsequent tweet that Hudson will receive a $1.5MM base salary, with the ability to earn another $1.5MM in bonuses.

11:52am: The Blue Jays have agreed to a one-year, major league contract with reliever Daniel Hudson, per Shi Davidi of Sportsnet. Hudson is a client of Jet Sports Management.

It was a short stay in team-less limbo for Hudson, whom the Angels released from his minor league contract Friday. Hudson struggled during the spring as a member of the Halos, with whom he allowed five earned runs and three home runs over 6 2/3 innings. But that didn’t deter Toronto, whose bullpen has been in flux of late. The Blue Jays just said goodbye to John Axford and have been dealing with injuries to fellow relievers Ryan Tepera and Bud Norris.

Hudson, a hard-throwing, 32-year-old journeyman, spent last season with the Dodgers and posted a 4.11 ERA/4.38 FIP with 8.61 K/9, 3.52 BB/9 and a 37.2 percent groundball rate over 46 innings. It was the latest passable showing from Hudson, who owns a 4.58 ERA/4.02 FIP with 8.98 K/9, 3.58 BB/9 over 241 2/3 lifetime frames as a reliever.

Rangers Return Rule 5 Pick Jordan Romano To Blue Jays

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The Rangers have returned Rule 5 selection Jordan Romano to the Blue Jays after the right-hander cleared waivers, tweets Shi Davidi of Sportsnet. Having been placed on waivers Thursday, the 25-year-old Romano was offered to his previous club today and will rejoin the Blue Jays after failing to make the Rangers’ Opening Day roster.

Despite a respectable 3.86 spring training ERA, Romano has posted an unimpressive 6:5 K:BB ratio in 9 1/3 spring innings with the Rangers. Romano had been selected in December’s Rule 5 Draft after a solid 2018 season at the Double-A level, in which he posted a 4.13 ERA while striking out 125 batters in 137 1/3 innings. Upon returning to the Blue Jays, Romano will not be required to be placed on the 40-man roster.

AL East Notes: Red Sox, Tepera, Norris, Trumbo

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Chris Sale’s freshly-inked 5-year contract extension will leave the Red Sox searching for answers to a number of questions as they move forward, writes Rob Bradford of WEEI. With Sale’s contract including an opt-out after 2022, the Red Sox could find themselves in a tricky situation at that time. Bradford notes that the contracts of fellow starters Nathan Eovaldi and David Price expire after 2022, and lefty Eduardo Rodriguez is controllable through 2021, meaning that if Sale chooses to exercise his opt-out clause, the team could find itself wanting for starters. Of course, it’s far from a foregone conclusion that Sale will opt for free agency after the third year of his new contract, but it is certainly a situation that Red Sox brass will monitor as that time draws nearer. Pressure could be on the Red Sox to find and develop a new guard of young pitchers to fill the shoes of big-name Boston starters.

Some other notes from the AL East…

  • The Blue Jays received some encouraging news today, with manager Charlie Montoyo informing reporters (including Sportsnet’s Shi Davidi) that right-handed reliever Ryan Tepera, who has recently been dealing with elbow inflammation, will not require surgery. Having been cleared, Tepera will resume throwing on Tuesday. Montoyo added (Twitter link) that fellow right-hander Bud Norris is expected to be ready to play on Opening Day and will pitch an inning today.
  • Orioles designated hitter Mark Trumbo will begin the season on the IL, reports Dan Connolly of The Athletic. After undergoing knee surgery last September, the slugger will have to wait to make his 2019 debut. With Trumbo on the shelf, Orioles manager Brandon Hyde may look to allocate DH at-bats by committee, though Trey Mancini appears the most obvious candidate to fill that role. While it remains unclear just how much time Trumbo will miss, he said that it could be a month or more before he’s able to take the field (via MASN’s Roch Kubatko on Twitter).
  • The Rays will get right-handed pitcher Sam McWilliams back, according to Juan Toribio of MLB.com (Twitter link). McWilliams had been selected by the Royals in December’s Rule-5 Draft, but will be returned to his prior club after failing to crack Kansas City’s Opening Day roster. McWilliams, who is not on the Rays’ 40-man roster, will report to minor league camp with the Rays.

Blue Jays Release John Axford

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The Blue Jays have released reliever John Axford, Shi Davidi of Sportsnet tweets. Additionally, reliever Bud Norris didn’t make the Jays’ roster, per Davidi, but they have given him a $100K retention bonus to stay in the fold.

Axford, whom the Blue Jays signed to a minor league contract in February, had been battling for a season-opening bullpen spot in spring training. But the 35-year-old Axford suffered a stress reaction in his pitching elbow this week, thus taking him out of the mix. It’s possible he’ll return to the Blue Jays in short order, though, as Davidi suggests they may have released Axford simply to rework his contract.

Toronto’s quite familiar with Axford, a native of Canada who spent the first few months of 2018 with the Blue Jays before they sent him to the Dodgers at the July 31 non-waiver trade deadline. Between the two teams last year, Axford tossed 54 2/3 innings and posted an ugly 5.27 ERA with 8.89 K/9 and 3.62 BB/9. Most of the damage came during Axford’s short stint in LA, where he managed just 3 2/3 innings on account of a fractured fibula.

As an Article XX(B) free agent, the Jays had to place Norris on their 25-man roster, pay him $100K to stay on as a minor leaguer or send him back to the open market, where he languished until March 1. Surprisingly, Norris has to settle for a minors deal after performing well last year with the Cardinals, with whom he notched 57 2/3 innings and logged a 3.59 ERA with 10.46 K/9, 3.28 BB/9 and 28 saves in 33 attempts. Norris looked like a good bet to win a roster spot with the Jays after signing with them, but forearm fatigue has slowed him of late. The 34-year-old won’t be in Toronto from the outset of the season, then, though it’s possible he’ll join its bullpen sometime in the coming weeks.

Blue Jays Notes: Borucki, Stroman, Buchholz, Pentecost

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Here’s the latest from the Blue Jays’ camp in Dunedin…

  • Ryan Borucki will miss at least one regular season start as a precautionary measure after the right-hander felt elbow pain during a recent start in minor league camp.  The Athletic’s John Lott (Twitter links) was among those to report the news from Jays manager Charlie Montoyo and Borucki himself, who didn’t sound too concerned about the problem.  Borucki has battled elbow problems in the past, including a Tommy John surgery, and said that injury experience allowed him “to figure out what’s good pain and what’s bad pain, and really, [the current injury] was nothing to really worry about.”  The Blue Jays have Sean Reid-Foley, Thomas Pannone, Sam Gaviglio, or Trent Thornton as potential fill-in candidates for Borucki’s one start.
  • The Astros were one of the teams that showed interest in trading for Marcus Stroman over the winter, The Athletic’s Ken Rosenthal reports (subscription required).  The Reds and Padres were also linked to Stroman in reports.  Stroman is under team control through the 2020 season, though the combination of the Jays’ rebuild and Stroman’s own outspoken displeasure over a lack of extension talks and the club’s winter moves could be signs that the Blue Jays will eventually move on from the right-hander.  To rebuild trade value, however, Stroman will have to rebound from a disappointing 2018 season.  From Houston’s perspective, Stroman would give the team additional pitching depth beyond the coming year, since Gerrit Cole, Wade Miley, Brad Peacock, and Collin McHugh are all scheduled to hit free agency in the 2019-20 offseason.  (Justin Verlander is also part of this group, though he and the Astros appear to be closing in on an extension.)
  • Clay Buchholz could be ready for rotation duty by early April, GM Ross Atkins told reporters, including The Athletic’s John Lott (subscription required).  Buchholz was a late entry to camp, as he didn’t sign with the Jays until the start of March, plus he was also shut down by the Diamondbacks last September due to a flexor mass strain in his throwing elbow.  For now, however, the veteran righty looks to be making good progress towards his eventual Toronto debut, which could be a boon given Borucki’s injury status.
  • Former first-round pick Max Pentecost has stepped away from spring camp to consider his future in baseball, Sportsnet.ca’s Shi Davidi reports.  Pentecost was the 11th overall pick of the 2014 draft, though he has been plagued by shoulder problems throughout his young career, and also dealt with an elbow injury even prior to his draft selection.  The Blue Jays had slowly been getting Pentecost re-acclimated to catching, culminating in Pentecost being behind the plate for 660 innings for Double-A New Hampshire last season.

Giants "Looked Into" Kevin Pillar Trade

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  • Cameron Maybin’s release has left the Giants in need of a right-handed hitting center fielder who can complement Steven Duggar.  To this end, the club has “looked into Blue Jays center fielder Kevin Pillar and Brandon Guyer,” Henry Schulman of the San Francisco Chronicle writes.  Guyer was just released by the White Sox and has a long track record of success against lefty pitching, though he would be another imperfect fit as a center field option — Guyer has only 356 career innings as a center fielder, with a -1.4 UZR.150 and -4 Defensive Runs Saved in that relatively small sample size.  Pillar is the much more accomplished defender, though not much of a hitter and also much more expensive than Guyer would be, as Pillar is set to earn $5.8MM this season.  There’s also the question of what the Giants would have to give up to Toronto in a trade, though Schulman notes “it’s unclear whether the Blue Jays would entertain a deal.”  San Francisco’s interest in Pillar dates back to earlier this offseason, though obviously no trade came together.

Latest On Blue Jays’ Injuries And Roster Plans

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There are suddenly quite a few moving parts when it comes to the Blue Jays’ roster situation. As Sportsnet’s Shi Davidi reports, ongoing developments continue to create uncertainty even as camp draws to a close.

Blue Jays skipper Charlie Montoyo revealed today that neither Ryan Tepera nor John Axford will be an option to start the season (Twitter link via Davidi). Teperea will open on the injured list due to inflammation in his right elbow. Axford, meanwhile, is not yet on the 40-man roster and likely won’t be for quite some time, as he’s been diagnosed with a stress reaction in the olecranon bone of his right elbow.

The Jays haven’t provided a timeline for either to return to health, though the loss of Tepera is particularly tough for Toronto. The 31-year-old righty has been a stable presence in the Jays’ bullpen since late in the 2016 season and has a 3.53 ERA with 9.4 K/9 against 3.5 BB/9 in 160 2/3 innings over the past three seasons. He’d been expected to serve as a setup man this season.

Those injuries would have opened the door wide for veteran Bud Norris, who surprisingly was forced to settle for a minor league deal with the Jays midway through camp. Unfortunately, as Davidi reports, Norris was a late scratch from his scheduled outing.

There’s no indication at this point that he’s dealing with anything more than a typical spring blip, but that doesn’t mean it’s not deflating to see another issue arise at this stage of camp. As Davidi puts it: “given the other injuries and the fact that Norris had an opt-out that expired at midnight Thursday, there was certainly a New Orleans Is Sinking kind of feel to the day.”

Of all the recent developments in Dunedin, the strangest was the latest concussion scare for outfielder Dalton Pompey. As Davidi explains, Pompey was somehow struck in the head by one or more bats that had been store in his locker. Given his worrying history of head injuries, Pompey was scratched and scheduled for further evaluation.

It’s anyone’s guess at this point how his roster situation will be resolved, with this health issue potentially representing a wild card. Pompey has profiled as a trade or DFA candidate, but could perhaps get one more re-start in the organization if he requires a stretch on the injured list.

These late-breaking developments have had quite an impact on the Blue Jays’ final roster plans. As Davidi explains, the club now may have some gaps to fill, particularly if it decides to give up on Rule 5 pick Elvis Luciano. That may also bring some opportunity, though, as the Jays could have some unexpected roster flexibility to work with as players shake loose from other organizations in advance of Opening Day.

AL Notes: Gio, Armstrong, Herrera, Tepera/Axford

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Newly minted Yankees lefty Gio Gonzalez says it was an easy choice to join the New York organization, as George A. King III of the New York Post and MLB.com’s Bryan Hoch cover (Twitter links). The offer from the Yanks “was pretty much” the only one he got all winter long, says the veteran southpaw. It has been quite some  time since Gonzalez has had to fight for a roster spot and a big-league paycheck, but he says it’s “a pretty great opportunity” that he “can’t be ungrateful” for. If he cracks the roster, Gonzalez will play for a $3MM base salary and would also take home $300K for each game started.

Here’s more from the American League …

  • Mariners righty Shawn Armstrong is heading to the injured list with a grade 1 oblique strain, MLB.com’s Greg Johns reports. He says he’ll be patient in allowing thing to heal, but didn’t hide his anger at hitting the shelf just before the season began. (Anderson flew to Japan believing he would be ready to roll, but the issue was worse upon arrival.) Armstrong, 28, is still hoping that this’ll be the season he fully establishes himself in the majors. He has seen action in four seasons but has yet to be entrusted with more than 21 appearances in a given campaign. Armstrong turned in sub-2.00 ERA performances at both Triple-A (in 56 innings) and the majors (14 2/3 innings) in 2018.
  • The White Sox may not go long without new reliever Kelvin Herrera, Daryl Van Schouwen of the Chicago Sun-Times writes. The veteran hurler, who’s working back from a Lisfranc fracture in his left foot, hasn’t yet fully ramped things up but seems on track to get back to being a high-powered relief arm early in the new season. “I will probably be in full shape by April something or May,” he says.
  • It seems there’s some new potential for late-camp movement with the Blue Jays roster. Skipper Charlie Montoyo says that righty relievers Ryan Tepera and John Axford have turned up with elbow pain that is being looked at more closely, as Shi Davidi of Sportsnet.ca reports (Twitter link). Those injuries are among the factors that could leave the Toronto organization with more 40-man roster room to work with — but also more 25-man roster needs to address — than had been anticipated, MLB.com’s Gregor Chisholm notes on Twitter.

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