Blue Jays Claim Jimmy Cordero
The Blue Jays have claimed righty Jimmy Cordero off waivers from the Nationals, as Ben Nicholson-Smith of Sportsnet.ca was among those to cover on Twitter. Cordero was sent to Triple-A on optional assignment.
Despite the Nats’ bullpen malaise, other teams are interested in their relievers that have failed to receive MLB looks this year. Cordero follows Austin Adams (traded to the Mariners) in landing on another 40-man roster after being dropped from the D.C. list. Even as it deals with a struggling pitching staff, the Nationals have been forced to make some tough choices to address injuries to its position-player group.
Cordero will also hope also to follow Adams in getting a promotion with his new organization. He wasn’t able to capitalize on a chance last year, recording as many earned runs and walks as strikeouts (a dozen apiece) in 19 frames. No doubt the Jays also noticed that he pumped 98 mph heat and managed an 11.8% swinging-strike rate. Through 12 innings at Triple-A thus far in 2019, Cordero carries a 6.00 ERA with a 17:9 K/BB mix.
Blue Jays Select Edwin Jackson
The Blue Jays have selected the contract of righty Edwin Jackson, per a club announcement. Lefty Thomas Pannone was optioned out to create active roster space, with righty Matt Shoemaker moved to the 60-day injured list for a 40-man spot.
Jackson’s addition to the MLB roster was a foregone conclusion when he was acquired recently from the A’s. The veteran hurler had joined the Oakland organization on a minors pact that included an opt-out chance later this month. He was shipped to Toronto to help fill a need for innings on the Jays’ roster and will take the ball this evening.
By making it official, the Blue Jays have now become the 14th MLB team Jackson has appeared with in 16 seasons in the majors. He’s closing in on two thousand career innings with a cumulative 4.60 ERA.
Last year, the 35-year-old pitched to a 3.33 ERA in 92 frames for the A’s, though metrics suggested those results were based in no small part upon some batted ball fortune. Jackson ran up 19 strikeouts but also surrendered four home runs in his 14 2/3 minor-league frames to open the present campaign.
Once Jackson takes hill today, he’ll officially surpass righty Octavio Dotel for the all-time lead in number of Major League teams pitched for. The most well-traveled veteran in the game’s history has appeared for the Rays, Cubs, Dodgers, Nationals, White Sox, Diamondbacks, Cardinals, Braves, Athletics, Padres, Orioles, Marlins and Tigers prior to the 2019 season. And while he’ll make his Toronto debut this afternoon, Jackson has technically even been a Blue Jay in the past; he was traded from the White Sox to the Jays on July 27 but immediately flipped to the Cardinals just hours later.
Blue Jays Acquire Edwin Jackson
5:23pm: Jackson’s minor league contract included an end-of-May opt-out clause, which played a role in the A’s decision to trade him, Susan Slusser of the San Francisco Chronicle tweets. Slusser adds that it looks “more than likely” the cash in this deal will cover what the Athletics paid Jackson on his minors pact this season.
2:37pm: Per a team release, the Blue Jays have acquired righty Edwin Jackson from the A’s for cash considerations. It’ll be the staggering 14th career organization for the 35-year-old Jackson, who’d been pitching for Triple-A Las Vegas since he was signed by the club a few weeks ago.
Jackson enjoyed something of a renaissance with Oakland last season, posting a 3.33 ERA in 92 IP (17 starts) for the club. Teams were presumably put off by his ugly 115 xFIP-, though – just a slight uptick from his baseline established between 2014-18 – and he didn’t catch on with a club until April 12 of this season.
Blue Jays starters have done better than anticipated this season, though the unit’s dealt with a rash of injuries of late. Matt Shoemaker is out for the year after tearing his ACL in a base running incident, and righty Clay Buchholz is again on the shelf with an ailment of his own. Jackson may indeed find his way to Toronto immediately, where he should be afforded ample opportunity to see if his newfound run prevention is sustainable.
Marlins To Select Contract Of Harold Ramirez
The Marlins will select the contract of outfielder Harold Ramirez, according to Craig Mish of MLB Network Radio on Sirius XM (Twitter link). The corresponding move and precise timing isn’t yet known.
Ramirez, now 24, once owned a 40-man roster spot with the Pirates and Blue Jays but never made it onto the active roster before being outrighted. He was a widely pursued minor-league free agent this winter after a solid effort last year at Double-A. Ramirez followed that with a strong showing in the Venezuelan Winter League and has kept the good vibes going since.
Ramirez elected not to opt out of his deal with the club this spring despite not making the active roster. There’s little reason for the Fish not to give Ramirez a look at this point. After turning in 120 plate appearances of .355/.408/.591 hitting at Triple-A, Ramirez is an easy choice for a club that is receiving next to nothing from its outfield unit.
Blue Jays Acquire Patrick Kivlehan
The Blue Jays have acquired outfielder Patrick Kivlehan from the Pirates, per a club announcement. The trade return isn’t known but it’s likely a typical cash payment.
Kivlehan has seen time in each of the past three MLB campaigns but hasn’t received a call yet in 2019. He’s a .208/.302/.401 hitter in 242 plate appearances at the game’s highest level.
The move helps the Jays fill out their upper farm ranks. Kivlehan takes the opening just created by the promotion of Jonathan Davis. The Bucs had the opposite scenario, with JB Shuck being outrighted back to Triple-A Indianapolis.
Blue Jays Select Javy Guerra, Designate Socrates Brito
3:15pm: Buchholz is indeed headed to the IL, TSN’s Scott Mitchell tweets. The team says Buchholz has shoulder inflammation, though the righty had told Mitchell earlier that he was dealing with a minor lat issue.
3:01pm: The Blue Jays are making a series of roster moves today, as Shi Davidi of Sportsnet.ca reports on Twitter. The club will select the contract of reliever Javy Guerra, adding him to the 40-man and active rosters. Also coming up to the big leagues is outfielder Jonathan Davis.
Outfielder Socrates Brito was designated for assignment in a corresponding move. Reliever Thomas Pannone was optioned yesterday, creating an additional active roster opening. He’s still on hand, however, in case Clay Buchholz requires a stint on the injured list. (Buchholz has been scratched from his start tonight.)
This’ll be Guerra’s second stint with the Jays this year. He was designated for assignment after working to a 5.40 ERA with 12 strikeouts and four walks in ten innings.
Davis, who is nearing his 27th birthday, struggled in his MLB debut last year but has been excellent thus far in 2019 at Triple-A. In 67 plate appearances, he’s slashing .306/.493/.633 with four home runs and a shiny mix of 16 walks against 13 strikeouts.
As for Brito, the Jays gave him a run after claiming him from the Diamondbacks early in the year. The 26-year-old has not impressed, producing a ghastly .077/.163/.128 slash and 17 strikeouts in 43 trips to the plate.
Outrighted: Butera, Hanson
Here are Tuesday’s minor moves from around the game…
- Veteran backstop Drew Butera cleared waivers and was assigned outright to Triple-A Albuquerque, per a club announcement from the Rockies. While Butera could have rejected the assignment in favor of free agency, The Athletic’s Nick Groke tweets that the 35-year-old will accept the assignment and remain in the organization. Butera went 3-for-17 in his brief run with the Rox this season and has never hit much in the Majors aside from an outlier 2016 campaign with the Royals. In 1364 trips to the plate at the MLB level, Butera owns a .201/.258/.299 slash with 19 home runs. However, he’s long been regarded as a quality defender behind the plate and has carved out a decade-long career at the big league level as a result of his glovework. Should the Rockies incur an injury to either Chris Iannetta or Tony Wolters later this season, Butera will quite likely get a call back to the big leagues.
- The Blue Jays announced that infielder/outfielder Alen Hanson has cleared waivers and been assigned to Triple-A Buffalo. Hanson, 26, came over from the Giants in the trade that sent Kevin Pillar to San Francisco, though that trade was driven in large part by salary and Hanson wasn’t necessarily viewed as a long-term piece by the Jays. In 48 plate appearance with Toronto, Hanson hit .163/.229/.163, and while it’s a tiny sample, he’s never hit much a total of 625 MLB plate appearances. Dating back to his debut with Pittsburgh in 2016, Hanson is a .232/.266/.368 hitter. The former top prospect is a .273/.327/.406 hitter in parts of three Triple-A seasons, and it appears he’ll stay on hand as a depth piece for the Toronto organization.
AL Notes: Glasnow, Astros, Alvarez, Ohtani, Jays
Even though Rays right-hander Tyler Glasnow has been incredible this season, the club still plans to tamp down his workload as the year progresses, Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times reports. The towering 25-year-old has recorded a dazzling 1.47 ERA/2.39 FIP with 9.63 K/9, 1.47 BB/9 and a 51.4 percent groundball rate, but at 43 innings pitched, he’s already closing in on last season’s total. “He threw 112 innings last year and we have to monitor that,’’ said manager Kevin Cash, who added: “If we can get him extra days, we’re going to do that. If we’ve got to shave an inning off of him per start, like (Friday) night we could have taken him out after the sixth. Those are things we have to monitor and consider here early in the season.’’ For what it’s worth, Glasnow’s season-high innings total as a professional came as a member of the Pittsburgh organization in 2017, when the formerly wild hurler racked up 155 1/3 frames. A year later, the Pirates traded him and outfielder Austin Meadows to the Rays for righty Chris Archer in what now looks like a heist for the first-place Tampa Bay franchise.
Elsewhere around the American League…
- Astros outfield/first base prospect Yordan Alvarez has gotten off to a scorching start this year at Triple-A Round Rock, where he has slashed an awe-inspiring .418/.505/.923 with 12 home runs in 107 plate appearances. The Astros have taken notice of the 21-year-old’s brilliance, according to president of baseball ops/general manager Jeff Luhnow, who said Saturday that Alvarez “certainly is making it a conversation” within the team to promote him (via Chandler Rome of the Houston Chronicle). Luhnow also declared, “It’s pretty clear he can hit right now in the big leagues,” and noted Alvarez would likely slot in as a left fielder for the Astros in order to make a maximum impact. At the same time, though, the Astros already have a more-than-capable regular there in Michael Brantley, and Luhnow cautioned, “The same people who were clamoring for Kyle Tucker to come up because he was destroying AAA pitching are the same people now clamoring for Yordan Álvarez to come up.” That indicates it’s not a slam dunk Alvarez will head to Houston imminently, as Tucker disappointed during a 77-plate appearance major league debut in 2018 and has gotten off to a terrible start in Round Rock this year.
- Angels designated hitter Shohei Ohtani‘s much-anticipated 2019 debut could come as early as Tuesday, Jeff Fletcher of the Orange County Register suggests. Ohtani has been on the shelf thanks to October 2018 Tommy John surgery, which will stop the two-way star from pitching this year but won’t keep him out of the Angels’ lineup. To their credit, Kevan Smith and Albert Pujols – especially the former – have offered respectable DH production in Ohtani’s absence. [UPDATE: Regarding Ohtani’s potential activation, GM Billy Eppler said Sunday (via Fletcher): “We hope to be able to activate on him this trip but he has to get through every step of the progression so we’re not going to say anything till the progression is finished.”]
- Prospect Jesus Lopez, whom the Blue Jays acquired from the Athletics for Kendrys Morales in March, is switching from infielder to catcher, Shi Davidi of Sportsnet tweets. The 22-year-old’s adjusting to his new position in extended spring training, per Davidi.
Quick Hits: Paddack, Treinen, Archer, Tulo, L. Gurriel
Padres rookie righty Chris Paddack has been brilliant across his first six starts and 33 innings in the majors. But Paddack’s already just 57 frames away from the career-high 90 he totaled in the minors last season in his return from 2017 Tommy John surgery. Considering Paddack’s long-term importance to the organization, San Diego has plans to limit his workload, per AJ Cassavell of MLB.com. Indeed, agent Scott Boras told Jon Morosi of MLB.com that the Padres will “manage” his 23-year-old client’s innings. However, Cassavell notes that doesn’t mean the Padres will shut down Paddack – something the Nationals did with Boras client Stephen Strasburg amid a pennant race in his younger days. “It’s mapped out,” manager Andy Green said of the Padres’ plans for Paddack, though he added that “it’s mapped out with the intention for adjustments, as well. So to sit here and walk through exactly what we think is going to happen would be foolish.” Meanwhile, Paddack indicated he’s on board with the Padres’ approach and revealed he’s aiming for a 130- to 150-inning season.
More from around the game…
- Athletics closer Blake Treinen is dealing with right elbow discomfort that he believes is tendinitis, Susan Slusser of the San Francisco Chronicle reports. Treinen’s unlikely to pitch Sunday as a result, per Slusser, who writes that “he’ll get checked out” on Monday. Treinen hasn’t toed the rubber since April 28, when he took a loss in Toronto after the Blue Jays lit him up for four earned runs on five hits and two walks in 1 2/3 innings. The 30-year-old’s 2019 ERA skyrocketed from 0.68 to 3.00 during that uncharacteristically disastrous performance. Treinen told Slusser he’s simply fighting “fluke soreness,” but if the issue forces him to the injured list, Slusser points out it would be his first IL stint in the majors.
- Pirates righty Chris Archer is eligible to come off the IL on Monday, but that won’t happen, according to Rob Biertempfel of The Athletic. Archer – out since April 27 with right thumb inflammation – is in line for a bullpen session Tuesday, and he’ll need to throw at least one sim game before the Pirates decide whether he’s ready to return. Archer’s absence is all the more troublesome for Pittsburgh now that fellow righty Jameson Taillon could miss upward of a month with a flexor strain in his elbow.
- Already out since April 3 because of a left calf strain, Yankees shortstop Troy Tulowitzki has suffered a setback and will be shut down for another week, Bryan Hoch of MLB.com tweets. It’s the latest bad break for the once-great Tulowitzki, whom injuries have haunted throughout his career. The 34-year-old wasn’t healthy enough to participate in either of the previous two seasons, which led the Blue Jays to cut him over the winter and eat the remaining $38MM on his contract. Tulowitzki then found a taker in the Yankees on a league-minimum deal, with both parties hoping he’d stay healthy and adeptly fill in for the injured Didi Gregorius. The dice roll hasn’t paid off for the Yankees, who have received a meager 13 plate appearances from Tulowitzki and appear unlikely to get him back anytime soon.
- Although Lourdes Gurriel Jr. has exclusively been an infielder since debuting with the Blue Jays last year, that’s about to change. Speaking with Gregor Chisholm of MLB.com and other reporters Saturday, general manager Ross Atkins said the Jays plan to turn Gurriel into at least a part-time outfielder. The 25-year-old, whom Toronto demoted to Triple-A Buffalo three weeks ago, has been racking up corner outfield reps in the minors. As Chisholm writes, the outfield isn’t totally new for Gurriel, who played left in his native Cuba for 40 games back in 2015-16. The change figures to open up major league playing time for Gurriel upon his return, given that Randal Grichuk‘s the sole Toronto outfielder who has been remotely productive this season. The group entered Saturday as the American League’s least valuable outfield.
Blue Jays Select Derek Law, Designate Alen Hanson
The Blue Jays have selected the contract of right-hander Derek Law, per a club announcement. He’ll take the roster spot of utilityman Alen Hanson, who was designated for assignment.
Both of these players came to the Toronto organization in the same early-season swap with the Giants. Law had already been removed from the San Francisco 40-man, while Hanson was in DFA limbo at the time of the deal.
Law, 28, has been off to an impressive start with his new organization. He’s carrying a 1.69 ERA with 17 strikeouts and three walks through 10 2/3 innings in eight outings. He has shown it in the majors before as well, but has yet to repeat his strong 2016 debut season at the game’s highest level.
As for Hanson, the 26-year-old switch-hitter has been one of quite a few players clamoring for opportunities in the Jays’ infield/outfield mix. He received 48 plate appearances over the first month of the season, but managed only a .163/.229/.163 batting line with 17 strikeouts.