Blue Jays Rumors

Injury Notes: Wright, Cole, Bailey, Floyd

By Connor Byrne | September 3, 2016 at 6:40pm CDT

Red Sox knuckleballer Steven Wright continues to deal with right shoulder issues, leading the club to scratch him from his scheduled Tuesday start in San Diego, manager John Farrell said Saturday (Twitter link via Peter Abraham of the Boston Globe). Clay Buchholz is likely to replace Wright, who hurt his shoulder while pinch running in early August and will next go for a second opinion on it. Wright has endured a stint on the disabled list and two poor starts since suffering the injury, though his numbers began going downhill toward the end of June. The pristine 2.01 ERA he had through June 20 is now up to 3.33 (still a terrific number) through 156 2/3 frames.

More injury updates:

Pirates ace Gerrit Cole threw off a mound Saturday for the first time since Aug. 24, his most recent start, and tossed 30 pitches – all of which were fastballs. “It went really well. I felt pretty good,” Cole said afterward (via Andrew Erickson of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review). Cole has been on the DL since Tuesday, retroactive to Aug. 25, with right elbow inflammation – which is the latest in a series of ailments that have troubled him this year. He was previously on the DL for a month earlier this summer with a right triceps muscle strain. The earliest Cole can return from his current injury is Friday. Despite an ugly four-start stretch prior to his DL placement, Cole has still notched a 3.55 ERA, 7.5 K/9 and 2.53 BB/9 in 114 innings this season.
The Reds don’t expect the tightness Homer Bailey is dealing with in his right biceps to end his season, writes Cody Pace of MLB.com. “At this point, we’re not discussing that,” manager Bryan Price said in regards to the possibility of shutting down Bailey. “But it would be something that we would discuss. We’re not going to force this to happen. That’s not the goal. The goal is to get him healthy and not have to look back and not have to be as conservative as we have on the front end of this rehab.” Bailey, who exited his start last Sunday after just one inning, returned July 31 on the heels of missing nearly all of last season and the first four months this year because of May 2015 Tommy John surgery. Bailey’s latest injury is unrelated to his elbow, fortunately, but his comeback hasn’t gone smoothly this year. In 23 innings, the 30-year-old has allowed 17 earned runs on 35 hits, though he has amassed a prolific 27 strikeouts against seven walks. The Reds owe him $68MM through 2020.
The sprained right shoulder capsule that has kept Blue Jays reliever Gavin Floyd out since late June will likely end his season, per Gregor Chisholm of MLB.com. The injury, which was initially diagnosed as a torn lat muscle, shouldn’t affect Floyd’s ability to pitch in 2017. The impending free agent turned in a respectable performance this year as part of Toronto’s bullpen, recording a 4.06 ERA, 8.31 K/9 and 2.32 BB/9 in 31 innings.

AL East Notes: Sox Pen, Wright, Hicks, Holder, Liriano

By Jeff Todd | September 2, 2016 at 9:55pm CDT

The Red Sox were thwarted in their efforts to bolster the bullpen during August, president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski said today, as Evan Drellich of the Boston Herald reports. That’s largely what the organization expected, he said, with blocking maneuvers becoming common in the revocable waiver trade period. “The one thing that comes to light on this is that we said after July 31, there’s been nobody that’s been making it through waivers,” Dombrowski explained. “So as we said at the time, you’re going to have to make your moves, try to help you, before the trading deadline. And that was really the case.”

Minor MLB Transactions: 9/2/16

By Jeff Todd | September 2, 2016 at 4:33pm CDT

We’ll use this post to keep tabs on any notable minor moves today:

The Blue Jays recently inked outfielder Quintin Berry to a minor league deal, the team’s Triple-A affiliate announced. With the move, the 31-year-old will be available to reprise his now-familiar role as a late-season baserunning option, this time in Toronto. As Shi Davidi of Sportsnet.ca was among those to tweet, Berry was actually added on the 31st of August, so he could conceivably be utilized in the post-season. He hasn’t seen more than nine plate appearances in a season since his run with the Tigers in 2012, and hit only .270/.348/.325 in his 395 plate appearances at Triple-A this year for the Angels, but has nevertheless received MLB action in each of the last three Septembers due to his baserunning prowess. Back in 2013, Berry entered three postseason contests for the Red Sox — one in each round — and swiped a bag each time without stepping up to the plate.
Outfielder Collin Cowgill has accepted an outright assignment with the Indians after clearing waivers, Paul Hoynes of the Plain Dealer reports on Twitter. Designated for assignment yesterday, the 30-year-old will remain an option for Cleveland, particularly with rosters now expanded. He saw minimal time at the big league level this year, and struggled at Triple-A, but could still provide the club with a solid outfield glove and additional righty bench bat down the stretch — if the team deems it worthwhile to free up a 40-man spot. Over his 759 career plate appearances in the majors, Cowgill owns a .234/.297/.329 slash line with a dozen home runs and 14 steals.

Blue Jays Designate Matt Dominguez For Assignment

By Steve Adams | September 2, 2016 at 1:51pm CDT

The Blue Jays have designated third baseman Matt Dominguez for assignment in order to clear a spot on the roster for left-hander Matt Dermody, the team announced this afternoon. Dermody’s agency, KVA Sports, first tweeted word of his promotion yesterday.

Dominguez, now 27 years of age, once looked like a potential everyday third baseman for the Astros when he showed significant pop and quality defense at third base from 2012-13, but he’s always struggled with on-base percentage and hasn’t performed well in the Majors or minors over the past three seasons. Dominguez hit just .215/.256/.330 in an everyday role with the 2014 Astros and didn’t play in the Majors last season, spending most of the year with Milwaukee’s Triple-A affiliate. He received 12 plate appearances with Toronto this season but has again spent much of the year in Triple-A, where he’s batted .272/.317/.427 with 18 home runs.

As for Dermody, the 26-year-old forced his way into the Jays’ plans this season with a strong showing across three minor league levels. Opening the season as a 25-year-old at Class-A Advanced, he’d certainly have been considered a long shot to make his way onto the big league scene, but Dermody has posted a 1.82 ERA and a 47-to-8 K/BB ratio in 54 1/3 innings this season. He’s held both lefties and righties to a sub-.290 OBP, though his strong work against lefties looks considerably more sustainable, as he’s whiffed 34 percent of them (13 percent strikeout rate against righties). Pitching for a team that has had difficulty finding consistent left-handed relief work, Dermody could conceivably find himself on the postseason roster, as Brett Cecil is currently the only other lefty reliever in manager John Gibbons’ bullpen.

As a reminder, readers can head over to Roster Resource for a full list of transactions thus far since Sept. 1 roster expansion.

Blue Jays Re-Sign Josh Thole To Major League Deal

By Steve Adams | September 1, 2016 at 10:45am CDT

The Blue Jays have re-signed catcher Josh Thole to a Major League contract and optioned second baseman Devon Travis to the team’s rookie-level affiliate in the Appalachian League, the team announced to reporters (including Sportsnet’s Ben Nicholson-Smith). While some Jays fans may recoil at the notion of Travis being optioned, Sportsnet’s Shi Davidi tweets that Toronto’s Bluefield affiliate will see its season come to an end tonight, thus making Travis eligible to return to the big leagues tomorrow. Presumably, Thole’s re-signing was completed last night in order to make him postseason eligible if necessary, thus necessitating the brief demotion for Travis.

Thole, 29, was placed on irrevocable waivers and subsequently released earlier this week following Toronto’s weekend acquisition of Dioner Navarro. Even at the time of his release, however, Brendan Kennedy of the Toronto Star reported that it was likely that Thole would be quickly re-signed. While he’s managed just a .158/.246/.211 slash in 147 trips to the plate this year, Thole is of course eminently familiar with catching R.A. Dickey’s knuckleball and could continue to do so for the final month of the 2016 campaign. Because he’s once again on the 40-man roster, Thole would be eligible to be retained for the 2017 season via the arbitration process — he projects to finish the year about a week shy of six full seasons of big league service — though he’s a definite non-tender candidate even with a minimal salary.

Josh Thole Elects Free Agency

By Mark Polishuk | August 30, 2016 at 11:45pm CDT

AUG. 30: Thole has cleared waivers and elected free agency, the team told reporters, including Brendan Kennedy of the Toronto Star (Twitter link). Kennedy adds that Thole is likely to be re-signed quickly, which would make sense in the event that the organization wants to keep him as depth and for a potential postseason spot in the event of an injury to Martin or Navarro.

AUG. 28: The Blue Jays placed catcher Josh Thole on irrevocable waivers following Sunday’s game, Richard Griffin of the Toronto Star reports. The newly-acquired Dioner Navarro will be activated on Monday to take Thole’s spot on the 25-man roster. Thole will become property of any team that claims him within the 48-hour waiver period, and if he goes unclaimed, he will be released. It should be noted that is different from the standard August waiver process, as those waivers are revocable; Griffin reports that Thole cleared those waivers earlier this month.

Griffin suspects the Jays have a verbal agreement in place with Thole to re-sign the veteran backstop once rosters expand on September 1, and in time for Thole to be behind the plate for R.A. Dickey’s next start. Thole has almost exclusively served as Dickey’s personal catcher since both players came to Toronto prior to the 2013 season. It’s not a stretch to say that Thole’s ability to catch the knuckleball has been the only thing keeping him on the Jays roster and perhaps in the majors as a whole given his poor hitting — Thole entered today’s action with just a .199/.275/.248 slash line over 465 PA as a Blue Jay. Baseball Prospectus rates Thole as an above-average pitch framer, though StatCorner considers him to be a below-average defender on the whole.

Some type of shift to Toronto’s catching depth chart was imminent once the Jays traded for Navarro on Friday. It is possible that one of the Jays’ AL rivals could claim Thole simply to prevent him from returning to the team, though that rival would have to use one of its own 25-man roster spots for Thole over the next couple of days.

If Thole does re-sign with the Blue Jays under the scenario Griffin outlined, he wouldn’t be eligible for postseason play since he’d be joining the team in September. Navarro’s acquisition, however, pretty much closed on the door on any chance Thole had of making the playoff roster anyway. Thole wasn’t included on the Jays’ postseason roster in 2015 when Russell Martin caught both of Dickey’s starts. Given that the Jays will again have a six-man rotation when Aaron Sanchez returns, Dickey himself may not be a lock to make the postseason roster.

Minor MLB Transactions: 8/28/16

By Connor Byrne | August 28, 2016 at 4:17pm CDT

Sunday’s minor moves from around baseball:

The Twins selected the contract of outfielder Logan Schafer. He’ll take the place of outfielder Danny Santana, who was placed on the 15-day DL with a shoulder sprain suffered in a collision with teammate Robbie Grossman during today’s game. After being released by the Nationals at the end of Spring Training and then spending some time in the independent Atlantic League, Schafer signed a minor league deal with Minnesota in June. Schafer has a .212/.286/.319 slash line over 646 career MLB plate appearances, all with the Brewers from 2011-15.
The Dodgers have outrighted catcher Shawn Zarraga off their 40-man roster, tweets Bill Shaikin of the Los Angeles Times. LA called up Zarraga on Thursday, but he was only a temporary fill-in as the club awaited the arrival of the newly acquired Carlos Ruiz. Zarraga, 27, has never picked up a major league plate appearance, instead totaling 1,826 in the minors and hitting .282/.371/.367.
The Blue Jays have released right-hander Chris Leroux from their Triple-A affiliate in Buffalo, per a club announcement. Toronto acquired Leroux from the Phillies for cash considerations in early April, but he never took the mound for the Jays. Leroux, whose latest major league action came in two innings with the Yankees in 2014, posted a 4.28 ERA, 6.04 K/9 and 2.86 BB/9 in 138 2/3 frames with Buffalo this year. In 71 2/3 career big league innings, the 32-year-old has put up a 6.03 ERA, 8.29 K/9, 4.4 BB/9 and 48.9 percent ground-ball rate.

Blue Jays Designate Aaron Loup For Assignment

By charliewilmoth | August 27, 2016 at 9:56am CDT

The Blue Jays have designated lefty Aaron Loup for assignment, Sportsnet’s Ben Nicholson-Smith tweets. The move clears space on the Jays’ active roster for righty Bo Schultz, and it likely also creates room on the 40-man for Dioner Navarro, who was recently also acquired via trade.

Loup was once a fixture in the Jays’ bullpen, with a series of mostly successful seasons from 2012 through 2015, but he struggled with an elbow injury to start the 2016 season and hasn’t really made his way back, pitching just 9 2/3 innings in the big leagues this year and allowing eight runs while throwing markedly slower than he had in the past — his average fastball came in at 93.2 MPH last season, and this year it’s down all the way to 90.7 MPH. (He struck out 11 and walked only two in those 9 2/3 innings, however, and pitched very well for Triple-A Buffalo.) Loup was due to be eligible for arbitration after the season after making $1.05MM this year, and the Jays might have figured that if they didn’t plan to tender him, there would be little risk in designating him for assignment now.

Blue Jays Acquire Dioner Navarro

By Jeff Todd | August 26, 2016 at 6:05pm CDT

The Blue Jays have acquired catcher Dioner Navarro from the White Sox, both teams have announced. Lefty Colton Turner is headed back to Chicago in the deal.

Navarro, 32, will return to Toronto, where he had played over 2014-15 before joining the South Siders this winter on a one-year, $4MM deal. He’ll presumably function as both a reserve catcher and bench bat for the Jays, who utilize Russell Martin as their starter behind the dish and also have Josh Thole on hand as a receiver.

[RELATED: Updated White Sox & Blue Jays Depth Charts]

It’s not yet clear how the playing time will shake out, but the switch-hitting Navarro could nudge the left-handed-hitting Thole out of his role as the primary backup — if not off of the roster entirely. Thole owns a meager .151/.246/.198 slash line over his 124 plate appearances on the season. But he is also the personal catcher for knuckler R.A. Dickey, and with the Jays also in need of another bat off of the bench, it’s possible to imagine both players co-existing on Toronto’s 25-man.

While Navarro has been a solid hitter at times in the past — he put up a composite 107 OPS+ over 2013-15 — this hasn’t been his finest season. He is carrying only a .210/.267/.339 batting line with six home runs in his 298 plate appearances on the year for the White Sox.

Still, Navarro brings a sturdy veteran presence to a familiar clubhouse, and won’t cost much in terms of cash to add to the mix. The remainder of his contract will only cost Toronto around $850K. Plus, with roster set to expand within the week, he won’t clog things up too badly and can add flexibility.

In Turner, the Sox will land a 25-year-old southpaw who has shown some promise at times this year. He was dominant at the High-A level, allowing just two earned runs on 19 hits over 31 2/3 innings while generating 13.4 K/9 against 2.6 BB/9. But he has stalled since moving up to Double-A for the first time, where he has been tagged for six earned in 10 1/3 frames with a less-than-stellar 10:8 K/BB ratio.

Heyman’s Latest: Puig, Turner, Braun, Votto, Weaver, Holliday, Howard, Crawford, Victorino

By Jeff Todd | August 25, 2016 at 8:45pm CDT

Jon Heyman of Fan Rag’s latest notes column begins with a lengthy examination of a resilient Dodgers team. He also drops a note on the demoted Yasiel Puig, who is not only demolishing Triple-A pitching, but is drawing great reviews for his attitude. Heyman reported further on Puig earlier today, explaining that the Dodgers have fielded interest in trade talks, but mostly have been spurning efforts by rival organizations to get him on the cheap.

Speaking of Puig, the division-rival Diamondbacks are said to have engaged in “some brief talks” on the talented 25-year-old. That engagement doesn’t seem to have resulted in any traction, however, so it doesn’t sound as if there’s any reason to believe that there could be a match between the organizations.
The Dodgers are expected to attempt to bring back third baseman Justin Turner, who has been an incredibly productive player since coming to the organization on a minor league deal in 2014. Heyman does note that Turner’s age (he’ll turn 32 in November) could limit L.A.’s interest in a long-term deal with the pending free agent.
After Ryan Braun’s no-trade protection seemingly gummed up any inclination the Brewers may have had to trade him this summer, Heyman writes that the team is expected to explore trade scenarios this winter. Age, cost, injury history, a PED past, and the no-trade rights will make that a complicated proposition, but Braun’s .317/.380/.562 slash line holds obvious appeal.
The Blue Jays’ previously reported effort to land Reds first baseman Joey Votto at the 2015 trade deadline may have petered out with the changes in the team’s baseball operations department. But the talks likely would’ve continued had Alex Anthopoulos remained at the helm, says Heyman, and the organization had been prepared to add Votto even after paying big to land Troy Tulowitzki and David Price. Per the report, though, the teams never got terribly far down the line in hashing out a deal.
Angels righty Jered Weaver has already made clear that he isn’t ready to discuss his plans for 2017, when he’ll be a free agent, but Heyman says that some in the organization believe he may retire. The 33-year-old is struggling through his worst season in the majors, with a 5.47 ERA over 138 1/3 innings.
While the Cardinals and outfielder Matt Holliday seemingly have good cause to continue their productive relationship, it’s far from clear whether the team will be willing to cough up $17MM to exercise its 2017 option. That said, Heyman notes that it’s possible to imagine the sides coming to an alternative arrangement to keep Holliday in St. Louis.
Heyman also provides some updates on some of the game’s other elder statesmen. Phillies first baseman Ryan Howard is said to be “determined” to continue his career after the all-but-inevitable decision by the Phils to decline the club’s option. Free agent outfielders Carl Crawford and Shane Victorino appear to be eyeing comeback efforts in 2017.

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