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Blue Jays To Promote Gabriel Moreno

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The Blue Jays are calling up top catching prospect Gabriel Moreno, as first reported by Daniel Álvarez-Montes of El Extrabase. Keegan Matheson of MLB.com adds that Moreno’s call-up is likely to coincide with Toronto’s upcoming weekend series in Detroit. No 40-man moves will be required to facilitate Moreno’s debut, as the young catcher was added to the team’s roster back in 2020.

Signed as an international free agent in 2016, the 22-year-old Moreno has seen his stock soar after an excellent 2021 showing. Entering the 2022 season both Baseball America and MLB.com ranked Moreno as the seventh best prospect in baseball after previously missing top prospect lists (and the 2020 season) entirely.

Through 32 games last season at Double-A, Moreno hit an otherworldly .373/.441/.651 with eight home runs and a manageable 22 strikeouts. A right thumb fracture limited the amount of regular season reps given to the Jays’ top prospect, but it didn’t stop him from receiving a promotion to Triple-A at the end of the year. An additional 100 plate appearances of .329/.410/.494 hitting in the Arizona Fall League, against older competition no less, only helped to reinforce the hype.

Moreno’s 2022 season hasn’t been quite as powerful as last season’s performance, but a .323/.377/.406 showing against Triple-A competition was clearly enough to impress Toronto’s top brass. Those 35 games will net Moreno his first big league call-up, but it remains to be seen what position he’ll be manning when the decision becomes official.

Primarily a catcher with a strong arm, Moreno has received the odd start at DH and third base in recent years to get his right-handed bat into teams’ lineups. With Alejandro Kirk producing at an elite level from behind the plate and offseason acquisition Matt Chapman locked in at third, there doesn’t appear to be a slam dunk place on the field for Moreno to helm.

Catcher Zack Collins was recalled just yesterday to fill in for injured catcher Danny Jansen (who was having a strong season in his own right), a move that perhaps signals the three catchers will shuttle between catcher and DH duties for the time being. If nothing else, Moreno’s call-up figures to place some pressure on a number of bench players and outfielders (who have seen reps at the DH position) who have underperformed offensively thus far.

Image courtesy of USA Today Sports.

Danny Jansen Suffers Finger Fracture

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Blue Jays catcher Danny Jansen suffered a fracture near his left pinky finger, general manager Ross Atkins told reporters (including Keegan Matheson of MLB.com). He’s headed to the 10-day injured list, although Atkins indicated the recovery timeline is expected to be on the shorter side for a fracture. Fellow backstop Zack Collins is being recalled from Triple-A Buffalo in a corresponding move.

It’s the second IL stint of the season for Jansen, who also missed more than a month after straining his oblique. He’s only appeared in 19 games as a result, but the righty-hitting backstop has made a massive power impact when healthy. Through 62 trips to the plate, Jansen has blasted seven home runs. That’s been more than enough to offset a pedestrian .232 batting average and .290 on-base percentage, and he’s now hit 12 homers in 125 plate appearances dating back to last September.

Losing Jansen while he’s hitting this well will be an obvious disappointment, but the Jays are as well-equipped as any club to handle a hit to their catching corps. Alejandro Kirk has been pressed primarily into a designated hitter role with Jansen around, but he’s capable of sliding back behind the plate in the latter’s absence. Kirk isn’t regarded as a great defender, but he’s among the best offensive options at the position leaguewide. The 23-year-old is hitting an excellent .306/.389/.465 through 47 games this season.

Collins, acquired from the White Sox in a one-for-one swap with Reese McGuire, offers a power-hitting depth option behind Kirk. The Jays also have one of the game’s top prospects, Gabriel Moreno, knocking on the doorstep of the majors. The 22-year-old is hitting .323/.377/.406 through 146 plate appearances in Buffalo. The Jays have opted to roll with the more experienced tandem of Kirk and Collins for the moment, but Moreno figures to force his way onto the scene before too long if he continues to perform at that level.

Trevor Rosenthal Hosting Showcase Today

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12:05pm: The Blue Jays, Mets and Marlins will be among the teams in attendance, per respective reports from MLB Network’s Jon Morosi, SNY’s Andy Martino and SportsGrid’s Craig Mish.

8:45am: Free-agent right-hander Trevor Rosenthal is holding a showcase for Major League clubs at St. Thomas University in Miami Gardens today, tweets Jon Heyman of the New York Post. It stands to reason that scouts from the majority of teams will be in attendance to gauge the former All-Star’s readiness to return to a big league mound.

A healthy Rosenthal can be one of the game’s most effective relievers, as he’s shown at multiple times in the past. Unfortunately, good health has eluded him in recent years. Rosenthal underwent Tommy John surgery partway through the 2017 season, which wiped out the entirety of his 2018 campaign. He returned with the Nats and Tigers in 2019 and had lost all semblance of control over the strike zone, walking 26 of the 85 hitters he faced that season (30.6%) and plunking another four.

On the heels of that alarming season, Rosenthal settled for a minor league deal with the Royals heading into the 2020 season and quickly reestablished himself as a dominant late-inning powerhouse. He pitched just 23 2/3 innings due to the shortened 60-game schedule, but Rosenthal overwhelmed opponents with a 1.90 ERA, an elite 41.8% strikeout rate and a strong 8.3% walk rate — all while averaging 98.1 mph on his heater.

Despite that dominant showing, Rosenthal didn’t find the weighty multi-year deal he sought early in free agency, and he eventually took a one-year, $11MM from a surprise suitor: the A’s. Unfortunately for Oakland and for Rosenthal, injuries again derailed his 2021 season. A groin strain slowed Rosenthal early in Spring Training, and shoulder troubles shelved him to begin the season. Eventually, it was revealed that Rosenthal required surgery to alleviate thoracic outlet syndrome. Over the summer, while working toward what he hoped would be a late-season return, a torn labrum in his hip required yet another surgery.

Rosenthal’s career numbers — 3.36 ERA, 132 saves, 31.2% strikeout rate, 11.3% walk rate, 44.3% grounder rate, 98.1 mph average fastball — all speak to the sheer talent in his right arm. (It’s a 2.91 ERA and 10.1% walk rate if you toss out the anomalous 2019 season.) However, he’s now pitched just 39 innings since undergoing Tommy John surgery way back in Aug. 2017.

Bullpen help is always in demand, and virtually every contending team (and likely several non-contenders) will want to get a look at Rosenthal in hopes of bolstering their relief corps for the season’s second half. Given the lengthy injury layoff, he’s unlikely to command a multi-year pact, so signing Rosenthal figures to be — at worst — a short-term risk with plenty of upside. It’s not clear just yet when Rosenthal would be ready to step onto a big league mound. He’ll presumably require a minor league tune-up to reacclimate to game settings and build additional arm strength, but if he’s ready to audition for MLB clubs, he and agent Scott Boras can’t feel he’s too far off.

Blue Jays Select Matt Gage

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The Blue Jays announced they’ve selected reliever Matt Gage onto the MLB roster. Jeremy Beasley was optioned to Triple-A Buffalo to clear an active roster spot, while Nate Pearson was transferred from the 10-day to the 60-day injured list in a corresponding 40-man move.

Gage is headed to the majors for the first time after spending eight years in the minor leagues. Drafted by the Giants out of Siena College in the tenth round in 2014, Gage spent four seasons in the San Francisco farm system. He topped out at Triple-A before being released, then spent some time in the Mets’ system and in the Mexican League. The southpaw worked as a starter through his time in Mexico but converted to relief after signing a minor league deal with the Diamondbacks heading into 2021.

The New York native dominated over seven Double-A appearances with the D-Backs, but he struggled with home runs en route to a 5.57 ERA in a hitter-friendly environment at Triple-A Reno. Gage qualified for minor league free agency again at the end of the season, and he’s off to a career-best start in Buffalo. The 29-year-old has tossed 16 2/3 innings with the Bisons, working to a sparkling 1.08 ERA. He’s fanned an excellent 32.3% of opposing hitters against a solid 7.7% walk rate to get a big league crack.

Toronto just traded Ryan Borucki to the Mariners over the weekend, thinning the lefty relief mix. Borucki was out of minor league option years, though, so the Jays were limited from a roster perspective with him scuffling. Gage has a trio of options remaining, so he’ll add a more flexible arm behind Andrew Vasquez while Tim Mayza is on the injured list.

Pearson has been out all season recovering from mononucleosis. Today’s IL transfer is strictly a procedural move that doesn’t affect his eligibility window. He’s ruled out for sixty days from Opening Day, not today, which we’ve already surpassed. Pearson is on a rehab assignment at Buffalo and should be reinstated within a couple weeks.

Mariners Acquire Ryan Borucki, Designate Mike Ford

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The Mariners have announced a trade with the Blue Jays that will see left-hander Ryan Borucki head to Seattle in exchange for corner infielder Tyler Keenan.  The M’s have also designated infielder Mike Ford for assignment to create 40-man roster space for Borucki.

The Jays designated Borucki for assignment on Tuesday, and today’s trade officially ends the southpaw’s lengthy stay in the Toronto organization.  Borucki was a 15th-round pick for the Blue Jays back in 2012, and made an impressive debut by posting a 3.87 ERA over 97 2/3 innings and 17 starts in his 2018 rookie season.  However, elbow problems (which required a bone spur surgery) hampered him for much of the next two years, and the Jays turned Borucki into a reliever for the 2020 campaign.

This transition seemed promising, as Borucki had a 2.70 ERA and 28.8% strikeout rate in 16 2/3 frames in the shortened season, though a 16.4% walk rate was a big red flag.  Beyond the injuries, walks and home runs were Borucki’s biggest problems over his last 53 1/3 Major League innings, which saw him post a 5.57 ERA since the start of the 2019 season.

Since Borucki is out of minor league options, the Blue Jays had to pursue the DFA route in order to remove him from their 40-man roster, and the Mariners jumped in to arrange a trade.  Roenis Elias and Anthony Misiewicz are the only left-handers in the Seattle bullpen and neither southpaw is having a particularly strong year, so while Borucki himself hasn’t done well (9.95 ERA in 6 1/3 IP) over limited action in 2022, the M’s are hoping that a change of scenery could help the 28-year-old get on track.

Ford has appeared in 15 games with the Mariners this season, hitting .179./378/.214 over 37 plate appearances and working mostly as a DH and pinch-hitter.  The M’s signed Ford to a minor league deal in March, and this is already the third time that Ford has been designated in less than six weeks’ time.  After Seattle initially DFA’ed him in late April, the Giants acquired Ford in a trade, only for the Mariners to re-acquire Ford a couple of weeks later when San Francisco themselves sent Ford to the DFA wire.

Keenan was a fourth-round pick for the Mariners out of the University of Mississippi during the 2020 draft.  The 23-year-old has spent both of his pro seasons at the high-A level, hitting .212/.317/.367 with nine home runs over 376 total plate appearances.  Keenan has played both corner infield spots, with the bulk of his time coming as a third baseman.

Hyun Jin Ryu Diagnosed With Forearm Strain

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The MRI results came back for Blue Jays left-hander Hyun Jin Ryu, and the diagnosis is alarming. He has suffered a forearm strain and elbow inflammation, manager Charlie Montoyo told reporters (including Keegan Matheson of MLB.com).

Toronto didn’t provide much else on Ryu’s timetable. Montoyo said he’d be out “multiple weeks,” and he’s slated to undergo further testing to determine the severity of the issue. A forearm strain diagnosis is always alarming given how often that terminology is a precursor to Tommy John surgery, but there’s no indication that’s on the table at this time.

Ryu is no stranger to health concerns, having spent time on the injured list in every full season — excluding the shortened 2020 schedule — since 2013. He’s dealt with a litany of issues, but the most alarming was a combination of shoulder surgery and elbow tendinitis that cost him virtually all of the 2015-16 seasons. Ryu’s more recent injuries were mostly lower-half related, but he hit the IL earlier this year on account of forearm inflammation.

The 35-year-old returned from that bout of inflammation after a few weeks, but he made just four starts before again dealing with discomfort. Ryu suggested that his latest issue felt similar to the early-season problem, and the Jays placed him on the 15-day IL yesterday.

Ryu is in the third season of a four-year contract. He was exceptional in 2020, posting a 2.69 ERA with strong peripherals through 67 innings. While he made 31 starts and soaked up 167 frames last year, he wasn’t as effective on a rate basis. Ryu posted a 4.37 mark, continuing to demonstrate strong control and ground-ball numbers but watching his strikeout percentage fall from 26.2% to 20.4%. That rate has dropped to a well below-average 14.2% this season, while Ryu’s ERA has spiked to 5.33 over six outings.

It remains to be seen when Ryu might be able to reclaim his rotation spot in Toronto. In the interim, swingman Ross Stripling will step into the starting five alongside Alek Manoah, Kevin Gausman, José Berríos and Yusei Kikuchi. That’s still a strong group, particularly with Manoah and Gausman performing brilliantly. Stripling has started five of his 13 outings this season, posting a 4.22 ERA with an excellent 54.5% ground-ball percentage.

Blue Jays Place Hyun Jin Ryu On Injured List, Select Jeremy Beasley

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1:45pm: The Blue Jays announced that Ryu has been placed back on the 15-day injured list due to renewed inflammation in his left forearm. Right-hander Jeremy Beasley’s contract has been selected from Triple-A Buffalo in a corresponding move. He’ll take Ryu’s spot on the active roster (likely to fill a spot in the ’pen as Stripling slides into Ryu’s rotation spot).

Beasley, 26, allowed eight runs in 9 1/3 innings for the Jays in 2021, but he’s posted a 1.01 ERA with a 31.6% strikeout rate and an 8.1% walk rate in 26 2/3 innings at the Triple-A level so far in 2022.

11:06am: Blue Jays lefty Hyun Jin Ryu was slated to undergo an MRI this morning after he exited last night’s game with recurring forearm tightness, manager Charlie Montoyo told reporters (Twitter link via TSN’s Scott Mitchell). It doesn’t seem there’ll be an official update on Ryu today, as Montoyo now says that Ryu is still being evaluated (Twitter link via Shi Davidi of Sportsnet). It’s likely that Ross Stripling will take Ryu’s next turn in the rotation, however.

It’s the second forearm issue of the season for the 35-year-old Ryu, who has struggled to a 5.33 ERA through just six starts and 27 innings thus far in 2022. Ryu spent about a month on the injured list with what the team termed forearm inflammation, and a recurrence and subsequent round of imaging is an obvious cause for concern. Montoyo told Mitchell and others that Ryu appears to be dealing with “kind of the same thing he had last time,” which doesn’t instill much confidence.

Should Ryu require another absence, the Jays are at least stocked to withstand the loss. Offseason signee Kevin Gausman and Alek Manoah have pitched with top-of-the-rotation results, while newcomer Yusei Kikuchi has been solid of late in the middle of the group. Last year’s marquee deadline pickup, Jose Berrios, has struggled through his first full season in Toronto despite his status as one of the AL’s most consistent performers in recent seasons. Stripling has pitched well in a swingman role and gives the Jays a better “sixth starter” option than most clubs currently have. Meanwhile, former top prospect Nate Pearson has embarked on a rehab assignment after a lengthy bout with mononucleosis.

Ryu is in the third season of a four-year, $80MM contract. His debut campaign in Toronto was nothing short of outstanding, as he started 12 games and pitched to a 2.69 ERA during the shortened 2020 season — good for a third-place finish in American League Cy Young voting. He was durable but less productive in 2021, taking the ball 31 times and notching a 4.37 ERA with a diminished strikeout rate over the life of 169 frames.

Blue Jays Sign Eric Yardley To Minor League Deal

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The Blue Jays recently agreed to a minor league deal with reliever Eric Yardley (h/t to Chris Hilburn-Trenkle of Baseball America). The sidearming righty has been assigned to Triple-A Buffalo, where he’s made a pair of appearances.

Yardley had opened the season with the Cubs after signing a minor league pact during the lockout. He made five appearances with their top affiliate in Iowa but served up ten runs on 12 hits and three walks in 4 2/3 innings before being released earlier this month. He’s yet to allow a run in his three frames with the Bisons, however, permitting only one baserunner.

The 31-year-old Yardley hasn’t yet reached the majors this season, but he’s pitched at the MLB level in each of the prior three years. The Seattle University product broke in with the Padres in 2019, making ten appearances. San Diego released him at the end of that season, but the Brewers grabbed him off waivers and kept him on the 40-man roster as a depth option for the next two years.

Between the two clubs, Yardley has worked 53 2/3 innings over 51 outings. He owns a solid 3.52 ERA in spite of a lackluster 13% strikeout rate and a fastball that averaged just 87 MPH last season, as his atypical delivery has helped him rack up ground balls. More than 60% of career batted balls against Yardley have been hit on the ground, and he’s typically had success keeping the ball in the yard as a result.

Not surprisingly, Yardley’s low arm slot has been quite a bit more effective against same-handed batters. For his career, he’s held righties to a manageable .242/.336/.389 slash line. Lefties, on the other hand, have teed off to a .312/.382/.468 clip in 89 plate appearances. Yardley adds a situational depth option to the upper minors of the Toronto farm system.

Blue Jays Designate Ryan Borucki For Assignment

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The Blue Jays have designated left-hander Ryan Borucki for assignment and recalled righty Trent Thornton from Triple-A Buffalo, per a club announcement.

Now 28 years old, Borucki is a 2012 fifteenth-rounder who bolstered his stock with strong minor league production and earned his way to a big league debut in 2018. He impressed during that rookie season, too, looking the part of a potential rotation piece for years to come. Through his first 97 2/3 frames, Borucki notched a a 3.87 ERA with solid walk (8%) and ground-ball (46.8%) rates. His 16.1% strikeout rate was well south of the league average, but Borucki at least looked like a possible fourth or fifth starter whom the Jays could control for the foreseeable future.

Elbow troubles torpedoed Borucki’s 2019 season, however, depriving him of the chance to really build on that strong debut campaign. He avoided Tommy John surgery but nevertheless endured a lengthy shutdown period following tightness in his elbow. Borucki eventually had a cleanup procedure to remove multiple bone spurs from that elbow, which ultimately ended his season.

Borucki made just two starts during that 2019 season, and those proved to be his final two starts with the team. He was moved to the bullpen in 2020, where he fanned 28.8% of his opponents through 16 2/3 innings but also issued walks at an alarming 16.4% clip. That walk rate dropped to a more manageable (but still elevated) 11.2% in 2021, and but Borucki’s strikeout rate also dropped precipitously, falling to 21.4%.

This season, Borucki has been rocked for seven runs in his first 6 1/3 innings of work. On the whole, since moving to the bullpen, Borucki has a 4.82 ERA with a 24.5% strikeout rate against an ugly 13.7% walk rate. He’s absolutely overwhelmed left-handed opponents since moving to the bullpen and has generally been effective against them his whole career (.204/.282/.288). Right-handed opponents, however, have mashed at a .281/.361/.477 pace against Borucki.

Toronto will have a week to trade Borucki, attempt to pass him through outright waivers or release him. The fact that he’s out of minor league options and earning an $825K salary after avoiding arbitration this past winter give him a better chance to pass through waivers than the standard pre-arb lefty with options remaining. Still, left-handed pitching depth is always in demand, and a lefty with some success in the past plus a 95.2 mph average velocity on his sinker could well hold appeal as a change-of-scenery candidate.

J.A. Happ Retires

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Veteran lefty J.A. Happ has retired after spending parts of 15 seasons in the Major Leagues. The 39-year-old discussed his career, his journey to pro ball and his decision to step away from the game in an appearance on the Heart Strong Podcast with Jessica Lindberg.

J.A. Happ | Kim Klement-USA TODAY Sports

Happ acknowledges that he went “back and forth for pretty much the whole winter” trying to determine whether he wanted to return for another season, going through his usual training regimen to be ready in case he felt a pull to return to the mound.

“It got to the point where it was Opening Day, and I turned the first game on, and I talked to my wife, Morgan, and I said ’What are you feeling?’ She just kind of looked at me and said, ’A little anxiety.’ I wanted to turn it on to see what I felt, too, and I didn’t maybe feel what I needed to feel in order to think I wanted to keep doing this. I felt like that was a sign, like ’OK, it’s time to go.’ Even though I had put the work in to be ready if the right situation came, I felt like it was time to move on and be a dad and dive into the kids. … It was emotional — something I didn’t expect. I called my agent that day, right after we turned that game on, and said, ’I think this is it.’ I told the people I feel like I needed to tell. I think I’m still processing it, but I do wake up feeling good about it, and I’m happy to start the process of being a full-time dad, for the time being, at the very least.”

Originally a third-round pick by the Phillies back in 2004, Happ made his MLB debut with Philadelphia in 2007, appearing in just one game. He pitched in eight games the following year, earning enough trust to make the team’s NLCS roster and turn in three sharp innings of relief. By the 2009 season, Happ not only established himself as a member of the Phillies’ rotation but took home a second-place finish in NL Rookie of the Year voting after logging a 2.93 ERA in 166 innings of work. He began that year in the bullpen but moved into the rotation in late May, going on to hurl shutouts against the Blue Jays and Rockies in just the seventh and fourteenth starts of his big league career.

Strong as Happ’s early work was, the Phillies couldn’t resist the temptation to include him as part of the return for right-hander Roy Oswalt — a three-time All-Star and regular Cy Young contender at that point in his career. That 2010 swap proved to be the first of several notable trades in which Happ was involved over the course of his career. The Astros included him in a massive 11-player swap with the Jays that saw Happ land in Toronto and a then fresh-faced prospect named Joe Musgrove among the most notable names sent to Houston. Happ was also swapped straight up for outfielder Michael Saunders in 2014, and after returning to the Blue Jays on a three-year, $36MM deal as a free agent, he was flipped to the Yankees for Brandon Drury and Billy McKinney in the final season of that pact.

Happ was never a flamethrower or a perennial All-Star, but he carved out a lengthy career as a mid-rotation starter in the perennially dangerous American League East, spending six of his 15 years with the Jays and another three with the Yankees. From Happ’s peak in 2014-20, he notched 1058 2/3 innings of 3.81 ERA ball — a strong run that included an All-Star nod in 2018 and a sixth-place finish in 2016 American League Cy Young voting. His consistency netted him a trio of sizable free-agent contracts: his aforementioned $36MM deal with the Blue Jays, a two-year Yankees deal worth $34MM, and a one-year deal with the Twins that promised him $8MM just last season.

All in all, Happ steps away from the game with a lifetime 133-100 record, a 4.13 ERA, 1661 strikeouts, four complete games and three shutouts compiled while suiting up for eight teams: the Blue Jays, Phillies, Yankees, Astros, Twins, Mariners, Pirates and Cardinals. He reached the postseason six times, winning a World Series ring with the 2008 Phillies and pitching well in four of those six playoff runs. (He made one start with the Yankees both in 2018 and 2020, neither of which went particularly well.) Between the three previously referenced free-agent deals and his arbitration seasons, Happ earned more than $97MM in a career pegged at 21.5 wins above replacement by Baseball-Reference and 21.8 WAR by FanGraphs.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images/Imagn.

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