The Blue Jays announced this afternoon that right-hander Chris Rowley has been claimed off waivers by the Rangers. Rowley had his contract selected from Triple-A Buffalo last week, and the Jays apparently tried to pass him through waivers in order to create some flexibility on the 40-man roster.
The Jays, of course, will have that roster flexibility now, though it’ll come at the cost of Rowley, who has had some success in Triple-A this season. The 27-year-old has a 3.30 ERA through 101 innings and 17 starts, though the rest of his numbers aren’t as pretty. Rowley has averaged just 5.6 K/9 against 3.7 BB/9 with a 35 percent ground-ball rate in the Buffalo rotation this season. ERA alternatives like FIP (4.89) and xFIP (5.06) suggest that his current level of output isn’t sustainable.
Texas announced that Rowley has been optioned to Triple-A Round Rock. The Rangers already had an open spot on the roster, so a corresponding move wasn’t necessary. Rowley will add some depth to a Rangers organization that has an extremely thin mix of starters that only figures to become further depleted in the coming eight days as the Rangers sell off pieces in advance of the July 31 non-waiver trade deadline. Rowley could also give them a long option out of the bullpen to replace the already-traded Jesse Chavez, who’d previously been filling that role.
I’ll forever know him as the guy who walked JD and then gave up a slam to Bogaerts
Agreed. Not exactly sad to see him go
Rather than remember him as the first West Point Graduate to play in the Major Leagues?? Real class there buddy.. he will find his niche in MLB. Typical Red Sox fan..
We can do both. But he was not a good major leaguer. Nope.
That remains to be seen. He deserves some slack. Not some BS commentary from a northeastern weenie.
Questionable whether he belongs in the big leagues at all. One of those on the bubble but never quite makes it guys…Good AAA player.
It’s not a bad move for Toronto if they plan on bringing up Romano or Zeuch to AAA. However, Santos is starting tonight. Santos and Rowley are a coin-flip as to who’s better.
Rowley did pitch well in AAA this year.
Santos is a guy I can’t figure out. At times I have seen him and he looks like like he belongs, then for other long stretches he looks like he should try another profession.
What sticks out to me as the issue is his forearm strength. Sometimes it appears he is using more shoulder and leg drive because the forearm/wrist strength has faded. If it was just an issue of repeatable delivery the coaches would catch it in a minute.
When I see a pitcher that can look awesome one moment and be a totally different pitcher a few months later it makes me wonder about his health or the vitamins he is taking.
Pitchers don’t drive with their shoulder. They drive with their upper thighs and hips. Why do you think Ichiro and Chris Sale have absolute cannons while a guy like Khris Davis can’t throw a lick, despite being very strong? All in the mechanics.
Jimmer over the last 6-7 years there have been Jays pitchers with inconsistent delivery to home plate. Guys like Drabek and Hutchison would do it constantly. There have been others. Those two really stick out.
I hear you with Santos. Because of that inconsistency he likes to miss the strike zone a fair bit. He really is the prime example of the difference between being a “here to stay” bullpen arm and a guy that is shuffled between the big club and AAA. He really isn’t far off. Hopefully the Jays deal some bullpen arms to give guys like Santos a chance to showcase himself for next year when the Jays fight Baltimore for last place.
The difference of here to stay bullpen arm and shuffled to AAA bullpen arm is all about who does and who doesn’t have options. Look at how mlb teams use bullpens. Doesn’t really matter if you’re effective one day, if you pitched a lot the previous two days and they need fresh arms here’s a bus ticket to buffalo.
If I was the PA I would be trying to put a stop to teams gaming the system like that because they refuse RP longer or starters longer. Don’t give me the injury argument either. These guys all can pitch longer they just aren’t as effective. I dunno what rules you can put in place to stop teams from sending effective pitchers down but it’s something I’d explore ideas on if I was the PA.
This should be a bigger concern for them when bullpening like the rays are doing becomes more popular as it will among teams with low payrolls as teams can game the system by keeping RP service time down even if they’re effective.
But seriously MLBTR, where is the news about Tim Tebow’s season-ending injury?
The Rangers would have been better off with Merritt.
Rangers need any pitching arm they can get.