Blue Jays Designate Jaime Garcia

The Blue Jays have designated left-hander Jaime Garcia, the club announced today. The move was made in order to make room for Aaron Sanchez on the active roster, whom they activated from the disabled list.

It’s the end of a dramatic fall from grace for the 32-year-old hurler, whom the Blue Jays gave a $10MM guarantee to pitch for them this year. Part of that contract is a $2MM buyout for next season’s $10MM option; that buyout will clearly be used. If his 5.93 ERA wasn’t enough of a convincing factor to that end, the added shoulder issues that have cost him significant playing time would seal the deal. Garcia’s had multiple DL stints this season owing to inflammation in his pitching shoulder.

Toronto had initially hoped that Garcia could perform at least serviceably, as he had across the past two seasons, with perhaps the upside of the 2.43 ERA he flashed across the 2015 season with the Cardinals. Instead, he’s gone from okay to dreadful, resulting in a demotion to the bullpen and now a loss of his spot on the club’s roster. That’s significant, considering the Jays haven’t got much to play for, and even more significant considering there’s only about a week left until active rosters expand. The Jays could have simply demoted one of their players with options remaining and kept Garcia through September, but it appears as though he’d fallen out of favor with the organization to a point at which even that minor inconvenience wasn’t worth the trouble.