The Blue Jays have signed reliever Carl Edwards Jr. to a minor league contract, per a report from Sportsnet. He has been assigned to Triple-A Buffalo.
Edwards is most well-known for his run with the Cubs. Once a well-regarded prospect in the Chicago system, he made his MLB debut late in 2015 and was an important part of the Cubs’ bullpen over the next few seasons. Despite persistent troubles with walks, Edwards was quite good at missing bats and preventing runs over his first few years. Between 2016-18, he worked to a 3.03 ERA/3.12 FIP across 154 1/3 relief innings.
He’s fallen on hard times since then, though. Edwards got off to a terrible start in 2019, and Chicago flipped him to the Padres for fellow reliever Brad Wieck at the trade deadline. Edwards couldn’t right the ship in San Diego and wound up non-tendered. The Mariners signed him that offseason in hopes of a rebound. To his credit, the righty got off to a strong start in Seattle but a flexor mass strain in his forearm ended his season after just 4 2/3 innings.
The Braves signed Edwards to a minor league deal over the winter. Atlanta selected him to the major league roster earlier this month but designated him for assignment after just one appearance, in which he allowed three runs on as many hits while recording a single out. Edwards cleared waivers and elected free agency.
Now, he’ll look to work his way back to the big leagues with Toronto. The Jays have dealt with plenty of bullpen injuries this season and are still without notables Rafael Dolis, Julian Merryweather and David Phelps (as well as presumptive closer Kirby Yates, who underwent Tommy John surgery before the regular season began). Despite the health woes, Toronto relievers have worked to a solid 2.99 ERA/3.76 SIERA this year.
Low risk high reward pick up. If he can return to 2018 form and not HR derby Carl he’ll be a solid addition for the Buffalo Blue Jays.
Low risk, low reward. The upside is a middle reliever that can’t throw strikes, but hopefully people swing anyway.
He had an ERA under 3 in 2018 and has pitched less than 40 innings since.
I don’t understand the crowd that gets on to the comment section here to say stuff like this. Why? You feel better?
Edwards probably blew a few games for the team he likes so Yeti thinks he’s garbage. Pretty simple. Chill out.
What?! You are probably one of the most hateful commenters on this site. I thought what Yeti said was pretty funny. I literally never know what to expect from you. Your comments surprise me every time I read them. Not always in a bad way, but always unpredictable.
I have only been posting here for a couple weeks so let’s not make assumptions about people Don.
There are a lot of people that want to use posts like this as a way to crack jokes and insult someone’s career and I don’t care for it. Baseball is tough, especially for a reliever. Again what’s the point of a comment like that? If you need to insult someone else to be funny you aren’t that funny.
Are people that comment only allowed to have opinions that match your mindset? If people don’t think Carl Edwards Jr is good then they can believe Carl Edwards Jr isn’t good.
Ok man. I promise I will not make any assumptions about anyone. I’m just calling it like I see it, but I don’t mean to actually offend anyone. I’m sorry if my comment below is offensive, it was also meant to be funny. As a Cards fan, I will take a swipe at the Cubs from time to time. All in good fun.
You can believe Edward’s isn’t good if you want. My guess is you haven’t seen him pitch more than 5 innings in your lifetime but yeah opinions are cool to have.
But to show up to posts like these and to kick dirt on a guy when he’s down for no real reason whatsoever is lame. Read the comments. It’s always the same. People think it’s time for comedy hour and I will say to you what I said to the other guy. If you have to put someone down to be funny then you really aren’t that funny at all.
While we are making assumptions, can I assume that all is good here now?
It’s all good man. I get heated about certain subjects. This is one of them. These are real people. I still remember watching that mock fantasy football draft a few years ago on espn with a bunch of middle aged white guys buying and selling athletes as if it were the 20s. I look a lot like those guys I try hard not to be like them. These are real people we need to respect that.
@Joel (& other emotional friends) – You really think a professional athlete is following you around on the internet & scanning all comment sections of blogs, etc, desperate to know what you think of them?
If a comment section of a blog is more important to a player’s career than his on-field performance in prior seasons, spring training, the minor leagues, & the current season… Then we are living in the upside down & we have far greater concerns than Carl Edwards Jr.
I don’t know how you possibly read my comment as a personal attack. His upside is a middle reliever with poor control. That has nothing to do with him being a bad person. That he keeps getting opportunities in spite of his performance leads me to believe he is most likely a really good guy.
Get over yourself.
I mean, he’s not been close to good for 3 years, and I don’t think he deserves any more chances on a big league roster. I watched him play for the Padres when everyone was giving it the same “low risk, high reward” spiel, and he just flat out sucked. Look lost and dejected. I think his best bet is to go abroad, perhaps japan, and try to rebuild his confidence and see if someone likes him enough to bring him back to the majors.
I can only make a safe assumption that Edwards will be pitching in buffalo(minor or major league)
He has only thrown 51 innings since 2018, so he could rebound with regular work
Jeez! Are the Cubs so broke they couldn’t give him another go? I loved when this guy pitched for them. He and Pedro Strop are maybe my all time favorite Cubs.
How does this dude keep getting employed….one of life’s great mysteries.
Probably because he worked his entire life to be good at baseball. And because of that he still is.
Again what’s the point here?
His arm is very live. Batters are hitting .159 against him for his career, which is insane. If he can start consistently throwing strikes this guy could dominate.
They will be without Phelps a little while longer as he has been moved to the 60 day IL
Connor Overton is in his first year of triple A ball.
He has been superlative. Will he succeed at the next level? It will take time to discover.
I remember 70 years of baseball. I remember Randy Johnson, Don Larsen and Mark Fidrych.
The Jays are in emergency mode. Thorton is still still to TBD and Mayza is gone when pitchers come off the IL.
If we had crystal balls we could all be millionaires as coaches and managers.
We would also have to be careful when we sit down.
Watch out Ducey, don’t get scolded for making a good joke!
Those are real crystal balls you’re talking about.
Philisspan,
I was thinking the same thing when I wrote the comment and I appreciate Ducey’s comment. Why is satire and punning not well appreciated?
Teams don’t need a crystal ball they need good professional scouting.
The scouting is amazing. The analytics are well ahead of America’s educational system in understanding new technology. Today’s successful teams are in data hubs and understand probability. Today’s coaches and managers need psychology more than scouting.It is a different world when players can play themselves in virtual realities.
I take Big Blue over the hundred best scouts anyday. The scouts only confirm or question Big Blue’s analysis. Scouts can’t determine how much hard contact does a hitter make in a hundred at bats. and his progression since high school.
Watch Stephen Fry’s lecture at Google to understand that we are not capable o0f the scouting analysis that Big Blue can do in a moment.. It would take humans many lifetimes to do the analysis.
Congrats to Carl Edwards Jr, who will now be joining Atkins’ never-ending list of scrap heap reliever pickups that turn out to be highly effective leverage guys!
It’s actually wild how much some of these relatively no names or castaways have performed so far this year. I don’t expect it to continue but going in to the season the bullpen was supposed to be the biggest hole and so far it’s kept them in and won them games more than any other area.
I said from the start the BPen would be good.
Oh really Jimmer, you said the BP would be good ? Wonderful thing being able to read comments from past threads.
What a joke.
A live arm with a fairly recent history of success is always worth taking an inexpensive gamble on.
The string bean chucker.
The Jays are in need of bodies in the bullpen, so there is no harm in taking a chance on Carl Edwards Jr. If Walker was able to help Robbie Ray remember how to throw strikes, maybe he can fix Edwards Jr. too. Let’s see.
Jays are looking nice right now! If only we have signed Bauer instead of Springer.
Bauer probably would have meant no semien.
Jays have a lot of prospect depth to swing a trade for a SP at some point
The only thing the Blue Jays need is a shorter IL.. They are deep everywhere and really deep at catcher. When Springer gets back DH will be very deep .Starting pitch and bull pen is very cloudy indeed with a major league pitching roster on the IL and a promising roster getting ready in Buffalo and Manchester.
Funny last I looked the Blue Jays were among the leaders in team ERA.
Mario
You do know it would have taken the Jays 45 million AAV for likely 3 yrs to get Bauer right? He is not worth that kind of money.
I’d take 3 years for 45 million per year any day of the week for Bauer, rather then 6 years 30 million a season for Springer. Pitching is what wins championships.
Jays can collect all the hitters they went, in the postseason they’ll be shut down when we come across legitimate pitching.
Seems the Jays don’t really even “need” Springer. But we definitely could’ve used a Trevor Bauer. Especially in post season play.
Also if it would’ve been a 3 year deal, Bauer and Ryu would’ve come off the books at the same time. 65 million for both guys in that 3 year period (per year) to truly compete for a World Series, while also having the prospects to add more pitching if needed.
History of the game does not lie, pitching, pitching and more pitching is what wins in post season play.
Montoyo can try to micro manage post season play all he wants, if we simply don’t have the talent in the rotation, which we obviously don’t, we won’t win anything meaningful when it matters most.
I have been watching baseball for 70 years and first you got to get to the postseason.. Today the Blue Jay farm hands pitched 18 innings of one run baseball with only Woods Richardson in a traditional starter’s role.
The Blue Jays ERA is one of the best in baseball and other than Romano today’s relievers are not in the major leagues without injuries in fact they are not the top of the list of injury replacements. Today Manchester faced Strasburg who pitched shutout ball in a game Rochester lost 2-1.
Blue Jays need three reliable starters that can go more than five innings. They were not to a playoff team when the season began and I expect them to crack the top six in tomorrow’s rankings.
In the little I have seen Springer will put them in the top three or four. We will not see a Smoltz, Maddux and Glavine on the same team ever again unless they are backed up by nine players who belong in triple A.
Of course I might be wrong but Kershaw didn’t win LA many world’s series except in a season dominated by a virus.
Mario you would be giving a guy who had 1.5 good seasons 45M AAV is nuts. Walker would have been a much smarter move and let the young guys in AA/AA earn a spot. Bauer is one rule enforcement away from being a 4.00 Era pitcher again.
None of this even touches on the fact he is a headcase. Seriously who closes one eye and throws to the plate to “challenge” himself without any regard to the potential risk to the hitter. Then there are the social media headaches , etc etc etc.
Moe
You are 100% correct, the days of having 2-3 pitchers who go 200 IP plus are long gone. Teams use to have only one long guy in the pen, now there are 2-3-4. This is a totally different era .
You know nothing, right on-cue Markkko. It wouldn’t have taken $45-mil per year over 3 years and the fact you believe that shows how short you are in the thinking category. Meanwhile the bullpen is taxed and the Jays have starting pitching issues. Bauer solves that. Don’t worry you don’t have to use thought as you can’t do that.
Stop lying about the figures. Even if your lie is fact it would have been money better spent than Springer/Yates/Semien at this very point, totalling more than $45-mil if you can do math (probably not). More important, stop lying and stop being so angry. You might think better without your teen angst.
Leave it to Wild Bill Tetley to start with the insults. I’ll do the math for you as it would seem it is one of your weak points ( amongst many ) His LA contract is effectively 2 yrs @ 42.5M per, to get a high end FA to the Jays traditionally it takes an extra year and at times an extra year with a slight premium to cover tax differential, that brings us to the 45M AAV x 3 .
I have listed Ad nauseam his other issues. Try to comprehend for once in your life. It really shouldn’t shock me that the likes of you has a man crush on someone like Bauer. You get butt hurt whenever someone disparages him. ( Birds of a feather as they say – stalk any college girls on twitter for fun this weekend you loser .)
The Jays mgmt did not want to tie up the financial resources required to get a headcase like Bauer and handcuff themselves with a narcissist .
I have faith they will address the starting pitching requirement in a timely manner.
Keep trying Wild Bill someday Bauer may let you carry his jock strap or Trump let you work as his bathroom attendant. Those are your kindred spirits.
I was having a drink with a friend who frequents here and he laughed and said oh you were negative to Jimmer, wonder how long it will take Wild Bill to arrive lol.
Great entertainment you troll.
More of a necessity for Buffalo than the Jays with many arms moving up and down between AAA and the majors. With arms on the IL the Jays needed some minor league arms.
Jays need minor league arms and major league arms and all the arms that they can get. 29 th In baseball in starters innings and as you know over the course of a long season that scenario won’t work.
Yes. Edwards is Buffalo filler for now.
Overton has four games of affiliated ball. Monoah looks really good. Pearson seems more than likely to click. Rodning and Richardson are better than maybes. And more good relievers than they can carry on the Dl why consider any trade They have with their “problems” one of baseballs lowest eras despite where they played. Mayza is DFA when the first arm is healthy and Thornton needs .a year of double A or triple A to see if he can be a starter.. What does anyone want to trade for? A traditional Dh backup 1st baseman means someone who needs playing time is getting splinters.