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.
I wish him the best
can’t be any worse than James Norwood.
You know your run is over when you get dumped for Trent Thornton… Damn..
The Hanuwa Eagles are looking for new foreign pitchers that are healthy so they might go for him if Toronto released Borucki
What kind of salary could he fetch over there ?
I will always fondly remember his exceptional 2020 season.
Dang, he just got those new glasses too! Him and Tim Mayza I always root for.
Jays wrecked this guy like they wrecked biagini. Part of development is figuring out who a pitcher is in the big leagues. The Jays had him bulk up then lose it all which was stupid. He didn’t have the muscle mass to support a max effort delivery out of the pen and expect to stay healthy. If another team acquires him and properly works with his conditioning my bet is he goes back to being the mid level starter he could be.
Neither Borucki nor Biagini was much of a prospect, and their stuff was never impressive. It’s more likely that it was Pete Walker working miracles to get the couple good seasons out of them they got.
Hope the Pirates pick him up and drop Aaron Fletcher from the 40 man roster. After losing Sam Howard on waivers to Detroit, Anthony Banda and Dillon Peters are the only lefties in the MLB bullpen and Peters has been used more as an opener or multi-inning guy this year. Borucki could be used as a one inning guy in the 5th-7th innings when the opposing team has a lefty or preferably two due up. As an added bonus it would probably limit Underwood’s usage a bit which might make him more effective or at least help prevent his arm from falling off of his body from abuse. Can’t imagine any team claiming Fletcher either so he would continue his role of getting lit up in AAA anyway.