The Blue Jays announced that they’ve designated reliever Michael Petersen for assignment. That’s the corresponding 40-man roster move for Max Scherzer, who has finalized his $15.5MM free agent deal.
Toronto claimed Petersen, a native of the United Kingdom, off waivers from the Marlins within the opening days of the offseason. That was his second waiver move in a few months. Miami had grabbed him off waivers from the Dodgers in September. He allowed four runs across 5 2/3 innings to finish the year. Petersen had also made 11 appearances with Los Angeles. He closed his debut campaign with a 5.95 earned run average through 19 2/3 innings. He recorded 14 strikeouts while issuing 11 walks.
The 30-year-old Petersen had much better numbers in 33 innings at the Triple-A level with Los Angeles. He posted a 1.64 ERA while striking out a massive 35.2% of opponents. Petersen had also pitched well for the Rockies’ affiliate in 2023. He owns a 2.45 earned run average at the top minor league level. He has fanned 28.6% of batters faced against an elevated 11% walk rate.
Petersen works mostly with a fastball and cutter. His heater checked in at 97 MPH on average in his MLB work and sat just under 98 MPH in the minors. Between that and the strong Triple-A production, it’s possible he’ll draw renewed interest on the waiver wire. The 6’7″ righty still has two minor league options remaining and could be sent to Triple-A if a team is willing to carry him on the 40-man roster. Petersen has never cleared outright waivers, so if he goes unclaimed, he’d stick with the Jays and likely be invited to camp as a non-roster player.
Why? As pointed out in the opener this AM they could have just waited til spring training and then put Manoah on the 60 day D.L. to open a spot.
He seems like a semi useful arm. No need to throw him away for no reason.
If he’s so useful then someone will trade some cash or ptbnl for him
@SHARKmapiro
The magic 8 ball agrees with me that welding is his career path.
I bet they didnt think of or discuss that
Hahahahahah yea they likely aren’t sure how DFAs and 40 man rosters work. Maybe we could email them with tips.
You have to be 40 man compliant in the offseason. They would have been at 41
I think what they meant was they could have delayed the signing of Scherzer until pitchers and catchers reported. That way they could move somebody to the 60-day DL and not have to lose anyone.
Sure fair. But my point was that the professional baseball front office definitely discussed and decided not to do that for some reason. You can disagree with cutting the guy based on skillset but they didn’t mysteriously forget the rules and procedures of the game.
Tommy Nance was the guy to cut.
If you wait until spring training to finalize the contract, you irritate Max and possibly drive him to another team that’ll sign on the dotted line sooner. Not worth disrespecting a future hall of famer over a replacement level waiver wire guy. And there’ll be plenty of similar guys on the waiver wire by the end of spring training to fill that roster spot (including perhaps Petersen again).
Probably for good faith to the player more than anything else to hopefully grab anther 40 man spot.
He’ll be a Pirate within a week.
Certified British legend.