Hader, 27, is in the midst of yet another dominant season on the mound, having pitched to a career-low 1.83 ERA with a 45 percent strikeout rate that leads all qualified relief pitchers and a 9.4 percent walk that’s down more than three percent from his shaky levels in 2020. Devin Williams has been getting save chances in Hader’s absence, but Hader figures to again serve as manager Craig Counsell’s go-to option in such situations now.

The news on Axford was to be expected. The Brewers already announced earlier this month that the 38-year-old right-hander sustained a season-ending elbow injury during his first big league appearance since 2018. Unfortunately, Axford indeed sustained an injury to his ulnar collateral ligament, Tom Haudricourt of the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel reported this morning, and he’s weighing what the injury means for his career at this point. President of baseball operations David Stearns indicated that Axford is likely looking at a “reconstruction” surgery (i.e. Tommy John).

“It’s really unfortunate,” said Stearns. “We feel awful for John. I think he was very excited to come to this team. He was excited to pitch in a pennant race, hopefully pitch in the playoffs again. Unfortunately, it didn’t work out.”

Given the timing of the injury, a Tommy John procedure would very likely wipe out all of Axford’s 2022 season as well. If he did attempt a comeback, he’d be doing so in 2023 for what would be his age-40 season.

It’s a disappointing blow for a pitcher who just made his return to the big leagues on Monday after a three-year absence. The 38-year-old recorded one out against the Pirates, allowing a pair of runs on two hits and a walk in what’ll be his lone appearance of the year. Before that, he’d pitched very well with the Blue Jays’ Triple-A affiliate in Buffalo, where he tossed 10 2/3 innings of one-run ball with fourteen strikeouts and three walks.

It remains to be seen whether Axford will make a renewed comeback push. At the very least, he can take pride in the remarkable successful effort he made in recent months to get back to the majors with Milwaukee, even if that stint unfortunately ended far quicker than expected. Presumably, the Brewers will place Axford on the 60-day injured list when the need for a new 40-man roster spot arises.

Axford will be selected to Milwaukee’s big league roster before this evening’s game against the Pirates, according to Adam McCalvy of MLB.com (Twitter link). His season debut will be his first big league appearance since August 2018.

It’s an incredible comeback for the 39-year-old, who’d barely pitched in any capacity between his last big league stint and his signing with the Blue Jays six weeks ago. Axford missed essentially all of the 2019 season on the minor league injured list, and his hopes of returning to affiliated ball last year were derailed by the pandemic.

Given Axford’s age, it seemed likely his playing career was over after two lost seasons. But he remained in shape — even as he did some work as a television analyst — and made it back to professional ball with Toronto. Axford has made the best of his somewhat limited body of work with Triple-A Buffalo over the past month-plus, tossing 10 2/3 innings of one-run ball. He’s struck out an impressive fourteen batters faced while issuing just three walks. Along the way, he’s shown a fastball in the 96-98 MPH range, per Scott Mitchell of TSN.

That strong work was enough to catch the attention of the Milwaukee front office, who’s now set to give Axford a chance to carry over that success against big league hitters once again. The veteran righty was one of the better closers in baseball during the first few years of the last decade and has been generally solid overall, working to a 3.87 ERA across 525 1/3 big league innings.

Of course, Axford’s biggest success came in Milwaukee. He broke into the majors with the Brewers in 2009 and pitched with the team through 2013. Axford led the National League in saves (46) in 2011, en route to a ninth-place finish in NL Cy Young Award voting that year. He worked to a 3.35 ERA in his first four-plus seasons with the Brew Crew and his 106 career saves in a Milwaukee uniform ranks second in franchise history.

Axford is best known for his early-career stint with the Brewers. He pitched to a 3.35 ERA with Milwaukee between 2009-13, compiling an MLB-leading 46 saves in 2011. As he entered his 30’s, the righty became something of a journeyman. He would go on to suit up for the Cardinals, Indians, Pirates, Rockies, A’s, Blue Jays and Dodgers over the next five years.

A Canada native, Axford signed a minors pact with the Jays in 2019 but spent essentially the entire season on the minor league injured list. His hope of a comeback in 2020 was derailed by the pandemic, but he’ll now return to affiliated ball. The Blue Jays relief corps has scuffled in recent weeks, with general manager Ross Atkins telling reporters today that upgrading the bullpen is a priority. Certainly, the Axford signing won’t stop the front office from continuing to hunt for external options, but there’s little risk in adding the veteran to the organization as non-roster depth.

• Bo Bichette has been keeping his arm loose, trying to keep a routine and stay prepared, but with the layoff stretching longer than initially expected, he’s considering taking some time off from the even most basic baseball activities, per TSN’s Scott Mitchell. There are obviously bigger issues at play here, which is why Bichette has no problem backburnering his career for the time being while focusing on social distancing. That said, in the distant background of Mitchell’s article, the question of ballplayer health arises. It will be an interesting one to track when/if the season does get underway.
• Speaking of complications from the current crisis, Ben Frederickson of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch hopes the current layoff pushes the league and players’ union to find some common ground when it comes to eventual collective bargaining. Frederickson provides a quote from Andrew Miller, who captured the sentiment of many when he said “The finances of the game, whether it’s from the player or the owner perspective, it’s in everybody’s best interest to get games going.”
• John Axford was mounting a comeback bid before COVID-19 rearranged everyone’s priorities, per the Canadian Press at Sportsnet.ca. Axford sustained a stress fracture in his right elbow during spring training last year, missing the entire season while recovering. The once-mustachioed Axford last appeared in the majors for the Blue Jays and Dodgers in 2018, sustaining some bad luck en route to a 5.27 ERA across 50 outings. A 3.98 FIP suggests the underlying output from Axford deserves a second look. Over his ten year career, Axford made 543 appearances for the Brewers, A’s, Rockies, Pirates, Cardinals, Dodgers, Indians and Blue Jays, though no stop was more noteworthy than his early days in Milwaukee, which included a 46-save season in 2011. In total, he notched 144 career saves with a 3.87 ERA/3.67 FIP. Whether Axford gets another chance at cracking an MLB roster remains to be seen, but he’s keeping his options open for now.

It still remains quite possible, if not likely, that the Canadian-born Axford will reemerge as a bullpen option for the Blue Jays at some point once he’s had sufficient time to mend his ailing elbow. Prior to the injury, he was viewed as a strong candidate to break camp with the Jays for what would be the second straight season. Last year, Axford appeared in 45 games for the Blue Jays last season, pitching to a 4.41 ERA with a 50-to-20 K/BB ratio in 51 innings before being traded to the Dodgers prior to the July 31 non-waiver deadline.

Axford’s time with the Dodgers proved forgettable. He was tagged for six runs in his first appearance with the L.A. organization, and while his next four outings were sharp (one run in three innings with four strikeouts and no walks), he didn’t have time for his numbers with the Dodgers to recover before being struck in the leg by a comeback liner that left him with a fractured fibula and sidelined him for more than a month.

The injury to Axford is hardly the only health issue that cropped up in the Blue Jays’ bullpen mix late in Spring Training. Bud Norris was slowed late in camp when he had trouble getting loose prior to one of his outings, while Ryan Tepera will begin the season on the injured list due to inflammation in his right elbow. There’s no clear timeline at present for when Axford will be ready to get back on the mound,  and he’ll certainly need a Triple-A tuneup before the organization considers selecting his contract to the Major League roster.

Axford, whom the Blue Jays signed to a minor league contract in February, had been battling for a season-opening bullpen spot in spring training. But the 35-year-old Axford suffered a stress reaction in his pitching elbow this week, thus taking him out of the mix. It’s possible he’ll return to the Blue Jays in short order, though, as Davidi suggests they may have released Axford simply to rework his contract.

Toronto’s quite familiar with Axford, a native of Canada who spent the first few months of 2018 with the Blue Jays before they sent him to the Dodgers at the July 31 non-waiver trade deadline. Between the two teams last year, Axford tossed 54 2/3 innings and posted an ugly 5.27 ERA with 8.89 K/9 and 3.62 BB/9. Most of the damage came during Axford’s short stint in LA, where he managed just 3 2/3 innings on account of a fractured fibula.

As an Article XX(B) free agent, the Jays had to place Norris on their 25-man roster, pay him $100K to stay on as a minor leaguer or send him back to the open market, where he languished until March 1. Surprisingly, Norris has to settle for a minors deal after performing well last year with the Cardinals, with whom he notched 57 2/3 innings and logged a 3.59 ERA with 10.46 K/9, 3.28 BB/9 and 28 saves in 33 attempts. Norris looked like a good bet to win a roster spot with the Jays after signing with them, but forearm fatigue has slowed him of late. The 34-year-old won’t be in Toronto from the outset of the season, then, though it’s possible he’ll join its bullpen sometime in the coming weeks.

Blue Jays skipper Charlie Montoyo revealed today that neither Ryan Tepera nor John Axford will be an option to start the season (Twitter link via Davidi). Teperea will open on the injured list due to inflammation in his right elbow. Axford, meanwhile, is not yet on the 40-man roster and likely won’t be for quite some time, as he’s been diagnosed with a stress reaction in the olecranon bone of his right elbow.

The Jays haven’t provided a timeline for either to return to health, though the loss of Tepera is particularly tough for Toronto. The 31-year-old righty has been a stable presence in the Jays’ bullpen since late in the 2016 season and has a 3.53 ERA with 9.4 K/9 against 3.5 BB/9 in 160 2/3 innings over the past three seasons. He’d been expected to serve as a setup man this season.

Those injuries would have opened the door wide for veteran Bud Norris, who surprisingly was forced to settle for a minor league deal with the Jays midway through camp. Unfortunately, as Davidi reports, Norris was a late scratch from his scheduled outing.

There’s no indication at this point that he’s dealing with anything more than a typical spring blip, but that doesn’t mean it’s not deflating to see another issue arise at this stage of camp. As Davidi puts it: “given the other injuries and the fact that Norris had an opt-out that expired at midnight Thursday, there was certainly a New Orleans Is Sinking kind of feel to the day.”

Of all the recent developments in Dunedin, the strangest was the latest concussion scare for outfielder Dalton Pompey. As Davidi explains, Pompey was somehow struck in the head by one or more bats that had been store in his locker. Given his worrying history of head injuries, Pompey was scratched and scheduled for further evaluation.

It’s anyone’s guess at this point how his roster situation will be resolved, with this health issue potentially representing a wild card. Pompey has profiled as a trade or DFA candidate, but could perhaps get one more re-start in the organization if he requires a stretch on the injured list.

These late-breaking developments have had quite an impact on the Blue Jays’ final roster plans. As Davidi explains, the club now may have some gaps to fill, particularly if it decides to give up on Rule 5 pick Elvis Luciano. That may also bring some opportunity, though, as the Jays could have some unexpected roster flexibility to work with as players shake loose from other organizations in advance of Opening Day.

Here’s more from the American League …

• Mariners righty Shawn Armstrong is heading to the injured list with a grade 1 oblique strain, MLB.com’s Greg Johns reports. He says he’ll be patient in allowing thing to heal, but didn’t hide his anger at hitting the shelf just before the season began. (Anderson flew to Japan believing he would be ready to roll, but the issue was worse upon arrival.) Armstrong, 28, is still hoping that this’ll be the season he fully establishes himself in the majors. He has seen action in four seasons but has yet to be entrusted with more than 21 appearances in a given campaign. Armstrong turned in sub-2.00 ERA performances at both Triple-A (in 56 innings) and the majors (14 2/3 innings) in 2018.
• The White Sox may not go long without new reliever Kelvin Herrera, Daryl Van Schouwen of the Chicago Sun-Times writes. The veteran hurler, who’s working back from a Lisfranc fracture in his left foot, hasn’t yet fully ramped things up but seems on track to get back to being a high-powered relief arm early in the new season. “I will probably be in full shape by April something or May,” he says.
• It seems there’s some new potential for late-camp movement with the Blue Jays roster. Skipper Charlie Montoyo says that righty relievers Ryan Tepera and John Axford have turned up with elbow pain that is being looked at more closely, as Shi Davidi of Sportsnet.ca reports (Twitter link). Those injuries are among the factors that could leave the Toronto organization with more 40-man roster room to work with — but also more 25-man roster needs to address — than had been anticipated, MLB.com’s Gregor Chisholm notes on Twitter.

Feb. 13: The Blue Jays are close to a deal that’ll bring righty John Axford back to the organization, reports MLB Network’s Jon Heyman (Twitter link). Axford, 36 in April, spent most of the 2018 season with the Jays and had voiced a desire to return to his hometown organization earlier this offseason. Axford is represented by the Beverly Hills Sports Council.

Axford appeared in 45 games for the Blue Jays last season, pitching to a 4.41 ERA with a 50-to-20 K/BB ratio in 51 innings before being traded to the Dodgers prior to the July 31 non-waiver deadline. Unfortunately for both Axford and the Dodgers, the right-hander, he was clobbered for six runs in his first appearance with his new team. Before he had time for his numbers to recover, Axford was struck on the leg by a comebacker, sustaining a fractured fibula that shelved him for more than a month.

It’s been a rough couple of seasons for the veteran Axford, who has a 5.59 ERA in 75 2/3 innings dating back to Opening Day 2017. However, prior to that, Axford carried a 4.03 ERA with better than a strikeout per inning in four seasons split between the Brewers, Cardinals Indians, Rockies and A’s. The right-hander still throws hard, averaging 95.5 mph on his heater in ’18, though his swinging-strike and opponents’ chase rate both continued to trend in the wrong direction.

Given his recent struggles, it seems likely that Axford would have to earn his way onto the roster on a minor league contract, as he did a year ago with the Jays. If that is indeed the case, he’ll head to Spring Training and compete for a spot behind Ken Giles and Ryan Tepera at the back of the Toronto ’pen. Righties Joe Biagini, Sam Gaviglio, David Paulino and Trent Thornton are among the current 40-man options against whom he’d be competing for those spots. All have minor league options remaining, which could help to work in Axford’s favor, as there’s no reliever who needs to be carried on the 25-man roster with the exception of Rule 5 pick Elvis Luciano — who is already an extreme long shot to stick on the roster given that he is just 19 years of age.

Here’s the latest on the relief market:

• The Red Sox are continuing to tamp down expectations of a move to add a closer. As Chris Cotillo of MassLive.com writes, president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski referred to free agent closer Craig Kimbrel’s Boston tenure in the past tense in comments today. He also suggested the team feels comfortable with its existing options to handle the ninth inning, naming Matt Barnes, Ryan Brasier, Tyler Thornburg, and Steven Wright as possibilities. Needless to say, that’s an interesting foursome for the defending World Series champs to propose as a slate of Kimbrel successor candidates. If there’s still a chance of a reunion with the all-time great reliever, Dombrowski didn’t hint at it. “Sometimes, you have to evaluate where you’re going to spend your dollars,” he said. “We decided to keep back the rest of the core of the club. We like our team a great deal and we think some of the guys internally can do the job. Can we get better? Perhaps. But we’ll see what takes place.”
• With no future commitments to speak of and a path to contention, the Twins seem to be a team to watch on the market. If nothing else, the club figures to bolster its pitching staff. The aforementioned Brad Brach is among the possible targets, according to LaVelle E. Neal III of the Star Tribune (Twitter link). The Minnesota front office has certainly shown an inclination to limit its risks in free agency, and it stands to reason that Brach will be available for a lesser and shorter commitment than many of the hurlers that have gone off the board already. The 32-year-old had something of a messy 2018 season after a string of productive campaigns, which could make him a nice value proposition.
• Veteran reliever John Axford is making no secret of his desire to return to the Blue Jays for the coming season, as Ben Nicholson-Smith of Sportsnet.ca writes. With his family rooted in Toronto, the Canadian hurler says it’s where he’d like to be. Axford’s pitch is that he’d be a good mentor for a young team — and, perhaps, will again turn into a summer trade asset. There’s certainly an argument to be made that Axford would be a good fit, particularly if he’s again willing to take a minor-league deal. As Nicholson-Smith notes, Axford is delivering plenty of heat with his fastball, and the Jays still appear in need of some pitching depth.

Here’s more from the American League:

• The Rangers have continued to discuss a couple of free-agent infielders – Josh Harrison and Yangervis Solarte – and stayed in contact with free-agent right-hander Adam Ottavino, Evan Grant of the Dallas Morning News reports. Either Harrison or Solarte, the latter of whom has already been in the Texas organization, could help fill the void for the departed Adrian Beltre and Jurickson Profar at third base. Ottavino, meanwhile, would be the priciest of the three to reel in, as he lags behind only Craig Kimbrel when it comes to current free-agent relievers. Contending clubs may be more realistic fits for the 33-year-old Ottavino than the Rangers, who don’t figure to push for a playoff spot in 2019.
• Free-agent reliever John Axford said Saturday that he hopes to rejoin the Blue Jays, Ben Nicholson-Smith of Sportsnet tweets. A native of Canada, Axford signed a minor league deal with the Blue Jays last February and stuck in Toronto up until the club traded him to the Dodgers at the July 31 non-waiver deadline. All told, the 35-year-old right-hander pitched to an ugly 5.27 ERA in 54 2/3 innings. Much of the damage came in Axford’s 3 2/3 frames as a Dodger, though, and he did pair playable strikeout and walk numbers (8.89 K/9, 3.62 BB/9) with an appealing groundball rate (54.6 percent).
• The Angels opted out of their ballpark lease in October, which could make the upcoming season the team’s last at Angel Stadium. But the Angels are “expected” to sign a one-year lease with the city of Anaheim to remain at the facility through at least the 2020 campaign, per Bill Shaikin of the Los Angeles Times. Should that come to fruition, the two sides would then work toward a long-term solution to keep the Angels in Anaheim, Shaikin notes. The franchise has called Angel Stadium home since 1966.

Though the Los Angeles bullpen has actually been quite good of late as a unit, it had some notable struggles before that point and still features a fair bit of uncertainty. With work still to be done to reach the postseason, and playoff roster spots potentially at stake thereafter, the returnees will be most welcome.

In particular, Cingrani looks to be an intriguing (re-) addition to the relief unit. The southpaw has only a 4.84 ERA in his 22 1/3 innings, but has compiled an impressive 36:6 K/BB ratio. He also owns a career-high 13.9% swinging-strike rate, carrying over the leap he exhibited in 2017.

As for Axford, a summer trade pick-up, his first game with his new club was a complete mess but he came back for two effective appearances thereafter. Unfortunately, he has been on the shelf now for over a month. But there were obviously reasons that the Dodgers targeted him — his still-speedy heater and typically hefty groundball numbers perhaps chief among them — so the club still has cause to hope they’ll get some value.

As for Garcia, he had been on optional assignment after struggling with injuries and performance for much of the season. The 28-year-old has still not gotten back to the impressive form he showed as a rookie way back in 2015, with health problems — in particular, Tommy John surgery — limiting him to just 44 1/3 professional innings since that campaign. Garcia has thrown 17 2/3 minor-league frames without allowing a walk and while recording 18 strikeouts this year.

All of these hurlers will be pitching for their own benefit as well, of course. Cingrani and Garcia are both eligible for arbitration. For the former, padding his innings totals will help boost his payday; for the latter, it’s still unclear whether he’ll be tendered, though cost won’t be a factor since he’ll be extremely affordable. As for Axford, who’ll return to free agency at season’s end, his showing will be of particular importance.

• Sorely-missed closer Kenley Jansen said yesterday that he expects to be able to return sooner than had been feared, as Bill Shaikin of the Los Angeles Times was among those to report (links to Twitter). It seems he won’t require treatment that would have kept him on the shelf for an estimated four to six weeks. Though Jansen may well require an ablation procedure over the winter, as he has undergone before, he will evidently aim to make it back with a good chunk of the 2018 regular season still remaining. Skipper Dave Roberts said he’s “encouraged” by that possibility.
• New teammate Brian Dozier, meanwhile, is himself being monitored after being pulled from last night’s game. As Alanna Rizzo of Sportsnet LA tweets, Roberts says that initial EKG results showed some kind of abnormality in Dozier’s heartbeat. Just what that means isn’t yet known, though obviously it is a generally concerning development for the 31-year-old, who has been in fine form on the field since being acquired in advance of the trade deadline. MLBTR certainly sends its best wishes to the Dozier family; we hope to see him back on the field in short order.
• With the Dodgers bullpen struggling to cope with the absence of Jansen, recent acquisition John Axford hasn’t presented much of a solution thus far. Axford has given up six earned runs in just three appearances with Los Angeles. Now, per the above-cited Roberts/Rizzo update, the veteran reliever is headed for a DL stint after taking a comebacker off his leg. Indeed, Axford was diagnosed with a fractured fibula, though it’s only expected to keep him down for two to three weeks.

Axford, 35, has a 4.41 ERA, 8.8 K/9, 3.5 BB/9, 1.06 HR/9, and 53.3% groundball rate in 51 innings this year for the Blue Jays.  Axford had signed a minor league deal with the Blue Jays in February after a rough final season in Oakland that included over a month on the shelf with a shoulder strain.  He reinforces a Dodgers pen that has been relying on Kenley Jansen, Scott Alexander, and Daniel Hudson in the late innings, with Pedro Baez coming off the DL about a week ago.  Josh Fields and Tony Cingrani are among those still on the DL.  The Dodgers made their biggest July splashes in the middle infield, with the earlier acquisition of Manny Machado as well as the pickup of Brian Dozier today.

As for the Blue Jays, they’ve shipped off Roberto Osuna, J.A. Happ, Aaron Loup, and Seunghwan Oh in addition to Axford as part of a month-long dismantling.  Copping, the return for Axford, is a 24-year-old righty who recently earned a promotion to Triple-A.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.