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Jordan Romano To Receive Evaluation After Continued Elbow Discomfort

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Blue Jays closer Jordan Romano is set to visit Dr. Keith Meister on July 2, manager John Schneider told reporters (including the Athletic’s Kaitlyn McGrath and Sportsnet’s Shi Davidi).  Romano has been on the injured list due to right elbow inflammation for almost a month, and his throwing work has now been halted for a second time due to continued soreness.  Some soreness last week led to a pause for a few days, but Romano has now been shut down from throwing entirely after a throwing session yesterday.

While Schneider noted that no structural damage has been found in other examinations of Romano’s elbow to date, it is naturally a little ominous to hear that any pitcher is visiting Dr. Meister.  It was just earlier this month that Meister performed a UCL surgery on another prominent Blue Jays pitcher in Alek Manoah, and a similar procedure represents the worst-case scenario for Romano if his recurring elbow problem is due to more than just inflammation.  Romano would miss at least the next year of action recovering from an internal brace procedure (one of Meister’s specialties) or the standard Tommy John surgery would likely keep him out of action until Opening Day 2026.

Today’s news is the latest twist in what is increasingly looking like it might be a lost season for Romano, who has a 6.59 ERA over 13 2/3 innings and 15 appearances.  These underwhelming numbers came in between both his current IL stint and another season-opening IL stint also due to elbow inflammation, as Romano didn’t pitch in his first game until April 16.

Romano has been Toronto’s closer for the last three seasons, posting a sterling 2.37 ERA over 186 innings while recording 95 saves in 106 chances.  While Romano could be homer-prone and his 9.2% walk rate was nothing special, his 30.3% strikeout rate was powered by a strong one-two punch of a fastball/slider combination, helping him receive All-Star nods in both 2022 and 2023.

More will be known after Romano’s consultation on Tuesday, but an extended absence could potentially bring his tenure with the Jays to an end.  Romano is under arbitration control through the 2025 season, though if his 2025 campaign is now in jeopardy altogether, the Blue Jays could consider not even tendering him a contract this winter.  Perhaps more likely, the Jays might explore a two-year extension with Romano, locking him up for both 2025 and what would hopefully be a fully healthy 2026 season.

Even if the elbow problem proves to be relatively minor, it almost surely means that Romano will still be a Blue Jays beyond the July 30 deadline, as it doesn’t seem likely he’ll be back on a big league mound in a month’s time.  A healthy Romano might have been a prime deadline trade chip for a Jays team that looking to be falling out of contention, though obviously having a healthy and effective Romano in 2024 could’ve greatly altered Toronto’s fortunes.  With Romano, Yimi Garcia, Erik Swanson, and Tim Mayza all waylaid by injuries and/or ineffectiveness, the Jays’ relief corps has a 4.78 ERA, ranking third-worst in all of baseball.

Blue Jays Designate Tim Mayza For Assignment

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The Blue Jays announced that left-hander Tim Mayza has been designated for assignment.  Righty Jose Cuas (just claimed off waivers from the Cubs last week) has been called up from Triple-A Buffalo to take Mayza’s spot on the active roster.

Today’s news likely ends Mayza’s tenure with the Jays, which began when he was a 12th-round pick for the club in the 2013 draft.  (Danny Jansen was a 16th-round pick in that same draft and is now officially Toronto’s longest-tenured player.)  Designating Mayza would’ve seemed inconceivable just a few months ago, as Mayza was quietly one of baseball’s better relievers in 2023, posting a 1.52 ERA over 53 1/3 frames.  A 3.11 SIERA was a little less flattering, but Mayza still had solidly above-average walk and strikeout rates, as well as elite grounder (58.2%) and barrel (4.1%) rates.  Mayza allowed only two homers over his 53 1/3 innings, as while he allowed a fair amount of hard contract overall, his ability to keep the ball in the park greatly limited the damage.

However, the dropoff has been as sharp as it was unexpected.  Mayza has already allowed three home runs in 24 2/3 innings this season, contributing to a garish 8.03 ERA.  The Statcast numbers reveal a slew of below-average metrics, including a 13.2% strikeout rate that is among the worst in the league, and a 39.1% grounder rate that is far below the 54.4% career average that Mayza carried into 2024.  A .367 BABIP has partially contributed to Mayza’s problems, though while his 5.03 SIERA is three runs lower than his ERA, it is clear that Mayza’s struggles are due to far more than just bad batted-ball luck.

Things reached a low point in Mayza’s last two outings, as he faced eight batters and allowed seven earned runs without recording even a single out.  These two disastrous performances (against the Red Sox last Monday and against the Yankees last night) raised his ERA from 5.47 to 8.03, and essentially might have forced the Blue Jays’ hand in making a tough call on a veteran reliever.

Starting the season with four years and 156 days of MLB service time, Mayza needed just 16 more days on the big league roster to hit the five-year threshold, so he is now far beyond that mark.  Five years of service time gives Mayza the right to refuse a minor league assignment, and though he has two minor league options remaining, it could be that Mayza exercised his right to pass on a trip to Triple-A Buffalo.

In deciding to DFA Mayza, Toronto has now left open the possibility that he could leave the organization altogether via waiver claim.  A claiming club would have to cover the roughly $1.7MM remaining of Mayza’s remaining salary, and since the Jays would be eating that money in the event of a release, it is possible teams might choose to see if Mayza indeed hits the open market in order to save some cash.  That said, Mayza’s salary isn’t particularly onerous, so any number of teams with bullpen needs might very well be looking to put in a claim or to work out a trade with the Blue Jays during the DFA period.  As rough as Mayza’s performance has been in 2024, he could be an interesting change-of-scenery candidate, given his stronger career track record.

After a Tommy John surgery cost him the entire 2020 season, Mayza returned to post a 2.67 ERA over 155 relief innings from 2021-23, along with a 24.9% strikeout rate, 6.3% walk rate, and 58.3% groundball rate.  He has naturally been a lot better against left-handed batters than right-handed batters over his career, and even amidst his struggles this year, Mayza has held lefty swingers to a .280/.362/.360 slash line in 58 PA.  The batting average and OBP leave something to be desired, but at least this version of Mayza can still limit the power of left-handed hitters.

Since Mayza is also a Super Two player, he has another year of arbitration eligibility before hitting free agency following the 2025 season.  If Mayza joins another team and gets back to his old form, he suddenly becomes an inexpensive piece for a club’s roster next season as well.

Blue Jays relievers have a collective 4.78 ERA this season, ranking 28th of the 30 Major League bullpens.  Injuries to Jordan Romano and Yimi Garcia haven’t helped matters, but Romano was struggling even when not on the injured list, and both Mayza and Erik Swanson (who has been optioned to Triple-A) saw their production crater after impressive 2023 seasons.

Between the leaky bullpen, the inconsistent offense, and a starting rotation that pretty average across the board, not much as gone right for the Blue Jays as they have stumbled to a 37-44 record.  The Jays already parted ways with another struggling homegrown player in Cavan Biggio earlier this month when Biggio was traded to the Dodgers, and if Mayza is also traded or claimed away on waivers, the moves essentially act as harbingers that Toronto will be selling at the deadline.  GM Ross Atkins said two days ago that the Jays are still “focused on building the best possible team we can this year,” but “if we get to a point where we need to adjust, we’ll be prepared to do so.“

Blue Jays’ GM Ross Atkins Talks Deadline Approach

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Even after last night’s 9-2 drubbing of the Yankees, the Blue Jays sit six games below .500. They’re at the bottom of the AL East with a 37-43 record and have three teams between them and the Royals — the current holder of the American League’s final playoff spot.

It’s certainly not where the Jays expected to find themselves at the season’s halfway point. Toronto had won between 89 and 92 games in each of the past three seasons and has gotten to the postseason in three of the last four years. They should be squarely in their competitive window.

That sets the Jays up as one of the more interesting pivot teams over the next month. They’re not eager to sell, but they’re running low on time to play their way back into the playoff mix. Toronto is 6.5 back in the Wild Card race. Any hope they had of winning the division coming into this year has long since disappeared.

GM Ross Atkins acknowledged the team’s precarious position when he spoke with the Toronto beat before Thursday’s win. “We’ve obviously put ourselves into a tough spot over the last seven days,” Atkins said (link via Keegan Matheson of MLB.com). “Ten days ago, we were feeling like there was positive momentum, and that has gone away.”

Jeff Passan of ESPN wrote earlier this week that the Jays weren’t yet willing to make key players available in trade. Atkins suggested similarly in his comments on Thursday, saying the front office’s “focus is on the 2024 team.” While the GM acknowledged that any decision also involves consideration of the future, he pointed to the organization’s investment in both payroll and prospect capital in this roster. “We’ll continue to do that until it doesn’t make sense to do so any more,” he added.

That naturally raises the question of when the front office could decide they have no choice but to turn their focus toward the future. That’ll largely depend on how things play out in the next four to five weeks — both in Toronto and around the rest of the American League. “The coming days are exceptionally important to us, and understanding the market is also exceptionally important to us in either way,” Atkins said (via Matheson). “We’re focused on winning. We’re focused on building the best possible team we can this year and supporting them the best we can. If we get to a point where we need to adjust, we’ll be prepared to do so.”

Toronto isn’t unique in that regard. There are only five or six (depending on one feels about the Tigers) teams who look like clear-cut sellers at this point. Yet there aren’t many more who can feel secure about their chances of getting to the postseason. Upwards of half the teams in the league could decide their deadline direction based on how they perform in July. Various clubs could also try to straddle the line by offloading some veterans while looking for immediate help in other areas of the roster.

The Jays have a more established roster than most of those fringe teams. Toronto has potentially impactful trade candidates with varying levels of club control. Neither Danny Jansen nor Yusei Kikuchi has played well in recent weeks, yet they’d both started the season quite well. Jansen is the top impending free agent catcher, while Kikuchi would be one of the more talented rental starting pitchers on the market if the Jays made him available.

Yimi García is pitching well and would be a straightforward target for teams seeking veteran bullpen help if he’s healthy by the deadline.  (He went on the injured list with elbow neuritis two weeks ago.) Justin Turner and Kevin Kiermaier are having disappointing seasons. While the Jays would probably have to kick in cash to facilitate trades of either player, they could get calls based on their pre-2024 track records.

Things would become more interesting if the Jays seriously considered moving key players who are under control beyond this season. That would signify a bigger reset than merely trading rentals. There’s an argument for doing so if the Jays can’t claw back into contention over the next few weeks. Toronto has a handful of players who are in or at the back end of their primes. They’ve got dwindling control windows on franchise faces Vladimir Guerrero Jr. and Bo Bichette, each of whom are slated for free agency after the 2025 campaign. Bichette will make $16.5MM next season, while Guerrero is going to be due a noteworthy raise on this year’s $19.9MM salary.

Atkins bluntly shot down the notion of trading either star hitter earlier this month. That presumably won’t stop teams from calling to gauge whether the Jays are willing to reconsider. Bichette himself told Hazel Mae (X link) that he wouldn’t be surprised if the Jays moved him, though that’d presumably change if the team plays its way back into contention.

Guerrero is amidst arguably the second-best offensive season of his career. He’s hitting .289/.370/.447 across 351 plate appearances. While he hasn’t hit for the same level of power he did in 2021-22, Guerrero has the second-highest average and on-base mark of his career. Bichette hasn’t performed to his usual standard, running a personal-worst .232/.282/.333 slash line over 287 trips. While that’d arguably make this summer an inopportune time to move him, Bichette would surely still draw ample attention if the Jays put him on the market. There aren’t many everyday shortstops who seem likely to be available.

Beyond that duo, the Jays have a handful of controllable players who could generate calls, particularly on the pitching side. Jordan Romano has spent the past month on the injured list with elbow inflammation. He’s a two-time All-Star closer who is under arbitration control through next season, though. Romano recently resumed throwing from 120 feet on flat ground (via the MLB.com injury tracker). Chris Bassitt is making $22MM this season and next. He turned in a 3.60 ERA over 33 starts a year ago and has worked to a 3.45 mark with decent strikeout and walk numbers over 91 1/3 innings. Trading Kevin Gausman, who is under contract through 2026, still seems unlikely unless the front office kicks off a more significant reboot.

If the Jays perform the way they’re hoping over the next month, adding to the bullpen and deepening the lineup would be the likely priorities. The Romano and García injuries — paired with Erik Swanson’s struggles — have contributed to the Jays running out one of the least consistent relief groups in the majors. The bottom half of the lineup hasn’t performed up to expectations either. That’s largely due to underperformance from the likes of Bichette, Turner, Kiermaier and George Springer. The Jays also entered the season with questions at second and third base. They’ve plugged rookie Spencer Horwitz into regular action at the keystone while free agent signee Isiah Kiner-Falefa (who has somewhat quietly impressed with a .283/.333/.402 showing) has gotten the bulk of the third base reps.

MLBTR Podcast: Injured Trade Candidates, The Cristopher Sánchez Extension And Blue Jays’ Woes

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The latest episode of the MLB Trade Rumors Podcast is now live on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and wherever you get your podcasts! Make sure you subscribe as well! You can also use the player at this link to listen, if you don’t use Spotify or Apple for podcasts.

This week, host Darragh McDonald is joined by Steve Adams of MLB Trade Rumors to discuss…

Plus, we answer your questions, including…

  • “What would it take for the Rockies to consider trading some young assets like Ryan McMahon or Brendan Rodgers?” (23:55)
  • “The Astros are clearly out of it, so why isn’t Ryan Pressly a top target of teams with bad bullpens?” (30:35)
  • “Would the Marlins or Nationals trade with the Mets, Phillies or Braves, with Jazz Chisholm Jr. and Lane Thomas being good fits?” (39:25)
  • “Will T.J. McFarland of the Athletics be traded to the Cubs or another contender?” (47:45)

Check out our past episodes!

The podcast intro and outro song “So Long” is provided courtesy of the band Showoff.  Check out their Facebook page here!

Blue Jays Claim Jose Cuas Off Waivers From Cubs

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The Cubs announced this afternoon that right-hander Jose Cuas has been claimed off waivers by the Blue Jays. Cuas was designated for assignment earlier this week in order to make room for righty Ethan Roberts on the club’s 40-man roster. The move puts Toronto’s 40-man roster at capacity.

Cuas, who will celebrate his 30th birthday later this week, made his big league debut with the Royals back in 2022 but was traded to the Cubs in exchange for outfielder Nelson Velazquez at the trade deadline last summer. He was a decent middle reliever for the Royals during his time in Kansas City, pitching to a 4.08 ERA (106 ERA+) with a 4.41 FIP in 79 1/3 innings of work for the club between the 2022 and ’23 campaigns. Unfortunately for both Cuas and the Cubs, the wheels began to come off for the sidearming righty upon his arrival in Chicago last year.

While his 3.04 ERA in 27 appearances for the Cubs down the stretch last summer was actually fairly strong, it came with concerning peripherals. His strikeout rate dipped from a strong 27.1% during his time with the Royals last year to a worrisome 19% in Chicago, while his walk rate simultaneously ballooned from a manageable 10% figure in Kansas City all the way up to 14% for the north siders. While a strong 55.6% groundball rate allowed Cuas to keep the damage to a minimum, he was no longer looking the part of a quality middle relief option.

Things took an even worse turn for Cuas in 2024 when his groundball rate plummeted to just 31%. While his walk rate dropped down to a career-best 9.2% figure, that came at least in part as a result of opposing hitters teeing off Cuas pitches with a 14.3% barrel rate and a 45.2% Hard Hit rate. While Cuas’s strikeout rate crept back up to a more acceptable 21.5% this year, that still wasn’t enough to stop the right-hander from surrendering 12 runs (11 earned) in 13 1/3 innings of work for the Cubs this year, leaving him with a 7.43 ERA and a 5.99 FIP.

Despite those deep struggles during his time in Chicago, it’s not hard to see why the Blue Jays would want to take a chance on the righty. After all, when Cuas’s arsenal is working well, his sinker/slider combo allows him to strike out around a quarter of the batters he faces while keeping walks to a clip of around 10% and eliciting grounders on around half of his batted balls. That’s certainly the profile of a valuable pitcher, even though Cuas has not been able to put it all together at the big league level yet during his career.

Even if he isn’t able to reach that potential, the right-hander still provides the Blue Jays with an optionable relief arm on a minimum salary who can be shuttled from Triple-A to the majors as necessary. That’s a valuable commodity for any bullpen, but especially for a Blue Jays bullpen that has posted a league-worst 4.83 FIP to this point in the 2024 campaign. Should the club turn to Cuas at some point, he’d likely factor into the middle relief mix alongside the likes of Zach Pop and Genesis Cabrera.

Orelvis Martinez Receives 80-Game Suspension Following Positive PED Test

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The MLB commissioner’s office announced this morning that Blue Jays infielder Orelvis Martinez has received an 80-game suspension without pay after testing positive for Clomiphene, a banned performance enhancing substance. The suspension is effective immediately. Martinez has since been placed on the restricted list, and the Blue Jays have selected the contract of outfielder Steward Berroa to replace the infielder on the active and 40-man rosters.

“The Blue Jays fully support Major League Baseball’s Joint Drug Prevention and Treatment Program, and strongly believe in keeping the game on a level playing field,” Blue Jays GM Ross Atkins said in a statement this morning. “We were both surprised and disappointed to hear of Orelvis Martinez’s suspension. We will do everything in our power to ensure Orelvis has learned from this mistake. Orelvis has our support, and we know he will get through this.”

Martinez released a statement of his own via the MLB Players Association:

“For the past two years, I have been trying to start a family with my girlfriend. During the offseason, we visited a fertility clinic in the Dominican Republic and after getting lab work done, we were prescribed a treatment, which included a medication called Rejun 50. Unfortunately, Rejun 50 contains a banned substance called Clomiphene.

We wanted to keep this matter private, even within our family, and trusted the doctor who assured us this treatment did not include performance enhancing drugs. Therefore, I made the mistake of not disclosing this to my team or the MLBPA. With that said, I took full responsibility for my actions and accepted my suspension.

I want to apologize to my teammates in both Buffalo and Toronto, the Blue Jays organization, and most importantly, the fans who have supported me during my career. I will learn from this experience and come back to the field in September.”

The news is a major blow to the Blue Jays, who recalled Martinez for his big league debut just this past week to join the club’s infield mix after shortstop Bo Bichette hit the injured list with a calf strain. Martinez has just one game under his belt in the majors so far, having gone 1-for-3 with a strikeout while playing second base in his big league debut on Friday. While Martinez’s big league career had only just begun, he’s long been considered a consensus top-100 prospect in the sport and was in the midst of an excellent showing at Triple-A this year when he received the call to the majors. In 63 games for the club’s Buffalo affiliate this year, Martinez slashed .260/.343/.523 while playing both second and third base.

Now, Martinez’s big league career is on hold just days after it first began. The earliest he’ll be able to return to play in the big leagues is September 23 against the Red Sox, although given the fact that Martinez would be ineligible to participate in the postseason due to his suspension and that date landing just six games before the end of the regular season, it wouldn’t be a surprise if Martinez did not end up returning to the majors until the 2025 campaign.

Fortunately for the Blue Jays, the club has plenty of options at its disposal to fill out the club’s infield mix while Bichette is injured, even without Martinez. Isiah Kiner-Falefa has stepped into the everyday role at shortstop since Bichette hit the shelf last week, and the club figures to mix and match between Davis Schneider, Ernie Clement, Addison Barger, and Spencer Horwitz at second and third base while Bichette is away. The addition of Berroa to the roster mix should allow Schneider to mix into the infield more frequently than he has in recent weeks, as he’s split time between the keystone and left field to this point in the season.

As for Berroa, the 25-year-old made his pro debut with the Jays back in 2017 and has worked his way through the club’s minor league system since then, ultimately reaching Triple-A late last year. He struggled in that initial cup of coffee but has hit fairly well in 62 games at the highest level of the minors this season with a .295/.380/.451 slash line across 222 trips to the plate. Berroa figures to factor into the club’s outfield mix behind regulars Daulton Varsho, Kevin Kiermaier, and George Springer alongside Schneider.

Jordan Romano Still Dealing With Elbow Soreness

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  • Jordan Romano’s throwing progression has been paused due to some elbow soreness, Blue Jays manager John Schneider told MLB.com’s Henry Palattella (X link) and other media.  Romano was supposed to pitch off a mound today for the first time since being placed on the 15-day IL due to right elbow inflammation back on June 1, but now that plan has been temporarily set aside.  Elbow discomfort has been an issue for Romano for all season, resulting in a pair of IL trips and a rough 6.59 ERA over 13 2/3 innings in between those absences.  Toronto’s bullpen has struggled for much of the season, and is currently without its projected top three relievers.  Romano and Yimi Garcia are injured, and Erik Swanson is currently in Triple-A trying to get on track after posting a 9.22 ERA in his first 13 2/3 innings of 2024.

Blue Jays Release Daniel Vogelbach

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The Blue Jays have released Daniel Vogelbach, according to his transactions log at MLB.com. They will remain on the hook for what’s left of his $2MM salary. Any other club could now sign him and would only have to pay the prorated league minimum for any time spent on the roster, with that amount subtracted from what the Jays pay.

A release was the likely outcome after Vogelbach was designated for assignment last week. Any club claiming him off waivers or acquiring him in a trade would have had to take on the remainder of his salary. He has hit just .186/.278/.300 in his 79 plate appearances this year, making him fairly unappealing at that price point. As a player with more than five years of service time, he can reject an outright assignment to the minors while retaining that money, so he was effectively bound for the open market.

But now that he can be signed for cheap, teams will likely have interest. Vogelbach is a limited player as he’s one of the slowest in the league and has essentially no defensive value. He played five innings at first base in 2022 and none since. But his work at the plate is intriguing enough that he has continually found opportunities.

Since his 2016 debut with the Mariners, he has also suited up for the Blue Jays, Brewers, Pirates and Mets. Those clubs were surely attracted to the fact that Vogelbach has a keen eye at the plate, drawing walks at a 15.1% rate in his career. He also has notable power, with 81 home runs in 1,957 plate appearances. His career batting line currently sits at .219/.340/.405 for a wRC+ of 108.

When Vogelbach is reduced to a strong-side platoon guy, the numbers are even more impressive. He has a career line of .128/.246/.214 against southpaws but has hit .237/.358/.445 the rest of the time. That latter line leads to a 123 wRC+, indicating he’s been 23% above average when facing righties.

He hasn’t been in good form this year but another club could sign him and hope to catch lightning in a bottle at a low price. The Nationals have a 63 wRC+ out of their designated hitter spot this year, while clubs like the Rays, Reds, Rangers, Royals and Cardinals are in playoff contention with each having a wRC+ below 90 from their designated hitter slot.

Blue Jays Place Bo Bichette On Injured List, Recall Orelvis Martinez

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The Blue Jays announced a series of roster moves today, with shortstop Bo Bichette placed on the 10-day injured list with a right calf strain, retroactive to June 15. Infielder Orelvis Martinez was recalled and will be making his major league debut as soon as he gets into a game. They also made a bullpen swap, with left-hander Brandon Eisert optioned as right-hander Ryan Burr was recalled.

Bichette hasn’t played since Friday due to this calf issue. The Jays didn’t place him on the IL right away as they monitored the development of the injury, but it seems it didn’t heal up as hoped and the determination was made to place him on the shelf. Since the move is backdated, he could be back in as soon as a week’s time if he feels better. Manager John Schneider says that is indeed the hope, per Shi Davidi of Sportsnet on X.

It’s been a rough season overall for Bichette, who is hitting just .237/.286/.342 on the year, a far cry from the .299/.340/.487 line he carried into the season. It’s possible that some of that is batted ball luck, as he had a .349 batting average on balls in play coming into the year but has a .271 BABIP in 2024, but he also has just four home runs this season and a 4.7% barrel rate that’s roughly half of the 9.2% rate he has for his entire career.

He may have been turning things around after a really rough start, as he slashed .280/.321/.410 in the month of May for a 108 wRC+. His numbers in June ticked down again, though it’s possible that the calf had started nagging at him before it actually took him out of the lineup. Regardless, he’ll have at least a week to rest up and take a breather.

His injury will allow Martinez to come up to the majors for the first time. Now 22 years old, he was a fairly high-profile international signing out of the Dominican Republic, securing a bonus of $3.51MM from the Jays in 2018. As he has climbed the minor league ladder, he has made good on that strong bonus by becoming a top 100 prospect, with his home run power standing out as his most exciting tool.

In 2021, he got into 98 games between Single-A and High-A, hitting 28 home runs in that time. He was promoted to Double-A in 2022 and there was a bit of concern with his early results there. He struck out at a 28.5% clip and slashed just .203/.286/.446 that year. But the Jays still didn’t want him exposed in that year’s Rule 5 draft and added him to their 40-man roster.

He returned to Double-A to start 2023 and the results were much better. He cut his strikeout rate to 20.5% and also drew walks at a huge 14% clip. He hit 17 home runs in 70 games and slashed .226/.339/.485 for a wRC+ of 122. He was promoted to Triple-A in July of last year and now has 118 games for the Bisons under his belt with 27 home runs. His 25.4% strikeout rate in that time is a bit high but he’s also drawn walks at a 9.7% clip.

There is some slight platoon concern, as Martinez has hit .321/.406/.661 against lefties this year but just .240/.324/.480 the rest of the time, but he’s also still quite young and has shown an ability to adjust when challenged.

Defense is also a bit of question mark for Martinez. He spent a lot of time at shortstop in previous seasons but hasn’t played there in 2024, mostly lining up at second base with a bit of time at third base also mixed in. Despite the flaws, Martinez has enough upside at the plate that he’s considered one of the top prospects in the league. Baseball America currently lists him #54 overall, FanGraphs #71 and MLB Pipeline #68. Coming into the season, Keith Law of The Athletic put him in the #57 spot, though Kiley McDaniel of ESPN didn’t have Martinez on his list.

Since Martinez hasn’t been playing shortstop this year, he won’t be a direct replacement for Bichette. Isiah Kiner-Falefa has been holding down that spot with Bichette out of action in recent days and will likely continue in that role, with Ernie Clement and Addison Barger capable of chipping in as well.

Martinez will be in the mix for some playing time at second and third alongside Clement, Barger, Davis Schneider and Spencer Horwitz. The club has also experimented with Vladimir Guerrero Jr. getting some time at third and he could be in the mix there as well.

The Jays have been struggling to find offense this year and recently cut both Daniel Vogelbach and Cavan Biggio from the roster, calling up Horwitz and Barger in an attempt to find some extra runs. The recall of Martinez was more motivated by Bichette’s injury but could perhaps help in that regard as well, though it’s possible it’s just a brief stay on the roster if Bichette is indeed back quickly.

The Jays are currently sporting a record of 35-37, not completely buried in the standings but they’re five games back of a playoff spot at the moment. They are reportedly going to wait until after the All-Star break to decide on how they approach the July 30 deadline.

If the recent roster shakeup can help them climb in the standings, then perhaps they can avoid a summer selloff. If not, the rumors on players nearing free agency will grow louder. That’s particularly true of Guerrero and Bichette, who are each set to hit the open market after 2025. Though with Bichette struggling this year and now injured as well, the Jays may have concerns about selling low, compounded by the public relations hit of selling a player who has been such a key part of the franchise for years. That will make the coming weeks very interesting for the club and Bichette, with the trade deadline on July 30, six weeks from today.

Blue Jays, James Kaprielian Agree To Minor League Deal

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The Blue Jays have agreed to a minor league contract with free-agent righty James Kaprielian, per the team’s transaction log at MLB.com. He’s been assigned to Triple-A Buffalo.

Once one of the top pitching prospects in the Yankees organization, Kaprielian was traded from New York to Oakland in the 2017 deadline deal that shipped Sonny Gray to the Bronx. The former No. 16 overall draft pick spent the next six and a half years in the A’s organization, making his big league debut in the shortened 2020 season. He’d appear in four straight seasons with the A’s but do so intermittently while battling a slate of shoulder injuries that necessitated a pair of surgeries.

For Kaprielian, injuries have been all too common. The former UCLA standout required Tommy John surgery early in the 2017 season and wound up missing the entire 2018 campaign as well. During his time with the A’s, he underwent surgery in Dec. 2022 to repair the AC joint in his right shoulder and again to repair damage to his right shoulder’s labrum in Aug. 2023. Kaprielian missed time in each of the 2021, 2022 and 2023 seasons due to shoulder troubles.

In 2021, Kaprielian offered a glimpse of what he could provide in a healthy season. He appeared in 24 games for Oakland (21 of them starts) and pitched to a 4.07 earned run average over the life of 119 1/3 innings. He fanned a strong 24.5% of his opponents against a similarly encouraging 8.2% walk rate. Home runs were an issue for the 6’3″, 225-pound righty (1.43 HR/9), but he offered an intriguing strikeout-to-walk profile, sat 93.3 mph with his heater and recorded a promising 10.9% swinging-strike rate.

The 2022 season was a bit of a step back in terms of results but a step forward in terms of both workload and velocity. Kaprielian tossed 134 innings — his career-high in a big league season — and turned in a 4.23 ERA while seeing his average fastball tick up to 94 mph. His 17% strikeout rate and 10.2% walk rate both represented steps in the wrong direction, but Kaprielian also trimmed that HR/9 mark to 1.07. Overall, he looked like a solid fourth starter from 2021-22 with the A’s: 253 1/3 innings, 4.16 ERA, 20.5% strikeout rate, 9.3% walk rate, 36.5% grounder rate, 1.24 HR/9.

Kaprielian, however, never seemed to bounce back from that surgery to tend to his AC joint in the 2022-23 offseason. He was shelled for 45 runs in 61 innings (6.34 ERA) that season. His fastball dropped to a 92.5 mph average. He walked a career-worst 11.1% of hitters. The A’s passed him through outright waivers in October, and he qualified for minor league free agency following the season.

Now nearly 11 months removed from last August’s shoulder surgery, Kaprielian will head to the Blue Jays’ Triple-A affiliate and provide some needed rotation depth. The Jays recently lost Alek Manoah to season-ending UCL surgery, and their rotation depth was already thin in the first place. They’re lacking an established option behind the quartet of Kevin Gausman, Jose Berrios, Chris Bassitt and Yusei Kikuchi, with rookie Yariel Rodriguez likely to step into the fray once he’s cleared to return from a back injury (likely later this week). Twenty-eight-year-old Bowden Francis has been hit hard in eight appearances (three starts). Top prospect Ricky Tiedemann has spent most of the season on the injured list and only just went on a Rookie-level rehab assignment.

If Kaprielian can prove healthy and look anything like his 2021-22 form, he’ll emerge as a legitimate option for the Jays in the season’s second half. And given that he entered the season with just 2.167 years of big league service time, there’s potential for him to be controlled for three more years beyond the current season. Obviously there’s a long way to go before that’s even an option worth pondering, but the generally thin nature of Toronto’s rotation depth makes it a more distinct possibility than if he’d signed with a more pitching-rich organization.

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