The Blue Jays announced Monday night that they had tendered contracts to all of the players on their 40-man roster except for pitchers Derek Law and Jason Adam and backup catcher Luke Maile. This gives the Blue Jays a few rosters spots to play with as they approach the winter meetings and also gives them some payroll “flexibility” by removing a few million dollars from the books.
This means that the Blue Jays will either look for a cheaper backup catcher to stash in the minors in case one of the tandem of Reese McGuire and Danny Jansen struggles, or they could, conceivably, bring Maile back either on a smaller contract than the $800,000 he was expected to earn or on a minor league deal with an invite to big league spring training.
I was under the impression that the Jays would bring Law back, seeing as he was effective in portions of the year, but with his ERA creeping towards 5.00, and his walk rate at 14.0%, I think the Blue Jays think they can do better, especially considering that they avoided arbitration with Anthony Bass, whom they claimed on waivers from Seattle.
The Blue Jays also didn’t tender a contract to Jason Adam, who wasn’t arbitration eligible but still needed to be tendered a contract under rule 55(f), which you can read more about here. Adam was injured through much of the 2019 season and combined for 35 2/3 innings between Toronto and Buffalo. Adam was an interesting guy to let go because he throws hard (averaging 94.5 mph in Toronto in 2019) but, like with Law, the Blue Jays probably thought they could find other arms to fill a similar role.
Anthony Bass came to an agreement with the Blue Jays for a one-year deal worth $1.5 million, according to Bob Nightengale. It’s not a lot of money but it gives the Jays another reliever with upside under contract.
Brandon Drury, who was on the bubble and estimated to make $2.5 million in arbitration, was tendered a contract which means that the Blue Jays are intending to bring him back, at least to spring training after a .218/.262/.380 season in 2019.
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