Blue Jays Thin the Herd: Cut Five Pitchers

Jay Blue
Scott Copeland
Scott Copeland

The cuts from major league camp are coming quickly as the Jays try to get their big league camp down to a more manageable size with a few more weeks left in Grapefruit League action. We’ve already had five cuts and today there were five more and all of them were relief pitchers.

 

 

Thanks to Brendan Kennedy at the Toronto Star who tweeted out this gem:

 

 

Additionally, Gregor Chisholm posted this article at mlb.com where he noted that Scott Copeland and Greg Burke were also sent back to minor league camp.

 

Copeland heads back to minor league camp with three scoreless innings with just one hit and one walk against, striking out one. He’ll probably be in the Buffalo starting rotation in 2015 and needs to get stretched out to start.

 

Burke, 31, got into two games and picked up a win, only allowing one hit in two innings without walking anyone or striking anyone out.

 

West is still new to pitching and wasn’t tabbed for the big league bullpen. He threw 2 1/3 innings and allowed a run on two hits (including a home run) but didn’t walk anyone and struck out three.

 

Infante was gotten to for five hits in his 2 1/3 innings but he didn’t give up a run and, more importantly, didn’t walk anyone. He’s had control issues over the course of his career but could be seen with the Jays thanks to his high-90s fastball.

 

Finally, Guilmet threw three innings with one earned run allowed (two runs total) on three hits and a walk with two strikeouts.

 

For Guilmet and West, it’s their last option year that the Blue Jays have activated but Copeland, Infante and Burke are all on minor league contracts and don’t have to be optioned, they’re just reassigned.

 

While it’s interesting to see that Roberto Osuna and Miguel Castro are still with the major league club (and both have pitched exceptionally well), it is not an indication that they’re going to make the Opening Day roster. Remember that both Marcus Stroman and Aaron Sanchez were outstanding last year in spring training and Sanchez was particularly impressive in an appearance in Montreal with a big crowd in the audience. But remember: neither of them made the big league club for Opening Day. Sanchez was the Opening Day starter in Double-A New Hampshire and Stroman did the same for the Buffalo Bisons.

 

As I’ve tweeted, I think Castro has a better chance of making the club overall but I’ll talk about that more in a post that you can read tomorrow as I’m traveling down to Dunedin to catch some action for myself.

 

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