Wow. Well, the Blue Jays pitching has just imploded enough to make Marcus Stroman the next guy to come up from Buffalo.
Twitter is abuzz with word that Brandon Morrow is being moved to the 60-day DL with a torn tendon sheath and the Blue Jays have announced that they’re selecting the contract of Marcus Stroman. This follows on the heels of Morrow being put on the 15-day DL earlier today and the Blue Jays calling up Chad Jenkins (he could be recalled from Buffalo within the 10-day window of being sent down because he was replacing someone who was injured). This also follows from the announcement that Jenkins was sent down and Erik Kratz was being called up which followed the Chris Getz for Moises Sierra move. Whew. Are we all caught up yet?
From the buzz on Twitter (some of it I missed because of issues with my hotel room in Lansing), it appears that the Blue Jays are going to put Stroman in the bullpen for the time being. While I’m not completely against this idea, I think that if a starter is going down (Morrow), why not put Stroman in the rotation. Once again, the personnel decisions that this team is making are quite confounding (and somewhat maddening). I’m almost getting to the point that I’m giving up trying to explain or rationalize anything that the big league club has done in the past little while. Maybe that the Blue Jays’ management’s goal: get the fans so confused that anything they do will be accepted with a shrug of the shoulders and a collective “oh well.”
The Blue Jays haven’t announced who they’re going to take off the 25-man roster to make room for Stroman. I mean, the only one with options who isn’t really considered untouchable is Chad Jenkins. So it’ll be either him or someone who’s out of options or something unexpected (like Loup or Delabar going down). At this point (and with the brutality that has been the Blue Jays’ pitching) I almost think that a house cleaning is in order. Redmond didn’t get the job done. Loup didn’t get the job done. Santos was the goat last night. It just seems like there isn’t anyone that the Blue Jays can rely on in the bullpen and it may be worthwhile to just try to get some new blood in there. If Stroman can shore up the bullpen for a little bit, I don’t mind him being there one bit.
Can he step in and close until Casey Janssen returns? Probably, although it’s a lot to ask a rookie. Would he be more valuable in the rotation? Probably, but I don’t mind the idea of a young pitcher cutting his teeth in the big leagues in the bullpen.
I’m excited that Stroman is coming up but I’m also pretty depressed about the team’s whole pitching situation. I guess it’s good that I’m here in Lansing and just saw a really good pitching performance from Jeremy Gabryszwski. Enough of my rambling for the night.
UPDATE: It’s been announced that Anthony Gose will be optioned back to Buffalo to make room for Marcus Stroman. In other news, Stroman was named to Baseball America writer Matt Eddy’s All-Prospect team.
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