Mike Bolsinger Up, Neil Ramirez DFA
6 years ago
I wrote a post about Neil Ramirez last week which today is somehow even more useless than it was then. Ramirez has been Designated For Assignment by the Jays, clearing a space on the active roster, and the 40-man, for Mike Bolsinger.
As far as deck chairs on the Titanic go, these ones sure look like they’ve been nicely rearranged.
Ramirez didn’t throw a single pitch for the Jays. Maybe he’ll get a chance to if he slips through waivers and can be stashed in Buffalo, but I wouldn’t hold my breath. When a team has a chance to claim a guy who couldn’t hack it in the 2017 San Francisco Giants bullpen, they’ve gotta take it! Y’know?
Anyway, Bolsinger — who definitely didn’t DM our pal Cam to correct a piece he’d written about him this spring — starts tonight. And speaking of Cam, I’m just going to quote what he wrote about Bolsinger in his series preview yesterday:
Mike Bolsinger will make his first start as a Blue Jay on Tuesday in what would have been Mat Latos’ spot. Bolsinger was acquired from the Blue Jays last summer in a deal for Jesse Chavez, and was expected to crack the team as a long reliever out of camp, but didn’t, cleared waivers, and has been pitching in Triple-A Buffalo all season. He’s made two starts and two appearances in relief, posting a 1.46 earned run average over 12 1/3 innings. Last year in the majors with the Dodgers, Bolsinger had a 6.83 ERA over 27 2/3 innings. Let’s hope this experiment goes better than the Latos one did. Though, if the Jays can get two good starts out of Bolsinger like they did Latos, I wouldn’t complain.
True that.
And there’s even some reason to hope on Bolsinger taking the ball and running with it a little bit. Last year’s ERA in the big leagues may have been ugly, but it was driven by home run troubles that haven’t followed him into 2017 as yet. He allowed seven dongs in those 27.2 big league innings last year, and four more in 25.1 innings with the Bisons, but none so far this season, and only one in Spring Training. The strikeout numbers are tasty, and the walks probably won’t kill you. Really, as long as he can keep the ball in the ballpark he’s got a chance to do well, I think.
Consider 2015, for example. Shit, his walk rate (3.7 per nine innings) was a little too high, and yet he posted 1.1 WAR over 21 starts for the Dodgers, striking out 98 in 109 innings, and allowing less than a home run per nine innings. Granted, he was pitching in a bigger home park then, but still: that will absolutely do.
Bolsinger looked pretty good at times this spring, too. At least all the way up until the Jays’ eve-of-the-season series against Pittsburgh in Montréal. (He looked better in my memory than
Regardless, “I sure as hell would take this over another look at the empty husk of Mat Latos,” he said, damning Mike Bolsinger with the faintest of praise. But still! Seriously! It feels like the Jays are too often on the wrong end of a minor league spot starter somehow not getting his ass handed to him — why shouldn’t it work in our favour once in a while? Maybe this is the time!
Which is, of course, to say: GET WELL SOON SANCHY, HAPP, TULO, JD, RUSS, and HOLY SHIT ARE THERE MORE NAMES ON THE DL BEYOND EVEN THAT???? THIS NIGHTMARE SEASON!
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