Ngoepe Way! Jays Get the Gift of Infield Depth And Make A Series Of Moves As 40-Man Deadline Passes

Apologies for not getting to this sooner, but I was all but useless on Monday with a migraine — and what a day to be all but useless, as the Jays actually did something! By the end of Monday the club had added five prospects to their 40-man roster, in order to ensure that they’re not eligible for selection by another club in the upcoming Rule 5 draft, and picked up in trade MLB’s first ever African player, Gift Ngoepe, who hails from Pietersberg, South Africa, and made his debut last year for Pittsburgh.

Ngoepe is a great story — Geoffrey York of the Globe and Mail wrote a great feature about his big league journey and the reaction in South Africa last April, when he made his big league debut — but not a whole lot else. He can play defence at second, short, and third, but hitting? It’s a problem. His on-base percentage in 793 plate appearances as a Triple-A player is .295, and in over 1,000 PA in Double-A it’s just .314. He struck out in 41.3% of his 63 plate appearances in the big leagues last year. It’s some pretty thoroughly unimpressive stuff! But as cheap minor league cover for Ryan Goins — or even as a cheap replacement for the backup infielder projected to make $1.8 million through arbitration this year, and whose career slash line of .228/.275/.335 in the big leagues doesn’t exactly set the world on fire — he makes some sense. Plus, Ngoepe still has an option year left (he was added to Pittsburgh’s 40-man following the 2015 season, meaning he’s only been optioned in 2016 and 2017), which is something that Goins does not.

I guess we’ll see how that all goes this spring, most likely.

Meanwhile, the Jays on Monday somewhat surprisingly outrighted depth starter Chris Rowley, who made three starts for the big club this season. Two of those were actually decent-ish, though ultimately Rowley ended up walking too many, striking out too few, and being too prone to the long ball, as reflected by his 6.75 ERA over 18.2 innings, and his 6.37 FIP. He had a very nice season in the minors, and could make the Jays look a bit foolish here, but… well… that’s doubtful.

Also cut loose by the club was Harold Ramirez, who was one of the prospects “shrewdly” acquired in the Francisco Liriano-Drew Hutchison trade of 2016. Meh, you win some, you lose some, you have a whole bunch of outfield depth ahead of some.

The players who took their 40-man spots, and the other vacant ones, are catcher Danny Jansen, first baseman Rowdy Tellez, right-hander Conner Greene, left-hander Thomas Pannone, and catcher Reese McGuire. None of those names is especially surprising, though Tellez probably comes closest to it, after a season in which some of his doubters in the scouting community looked to have been proven right. But he’s still very much on the cusp of the big leagues, and a guy a team might have tried to find a bench spot for, just to see if he becomes anything.

Perhaps surprisingly left off the 40-man was Max Pentecost, the catcher, and former first round pick, who has struggled to stay healthy. Pentecost has shown something with his bat the last two seasons, but he’s barely been able to catch, has only reached High-A, and struggled this season in the Arizona Fall League, where he has struck out 17 times in 41 plate appearances, slashing .195/.267/.293. He just doesn’t seem like he’s going to be ready for a big league gig, and the Blue Jays are banking on that as the reason other teams will be scared out of selected him in the Rule 5.

There are some other interesting names left off the 40-man — Matt W of Bluebird Banter singled out Jordan Romano, Patrick Murphy, and Justin Shafer in a piece last week — though nobody whose loss from the organization would be especially devastating, I don’t think. And, now that that’s all settled, let’s let the real moves begin already! AMIRIGHT?!!