Rowdy Tellez is on the Blue Jays’ wild-card series roster, Jordan Romano and Julian Merryweather are not
By Cam Lewis
3 years agoThe Blue Jays and Bay Rays will kick off their wild-card series today, and the team has released the 28-man roster that will be active in Tampa Bay.
Some interesting notes…
- Rowdy Tellez, who missed the last few weeks of the season due to a knee injury, is on the roster. He wasn’t able to make it into a game for a tune-up, but it seems the Jays believe he’s healthy enough to contribute. Maybe he’ll be used as the designated hitter or maybe he’ll be used in pinch-hitting situations. Regardless, that’s a great addition to the team’s lineup.
- While Rowdy made it back without a regular-season tune-up, a couple of key pitchers, Jordan Romano and Julian Merryweather, did not. There hasn’t really any word on Merryweather, who’s dealing with an elbow issue, so his omission isn’t surprising. But there had been talk that Romano could return even though he didn’t make an appearance in the final weekend of play against Baltimore. That isn’t the case, unfortunately. It’s a bit easier to plop a rusty position player like Rowdy into the fray than it is bringing back a pitcher like Romano after missing a month of action.
- The Jays are opting to roll with three catchers, as Reese McGuire has been added as the team’s extra backstop. This would indicate that they’re considering using Alejandro Kirk as a designated hitter and McGuire is there to come in and cover for Danny Jansen behind the plate in the event of an injury. They can also pinch-hit for Jansen late in a game, keep Kirk as the DH, and use McGuire as the catcher replacement. Lots of options.
- Some other names left off the roster are Tanner Roark, Shun Yamaguchi, T.J. Zeuch, and Patrick Murphy. Roark and Yamaguchi aren’t a surprise at all as neither have pitched effectively as of late and Ross Stripling and Chase Anderson and serve as long guys. Zeuch and Murphy have pitched well since being called up, but, again, Stripling and Anderson have the experience Zeuch doesn’t in an inning-eating situation, while Murphy likely got edged out by Anthony Kay as the team opted to add another lefty to the mix.
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