Ryan Tepera to be activated in September

In a season where the bullpen has been going through evolving changes often, a steady force in Ryan Tepera has been mainly left out due to an injury suffer earlier this season.

Tepera was placed on the 60-day Injured List with an elbow problem and had surgery in late-May to fix it. Ever since then, he’s been slowly rehabbing and progressing towards eventually re-joining the team for the last few weeks remaining in the 2019 season.

He was out for the first couple weeks of the season and quickly return mid-April, but lasted only a month until his elbow injury occurred and put him out until now. In those short 11 innings so far this year, Tepera has pitched for 8 earned runs, 12  hits allowed, 6 walks and 9 strikeouts.

In 7 innings of rehab through High-A Dunedin up to Triple-A Buffalo, Tepera has carried a 2.57 ERA with 3 walks and 6 strikeouts.

After two back-to-back seasons with at least one win to his name, the 31-year-old is entering into his first arb-eligible winter. His arm has previously been valuable and if he’s able to put in several solid relief appearances in September, he could stay in the 2020 bullpen for what should be an interesting year for Toronto.

The entire pitching staff has gone through an overhaul. With the recognizable names gone, some young pitchers have somewhat stepped up but there is already talk for who will stay involved for next season after a winter that could see the Blue Jays spending on a couple steady starters.

A couple more pitchers might be added to the roster when September rolls around. Both Anthony Kay and T.J. Zeuch need to be added to the 40-man roster this offseason, so they might as well finish out the year with some big-league appearances and a preview for some potential rotation spots next year.