The Blue Jays are planning to designate Rafael Dolis for assignment

Here’s the move that was pretty much expected after last night’s meltdown.

The Blue Jays are reportedly planning to designate Rafael Dolis for assignment in order to make room for Kevin Smith on the 40-man and active roster. Also, Alek Manoah appears to be heading to the Bereavement List while Tim Mayza returns from the 10-day Injured List.

My immediate thought when word came out that Smith was coming up on Tuesday night was oh fuck, George Springer is going to the 60-day Injured List. As we learned earlier today, Springer is only dealing with a Grade 1 sprain, so that isn’t the case. Instead, it’s the end of the line for Dolis.

It’s an unfortunate end for a pitcher who was quite effective for the Blue Jays in 2020 and appeared to be a legitimate arm moving forward. Dolis tossed 24 innings for the team last season and put up a 1.50 ERA, though, to be honest, the eye test suggested it might have been a bit of a fluke, as many of those outings featured some big-time tightrope walking.

The wheels totally fell off for Dolis in 2021. In 32 innings over 39 outings, Dolis posted a 5.63 ERA and was walking 7.6 batters-per-nine. He had a few good outings in early August right after coming off the Injured List, which led some reason to believe that he was back on track, but Dolis killed that sentiment with back-to-back-to-back horrendous outings during the team’s road trip.

On Saturday in Seattle, Dolis came into a 6-3 game in Seattle and allowed a double, two walks, a single, and another double without recording an out. On Tuesday in Washington, Dolis came into the game after the Blue Jays rallied to bring the score to 8-6, and then proceeded to allow two runs, one earned, while recording two outs.

The Blue Jays have quite a roster crunch and Dolis has proved he can’t be effective, so it isn’t all too surprising to see the Blue Jays let go. I wouldn’t be shocked if somebody else took a flyer on him on the waiver wire given the season he had last year, though.