The Blue Jays have acquired Robbie Ray

The Blue Jays have made another addition to their pitching staff.

A few days after acquiring Taijuan Walker from the Seattle Mariners, the Jays have added lefty Robert Ray from the Arizona Diamondbacks. Heading back to Arizona will be Travis Bergen and Toronto will also receive some cash in the deal.

Ray has had, uh, a rough season to say the least. Through seven starts, he’s posted a 7.84 ERA due largely to totally losing control of his pitches. Ray is walking 9.0 batters per nine and 2.6 homers per nine (which, for reference, is more than Tanner Roark). His 12.5 strikeouts per nine is something positive, though.

Back in 2017, Ray enjoyed a breakout season and earned himself a nod to the National League All-Star team. His 2018 and 2019 seasons were somewhat injury-riddled, but Ray still managed to produce a solid 4.17 ERA across 298 innings those two seasons.

This obviously isn’t the top-of-the-rotation Mike Clevenger or Lance Lynn addition we might have been looking for, but Ray has great stuff and is worth a risk as a bounce-back candidate. They didn’t give up much in return, either, so that’s a plus.

To me, it seems like this deal is about adding starting depth with some upside and hoping it works out. Basically, the difference between Ray and Bergen is that the former is stretched out and can start and the latter is, at most, a two-inning guy.

We’ll likely see Ray start until Matt Shoemaker and Nate Pearson return from injury, and then we could be shifted to be a lefty out of the ‘pen. A handful of various young Blue Jays’ starters have been very effective as relievers this year, so maybe that’ll be the case for Ray, too.

Back in 2016, this front office acquired Francisco Liriano, who was having a horrendous year in Pittsburgh, and he turned things around and was really, really good for the team down the stretch. Let’s hope this works out the same way.