The Franklin Morales era in Toronto comes to an end as the lefty won’t travel with the team to Houston

Can you even really call it an era if he only tossed 4.0 innings with the team? Regardless, according to Barry Davis on Twitter, Franklin Morales will not be with the club as they travel to Houston to open up a four-game series on Monday. 

Morales’ time with the Jays was, uhhhh, pretty forgettable to say the least. Toronto signed the veteran lefty, who had been quite effective in Kansas City’s World Series winning bullpen last year, towards the end of Spring Training (April 2, to be exact), and despite only actually pitching 4.0 innings with the Milwaukee Brewers, he broke camp and landed a spot on the big league roster when the Jays flew north. 

After making just two appearances, both in which he faced one batter and got them out, Morales was put on the 15-day disabled list with right shoulder fatigue, but then, two months later, he was moved to the 60-day DL with the same injury. At this point, I’m pretty sure just about everybody had forgotten about him, save for the front office who handed him a guaranteed $2 million paycheque. 

He finally rejoined the team on July 22 after spending nearly three months in purgatory. Though his results were adequate, up until today, of course, it was very clear that Morales was going to have a difficult time, as his velocity had dipped from the mid-90s he had been chucking throughout his career all the way down into the high 80s. 

Well, that’s that. I never really understood the logic behind the Morales signing, especially considering he wasn’t exactly inexpensive, and while the Jays aren’t exactly loaded with excellent lefty options out of the pen, you’d think they would be a little bit more careful when tossing $2 million around. I mean, they aren’t a poor team by any stretch of the imagination, but still. 

That answers pretty much any questions that anybody might have had about who was going to go if/when the Jays manage to add a new pitcher at the trade deadline on Monday. If I had to venture a guess, I would assume that’s the reason for this move, and that Shapiro and Atkins are confident they can add somebody better to the bullpen than Franklin Morales in the immediate future. 

That could either be a starter, which would more than likely push Aaron Sanchez and his arbitrary innings limit back into the bullpen, or a reliever. We won’t know until tomorrow. 

Even if they don’t add anybody via trade, honestly, I’m pretty sure that Aaron Loup, Pat Venditte, or a lesser known name like 26-year-old Danny Barnes who has a microscopic 0.54 earned run average with Triple-A Buffalo in 16 2/3 innings this season. 

We shall see! But until then, goodbye, Franklin. I’ll try to remember your 3 2/3 decent, scoreless innings rather than the debacle today against the Orioles.