The Blue Jays were incredibly gracious hosts this weekend. Not only did they let a rag-tag Athletics team filled with random players nobody’s ever heard of roll into Rogers Centre and absolutely embarrass them in a four-game sweep, but they let Oakland take a player home with them too as a souvenir.

I remember it was just a few months ago that we were talking about how Carlos Ramirez was one of the few bright spots of the 2017 season. Well, so much for that! The Jays designated the righty for assignment earlier in the week and now he’s a member of the Athletics.

Ramirez, originally signed in 2009 out of the Dominican Republic as an outfielder, became a pitcher for the Blue Jays organization in 2013. In 2017, he had an absurd season in Double- and Triple-A in which he didn’t allow a single run over 37 2/3 innings. As a September call-up, he put together a 2.70 ERA over 16 2/3 innings while striking out 7.6 batters per nine.

This was very odd to me given the fact it seemed like Ramirez, a cheap, controllable fireballer, had a future with the team in the bullpen. Does somebody on the 40-man roster like Jack Petricka or Deck McGuire really have more value to the organization than Ramirez moving forward? I guess so!