Clayton Richard turned 36 years old today. His gift from the Blue Jays? A paid vacation.

The Blue Jays, just shortly after wishing Richard a happy birthday on Instagram, reported that the veteran lefty had been released in order to clear room on the 40-man roster for Elvis Luciano.

I mean, it makes sense. The Jays need to get Luciano back on the team so he can fulfill his 90 days on the active roster in order to not return the Rule 5 pick-up back to the Kansas City Royals. It’s just, uh, unfortunate the birthday boy was the odd-man-out.

As Shi Davidi/Hazel Mae report, Luciano needs to be on the active roster for 18 more days. There are, coincidentally, 18 days left in the season. So, no, unfortunately, the Jays couldn’t have waited until the day after Richard’s birthday to give him the axe.

Hopefully they baked him a nice cake.