The Blue Jays have acquired Lefty Robbie Ray from the Diamondbacks, tweets Rob Longley of the Toronto Sun.. The D’Backs are given a south paw Travis Mountains in return after Shi Davidi from Sportsnet. Approx. Arizona is also reportedly sending over $ 300,000 in cash Nick Piecoro from the Republic of Arizona. Ray has roughly $ 1.42 million left on his contract this year.
Ray, October 29, spent most of his career for Arizona after they took him on in a three-team business in December 2014. He has long been one of the game’s top strikeout pitchers, with an 11.9K / 9 mark that ranks third in the MLB for qualified starters from 2016-19. Never known for his control, walks have become problematic for Ray at times. The problem has been especially dire this short 2020 season as Ray has issued free tickets to more than a fifth of the batters he faces, by far the highest rate in MLB this year. Ray will be eligible for a vacant agency after the season, and given his performance this year, it’s unlikely the Diamondbacks would have been ready to make a qualifying offer.
The 18-14 Blue Jays are currently qualifying for the playoffs for the first time since 2016. Ray is the second addition to Toronto’s rotation in five days, added Ross Atkins, executive vice president, baseball operations & general manager Taijuan Walker from the Mariners last Thursday. Atkins has put together a veteran group that includes off-season pickups Hyun-Jin Ryu, Tanner Roark, and Chase Anderson. Matt Shoemaker went last week due to a lat load while over prospect Nate Pearson went under on August 19th due to a flexion disorder. The couple hope to be back this year Trent Thornton is out due to an elbow injury. The club is hoping for pitching coaches Pete Walker can diagnose Rays’ control problems and help him get back on his feet in the final month of the season.
Today is the third time in Ray’s career that he has received that life-changing phone call from his GM informing him of a deal. After being drafted by the Nationals in Round 12 in 2010, Ray was at the heart of the deal that was aired Doug Fister From the Tigers to the Nats in 2013. Just a year later, Ray ended up in a deal with the Diamondbacks that sent Gregory learned to the Yankees and Shane Greene to the tigers. Ray turned into a good pitcher for the D’Backs, putting together four separate seasons of at least 2.3 WAR, and earning an All-Star nod and seventh place Cy Young Ray was a regular on the rumor mill for the 2018-19 off-season, but the executive vice president and general manager didn’t pull the trigger to this day as most of the left’s commercial value was lost.
The 27-year-old Bergen was drafted from the state of Kennesaw by the Jays in the seventh round in October 2015 and was mainly used for relief in his professional career. Despite picking up on Bergen in draft rule 5 for 2018, the Giants named him for deployment and returned last August after returning from an IL stint with a shoulder injury. His fastball hit 93.7 mph for the Jays that year, more than three miles an hour when he’d shown in his rookie campaign. With all due respect to mountains, however, this deal seems to be mostly about salary cuts from Arizona’s point of view.
