At this time: The Blue Jays formally introduced Turnbull’s one-year main league contract on Monday and optioned the veteran pitcher to the Florida Complicated League to permit him time to construct up his arm. To make room for Turnbull and fellow free agent signing José Ureña on the 40-man roster, the Blue Jays transferred Max Scherzer and Erik Swanson to the 60-day injured checklist. This pushes again Scherzer’s and Swanson’s return timelines to late Could on the earliest.
Jon Heyman of The New York Publish offers the financials of the Turnbull deal. It’s technically a wage of $1,265,306 however prorated to a fair $1MM due among the season having already transpired. The righty may unlock bonuses value $500K primarily based on innings pitched, $100K every at 50, 60, 70, 80 and 90. He will even get $125K for spending 60 days on the energetic roster, $250K for 80 and 100 days, and $375K for 120 days.
Could 3: The Blue Jays and Spencer Turnbull have agreed to a serious league contract, as reported by Sportsnet’s Ben Nicholson-Smith and Shi Davidi. The best-hander went unsigned over the offseason after spending the 2024 marketing campaign with the Phillies. His deal is pending a bodily. Additional particulars, together with monetary phrases, haven’t but been revealed.
Turnbull, 32, received off to a terrific begin final season after signing a one-year, $2MM contract with Philadelphia. Via six April begins filling in for an injured Taijuan Walker, he pitched to a 1.67 ERA with 36 strikeouts in 32 1/3 innings of labor. Whereas nobody would have anticipated Turnbull to take care of a sub-2.00 ERA, all of his underlying numbers have been promising, together with a 49.4% groundball price, a 20.5% Okay-BB%, and a 3.37 SIERA. Nonetheless, in Could, he moved into the bullpen, the place he didn’t look fairly as sharp. He gave up 9 runs in 19 innings over his subsequent 10 appearances. His strikeout and groundball charges declined, and his stroll price rose. His ERA jumped to 4.26, whereas his SIERA climbed to three.80. After all, these have been nonetheless completely respectable numbers for a protracted reliever, and certainly, Turnbull pitched effectively sufficient to be reinstated within the beginning rotation when Ranger Suárez suffered an damage. Sadly, his subsequent stint as a starter could be short-lived. Turnbull exited early from his first begin again within the Phillies’ rotation, by no means to return. He went on the injured checklist with a lat pressure that finally ended his season.
All advised, Turnbull completed the 2024 season with a 2.65 ERA and a 3.67 SIERA in 54 1/3 innings. That efficiency, alongside together with his general stable profession numbers when wholesome (4.28 ERA, 3.81 FIP in 67 profession begins), was sufficient to earn him the ultimate spot on MLBTR’s Prime 50 Free Brokers checklist this previous offseason. Be that as it might, his checkered damage historical past, and subsequently his restricted MLB monitor report, have been evidently sufficient to scare off groups from pursuing him. He was not credibly linked to any suitors this winter.
But, as pitcher accidents started to pile up nearly instantly, groups that weren’t fascinated about Turnbull over the offseason might have modified their minds. The best-hander reportedly threw for groups in mid-March, in keeping with Nicholson-Smith, however no deal materialized at the moment. A number of weeks later, he has lastly landed a contract. Whereas he might should consent to an non-obligatory project so he can ramp up within the minor leagues, this isn’t a minor league pact. Barring one other severe damage, he’ll pitch within the majors in 2025.
Simply yesterday, Blue Jays basic supervisor Ross Atkins advised reporters (together with Mitch Bannon of The Athletic) that the group had “a few issues within the works” to shore up the group’s rotation depth “by way of free company.” It’s straightforward to grasp why Toronto was looking for outdoors assist. Ever since Max Scherzer suffered a thumb damage throughout his first begin of the season, the Blue Jays have struggled to fill the fifth spot of their rotation. Easton Lucas was surprisingly efficient in his first two MLB begins earlier than falling aside in his third and fourth. He has since been optioned again to Triple-A. Paxton Schultz appeared like a doable rotation choice after his terrific huge league debut; he threw 4 1/3 scoreless innings of aid with eight strikeouts. But, he wasn’t almost as efficient in his subsequent aid outing. He, too, has since been despatched all the way down to Triple-A Buffalo.
In the meantime, Yariel Rodríguez, who has moved right into a bullpen position this season, gave up two runs in a mediocre inning of labor in his first outing as an opener on Tuesday. Eric Lauer received the job executed in his Blue Jays debut, tossing 4 innings to observe Rodríguez whereas giving up two earned runs on three hits. Nonetheless, contemplating that Lauer has not thrown greater than 50 MLB innings in a season since 2022, it’s not exhausting to see why the Blue Jays wouldn’t need to depend on him too closely. José Ureña, with whom the Blue Jays additionally agreed to a serious league deal this morning, fills an identical area of interest to Turnbull as a veteran right-handed pitcher with expertise each beginning and relieving. But, he doesn’t supply almost the identical upside. Lastly, high prospect Jake Bloss has regarded higher in his final two begins, however his general Triple-A numbers are poor (6.42 ERA and 5.53 FIP in 13 begins since becoming a member of the Blue Jays group), and it wouldn’t be in anybody’s greatest curiosity to hurry him to the majors just because Toronto is out of different choices.
Thus, Turnbull will present the Blue Jays some much-needed beginning pitching depth. If and when Scherzer makes his return to the rotation, Turnbull may additionally slide right into a long-man position within the bullpen. As soon as his deal is official, the Jays will presumably supply extra particulars about his eventual position and the way lengthy will probably be till he’s able to take the mound within the majors.
