Blue Jays acquisition Walker brings ‘complete’ arsenal to injured rotation

TORONTO – The Toronto Blue Jays dealt with issues far far more major than baseball on Thursday, but they also tended to some business enterprise in obtaining suitable-hander Taijuan Walker from the Seattle Mariners for a player to be named.

That the 28-12 months-old occurred to be among the the players who drove the Mariners’ final decision to not play their sport Wednesday as opposed to the San Diego Padres “made me really feel superior about the individual, about the addition and we presently did experience incredibly great,” claimed basic supervisor Ross Atkins.

“We’re enthusiastic about his affect, how passionate he is about about the Black Lives Matter movement. … I know that he will be embraced in our clubhouse. I know our players will be extremely happy to have his standpoint and his management and his views on the matter.”

The Blue Jays, shifting roles from vendor past 12 months to consumer now though in existing possession of a playoff location, will also be happy to have his presence in a rotation down 3 starters following Matt Shoemaker (lat strain), Nate Pearson (flexor pressure) and Trent Thornton (elbow swelling) just about every hit the hurt record in the previous eight days.

Walker, no stranger to accidents himself, is off to a strong start out as a result of five commences, submitting a 1.074 WHIP about 27 innings with eighth walks compared to 25 strikeouts. He’s twice gone 7 innings in a start off, some thing no Blue Jays starter has accomplished even once so much, and functions the style of repertoire that should really make it possible for him to do it more typically, far too.

“There’s some electrical power to his fastball, up to 95 (m.p.h.), a curveball and a slider or cutter, but there’s legitimate definition involving two breaking pitches as apparent weapons that grade to be typical or furthermore, and then a feel for a changeup that assists him assault left-handed hitters. His arsenal is complete,” explained Atkins. “He has the weapons to move through a lineup and he’s been doing that this 12 months.”

The Blue Jays had a bullpen match Wednesday and ended up scheduled to have one more Friday, but they could begin Hyun-Jin Ryu now after the protest postponement of Thursday’s collection finale against the Boston Crimson Sox.

Walker’s addition resolves just one of the holes in the rotation and Atkins stated he “would like to keep on to incorporate to our pitching and we’d like to go on to complement our offence.”

“As I stated on the previous connect with that we had been on, I consider we’ll be extra targeted on the operate-prevention side,” he added. “So that could be some style of defensive complement that also delivers offence, of course. But pitching and operate prevention will be our emphasis shifting ahead.”

Walker is a no cost agent at season’s conclusion and that the Blue Jays would get a rental implies the price was not specially steep. The return for the Mariners isn’t on the club’s current 60-male pool, the only gamers eligible to be traded this 12 months, which is why it’s a player to be named later, with a resolution to appear just after the period.

The offer started off coming collectively soon ahead of Wednesday night’s recreation, and Atkins claimed, the acquisition value relative to a normal time “actually feels about like the very same selling price, perhaps there is some lesser piece to that but it’s factored in both equally strategies.”

“It’s been exciting to see that the exercise, the discussions, the dialogue this deadline, it seriously does feel like any other deadline,” he added. “The selling prices, I would fairly evaluate that just after all of the bargains are completed. But it felt like a usual deadline cost, for the most component.”