Blue Jays acquire Taijuan Walker

Photo: Toronto Blue Jays/Twitter

August 27, 2020

By Andrew Hendriks

Canadian Baseball Network

The Toronto Blue Jays have acquired RHP Taijuan Walker from the Seattle Mariners in exchange for a player to be named later or cash considerations.

To make room on the club’s 40-man roster, RHP Trent Thornton (elbow inflammation) has been shifted to the 45-day injured list.

Walker, 28, was a first-round draft pick of the Mariners in 2010 and joins the club having posted a cumulative ERA of 3.95 across 555 1/3 innings at the MLB level. Having struck out 503 of the 2,355 batters he’s faced since making his big league debut in 2013, the 6-foot-4 product of Shreveport, La., owns an overall K/9 of 8.2 with a WHIP of 1.246 across 99 career appearances.

Signed to a one-year deal with Seattle ahead of the 2020 campaign, Walker is set to make $2M for the season and will hit the free agent market for a second time this November.

In five starts with the M’s, he’s gone 2-2 while allowing an ERA of 4.00 to go along with an OBA of .210 across 27 frames.

With Walker now in the fold, he’ll join a starting rotation that —due to string of injuries to Matt Shoemaker (shoulder), Nate Pearson (flexor strain) and Trent Thornton (elbow)—had only consisted of currently consists of Hyun-Jim Ryu, Tanner Roark, and Chase Anderson prior to Thursday’s deal.

As part of the updated rules across Major League Baseball in 2020, team’s cannot trade a player unless he is listed as part of the teams 60-man player pool at the time of the transaction. With this in play, look for an increased amount of PTBNL deals league wide over the next week.

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