May 10, 2019

By Jay Blue

Blue Jays from Away

The Toronto Blue Jays have ended the Socrates Brito experiment and designated the outfielder for assignment among a number of roster moves ahead of Friday's game against the Chicago White Sox.

Not only was Brito DFA'ed, but the Jays put starting pitcher Clay Buchholz on the 10-day injured list with right shoulder inflammation, retroactive to May 9, recalled Thomas Pannone and Jonathan Davis and selected the contract of Javy Guerra. The Jays announced that Friday's game would be started by reliever Daniel Hudson and will likely be a bullpen day where we could expect Pannone and Sam Gaviglio to try to eat as many innings as possible.

The Brito move was hardly unexpected as he had accrued -0.7 WAR (according to Baseball Reference), hitting just .077 with three hits in 30 at bats, along with 17 strikeouts and four walks. Brito was acquired on April 2 in the wake of the Kendrys Morales move and cost the Blue Jays minor league Rodrigo Orozco (who is posting a solid .288/.365/.409 slash line in double-A Amarillo). Brito makes way for Jonathan Davis who has been red hot in Buffalo, hitting .306/.493/.633 largely as the leadoff man for the Bisons, walking 16 times and striking out just 13 times in 67 plate appearances with four doubles, four home runs and four stolen bases.

Javy Guerra had a 5.40 ERA in nine games with the Blue Jays before going down to the minors and, since his demotion, has thrown 7 1/3 innings for Buffalo with just two runs against, striking out six and walking four and having a 1.09 WHIP.

Thomas Pannone has been up and down in his appearances with the Blue Jays and seems to be better out of the bullpen. He had a solid, five-game scoreless streak from April 11-23, striking out seven without walking anyone in 7 1/3 innings out of the bullpen but allowed runs in his next three outings including seven runs in 2 1/3 innings in a start against Texas on May 4. He had since going two outings without giving up a run before he was optioned to Buffalo on May 8 but was recalled today (using the injury exception of Buchholz going on the injured list).

I'd expect to see Davis getting pretty regular reps in the outfield and at the plate to see what he can do. With Teoscar Hernandez struggling offensively and Billy McKinney not doing a lot to grab an every day job in the Jays' outfield, the space is there for Davis to grab a job if he plays well. While he struggled in his first exposure to the major leagues last year, he's coming off a hot spell in Buffalo that could help boost his confidence and will hopefully translate into results in the major leagues.

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