TORONTO – Prospects Orelvis Martinez, Yosver Zulueta, Addison Barger and Spencer Horwitz were added to the Toronto Blue Jays’ 40-man roster ahead of Tuesday’s 6 p.m. ET deadline, while outfielders Raimel Tapia and Bradley Zimmer were designated for assignment and Foster Griffin was released from the roster.
The additions protect the foursome from exposure to next month’s Rule 5 draft, in which eligible players can be selected by other clubs for $100,000 and become their property if they spend the entire next season on the major-league roster. Changeup-artist reliever Adrian Hernandez and slugging outfielder Gabriel Martinez are notable names left exposed by the Blue Jays.
Tapia and Zimmer are both eligible for arbitration and candidates to be non-tendered ahead of Friday’s deadline for offering contracts to unsigned roster players. MLB Trade Rumors projects Tapia to earn $5.2 million and Zimmer $1.3 million, freeing up an estimated $6.5 million for the Blue Jays to use elsewhere. Griffin, a waiver pickup acquired for depth during the summer, is expected to sign with a Japanese club.
The Blue Jays’ 40-man roster is now full after last week selecting outfielder Nathan Lukes while restoring lefty Hyun Jin Ryu and infielder Vinny Capra from the 60-day injured list.
Ryu, likely to miss the majority of the 2023 season as he recovers from Tommy John surgery, can go back on the 60-day IL in the spring, but the Blue Jays will have to carry him on the roster until then. How much they get from him is an unknown but Scott Boras, Ryu’s agent, said last week that “we intend to have him pitch next year.”
“The exact date of that, I’ll have to know more as we get into spring training to know when his return-to-performance date is,” Boras continued. “But certainly with the type of surgery had, what’s done, it’s very common for major-leaguers to return. Hyun Jin being left-handed just allows those types of feel-to-pitch pitchers to sustain longstanding careers, so I fully expect him to pitch beyond the ’23 season.”
Martinez, a hard-hitting infielder who turns 21 on Saturday, Zulueta, a hard-throwing 24-year-old righty and Barger, a 23-year-old infielder who played at three levels this year plus the Arizona Fall League, were obvious additions for the Blue Jays, while Horwitz, a 25-year-old first baseman/outfielder was more on the bubble.
Martinez is one of the organization’s top prospects – Baseball America had him at No. 3 in its mid-season rankings – and impressed last season by hitting 30 home runs at double-A New Hampshire despite being 3.8 years younger than the league’s average age.
His 28.5 per cent strikeout rate is a concern, especially measured against his 8.1 per cent walk rate, and whether that’s a growing pain or warning sign is a point of debate. Still, his raw power is rare and worth remembering is that 88 per cent of his 492 plate appearances came against older pitchers.
Defensively, he played 60 games at shortstop and 43 at third base.
“He’s been great and he can obviously help us in some fashion, some way,” GM Ross Atkins said of Martinez last week at the GM Meetings. “Guys that can play on the dirt, that’s what we’re focused on, keeping him there and not pushing him to one side of it or pushing him to third base by any means. His ability to stay on the dirt, his ability to hit for power is attractive and I’m confident he’s going to have an influence on the team.”
Zulueta, ranked No. 5 by Baseball America, made up for lost time last year by climbing four levels of the farm system and would have been in the conversation for a big-league promotion had a bout of knee inflammation in August not slowed him down.
The hard-throwing Cuban mostly worked as a starter but his future is most likely in the bullpen.
Barger, ranked No. 18 by Baseball America, posted a .308/.378/.555 slash line in 124 games at high-A Vancouver, New Hampshire and triple-A Buffalo, flashing both his raw power and plus throwing arm in the field, where he played shortstop and third base.
He’ll join Otto Lopez, Capra and Leo Jimenez as infield depth on the 40-man roster.
Horwitz batted .275/.391/.452 in 114 games between New Hampshire and Buffalo, riding a disciplined plate approach and mechanical adjustments to better contact. As a quality left-handed bat, he’s also a commodity the Blue Jays largely lack.
Martinez, 20, was one of the trickier calls made by the Blue Jays as his promising contact skills and power catapulted him from the Complex League to low-A Dunedin to Vancouver last season, with a cumulative .293/.355/.477 batting line in 96 games. While his rapid progress bodes well, the Blue Jays are gambling that an outfielder with only 28 games at high-A is unlikely to be chosen in the Rule 5 draft.
Hernandez, 22, is an intriguing reliever with an elite changeup but below-average fastball velocity that has led to debate over how he’d transition to the majors. In spite of that, he’s struck out 12.2 batters per nine innings in four minor-league seasons, including 44 in 32.2 innings across 31 games at Buffalo where he also had an ERA of 4.96 an a WHIP of 1.255.
