The Toronto Blue Jays added an intriguing but oft-injured pitching prospect to their 40-man roster Monday, claiming right-hander Taylor Guerrieri from the Tampa Bay Rays.
The Blue Jays also cleared four 40-man spots by outrighting catcher Raffy Lopez and pitchers Leonel Campos, Taylor Cole and Luis Santos off of the roster. Teams have until Nov. 20 to add Rule 5 eligible players to their rosters, so it was inevitable that the Blue Jays would have to clear space for the likes of Max Pentecost, Danny Jansen and Conner Greene. They now have 36 players on their 40-man roster.
Guerreri, the 24th-overall pick of the 2011 draft, has pitched well at the minor-league level when healthy, compiling a 2.51 ERA with 279 strikeouts in 361.2 innings spanning six seasons. Only 9.1 of those innings came in 2017, however.
The 24-year-old left an April start with a right elbow injury and didn’t pitch again afterwards. While the Rays didn’t announce any structural damage, those issues are potentially concerning for any pitcher, especially one whose 2013 season was cut short due to Tommy John surgery.
In 2014 Guerrieri served a 50-game suspension for a violation of the minor-league drug prevention and treatment program.
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